Chapter 27: Returning to Konoha
Deep in the forest, Uchiha clan tents were scattered throughout the area.
Shisui leaned against an ancient tree, his gaze complex as he looked toward a corner of the camp—where a frail figure sat in a wheelchair, face covered by transformation jutsu disguise.
"Itachi..."
He still couldn't bring himself to tell the clan members that the executioner who had wielded the blade that night was now being carefully tended by them. He'd only said it was a mysterious powerful enemy who had attacked the Uchiha compound at midnight.
"Brother Shisui!" A youth ran over. "Everyone's discussing revenge plans again..."
At the center of camp, clan members argued around the campfire.
"It must be Konoha's leadership pulling strings!"
"Once we grow stronger..."
"We'll make them pay in blood!"
Shisui shook his head with a bitter smile. Suddenly, his body stiffened—
Yu's figure appeared beneath the tree shadows.
Shisui's pupils contracted—no one present had sensed his arrival.
"You can bring the clan members back now," Yu said directly.
"Now?" Shisui could hardly believe it.
"Danzo..."
"Dead."
"The Third..."
"Gone."
Shisui's breathing hitched. In just two days, had Konoha been completely overturned?
Did Yu do this?
"Believe it or not." With that, Yu's shadow clone dispersed.
Watching the dispersing shadow clone, Shisui fell silent for a moment, then made his decision.
After all, he'd witnessed everything Yu had done. If Yu wanted to harm the remaining Uchiha, it wouldn't be nearly this troublesome, nor would there be any need to have him protect the surviving clan members.
He simply couldn't imagine how Yu had managed to make Konoha do a complete 180 in just two days.
"Brother Shisui, who was that person?" the nearby youth scratched his head. "How did he appear and disappear like a ghost..."
"Uchiha Yu," Shisui dropped lightly from the treetop. "Clan Leader Fugaku's son."
He patted the youth's shoulder, his voice carrying through chakra to the entire camp:
"Everyone assemble!"
"We're going home."
Shisui's chakra-enhanced voice rippled outward like waves, startling birds from the forest.
Clan members gathered from all directions, faces filled with disbelief.
"Lord Shisui... is this real?" an elder asked tremblingly, still holding a half-carved wooden arrow.
Shisui nodded solemnly: "Danzo is dead. The Sarutobi and Shimura clans have been expelled from Konoha."
He surveyed everyone, his gaze lingering briefly on Itachi in the wheelchair: "We no longer need to hide."
The crowd immediately erupted, several youths excitedly smashing their water jars.
The "injured person" Shisui had rescued trembled violently.
A caring clan member nearby quickly said: "Hey hey, I know you're happy, but don't get too excited—it's bad for your wounds to heal."
A man who'd served in ANBU exclaimed excitedly: "That beast Danzo is really dead?"
"Who did it?"
Several Uchiha girls excitedly held hands: "Finally we can go back! It's so inconvenient to bathe here."
A nearby boy picked his nose: "We're all the same clan—what's inconvenient? All this covering up, who are you guarding against?"
The girls looked at him with disdain: "We're guarding against you."
Shisui raised his hand to quiet the discussion: "Pack your belongings. We leave at dawn."
"Yes!" Everyone answered cheerfully, except for the figure in the wheelchair.
Shisui noticed his former friend's abnormality and walked over.
He asked quietly: "What's wrong?"
Itachi's voice was somewhat hoarse, completely out of place with the surrounding celebration: "Shisui, was I really wrong?"
Shisui didn't answer. Undeniably, he resented what Itachi had done, but as a friend who'd once faced life and death together, he couldn't bear to let Itachi remain a shameful traitor in everyone's eyes.
"Since we both failed..." Shisui extended his hand, "why not see how Yu did it?"
"Like he said—mere submission can't bring peace."
Itachi shook his head, speaking quietly:
"I won't go back."
"I don't have the face to return."
Now Itachi no longer had the face to see his sister. Yu's success proved he was just a self-righteous fool.
"Just consider me dead, Shisui."
"Someone like me has no point living anyway."
Itachi's expression was bleak. This once confident and proud youth had now lost all his aura. To Konoha he was just a useful blade, to the Uchiha he was a shameful traitor, and to Yu he was a beast who murdered his own blood relatives.
Now all glory had nothing to do with him. The righteousness he once upheld was worthless before real power.
Shisui's hand, suspended in mid-air, finally slowly dropped.
Before the morning mist cleared, the migration party had already set out fully equipped.
Several clan members looked back frequently at the lone wheelchair in the forest.
"Isn't that person coming with us?"
Shisui tied his forehead protector with his back to everyone, his voice calm: "He has his own mission to complete."
In the dense forest, children played with roughly carved wooden swords, their laughter startling forest birds. But the elders frowned, their steps hesitant.
"Lord Shisui..." an old woman with a cane finally couldn't help asking, "where exactly did this news come from?"
Her one-armed son quickly supported his mother, but his eyes held similar doubt.
Shisui's steps didn't pause as his gaze swept over the women and children in the group: "Yu told me personally."
At the mention of that name, the group fell suddenly quiet for a moment. The youths exchanged glances—that clan leader's son who was always mocked as "dead last" had now become the entire clan's hope?
"But..." the old woman remained uneasy. She'd heard of that so-called clan leader's son too. "Is Danzo really dead?"
Shisui looked toward the distant horizon: "When we reach Konoha..."
"You'll naturally understand."
Konoha's towering walls gradually became clear. The children in the group suddenly quieted, their small hands unconsciously gripping their mothers' clothes.
The elders stared intently at the city gates, decades of accumulated wariness hidden in their wrinkles.
"Halt! Who goes there?"
Two guards Body Flickered to block their path, but froze when they saw the spinning Mangekyou in Shisui's eyes.
"Uchiha Shisui," the leading Shisui deliberately slowed his speech, "and displaced clan members."
After a brief silence, as if remembering something, the guards suddenly bowed ninety degrees: "We deeply apologize for not recognizing you!"
The steel gates slowly opened. The two guards even retreated beside the road's stone statues, heads lowered, posture respectful like servants awaiting their master's return.
Shisui's Sharingan slightly contracted—he'd never seen Konoha ninja show such expressions toward the Uchiha.
He looked around, finally confirming he'd come to Konoha and not some strange place.
His mind again recalled that mysterious youth's figure.
Yu...
What exactly have you turned this place into?
The elders looked at each other in bewilderment while several youths flushed with excitement.
Since long ago, these Konoha people had never given the Uchiha clan respect. This attitude today was their first time witnessing.
Could the Uchiha... have really won?
***
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