I know chapters are getting shorter. And there is a reason for that.
But don't worry, upcoming chapters will be longer..
Enjoy... The journey, My shinobi friends. Actually I want to should we introduce female leads now or later - Comment!
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Calm was never something I trusted.
Strength, speed, even talent—those were honest. They announced themselves loudly, demanded acknowledgment. Calm, on the other hand, slipped in quietly and stayed longer than it should.
I realized how different I had become when the shouting started.
The Uchiha training grounds were alive with raised voices—heated, sharp, overlapping. Two senior clan members stood at the center, arguing over patrol routes near the village border. Words like provocation and suppression were being thrown around with the same carelessness as kunai.
Normally, that kind of tension would have crawled under my skin.
Today, it didn't.
I watched from the edge, arms folded, breathing steady. The noise felt distant, as if a thin sheet of glass separated me from the argument.
Still Mind, Flowing Eye.
The reward worked.
And that frightened me.
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"Shisui."
I turned.
Itachi stood a few steps away, his posture straight, eyes sharp. Too sharp for someone his age.
"You're not reacting," he said.
I raised a brow. "Should I be?"
He hesitated, searching for words. "Usually… you do. You notice everything."
I studied him quietly.
He wasn't accusing me.
He was worried.
"I still notice," I said at last. "I just don't let it drag me around anymore."
That was true.
Itachi frowned. "Is that… good?"
I didn't answer immediately.
Instead, I looked back at the arguing clan members. Their chakra flared unevenly, emotions bleeding straight into it—anger, fear, pride. I could see it now, even without activating my Sharingan. Subtle distortions. Tiny inefficiencies.
Weakness.
"It depends," I said slowly, "on what you're willing to lose."
Itachi didn't like that answer.
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The moment came later—quiet, almost polite.
I felt it before it happened.
A pressure at the edge of my perception. A disturbance so slight that most shinobi wouldn't notice it at all. But to me, now, it was like a fingerprint pressed against glass.
Someone was watching.
Not openly.
Not aggressively.
Testing.
I kept walking through the narrow streets of the Uchiha district, posture loose, pace unhurried. The system's passive effects worked in tandem, smoothing my chakra, dampening fluctuations.
Shadow Resistance layered over Silent Flow.
If this was Root, they wouldn't get much.
Still, I let a thread of awareness trail behind me.
— Three rooftops back
— Suppressed chakra
— Excellent control
Elite.
Danzo wasn't sending amateurs anymore.
⋯
I turned a corner and stepped into an alley that ended in a blank wall.
A dead end.
Perfect.
I stopped.
Waited.
The presence hesitated.
Then—
A flicker.
The watcher adjusted position, realizing too late that I had chosen this spot intentionally.
I spoke without turning around.
"You're standing in a blind angle," I said calmly. "If you're going to observe someone, don't hesitate. It creates noise."
Silence.
Then a ripple in the air as the Root operative revealed himself—masked, posture neutral, body language unreadable.
He didn't attack.
That told me everything.
"You've changed," he said.
Not an accusation.
An observation.
"So people keep telling me," I replied.
He tilted his head slightly. "Your chakra signature is… stabilized. Danzo-sama noticed."
Of course he did.
Stabilization wasn't invisibility. It was consistency. And consistency stood out when someone was watching patterns over time.
"What does Danzo want?" I asked.
The operative paused.
"To understand whether your loyalty is to the village—or only to your clan."
Ah.
There it was.
The question that killed the Uchiha once already.
I turned to face him.
"My loyalty," I said evenly, "is to the future."
The operative said nothing, but his chakra spiked—just a fraction.
Uncertainty.
Good.
"You can report that," I continued. "Or you can report nothing at all. Either way, watching me won't change the answer."
For a moment, I thought he might attack.
Instead, he vanished.
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That night, I sat alone again.
The system interface hovered before me, quiet, obedient.
The sealed Day 2 reward pulsed faintly—once, twice—like a slow heartbeat responding to stress.
〈 Synchronization: 21% 〉
Two percent.
It was accelerating.
I closed the interface without opening anything else.
"No," I said softly. "Not yet."
The pulsing eased—but didn't stop.
It never fully stopped anymore.
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I thought calm would make things easier.
I was wrong.
Calm didn't erase fear.
It organized it.
And now, with Danzo watching more closely, the clan growing louder, and Itachi looking at me like I was standing at the edge of something he couldn't see—
I understood.
This wasn't the quiet before the storm.
This was the moment when the storm decided where to strike.
I lay back and stared at the ceiling.
The system had given me clarity.
But clarity came with responsibility.
And soon, very soon—
I would have to choose how much of myself I was willing to spend to change fate.
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END OF CHAPTER 10