Watching Itachi sweat and pale from the implications, Moke picked up the thread.
"We drifted a bit. Back to the point. I was teasing about making you Hokage, but I meant what I said. If you are already the strongest in Konoha, why keep tiptoeing?"
Shisui was only seventeen, but by Moke's tally from every scrap of knowledge he carried, Shisui already wielded Susanoo and had shaped it with his own techniques. If he spent his Mangekyo freely, no one in the village could stop him unless Jiraiya returned.
To be sure, Moke had Shisui detail exactly how far his eyes had advanced. From Shisui's careful account, Moke mapped his tier. Not the game-like absurdity of a winged complete body, but enough to armor the tengu shell. Susanoo's stages marched through Moke's mind: partial bones, half-torso skeleton, half-torso giant of flesh, then the tengu armor shell, then the full warrior with the user standing at its crown, and finally the winged colossus that could cleave a mountain with a single stroke. Shisui sat around early Itachi levels, and his Mangekyo attack technique, Kotoamatsukami Light, was every bit as terrifying as Tsukuyomi. An Itachi like that could toy with elite jonin inside Konoha, but if he met Jiraiya, he would not linger to test courage.
With Shisui's ceiling clear, Moke felt calmer. This was a prodigy even beyond Itachi, which simplified the board.
"Step one, unify the Uchiha voice. Step two, represent the clan and talk to the Konoha elders. You cannot talk them around, but you can replace them.
"You saw Danzo in the memory. Since he so badly wants to know your eye technique, tell him. When he asks you to use it, refuse. He will not accept that. He will walk the same path toward stealing your eye.
"When he does, I move. We break Root like a thunderclap and drag every hidden crime into the sun. Even if Hiruzen wriggles free, Danzo will lose his council seat.
"Shisui, your right eye is temporary Kotoamatsukami, correct?"
Shisui nodded. Moke continued.
"Then use the temporary nature to leash him. Make him write a confession in his own hand. Do not twist his thoughts beyond that. Let him be himself, and let his hand describe every way he harmed the village.
"Weapons are only tools. There is no evil or good in a blade. That lives in the hand that wields it.
"That alone will not topple Hiruzen. He will claim ignorance. But on the night of the Cloud negotiations, the Hyuga incident will erupt. Hiruzen and the other two elders will stage a shabby surrender. That is your signal to force his retirement."
Shisui and Itachi said nothing, but after seeing a shard of what might be, neither doubted the event would come. They traced the plan in silence. It was brutally simple. For most people, impossible. You needed power that suppressed both the elders and the Uchiha. You needed timing that normal men could not seize. To them, it was less a strategy and more a set of counters prepared by someone who already knew where the stones would fall.
And if events marched as Moke described, it was workable. Choose a Fifth Hokage who is not hostile to the clan, remove Uchiha hardliners, and the fault line closes.
Shisui still had one question. "Then, my lord, who should be the Fifth Hokage? Or do you intend to take the post yourself?"
Moke waved the thought away with a smile. "I do not want the hat. With my current strength, if I insist on a policy that pricks the elders, will Konoha truly defy me? At worst, they file a stern protest and then do as they are told.
"As for the Fifth, I want Tsunade back. She is the First's granddaughter, one of the Legendary Sannin, the architect of Konoha's medical system. Her name carries the weight you need. As the last Senju, she can also stand as a symbol for the common shinobi. She is the ideal bridge from a clan Hokage to a civilian Hokage.
"She is not in the village now, so for acting Hokage I favor Nara Shikaku. Even after Tsunade returns, Shikaku should serve as her adviser."
I have no interest in becoming the Fifth Hokage, Moke thought, but becoming the man behind the Fifth does have a ring to it. His mind skittered to less wholesome books from his past life, then back to business. For a world so backward, why the monogamy fixation, anyway? The Fire Daimyo surely lived differently. He pictured the daimyo's ever-searching wife and snorted inwardly. Hopefully the daimyo's fortunes were not so barren.
"Tsunade," Shisui said, "I do not know her well, but the tales say she is a true heroine with the shoulders for hard choices. And Shikaku is dependable."
Relief loosened both their faces when they heard Moke had no designs on the chair. Respect warmed behind their eyes. Perhaps this man truly moved only because he could not stomach injustice.
They sketched timing and triggers while the pot ran low. When the cups were dry, Shisui led Itachi out.
Moke reclined his rattan chair and watched the snow. They still underestimated him. What good is the Hokage's seat? If one must sit, sit the empty throne that hangs over the entire shinobi world.
He chuckled to himself. The ancient Land of Ancestors called their sovereign the Son of Heaven. In the manga he had nothing to do with Kaguya. In the anime he gave her a belly. The title, though. Son of Heaven has a nice sound.
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