Crack!
Shisui crushed the wooden armrest of his wheelchair in an instant.
He jerked his head up toward Ren, and for the first time, anger appeared on his handsome, shadowed face.
"Ren—how could you desecrate a clansman's body like that?!"
Smack!
"Desecrate?" Ren looked like he'd just heard the funniest joke in the world. He slammed his palm onto the cripple's wheelchair and shot back, "You're saying I'm the one desecrating the clan?"
"You don't seriously not know what happens to the Uchiha after the massacre, do you?"
"Danzo's been drooling over Sharingan for years. You're really going to count on that old monkey who keeps preaching the Will of Fire to stop him?"
"Or your so-called 'trusted friend' to help preserve our dead?"
"Oh—almost forgot. Maybe that 'trusted friend' of yours is the real culprit behind the desecration of Uchiha corpses."
Crack!
Maybe Ren's strength was simply too much—because the wooden wheelchair rapidly came apart, splintering into pieces.
Shisui fell onto the icy floor, stunned and helpless.
Silence.
Absolute silence.
It was so still that even breathing seemed to disappear.
Only the sound of dew dripping near the doorway remained.
A long time passed.
Shisui finally sagged like all the strength had drained out of him.
"…I understand. I'll think about it."
"No." Ren's voice was flat. "You don't have the right to 'think about it.' You can only—do what I say."
He tapped Shisui's forehead again, then casually tossed the eyeball from his palm into Shisui's hands.
"Put it in. And this time, don't let Danzo take it again."
"And hurry up and recover. For certain reasons… the village probably won't wait much longer."
With that, he turned and headed for the door.
Behind him, Shisui hesitated, confused.
"Why?"
Logically, with the coup delayed and Shisui injured, the village should try to stabilize things.
Even if they acted, they'd usually wait longer.
"Because…"
Ren turned back, grinning wider and wider.
"Because of me. Hahahaha!"
In his palm, crimson, eerie chakra flared—so bright it drove back the darkness itself.
No one would've imagined it: just as the Uchiha district was about to be swallowed by the night, a red, demonic glow forced it open from within.
Of course, Shisui couldn't see it.
He could only feel a terrifying, overwhelming power.
A moment later, he gently touched the eyeball in his hands—bone and flesh, familiarity returning.
The restless agitation in his deadened heart began to rise.
Dying and returning… losing and regaining…
The buffs were stacked to the sky.
Much later, deep in the night, a soft sigh drifted through the room.
"…That brat. If you're giving me the eye, just give me the eye. Why'd you have to smash my wheelchair too…"
"…Stupid tsundere."
Naka Riverbank.
"Danzo-sama!"
Kakashi's heart sank. He stood up immediately and bowed.
Beside him, Yamato—still "Kinoe / 'Koh'" in this period—struggled a few times, but couldn't get up.
Even with the partial regeneration from Hashirama cells, it wasn't enough.
The injuries from Ren's Nine-Tails chakra were simply too severe.
So he could only lie there and say weakly:
"Danzo-sama…"
"Kakashi. You're here too."
Danzo rubbed the bandages on his right arm, then turned to Yamato with a heavy voice.
"Koh. Your mission failed."
Both men's hearts jumped.
Is he here to punish us?
But Danzo abruptly changed direction:
"What did you mean just now—'Nine-Tails' power'? Were you two injured by that Nine-Tails brat?"
As he said it, the single eye hidden in darkness gleamed—excited, almost vibrating.
So the Nine-Tails kid caused trouble?
Good.
Perfect.
If he could seize the opportunity and control the host before "the monkey," then the Nine-Tails would become his weapon.
In that instant, Danzo looked almost radiant.
Even the scar under his chin seemed a little less ugly.
"I'm sorry, Danzo-sama," Kakashi said after a pause. "But I can't tell you that. Not right now."
Danzo didn't believe him for a second.
He waved one hand, and a ring of Root operatives—masks painted in garish colors—closed in instantly.
Blades in hand, they stared down at Kakashi and Yamato in the pit.
Danzo smiled with contempt.
"Tell me. Or you both die here."
"Kakashi—your eye should be returned to the clan of my late friend."
Then he gave the order to attack.
Danzo's aged eye turned, a flicker of greed passing through it.
He wanted Kakashi's Sharingan.
He wanted Koh's Wood Release.
His own "Wood Release" usage cost him eyes—an awful trade.
And collecting those eyes wasn't easy.
Tap. Tap-tap-tap.
But just as Danzo's greed peaked, a denser set of footsteps came from outside the pit.
"Stop, Danzo!"
The Third Hokage arrived with a large unit of ANBU—late, but here.
When he saw Kakashi and Koh still alive, he relaxed slightly.
Then his gaze snapped to Danzo, and his face hardened.
"Danzo! They're assets of the village—how could you do this?!"
Pure accusation, right out of the gate.
Danzo blinked, stunned.
He pointed at himself with the hand holding his cane.
"…Me?"
"If not you, then who?! Look at them—injured like this!"
"Do you even respect me as Hokage?!"
This time, Hiruzen was genuinely furious.
A second later and Kakashi would've been "handled" by Danzo for good.
"It wasn't me," Danzo said, exasperated. "They weren't hurt by my hand. I only—"
But he couldn't say what he'd been doing out loud.
He couldn't exactly confess: I was trying to kidnap the Uchiha's second son to stir the clan.
Humiliating.
Infuriating.
And worse—this scene felt strangely familiar.
Like he'd lived it recently.
"Explain?" Hiruzen snapped. "Danzo, I told you—you need to behave for a while!"
More scolding.
Hiruzen's anger was so hot he struck his pipe several times before it finally lit.
After getting chewed out until his head rang, Danzo's eye suddenly shifted.
A keyword clicked into place.
"Nine-Tails power!" he blurted. "I sent my people because I detected the Nine-Tails leaking!"
Thunk.
"Nine-Tails… power… leaking?"
One sentence—and the Third's pipe went out.
He forced his eyes wide, but with all the wrinkles on his face, his eyes were basically stuck on "default size."
He couldn't open them any wider.
"Nine-Tails power, I—" Danzo started again, only to be cut off.
"Kakashi," Hiruzen said sharply. "You explain."
Danzo: ???
Good, monkey. Now you don't even trust me?
His face darkened.
A sour sense of betrayal crept up his spine.
But at the same time, he was curious.
What are these two hiding?
He'd come because Koh hadn't returned—he'd assumed Koh had defected and came to retrieve him.
Instead, he'd stumbled into something that smelled like a secret big enough to flip the village.
Swish.
Dozens of eyes locked onto Kakashi at once.
Kakashi fell silent.
If he spoke, Ren's situation would become… unbearable.
And in that moment, it felt like fate was mocking him again—
Like the Uchiha's destiny and his own were overlapping in the worst possible way.
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