"That is truly beyond my expectations... and... where did you learn the secret of Kotoamatsukami? I have never spoken of this to anyone..." Shisui asked, enduring the agony.
"That is a question I cannot answer. Now then, take your curiosity with you and rest in the Pure Land," Diarmuid said softly.
"The Uchiha... Konoha... help us one more time..." Shisui was still whispering of such things even now.
Diarmuid felt a flicker of emotion in his heart. He had to admit, Shisui was a good man, a man of great integrity who, even on the brink of death, thought only of the peaceful development of Konoha.
"I'm sorry. I'm not a 'good man,'" Diarmuid whispered.
As soon as the words left his lips, and before Shisui could say another word, Diarmuid applied pressure with his hand, instantly crushing Shisui's cervical vertebrae and snapping his neck.
Shisui struggled weakly for a moment but ultimately could not escape Diarmuid's lethal grip. Gradually, the strength left his body entirely, and Diarmuid lowered him to the ground.
Tossing the crushed Mangekyō Sharingan back onto Shisui's body, Diarmuid wiped the remnants of flesh and blood from his palm using the boy's clothing, then calmly erased the Flying Raijin marker.
He spent another two minutes checking the area, ensuring he left no suspicious traces or information that could link the scene to his identity.
Diarmuid cast one final, contemplative glance at Shisui's corpse lying silently under the moonlight. Then, with a flash of the Flying Raijin Technique, he vanished.
…
About five or six minutes later, Danzō arrived on the scene with his Root agents. Shinnosuke was with them. However, when the two of them saw Shisui's body, they were both stunned!
Shinnosuke immediately looked at Danzō, only to find the man wearing an expression of genuine shock. It was an instinctive reaction; Shinnosuke judged that Danzō truly had no idea what had happened here.
But he didn't reach a final conclusion just yet.
Without saying a word, Shinnosuke walked over to Shisui's body with a grim expression. He reached out to check for a pulse; as expected, he was gone.
He then looked at Shisui's hollow eye sockets and said in a low voice, "Someone took his Sharingan?"
"The flesh and blood on his clothes... that seems to be the Sharingan you're talking about," Danzō said, his voice deep and his face looking extremely unsightly.
Dammit. He had finally found a way to deal with Hiruzen, and before he could even see this Kotoamatsukami, it had been ruined like this?
Shinnosuke glanced at the crushed eyes, then gestured. An Anbu operative quickly appeared from the shadows by his side.
"Take Shisui's body for an autopsy later. Verify his identity beyond a doubt, and specifically, examine those destroyed eyes. See if they really were Shisui's!" Shinnosuke ordered.
"Yes, Commander!" the Anbu ninja replied. Since Shinnosuke wasn't on a mission and wasn't wearing a mask, there was no need for codenames.
After giving the orders, Shinnosuke began to survey the surroundings. He checked the time mentally and deduced, "It's too fast. Less than ten minutes passed between our meeting and Shisui leaving. In those ten minutes, Shisui was taken out. Can you imagine that? Looking at the tracks, the struggle wasn't intense. The fatal injury was a snapped neck. This usually happens in a complete 'stomp,' a one-sided battle. Meaning, the person who fought Shisui possessed strength far beyond his. Who could do that?"
If there were no signs of a struggle at all, Shinnosuke might suspect an inside job, that Shisui was caught off guard by an acquaintance and killed instantly. But this was clearly different; there had been an exchange, but Shisui had been completely overwhelmed.
Just then, Danzō looked at the flare lying on the ground. "He didn't even have the chance to fire his signal."
Who was Uchiha Shisui? He was among the elite tier of Konoha's combatants, a genius of the Uchiha clan whose strength was battle-tested on the bloodiest of fronts. "Shisui of the Body Flicker" was a name that shook the Shinobi world for a reason.
And yet, such a powerful ninja had been silenced in under ten minutes, perhaps even less, without even being able to fire a flare. This was overwhelming power.
"Rodriguez Diarmuid?" Shinnosuke frowned, voicing his suspicion.
Danzō fell silent for a moment, then said, "Currently in Konoha, he is the only one I believe could achieve this."
Shinnosuke nodded. Based purely on combat prowess, Diarmuid was indeed a monster, that was the impression he left on everyone.
But thinking more carefully, that impression seemed to lack a clear source. There were no actual scenes of him going all-out... His reputation for strength came from his past records, the mystery of the Yorozuya, and finally... well, from Jiraiya.
Jiraiya was undoubtedly one of Konoha's top-tier fighters, yet according to his own accounts, several years ago Diarmuid already possessed the strength to crush him...
Now, after all these years, no one knew just how strong Diarmuid had become.
Purely from a power perspective, Diarmuid was indeed the most likely suspect capable of killing Shisui within ten minutes without letting him fire a signal.
However... what about the motive?
As soon as he considered that, Shinnosuke's suspicion of Diarmuid began to fade. Diarmuid's intelligence-gathering was top-tier; for instance, Konoha didn't know the Kumogakure envoys were plotting something, yet Diarmuid did.
If Shisui's Mangekyō Sharingan, Kotoamatsukami, had been stolen, Diarmuid might have a motive: to seize that terrifying power.
But the Kotoamatsukami was destroyed. Although Shinnosuke couldn't be 100% certain yet, the evidence at the scene made it obvious. He only ordered the forensic check to be safe; his gut told him those were Shisui's eyes.
If it wasn't stolen... then what the hell was Diarmuid's motive? To just come out and kill someone because he was bored? The man was eccentric, but not that insane.
Furthermore, as far as Shinnosuke knew, Shisui and Diarmuid had zero overlap. This wasn't a guess about Diarmuid, but a fact about Shisui. Shisui was an Anbu spy embedded in the Uchiha clan; for years, the Anbu had monitored his every move. If he had any contact with Diarmuid, Shinnosuke would have known.
Moreover, Shinnosuke knew that tonight, Diarmuid was supposed to be at the Hyuga Residence handling the Kumogakure ninjas.
This was another discrepancy. After killing the Kumo ninjas, he ran out to kill Shisui? Why? Had he not killed enough Kumo ninjas to be satisfied? And how would he know Shisui's exact route to intercept him so precisely?
Thinking about it made his head ache. From a strength perspective, Diarmuid was the prime suspect, but from any other logical angle, it made no sense.
"Tell Kakashi to get here as fast as possible!" Shinnosuke ordered.
"Kakashi?" Danzō looked surprised, his brow furrowing. "Isn't Kakashi at the front lines?"
Shinnosuke glanced at Danzō. "I think you should stop paying so much attention to my subordinates."
Indeed, while Kakashi had theoretically been heading to Konoha with Itachi, and Itachi had allegedly "gone ahead," Itachi hadn't even returned yet, but Kakashi had already been performing tasks for Shinnosuke...
"Hmph," Danzō snorted coldly. As for why he watched Kakashi... he simply found the boy eyesore.
Before long, Kakashi arrived. When he saw Shisui's body, his expression behind the mask shifted to shock. His voice carried a note of disbelief. "Shisui? How could this happen?"
After saying this, Kakashi immediately looked at Danzō.
Danzō: "???"
What the hell are you looking at me for? This wasn't me!
"Why are you looking at me?" Danzō asked, irritated.
"I suspect you," Kakashi said with complete composure.
Danzō nearly choked on his rage at Kakashi's bluntness. Fortunately, Shinnosuke intervened. "It likely wasn't him. I've been keeping an eye on him the whole time."
Kakashi nodded and finally looked away from Danzō.
Shinnosuke asked directly, "What is the situation at the Hyuga Residence? Has Rodriguez Diarmuid made any other moves?"
"No. According to our observations, the Kumogakure agents entered the Hyuga compound twenty-five minutes ago. In those twenty-five minutes, no one has entered or left the Hyuga Residence," Kakashi said seriously.
"Twenty-five minutes?" Shinnosuke repeated.
Subtracting the ten minutes since they last saw Shisui... that meant within a fifteen-minute window, Diarmuid would have had to finish off the Kumogakure ninjas, then perfectly time his arrival here to intercept and kill Shisui?
It seemed... impossible.
In reality, Diarmuid had spent about three minutes killing the Kumo ninjas and had come here immediately. He had expected to wait half the night for Shisui to leave the Hokage Residence. But Shisui had only spoken with Hiruzen for a few minutes before rushing back to use Kotoamatsukami.
Things had moved faster than Diarmuid anticipated. Thus, while it felt like a long time had passed, only about half an hour had actually elapsed since the Kumo ninjas broke into the Hyuga home. Because of this tight timeframe, the situation appeared even more bizarre, and Diarmuid's suspicion actually decreased.
As Shinnosuke pondered these questions, another figure suddenly appeared.
Upon seeing Shisui's corpse, the figure seemed to lose control. A grief-stricken voice cried out, "Shisui!!!"
The figure lunged forward and pulled Shisui's body into an embrace.
Shinnosuke looked up. It was Uchiha Itachi...