"It worked!" Haruto exclaimed inside the Template Inventory space as soon as he got back the memories from his clone.
"Uchiha Shisui believed you?" Edward asked, slightly suspicious.
Haruto nodded, "He's a bit gullible and wants to maintain the peace between the village and the Uchiha, so even if what I told him is just a suspicion he'll still act on it."
Edward nodded, "Then now we wait and watch…"
"Indeed."
***
Shisui glanced at the door in front of him and paused for a second, going over his plan once again before he lifted his hand to knock on the door.
Tok Tok Tok.
"Coming!" A sharp sweet voice broke out from within the home as Shisui waited patiently for the doors to open.
He heard soft footsteps ruffle behind the doors for a moment before the door opened soundlessly.
"Ah! Shisui… what a pleasant surprise. Are you here to meet Itachi again?" Mikoto asked with a bright smile on her face.
Shisui smiled and shook his head, "Unfortunately Lady Mikoto I'm not here for Itachi this time… I wish to speak with the clan head if that's possible."
Mikoto's smile faltered slightly but she recovered quickly, "Is it about the clan and the village again? I keep telling the both of you not to worry about it. Nothing will happen! But you two don't listen."
Shisui smiled and nodded, "As you say Lady Mikoto. I'm only here this time to talk to the clan head about reassigning my job."
"Oh? Is that so… Come on in then, let me brew you some fresh tea that the Third Hokage gifted us when he visited us last."
Shisui nodded and stepped into their home. He changed into indoor slippers at the entrance before making way towards the Clan head Fugaku's office that he already knew the location of.
Tok Tok Tok.
"Come in." A stern, old and slightly tired voice spoke from inside the room.
Shisui opened the door and walked into Fugaku's pristine office where he was working on reading a financial report about the clan's recent expenditures.
"Ah… Shisui… welcome… here for Itachi again? He's out back, training as usual with Sasuke."
Shisui shook his head and dropped the smile on his face, adopting a serious attitude as he spoke his carefully rehearsed next words, "Lord Fugaku, I'm hoping to transfer from the ANBU to the Daimyo's Twelve Guardian Shinobi in place of Asuma who just retired. I need your help in doing so."
"Hmmm…?" Fugaku paused studying the scroll, finally looking up from it as he noticed Shisui's serious gaze. "Something happened?" Fugaku asked softly, his voice barely above a whisper but still stern and commanding.
Shisui nodded, "I met a strange man this evening…", with that Shisui recounted all of what the man had told him, everything about Madara and Obito and the imminent attack on the Daimyo.
Fugaku's expression varied wildly all throughout the one sided report. At first he was shocked and filled with disbelief, then he felt a vague sense of recollection as Obito was mentioned and finally he found a brief sense of panic and emergency when the attack on the Daimyo was revealed.
"Are you serious? How do you know to trust this man?" Fugaku asked quietly, his voice barely a whisper but now harsh and filled with fear.
Shisui paused, contemplating on how to reveal what he was about to say next before he spoke equally quietly, "The man knew… he knew that I have awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan."
Fugaku's eyes widened and he sucked in a sharp breath.
Seeing Fugaku look at him incredulously, Shisui simply nodded to assert that what he had just revealed was just the truth.
"When?"
"When I lost my teammates on the battlefield." Shisui said promptly, there was a sense of lingering pain in Shisui's eyes he tried to hide it, nevertheless Fugaku spotted it. "I could've saved them had I realised that the person reporting the situation regarding the battlefield was a spy planted by the enemy to kill me, he was disguised as a friend, but my teammates realised and took the blow for me, sacrificed themselves to let me live."
"I see…" Fugaku nodded, "I will help you get to the Daimyo's Guard."
Shisui nodded but then he asked Fugaku a question, "Would revealing this to the Hokage-sama not help the situation Fugaku-sama?"
Fugaku sighed deeply at the mention and stared off into the distance for a few seconds.
"Fugaku-sama?" Shisui's prompt brought Fugaku back to the room so he spoke an explanation, "No. That will not help. Danzo isn't as kind as Lord Third was. He is no Hokage. He is a tyrant who will do anything to keep his seat. And he sees the Uchiha as a threat. You helping the Daimyo might turn the situation around for us with his backing. You understand how important this mission is, don't you Shisui?"
"Yes Fugaku-sama… I understand."
"Then go… prepare for the mission. I'll have the appointment letter handed over to you by tomorrow morning, so you'll have to be ready to leave."
"Yes Fugaku-sama, I shall be prepared."
***
Days passed silently after that.
Shisui left the village while Haruto and Naruto kept working tirelessly under Kakashi to learn how to torture their opponents to extract the most information from them without killing them, before actually killing them and giving them what they deserved.
Between Naruto and Haruto, Naruto was the one who changed the most throughout this process. His sunny demeanour was washed away and replaced by a cold outlook.
Naruto rarely questioned things anymore. His childlike inquisitive curiosity was gone and was replaced by a harsher calculating perspective.
Kushina and Mito worked tirelessly inside the enigmatic space to bring out a solution to Haruto's seal problem but they weren't getting any closer to the solution since the seal was a particularly nasty piece of work.
The trouble wasn't that they couldn't break the seal, the trouble was that Haruto wouldn't be able to all on his own with his meager chakra reserves.
Haruto's chakra reserves had expanded considerably after his first medicinal bath, but it still paled in comparison when compared to the Uzumaki duo.
As such, the atmosphere of fear deepened over the village.
Children went missing in broad daylight causing parents to lock them up in their houses. The parks were now empty during the evenings and the inns had stopped receiving guests now that no one wanted to visit the village hidden in the leaves.
The village that once flourished with trade started to slowly die, as if it were being constricted, choked and drowned. As if someone were killing it slowly on purpose.
Shikaku looked at Hiashi Hyuga and sighed. "So your gentle fist can't crush the bug?"
The two clan heads were currently in the Hyuga compound drinking tea but their cups remained untouched. Their faces were etched with worry and their foreheads crinkled in frustration.
Hiashi looked at Shikaku and finally spoke after a short silence, "It's not that it can't… the Gentle fist can crush those bugs no problem! But I can't risk such a thing since he's put the cursed tongue eradication seal on both my daughters! Their lives are in his hands!"
Shikaku sighed deeply. "Troublesome…"
***
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