Shikage's hunch got "confirmed" almost instantly.
While he was still frowning, deep in thought, a crow swooped down from the treeline and landed on his shoulder.
Its beak held a folded paper note.
He untied the string, opened the letter, and scanned the contents. His eyes narrowed.
"Something came up at home, so I have to take a temporary leave…"
The crow messenger and the overly formal wording made it obvious—this wasn't written by a six-year-old.
—Fugaku wrote it for him?
—Something big enough to make even the Uchiha clan head step in…
Shikage tossed the note aside, stood up slowly, and rolled his shoulders, loosening his muscles.
His gut was screaming: Shisui was in trouble.
Even if he was wrong, who cared?
Act first. Worry later.
Opportunity always favored the prepared.
The entire Naka River forest map lit up in his head.
After days of scouting, he had almost eighty percent of the terrain memorized.
Every high-probability drop point already had a pre-planned search route.
He pushed down the rush of nerves and excitement, took a deep breath, faced one direction, and muttered:
"Let's move."
...
Hokage Tower, administrative office.
The Konoha F4 sat in a row at the head of the table. Hiruzen Sarutobi spoke with open regret.
"So even Shisui could only stop them by committing suicide?"
"Did I push him too hard?"
Itachi knelt below them, head lowered, saying nothing.
Danzō stared at the boy with a blank face, voice flat.
"Apparently some Uchiha suspect you killed Shisui."
"Of course, I'm not accusing you."
"But this is a serious matter. We need a proper investigation."
"Tell us where Shisui committed suicide."
Itachi's eyes stayed half-lidded. After a long pause he answered quietly.
"Naka River… eastern cliff…"
While Itachi gave the location, Hiruzen glanced sideways at Danzō, expression calm as still water.
Then he casually swept his gaze over Koharu and Homura beside him, reading their faces.
Danzō acted like he hadn't noticed and simply nodded.
"Understood."
After the meeting ended, Danzō returned to his underground Root headquarters. He closed his eyes and let out a long breath.
"Go. Find him."
"Alive if possible. Corpse if not."
"As for the fact that all of you failed to stop Shisui… we'll settle that when you return."
In the shadows, Nara Suzaku—wearing a Root mask—swallowed hard.
"Yes, Lord Danzō!"
Once Suzaku and his squad had left, Danzō clicked his tongue in pure disgust.
"Useless trash!"
"I already took one of his eyes and he still got away!"
Thinking about Kakashi, Itachi, and the rest, Danzō narrowed his eyes, hands resting on his cane, sinking into cold silence.
—Root is still inferior to Anbu.
—All the best seeds got snatched up by that old monkey Hiruzen!
—Forcing him out of office by force isn't realistic.
With that settled, he pulled out a small glass bottle.
Under the dim light, the liquid inside glowed with an eerie crimson hue.
Danzō stared at the Sharingan floating in the saline solution, eyes burning with naked greed and wariness.
"Such noble power…"
"It belongs to me!"
Then, as if remembering something, his expression twisted into something ugly.
"Hiruzen…"
...
Ten minutes. Twenty minutes…
Four full hours passed.
Shikage had basically torn through the entire Naka River forest and still hadn't found the body.
"Did I get it wrong?"
He stood waist-deep in the slow current, brows locked tight, mind racing.
"No. Keep looking."
"Think—did I miss any spot?"
—Wait…
—Mizuki…
Memories from that night flooded back, filling in the missing pieces.
Mizuki had arranged to meet Naruto at a specific location inside the forest.
He'd dismissed it before because it didn't match his predicted drop point for Shisui.
Now? That zone was definitely worth checking.
"Heading there."
Another thirty minutes ticked by.
Still nothing.
But he refused to quit. He widened the search, following the downstream current.
Finally, after relentless hunting, from a hundred meters away he caught a dark shape on the shimmering river.
At first glance it looked like a drifting log.
But as he got closer, a sharp grin split across Shikage's face.
Found him!
Floating face-up on the water, drifting with the current, was the pale corpse he'd been obsessing over—Uchiha Shisui.
"Finally… mine."
He took a deep breath, forced his pounding heart to calm, then body-flickered forward and scooped the cold body out of the river.
Laying it on the bank, one look told him roughly how long it had been dead.
—About a day.
—Tch. If I'd found it sooner…
No time to beat himself up. He immediately activated Shadow Extraction.
"Rise!"
The second the command left his mouth, his MP bar nearly bottomed out. Even his HP dropped by a sixth.
But the extraction still hadn't fully triggered.
Legs turning to jelly, Shikage panicked and slammed multiple small blue bottles down his throat to refill MP.
If he hadn't chugged those potions in time, one of his precious three extraction attempts would've been wasted.
With the fresh MP, the technique finally activated properly.
Unfortunately, even then, Shisui's shadow only twitched once or twice before failing to solidify.
"Failed."
Shikage licked his lips. The first failure wasn't a surprise.
Shisui had been at least elite jōnin. He was only special jōnin right now—two full ranks apart. The odds had always been slim.
But he hadn't come this far to quit.
"Again!"
[Shadow Extraction in progress…]
[…]
[Shadow Extraction failed!]
"Hiss…"
Two failures. Only one attempt left. The pressure hit like a mountain.
"Ha…"
—Fuck it. If this fails too, I'll accept it!
He exhaled the stale air in his lungs, steadied his mind, and made the final attempt.
[Shadow Extraction activated]
[Shadow Extraction in progress…]
Watching the loading ellipses tick by, a scene from that Korean webtoon suddenly flashed through his head.
At this point, might as well go all in.
Standing over Shisui's corpse, Shikage spoke clearly, voice low and steady.
"Shisui… you don't want the Uchiha clan to be wiped out either, right…"