"Hahahahaha! That old guy Jiraiya really dislocated his jaw because you said your name!?"
"Is this matter really that funny to you, Lord Fourth?"
"Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be?"
Rei Kaguya, who had just laughed wildly in a very undignified manner, took a deep breath.
Then he commanded the white snake possessed by his consciousness to raise its head and spoke in a voice that made no attempt to hide his amusement.
"If we put it seriously, this is called talent acquisition. If we put it less seriously, calling it stealing someone right in front of their family would not exactly be wrong either…"
"Just think about it. Jiraiya rarely got serious and wanted to extract some intelligence from you to learn about Kirigakure's new generation of shinobi. In the end, he discovered that you were originally a genius boy of the Uchiha clan who could have supported Konoha's future. That kind of impact and shock—how is that not funny?"
"I only find it troublesome."
Shisui Uchiha sighed and spoke to the white snake in front of him.
"After Lord Jiraiya brings this news back to Konoha, the Uchiha clan, whose reputation and situation in the village are already not very good, may face a massive public backlash, right?"
"That is inevitable."
The white snake swayed its head as Rei Kaguya's casual voice came from its mouth.
"When it came to handling the Uchiha clan, the Second Hokage's thinking was the most realistic and reasonable. He restricted the Uchiha's authority to a certain degree, but when it came to Uchiha who were truly outstanding and sincerely cared for the village, he could accept them without prejudice."
"If that policy had continued properly, then by your generation, or perhaps the next one, someone from the Uchiha clan might really have been able to sit in the Hokage's seat."
"But that guy Hiruzen Sarutobi went soft when he should have been tough, and then became inexplicably tough when he should have been soft. He neither restrained the expansion of those arrogant people in your Uchiha clan, nor properly brought the truly outstanding members of the Uchiha under his command."
"At the same time, he also allowed Danzo Shimura to act willfully and target the Uchiha clan with methods that left no room for compromise…"
"To put it bluntly, after all their operations, they only further strengthened your Uchiha clan's sense of clan identity and made most members of the Uchiha place the clan above the village."
"If the Fourth Hokage cannot change Konoha's long-standing problems in how it treats the Uchiha from both directions at once, then even if the Uchiha clan internally develops the idea of all defecting from Konoha and establishing themselves independently, I would not find that strange."
"Sigh."
Shisui Uchiha sighed.
He reached out and stroked the white snake's smooth, warm, fine scales, then spoke somewhat absentmindedly.
"Perhaps your thinking is correct, Lord Fourth… It is just that although I have already prepared myself mentally, when I think about how the Uchiha clan may be shamed because of my choice, I still cannot stop guilt from surging up inside me."
"If you had no guilt in your heart, I would not dare trust you so much."
The white snake possessed by Rei Kaguya's consciousness rubbed its head against Shisui Uchiha's palm.
Then, his tone shifted.
"But that theory you made, about Root's operation being intended to make a certain person join Konoha's investigation team and leave the village, I think it is already very close to the truth. It also gave me a somewhat uncertain guess…"
"…Even though you were not there personally, you can still make a guess, Lord Fourth!?"
Seeing Shisui Uchiha suddenly widen his eyes, his face filled with incomprehension, Rei Kaguya coughed twice and spoke calmly.
"Not quite. I am only doing some simple analysis based on the intelligence I already know… Do you remember what I told you before you set out? The part about that guy who might be Madara Uchiha's successor."
"I remember."
Shisui Uchiha nodded.
"Lord Fourth chose me to carry out this mission in order to lure him out."
"Then did I ever mention to you that he seems to possess only one Mangekyo Sharingan, his right eye?"
Shisui Uchiha froze, then hurriedly replied.
"No. This is completely new intelligence… Can you tell me why you suddenly brought this up, Lord Fourth?"
"Because that guy's interference was extremely strange. After fighting me to a draw, he specifically took away Kakashi Hatake, who was present at the time, as well as Rin Nohara's corpse. That was also one of the reasons I initially believed he was a secret weapon Konoha had cultivated in the shadows."
Rei Kaguya paused slightly, giving Shisui Uchiha some time to digest the intelligence and think.
Only then did he continue.
"But now, I am more inclined to believe he is Madara Uchiha's successor. In that case, the fact that he saved Kakashi Hatake and took Rin Nohara's corpse is worth thinking about."
"…Lord Fourth, you mean that the person you are wary of as Madara Uchiha's successor may be Obito Uchiha, who disappeared during the Battle of Kannabi Bridge!?"
Shisui Uchiha drew in a deep breath and slowly spat out this almost absurd guess word by word.
"Kakashi Hatake's Sharingan is the left eye, while the Madara Uchiha successor who saved him had a right Mangekyo Sharingan. If we treat that as coincidence, it would be a little too self-deceptive."
The white snake swayed its head, its tone meticulous.
"The power of the Mangekyo Sharingan can only be fully displayed when a pair is gathered. I do not know why he did not simply use his ability to enter Konoha and retrieve Kakashi Hatake's Sharingan directly, instead using this assassination incident to lure him out of the village."
"But as an enemy, I absolutely do not want to see that guy, who already possesses Wood Release and the Mangekyo Sharingan, complete his other eye too."
"Shisui, after this assassination incident ends, I am afraid I will have to trouble you to take a mission and go to Konoha."
"If the other party really is targeting Kakashi Hatake, then we may have to act first and find a way to seal Kakashi Hatake's Sharingan, or simply seize it ourselves…"
"The specific approach can be decided according to the situation. But I need you to keep the white snake carrying the Reverse Summoning Technique by your side at all times, ensuring that if an accident happens, I can arrive immediately. Can you do that?"
"If things are truly as you say, Lord Fourth, then I will do everything in my power to stop that person who may be Obito Uchiha."
Shisui Uchiha's voice turned cold as he gave his response.
"I, Shisui Uchiha, have chosen to become one of Kirigakure's Seven Ninja Swordsmen and defected from the Uchiha clan and Konoha, who once gave birth to me and raised me. But even so, to this day, I have never actively killed a Konoha shinobi."
"If that man who took up the identity of Madara Uchiha's successor and inherited the rogue members of Root is truly Obito Uchiha, then he has already committed the unforgivable sin of killing his comrades…"
"Even if he was once praised as a hero of the Sharingan, that absolutely cannot erase the crime of ordering Root members to murder companions from his own village."
"Remember to hide your identity properly. If Konoha's people see you two 'missing' Uchiha fighting inside the village until heaven and earth are overturned and only one of you survives, who knows what strange rumors will be born from it?"
Rei Kaguya kindly reminded Shisui Uchiha, whose emotions had begun to surge.
"Uh… I will do my best to hide myself."
Shisui Uchiha scratched his head awkwardly and spoke with embarrassment.
"All right. Rest properly. This assassination incident has only reached the point where we have found traces pointing to the true mastermind. There are still troublesome matters waiting for you, such as searching for their whereabouts and arresting them. You need to make sure you rest well."
After the white snake finished giving instructions in Rei Kaguya's voice, it obediently settled down on Shisui Uchiha's arm.
Shisui Uchiha turned and looked toward the brilliant starry sky outside, then slowly exhaled.
Obito…
I hope Lord Fourth's guess is wrong.