The duplex had a wide balcony, a sun umbrella catching the lazy fall of fine snow.
Moke lounged in a rattan chair. He never got used to kneeling on tatami, so he had made himself a few chairs. Shisui and Itachi stood a little stiff to the side, while Sasuke craned his neck, curious about everything.
A few days earlier, Shisui had watched the godlike clash between Moke and the masked man from the edge of the Forest of Death. After hearing about it, Itachi badgered Shisui for details, then the two of them went to see the aftermath themselves. Learning that two people had torn up a twenty-kilometer forest left even Itachi suddenly cautious.
"Sit. No need to be formal."
Moke sipped his tea and gestured for seats.
Kushina had, for once, brewed the pot and then slipped away to train. The boys had seen her before, so today she wore a black cloak and a mask to play it safe. She coveted Moke's zanpakuto. She said it looked ugly, but she was clearly smitten.
Moke had explained that a zanpakuto is a bloom of the soul, a mirror of the power you truly seek, much like a Sharingan resonates with inner will. To get one herself she would need to complete her conversion to a Shinigami and then forge it with chakra. Right now her spirit body was only at a Shin'o Academy student's level.
Moke had fully mastered Shinigami power, but how to condense a blade for someone else was still a mystery. He could feel one thing though. To bind foreign energy into a zanpakuto you need captain-class spiritual pressure at minimum. The ordinary kind of captain would do.
So Kushina had no time even for fawning over Naruto. She trained like someone waiting to open a blind box, eager to see what ability her blade would reveal.
"I figured you'd come" Moke said. "I just did not expect you to decide this fast."
It had been two months, yet for Shisui and Itachi this was a first-order life decision. Moke did not count on his own reputation. He was not Sarutobi Hiruzen or Shimura Danzo. He could not assume a few words would make them line up behind him.
Shisui wet his lips, then glanced at Sasuke and nudged Itachi.
Itachi set his cup down, stood, and bowed. "Before we speak of anything else, please help my younger brother. I will pay any price. Thank you."
After returning home he had checked Sasuke again and again. He found nothing, but Moke's warning stuck in his throat like a bone.
Sasuke, who had been sneaking looks at Moke, jolted upright the moment his brother mentioned him.
Moke laughed. "You are too polite, Itachi. It is a small matter. Though I am curious. You guard him like your own life. Why bring him to a stranger so readily and believe me at my word"
Sasuke's face flushed bright at hearing that Itachi treasured him more than life. All the sulking over his brother never having time to play evaporated.
Itachi stayed formal and grave. "Shisui told me your power. I saw the forest that battle left behind. If you wished Sasuke harm, you could do it without a ripple. No one in the clan could stop you. So I choose to trust you."
Moke, sprawled in his chair, chuckled. The boy was eight, already thinking like a little adult. Impressive. Few grown men had this clarity, or the nerve to take their brother to an unfamiliar powerhouse and ask for help.
"Good. As expected of you, Uchiha Itachi. You see more clearly than most adults. This is easy for me. No need to worry. Come here, little one."
He beckoned. Sasuke looked to Itachi, and when his brother nodded, he shuffled over, tense and shy.
Moke rested a hand on the boy's head, smiled, and with practiced ease found the discordant shard in Sasuke's soul. He shattered it and smoothed it into the whole in a single breath.
Indra's lingering chakra was weaker than Asura's. The only obsession in it was to defeat his brother and prove the Sage had been wrong. Alien is alien, though. This was not a reincarnation of Indra himself. There was no point leaving a stranger's emotions to warp the child.
When the last grit of that intent dissolved, Moke glanced up at Itachi, who had risen again without noticing.
"It is done. Sasuke's issue is solved."
"Eh"
Sasuke blinked. Shisui and Itachi were stunned. A pat on the head, and solved
"I told you. It was not serious. He is a vessel for a certain will. That will left an obsession in his soul. It would not harm him, but when he grew older it would tug his moods."
He gave a simple explanation. Watching Itachi's rare, appropriately childlike confusion was charming. With both Indra's and Asura's interference removed from Naruto and Sasuke, those two should grow into friends without the old cycle of love and hate.
Which reminded him of Naruto.
Ah. That prickle of tiny malice by the grounds earlier made sense.
Moke clapped his forehead. He had stood up the kids. Getting up now felt like a lot of work. He eyed Shisui and found an elegant solution.
"Shisui, Sasuke is fine now. You two must have plenty more to ask me, but split off a shadow clone and take Sasuke to join Naruto and the others. Show them some training while you are there. Naruto still cannot refine chakra. The other three can. Teach as you see fit."
Shisui did not fully get why someone as strong as Moke would not go himself, but teaching a handful of children was well within an elite jounin's pay grade. He clapped his hands through the seals, popped a clone into being, and left with Sasuke, who kept looking back with every other step.
"Good. Now that the kid is gone, tell me what you are thinking."
Shisui drew a breath. "Since your analysis of the Uchiha and the village, I have been watching and reflecting. I was narrow. I thought I had stepped outside clan bias, but I had only wandered into another alley. Most villagers' dislike of the Uchiha truly comes from harsh policing. The leadership enjoys stability bought with our reputation. Yet they still distrust us.
"I have hinted to the Third more than once. I asked for public recognition of our work to ease the bias. Every time he changed the subject."
"Oh" Moke tilted his head. "So you plan to stand with the clan in full Are you breaking with the Third by coming here openly with Itachi"
"No, sir." Shisui did not bristle at the interruption. His temper was good, and Moke's strength gave him the right. "We have also watched the clan itself. Most who shout about a coup do it from frustration. Only a handful are pushing with true malice. I do not want the majority dragged by a few into disaster. Win or lose, a revolt would ruin both village and clan.
"But… maybe because of your words, Lord Moke… Fugaku has drifted toward the hardliners. He even placed Itachi in the Anbu to serve as his eyes."
He shot Moke a wry, tired look. He had hidden his power for years to avoid puffing up the clan with false confidence. One sentence from Moke had undone that caution.
Moke rubbed his chin. Was it calling Shisui the strongest in Konoha that gave Fugaku nerve Or calling him indecisive that goaded him into choosing Probably both. Confidence and resolve in one blow.
"And what of the leadership's moves The surveillance net is endless. If Fugaku is tilting, they must know."
"They do. Danzo keeps trying to drag Itachi into Root. The Third has refused, but Itachi's squad now reports to Danzo. Danzo is also convinced I awakened a Mangekyo and keeps fishing for my ability. He… is also trying to wash my brain clean of clan feelings."
Shisui paused. Moke's word fit too well. "He says if the clan shows signs of revolt, he will gather the full strength of Konoha to suppress it. Not suppress. Erase it once and for all. As for the Third, he frets about the problem in words, sends more Anbu to watch us, and does nothing else. I do not know if he cannot act or will not. I feel we cannot wait.
"The clan council meets again in a few days. I have a bad feeling."
He pictured the fever in the hardliners' eyes and felt the unease gnaw deeper. Stretched between village and clan, he was worn to the bone. Tired in body. Tired in soul.
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