Doubts About Shikaku's Judgment
Uchiha Jin needed more details before he could make his own judgment.
Shisui didn't hesitate. He told Jin everything that had just happened — including Nara Shikaku's reasoning, word for word.
After listening carefully, Jin's eyes narrowed.
He understood immediately.
Nara Shikaku was fooling everyone.
The story Shikaku constructed was flawless on the surface: it had cause, process, and psychological logic. But Jin knew it was nonsense.
Because the problem was simple.
Hidden Cloud Village? Using a scheme like this?
From the Third Raikage down to the rank-and-file shinobi, the Cloud were a bunch of hot-blooded muscleheads who believed fists solved everything. When had Kumogakure ever been known for subtlety or strategy?
Their history since the village's founding was one long string of reckless brawls.
Brains? Virtually nonexistent.
The only exception was Mabui, the brilliant secretary of the Fourth Raikage. But right now, during the Third Raikage's era, Mabui was still a child. Hardly in a position to shape Cloud policy.
So to claim that this was a carefully plotted conspiracy by Kumogakure… what a joke.
And Nara Shikaku — Konoha's foremost strategist, heir to a clan renowned for intelligence — wouldn't see through something so obvious?
Impossible.
Which meant Shikaku wasn't mistaken. He was lying.
Jin frowned. The question was: why?
Was it simply because the dead were Uchiha, and not worth the trouble of an investigation?
Or was it because the war left no room for internal conflict, so he deliberately shifted blame outward?
He didn't know. But he understood one thing clearly: Shikaku wouldn't waste his time unless it served Konoha's stability.
What mattered to Jin was whether Shikaku suspected him.
But… since Shikaku had said nothing, there was no reason to overthink it.
What Jin lacked most right now was time.
As long as he continued to grow stronger — to the level of a Kage — then even if the truth was revealed one day, it wouldn't matter.
Because in this world, the strong were always right.
Jin exhaled slowly, his expression relaxing into a smile.
"So, that's how it is. This is good news for me. With Uchiha Yoshio and the others dead, I can finally breathe easy."
---
Shisui's Gift
Across from him, Shisui hesitated, his expression conflicted.
As kind-hearted as he was, Shisui couldn't quite accept Jin's casual relief at his clansmen's deaths. But he also knew the humiliation Jin had suffered at Yoshio's hands.
No matter how it pained him, Shisui could only stay silent.
Finally, he shook his head and forced a small smile.
"Enough about that. I brought you the things you asked for. Take a look — see if you're satisfied."
He pulled out three scrolls.
Jin's eyes lit up.
Unsealing the first scroll, he saw three thousand explosive tags, five hundred steel kunai, and two hundred shuriken.
His mouth twitched.
The Uchiha really are rich.
One explosive tag cost a thousand ryō. Just the tags alone totaled three million ryō. Add in the kunai and shuriken, and this one scroll was worth nearly five million.
No wonder.
In the original history, when the Uchiha clan was massacred, the village confiscated all their wealth. Yet Sasuke never seemed short on money. Even if most was seized, the leftovers were more than enough for him to squander for a lifetime.
And Sasuke never cared about money anyway — revenge consumed him.
When Jin first arrived here, he'd thought the 900,000 ryō his parents left behind was a fortune.
But compared to this… it was laughable.
The compensation for Yoshio's death alone was worth more than five million.
By comparison, his parents were practically poor.
"Shisui, isn't this too much?" Jin asked. "Don't tell me you spent your own savings to cover me?"
Shisui laughed, shaking his head.
"You think too much. This is clan compensation. Five million isn't much. A B-rank mission starts at six hundred thousand ryō. An A-rank starts at two million. This scroll is just a handful of mission rewards. For the clan — and for me — it's nothing."
He patted the remaining scrolls.
"The real treasures are here.
The second scroll holds an heirloom sword, forged with chakra metal and meteorite iron. Its value is at least five hundred million ryō. It also contains Uchiha kenjutsu — sword arts not inferior to the Hatake style. It's just that few in our clan pursued swordsmanship.
And the third scroll…" Shisui's eyes grew serious. "This one is the most valuable. It contains Izanagi and Izanami — the clan's ultimate kinjutsu. Priceless."
Jin sucked in a sharp breath.
Good lord.
Truly, the Uchiha were terrifyingly wealthy and powerful.
No wonder every Hokage since Tobirama had dreamed of eliminating them.
Too rich. Too dangerous.
Damn… no wonder they wanted to wipe you out.