The psychological guidance Kei provided for Anko hadn't been particularly complex. He strongly believed that simply watching the brutal reality of the stray cats would be enough to help her break through her emotional deadlock.
Unlike Kakashi or Shisui, Anko's psyche wasn't entirely shattered. Her struggle stemmed from a desperate refusal to accept that the master she had spent her life with had truly abandoned her. Part of her crushing guilt was also self-inflicted; as Orochimaru's prized student, she bore the heavy burden of the horrific crimes he had committed against the village. She just needed a push to see that survival meant leaving his ghost behind.
For the next month, Kei settled back into his quiet routine. By day, he played the gentle doctor, treating the steady stream of civilian patients. By night, he vanished into the underground ward to conduct his gruesome, secret experiments.
Deep in the laboratory, clad in a crisp white coat and sterile gloves, Kei bent over a surgical table. He was currently dissecting a human eyeball he had procured from the black market. The optical nerve network was incredibly fragile, requiring absolute precision. Over the past few weeks, he had already destroyed countless expensive 'materials' trying to perfect the procedure.
Holding his breath, Kei manipulated a needle finer than a strand of hair, threading it painstakingly through the microscopic blood vessels of the eye. He moved with agonizing slowness. After fifteen tense minutes, he successfully flushed the dead blood from the vein without rupturing the delicate tissue.
Kei let out a long exhale, stepping back from the table. Standing beside him, Haru quickly stepped in to help him remove the heavy surgical apron, handing him a warm towel to wipe the sweat from his brow.
"Thank you, Haru," Kei smiled warmly. "You don't need to stay down here in the dark with me. You should go get some rest."
"It's fine, I couldn't sleep anyway," Haru shook her head. She paused, her expression turning hesitant, clearly wrestling with some bad news.
Sensing her unease, Kei turned his bandaged face toward her. "What is it, Haru? Speak freely."
"It is the clinic's ledger," Haru sighed. "If you continue running these surgical trials at this pace... the vault will be completely empty in less than a month."
"Only a month?" Kei was genuinely surprised. The experiments were burning through the Main House's gold vastly faster than he had calculated.
Across the room, Shisui abruptly halted his shadow-boxing routine. Hearing the mention of a financial crisis, the blind Uchiha took a quiet breath and slowly sat down on a nearby bench, trying to blend into the shadows.
Haru offered a helpless smile. "I have stretched the coin as far as it can go, Kei. But the biological materials and the chemical preservatives you require are all single-use. The surgeries may be quick, but the cost of every single failure is astronomical."
Knowing Haru had done everything she could, Kei fell silent. A moment later, a brilliant, ruthless idea bloomed in his mind. He slowly turned his sightless gaze toward the far corner of the room, locking onto Shisui.
Shisui sat perfectly still, trying his absolute best to remain unnoticed. It was entirely futile. Even though Kei had no eyes, Shisui could practically feel the doctor's predatory smile pinning him to the chair. A sudden, intense urge to flee the room washed over the Uchiha.
But before he could stand up, Kei's warm voice echoed across the lab. "Shisui, my friend. Are you tired from your training?"
Shisui's heart sank. He forced his voice to remain flat. "A little. I was actually just about to go to bed."
"There is no rush, you have all night to sleep," Kei smiled brightly, waving him over. "Come here for a moment. We have a matter to discuss."
Knowing he was trapped, Shisui let out a heavy sigh and walked over to the surgical table. "What is it, Kei? Let me state for the record, lacking my Sharingan, I really cannot help you with anything overly complicated."
"It isn't complicated at all. It is simply a matter of coin," Kei reassured him. "You heard Haru. Our vault is running dry. And the Great Elder explicitly stated he will not accept any more of my requests for money. Therefore, we must rely on our own talents to keep this facility running."
"And how exactly do you plan to do that?" Shisui asked warily.
"There are countless ways for civilians to earn a living, but very few that generate massive wealth overnight," Kei mused. He leaned forward, presenting his flawless solution. "Tell me, Shisui... have you ever considered bounty hunting?"
Shisui frowned. "You mean the underground exchange? The black market stations where rogue missing-nin trade corpses for bounties?"
"Precisely. The bounties placed on high-value targets yield vastly more gold than any standard village mission," Kei said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Even without your Mangekyo, your physical speed and lethality are more than enough to dominate the black market. If you put in a few hard nights of work, you could easily fund this laboratory for years."
Kei's inspiration for this dark career shift came directly from the Akatsuki's playbook. The underground exchange was an absolute river of blood money. He remembered the sheer, unfathomable wealth the Akatsuki had hoarded to purchase Konan's ocean of explosive tags. Kakuzu's endless bounty hunting had built that fortune. If the Akatsuki could use a monster like Kakuzu to relentlessly harvest bounties and fund their ambitions, why couldn't Kei turn Shisui into his own personal cash cow?
When Shisui remained silent, staring at him in disbelief, Kei let his voice drop into a soft, wounded tone. "Shisui... you wouldn't want my medical research to fail, would you? Without my eyes, I cannot grow strong enough to save your clan."
"Stop talking," Shisui groaned, rubbing his temples. "Fine. I will go hunt bounties."
He had never in his life imagined sinking to the level of a black market bounty hunter. It was a filthy, grueling profession, forcing him to wade into the darkest, bloodiest corners of the shinobi world—places a proud Uchiha would normally never touch.
But Kei had him trapped. If Shisui wanted to tear down Danzo and protect the Uchiha, he needed the blind doctor's brilliant, twisted mind. He had to pay the toll.
Kei's smile bloomed into something deeply warm and affectionate. "You truly do not need to look so miserable, my friend. Heading into the underground isn't just a favor to me. It is exactly what you need right now."
"Your physical rehabilitation has completely plateaued. Practicing in a basement will not push you any further. You need the life-or-death pressure of real combat to force your instincts back to their peak. Hunting elite rogue ninja will force you to reclaim the edge you lost."
Kei leaned forward. "You are Shisui of the Body Flicker. Why let that legend rot in the grave?"
Shisui blinked, the realization suddenly clicking into place. "You want me to resurrect my title... while wearing the mask of our alliance?"
"Exactly," Kei said, his voice dropping into a thrilling, chilling whisper. "Our alliance cannot remain a ghost story forever. We need to become a very real, breathing nightmare for the guilty. We need to make them sweat every time they close their eyes."
"You will go out into the dark, wearing our porcelain mask, and you will unleash the terrifying speed of Shisui Uchiha on the black market. Very quickly, the right people will notice."
Kei tilted his head, smiling. "Tell me... what do you think Danzo Shimura will do when whispers reach his desk that a masked assassin moving exactly like you is hunting for blood?"
"Will he not feel a cold spike of pure terror? And if Danzo is suddenly terrified of a ghost hunting him from the shadows, will he not be forced to pull his Root assassins back to protect himself? Which, in turn, takes the pressure off your clan."
"That... actually makes a lot of sense," Shisui admitted, genuinely stunned by the logic.
If Danzo learned that Shisui had survived the river and was amassing wealth and power under the banner of a revenge syndicate, the old war hawk would be utterly paralyzed by paranoia. Even if Shisui wasn't strong enough to march into the Root headquarters and rip Danzo's head off today, haunting the man's nightmares from afar sounded incredibly satisfying.
"So you see," Kei smiled brightly, leaning back against the table. "I am not exploiting you for money at all. I am helping you heal. You really should be thanking me."
Shisui hesitated, his mind completely twisted around the doctor's flawless trap. "...Thank you," he mumbled.