Chapter 321 – Nothing More Than a Passing Sentiment
Walking slowly toward the Uchiha compound, Shisui's heart felt impossibly heavy.
He had accepted the Third Hokage's request — and allowed a seal to be carved into his tongue.
The Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal.
A powerful fūinjutsu, though limited in function.
It didn't control him.
It didn't harm him.
It simply prevented him from revealing anything about his new mission — or the man he now answered to.
According to the Third, this seal was standard practice in Root. Every operative bore it, their tongues bound so they could never leak information.
By accepting it, Shisui had, in a sense, formally stepped into Root, that hidden department buried deeper than the Anbu.
Even now, he could hardly believe it.
He still didn't understand why the Third Hokage had chosen him.
He remembered it clearly — an afternoon roughly one year ago.
He had received a message from his squad captain, ordering the team to assemble at an abandoned temple on the outskirts.
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"Strange… why meet here?"
Shisui had looked around uneasily.
The towering statues — worn by rain and wind until they resembled twisted demons — gave the whole place an unsettling aura.
He wasn't afraid, not exactly.
He was already a full-fledged shinobi; fear wasn't something he allowed to rule him.
Besides, this was Konoha — what danger could really arise here?
The village was harmonious, peaceful, stable.
Conflicts happened, yes, but people lived well.
Shisui loved this village.
Konoha had given him warmth, safety, friends, teachers — a life worth protecting.
Everyone worked hard to defend it, even as the wars beyond its borders raged on.
In Konoha, people still laughed, still lived.
He cherished that.
"You are Uchiha Shisui?"
A cold, aged voice cut into his thoughts.
Shisui frowned immediately — it was not his captain's voice.
He turned sharply, alert, though not yet alarmed.
There stood a middle-aged man — perhaps forty or fifty — half his face wrapped in bandages.
His build was strong, his presence oppressive. Even at a glance, Shisui knew this was no ordinary man.
Yet what unsettled him most wasn't the man's strength…
It was the sheer darkness coiling around him, a chilling, suffocating aura.
Even for a trained shinobi, that darkness was unnerving.
Who was he?
He was accompanied by multiple masked Anbu-like ninja — clearly someone of high rank.
But if his squad captain had summoned him here… where was the captain now?
"Yes. I am Uchiha Shisui."
Despite the confusion swirling inside him, Shisui placed his trust in Konoha.
He bowed respectfully.
"May I ask… who are you?"
The man's reply was calm, yet carried a crushing weight:
"Who I am does not matter. What matters is whether you know who you are."
He stepped closer, eyes sharp.
"Tell me — do you know who you are? Whom you exist to serve?"
"I…"
Shisui faltered.
He was Uchiha Shisui.
A son of the Uchiha clan.
A shinobi of Konoha.
He served his village, his clan, and the Hokage.
And suddenly, he realized—
This strange man was reminding him of exactly that.
He straightened his back.
"I am Uchiha Shisui of the Leaf.
A shinobi of Konoha.
My loyalty belongs to the village — and to the Hokage."
The man nodded in satisfaction.
"Good. Remember that. Above all else, you are a Konoha shinobi. My identity does not concern you. I serve Konoha. I serve the Third Hokage. That is all you need to know."
Shisui didn't fully understand the implication, but he accepted it.
To him, the Third Hokage — even after stepping down — was a great, wise leader.
The Fourth Hokage had ascended only because the Third had grown old and needed a successor.
So Shisui simply asked the obvious question:
"Forgive me, but… why have you sought me out?"
"Nothing more than a necessary… assessment."
The bandaged man's tone remained flat.
"To determine whether you can become a true guardian of Konoha."
"Konoha's… guardian?"
Shisui's heart fluttered in spite of himself. "Sir, I—"
"Silence."
The man cut him off sharply.
"Remember this, Shisui: you were never here. You never met me.
You are still too weak to be acknowledged by me. Do you understand?"
Too weak to even be acknowledged?
Shisui bit his lip.
He was young.
His strength was limited.
He knew that.
But youth meant potential — meant a future he could still shape.
And so he engraved the man's words deep into his mind:
This encounter must never be spoken of.
In the months that followed, the mysterious man seldom contacted him.
Sometimes messengers appeared in his place.
Shisui suspected he wasn't the only candidate being evaluated.
Then things changed — drastically.
Orochimaru defected.
The scandal shook the entire village.
Shisui was furious. Orochimaru was a hero, a prodigy, the Third's own student.
How could someone so revered betray the village?
But that same betrayal earned Shisui a new opportunity:
He was summoned again — to the same temple.
This time, the one waiting for him was the Third Hokage himself.
Shisui had been overwhelmed with excitement.
The man he had heard stories about since childhood — Konoha's living legend — now stood before him.
The earlier bandaged man was nowhere to be seen; Shisui barely remembered to wonder why.
Meeting the Third eclipsed everything.
—
But then the Nine-Tails attacked.
Konoha bled.
Many died.
And the Third never contacted him during that time.
Only in the aftermath did Shisui learn truths he had never imagined:
From the Three Elders, he heard about the fate of the Great Elder's faction…
About the hidden rift between the Uchiha and the village…
About the brutal deeds Uchiha Kei had committed.
Shisui realized he had been naïve.
But rather than breaking him, this knowledge hardened his resolve.
He wanted to bring the clan and the village closer, not farther apart.
He wanted harmony.
—
Yet now, after the Kirigakure disaster—
After hearing the Third Hokage's warning—
Shisui felt shaken.
Lost.
Conflicted.
Everything the Third said sounded reasonable… yet something felt off.
Something emotional lurked beneath his words.
Why?
Why speak of the Uchiha as a threat now, when the clan and the Fourth Hokage were finally getting along?
What were the Third Hokage and his advisors truly thinking?
Shisui did not know.
And that uncertainty was what frightened him most.
Even as Shisui walked, the Third Hokage's department, his cryptic words, and—most of all—that line "for the sake of Konoha" continued to weigh heavily on his mind.
He could only sigh silently to himself.
"I really don't know what the Third Hokage wants me to do…"
Shisui rubbed his forehead. The more he thought about it, the more he felt this could only lead to trouble.
"…Though, I suppose it's not all bad," he muttered while walking.
"Captain Kei's former instructor, Fukuhiko Kōhei, is actually coming to be my jonin mentor. I really didn't expect that…"
Fukuhiko Kōhei now had quite a reputation in Konoha.
Not because he was particularly strong—
but because someone he once mentored had since risen to become a high-ranking powerhouse of the village: Uchiha Kei.
Still, a jōnin of his experience was unquestionably better than the chūnin Shisui currently reported to.
Even though Kōhei's younger brother, Fukuhiko Kouta, now worked directly under Uchiha Kei, that wasn't a problem. Brothers were brothers. Choices were choices. Such differences didn't matter.
In fact, putting Kōhei in charge of Shisui would serve several purposes:
a useful experiment, a way to test where Kōhei's loyalties lay, and a method to reduce Kei's suspicion.
Was Kōhei loyal to Hiruzen the person, or loyal only to whoever happened to wear the Hokage's mantle?
These were the kinds of subtle political games Uchiha Kei would have seen through instantly.
Unfortunately, Shisui was only a child.
He had no "previous life" of experiences like Kei.
He had no thirty years of political and shinobi instincts like Fugaku.
And yet one thing was clear:
Shisui's very nature—his idealistic desire for Uchiha and Konoha to coexist harmoniously—made him vulnerable.
His perspective, his gentle heart, his hopes… all became weak points.
He could see how much the clan had changed for the better, but that only made him more sensitive.
More afraid that something might ruin this fragile peace.
But whatever turmoil he carried in his chest, none of it affected Uchiha Kei.
At this moment, Kei was in the underground laboratory, standing beside Hyūga Ayaka as she conducted her experiment.
This one required time, but Kei wasn't bothered.
When he had been the one undergoing experiments, this woman had stood beside him day and night.
Now it was her turn—so of course he stayed.
Nearly an hour passed before results finally began to form.
Ayaka activated her Byakugan, observing the samples intensely.
Her expression shifted—relief, quiet joy, and… a hint of regret?
Kei frowned.
Hard to read.
So was it a success?
A partial one?
Or a complete failure?
"How is it?" Kei finally asked, puzzled by her expression.
"There are results," Ayaka said, closing her Byakugan. "But… not enough."
She paused, then added with a strange tone:
"His genes did activate mine. And…"
"And?" Kei's eyes narrowed. A thought flashed.
"Don't tell me your cells activated his gene sequences as well?"
"Yes." Ayaka nodded calmly. She wasn't surprised Kei guessed it.
"The activation works both ways. Your case was different because you used a fully complete, superior cell.
When a lower-grade cell meets a higher-grade one, the outcome is simple—either the lower is devoured, or the higher reinforces it.
"Kenta was similar. His compatibility with Hashirama's cells was absurdly high, but because his own cells were inferior, the risk of being devoured was even higher."
Kei nodded.
Exactly.
High-tier devours low-tier — unless the high-tier cell has been neutralized, like Hashirama's cells had through Kei's Eternal Mangekyō.
Ayaka's situation, however, was unique.
Her cells and Kimimaro's appeared to be either evenly matched—or hers held the advantage—resulting in mutual activation.
A double-edged phenomenon.
Such synergy could awaken Hyūga gene sequences within Ayaka, and likewise trigger dormant Kaguya genes in Kimimaro.
"And what about you?" Kei asked directly. Kimimaro's benefits didn't interest him. Ayaka's did.
"…It activated one sequence," Ayaka admitted. "Barely. But it's enough to confirm your theory.
A Kaguya bloodline is indeed the key to awakening mine."
Kei exhaled.
So his half-guess, half-theory—based on extrapolating from Ōtsutsuki Kaguya's abilities—was actually correct.
Sometimes luck was part of strength.
This experiment wasn't a full success, but it revealed a clear path forward.
"So, your plan?" Kei asked.
"Considering your own fusion process… I'll wait."
Ayaka thought for a moment. "There's no need to force a new route when yours already proved effective."
"A wise choice," Kei nodded. Then he glanced at Kimimaro.
"And you've got work to do with this kid. His internal energy is so active… maybe try using your clan head's gene samples as a catalyst?"
Hyūga Hiashi's samples. Kei had collected plenty at the time.
If Hiashi's bloodline activation was far more developed than Ayaka's, then pairing it with Kimimaro's cells might yield far better results.
Ayaka agreed immediately.
"Those samples were never useful for my own purposes. If they help him awaken faster, even better."
"Good. Let's go with that," Kei said, smiling faintly.
"And don't forget you also have Hyūga Hizashi's samples. Plenty to work with."
"Of course," Ayaka replied, setting down her tools.
Then she looked up at Kei seriously.
"…Thank you."
Kei blinked.
Then he shook his head.
"There's no need to thank me. This is part of our shared goal — and part of what you deserve."
He paused, then allowed himself a small smile.
"But… hearing it still makes me happy. And I hope you reach your wish step by step."
Ayaka's simple "thank you" carried a weight Kei couldn't easily decipher.
She was a difficult woman—hard life, harder burdens, and even harder choices.
To hear her express genuine gratitude…
It struck him more deeply than he expected.
Living behind masks—no one truly enjoys it.
Friendships built on benefits crumble the moment those benefits shift.
But some things can be changed, if people choose to change them.
With that sentiment, Kei suddenly reached out—
—placed a hand on Ayaka's head—
—and rubbed it firmly.
"What are you doing? Are you insane?!"
Ayaka slapped his hand away, glaring fiercely.
Kei only laughed.
"Nothing. Just… feeling sentimental."
He straightened his cloak.
"Come on. Get things in order. I'm going to find someone to help prepare the kid."
"Prepare him? For what? The Uchiha district?"
"Of course. But we can take the long way—call it a stroll."
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