A metallic clang echoed through the tavern as Kawaki Aoba raised his kunai, deflecting a slash from his opponent.
"Seriously? We're already down to the last one. Would it kill you to cooperate and move to a more secluded place?" Aoba sighed, exasperated. "If someone gets hurt here, you'll be facing more than just espionage charges. The interrogation unit won't go easy on you either."
"It was those fools you took in this morning, wasn't it? They exposed me." The middle-aged shinobi's face contorted in frustration, his gaze flicking between the startled patrons. "I should've known something was off—different departments calling them in on the same day? That's no coincidence."
"I'm not going to end up like those weaklings, rotting away in a Konoha cell. I'll escape, even if it means becoming a rogue." With that, he launched another flurry of attacks at Aoba.
But after exchanging a few more blows, he realized he was no match for the young ninja. His eyes darted around, searching for a hostage. Then he saw a merchant—evidently wealthy from the fine silk of his robe and the signet ring on his hand.
He smirked. If I use a civilian like him, the Leaf will hesitate. And if he's a big client who commissions missions often, they might even back off entirely.
But that thought was cut short. A sharp pain exploded in his back, and he collapsed with a grunt.
Aoba stood behind him, lowering his hand after delivering a pinpoint blow with chakra-enhanced finger pressure. "Trying to use civilians as shields?" Aoba muttered. "Desperate and pathetic."
"You coward... resorting to sneak attacks!" the man, Murata Masato, snarled through clenched teeth—then froze. A circle of jonin had silently surrounded him.
"No need for screening on this one," said Nara Shikaku, stepping forward with his arms crossed. "This guy practically confessed. Spy for sure."
Shikaku gave Aoba a subtle nod of approval. Initially, when the Hokage assigned them to support Aoba, Shikaku hadn't thought much of it. But after capturing over ten enemy spies thanks to the young shinobi's leads, Shikaku had changed his mind.
This kid... no, this ninja, Shikaku thought, he's something else. Brilliant with ninjutsu, strong in combat, and calm under pressure. Easily jonin-level, maybe higher.
Aoba dusted off his flak vest and looked to the others. "That was the last of the ones I detected. The rest of the screening... I'll leave that to you, senpai."
"Aoba, don't be modest," said Minato Namikaze, smiling warmly. "You're the one carrying the heaviest burden."
The other jonin voiced their agreement. Despite Aoba still being officially a genin, they had already come to treat him as an equal.
Not far away, two other shinobi who had shared a table with Murata Masato sat frozen in place, visibly shaken.
Their expressions betrayed a creeping fear—We were laughing and eating with him... and he was a spy? The suspicion between them grew, heavy and silent.
Sensing this, Aoba stepped forward to ease the tension. "Don't worry. I know you're not like him. Trust in the village—it won't wrong the innocent."
Minato and the others nodded in support. Thirteen spies had been arrested so far, and none had been misidentified.
"Let's take him to the T&I Department," Aoba said. "Then we can begin the final phase: the unified screening."
The "unified screening" was a strategic operation designed by the Hokage: Aoba would stay in a sealed room and use his rare form of sensory perception—emotional chakra reading, akin to Kenbunshoku Haki—to evaluate each ninja in Konoha.
Though Aoba referred to it as "emotional sensing," it was essentially a unique blend of sensory ninjutsu and mind-reading talent, not unlike those used by the Yamanaka Clan—but deeper.
He sat cross-legged in the room, wrapped in silence. The first group arrived, composed of administrative and support personnel—many of them from the Hokage's own offices.
He closed his eyes, extended his perception outward.
Their chakra signatures were stable. He could feel the typical nervousness—but no malice, no fear consistent with espionage.
Expected, he thought. These people would've been screened multiple times already. If there were spies among them, then Konoha would no longer deserve its title as the strongest Hidden Village.
Still, the process had to be respected. "Send in the first one," he said calmly.
Minato, now functioning as a coordinator for the operation, guided the first individual into the room. Shikaku and Choza Akimichi remained outside, ready to subdue anyone who tried to flee or resist.
Inside, Aoba maintained an unreadable expression.
"Are you a spy sent by another village?" he asked in a flat tone.
The man across from him shook his head quickly. "No! I swear, I'm loyal to Konoha!"
Aoba narrowed his senses. Genuine anxiety, no sign of deception.
"Have you ever harbored resentment toward Konoha or the Hokage?"
A brief pause. The ninja's breath hitched. He swallowed hard.
"I… I'm not dissatisfied with the village. I love Konoha. Becoming Hokage has always been my dream."
Lie, Aoba thought. But not a dangerous one.
He nodded slowly. "You pass. Go ahead and send in the next person. And let the others know—I need a short break to restore chakra."
The man bowed deeply before leaving, visibly relieved. He had survived the infamous "heart-reading" room.
Rumors had already spread. They said that Aoba, with the black cloth wrapped over his eyes, could read the very soul. That he could pull unspoken thoughts and past betrayals into the light.
In the past few days alone, not only had a dozen spies been captured, but even individuals with deep, festering hatred for the village—who had never acted on their thoughts—had been identified and removed from sensitive positions.
It terrified many.
As the man stepped out, repeating Aoba's message to the next ninja in line, a sudden crash erupted behind him.
He spun around—just in time to see someone hurled out of the room, landing hard on the stone path.
His eyes widened. That's… the guy who went in right after me!
The air tensed. Jonin were already converging.
Could he have been a spy too?
After the suspected spy was thrown out by Kawaki Aoba, Akimichi Chōza, who had been standing guard outside, immediately stepped forward and restrained him.
"Not bad," Chōza said, glancing at the man struggling in his grip. "This is the fourth one today. I just don't know whether this guy is a spy… or just another fool who resents the village for no reason."
"What do you mean 'for no reason'? What do you clan shinobi even understand?" the man growled. Pinned to the ground, he turned his head to shout at the others waiting in line.
"You nobles in your great clans don't understand the despair of us commoners! You have power, you have legacy—while people like me are nothing but tools! My girlfriend was stolen by a Sarutobi clan shinobi, and the village expects me to risk my life for them? How is that fair?! I haven't even done anything, and you treat me like a criminal!"
"Is that your reason for hating the village?" came a cold voice.
Aoba, followed closely by Namikaze Minato, stepped out from the screening room. Aoba knelt beside the pinned man, his tone icy.
"I don't know if your story is true or not. But if that's all it takes for you to hate the entire village, then your heart was already consumed by darkness."
He looked up at the other shinobi in line.
"I can feel it—many of you are uneasy. Worried that I'll sense the darkness in your hearts too?"
"...Aoba," Minato said quietly, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Aoba paused and gave a small nod. "Don't worry. I've got this."
He stood and addressed the others.
"Everyone has negative thoughts. Even me. When we face injustice, those feelings are only natural."
He then pointed to the black cloth tied over his eyes.
"My name is Kawaki Aoba. Many of you may already know me, but do you know why I wear this cloth? If you've looked into my background, you'll know—my eyes were taken by the Hyūga clan. What does it mean for a shinobi to lose his sight? You all understand."
He took a breath, his tone steady but charged.
"When it first happened, my heart was filled with rage. I wanted to wipe out the Hyūga. I blamed them all. But that was wrong. It wasn't the entire clan—it was the main branch that was responsible. My anger was real, but I misdirected it."
Many shinobi nodded slowly. His words hit close to home—they, too, had been victims of unfairness, even if not as severely as Aoba.
Some began to sympathize.
And that was precisely Aoba's intent. Lately, his name had begun to spread, but not all the whispers were kind. Some feared him, demonized him.
That wasn't the image he wanted. If he allowed it to fester, he risked being treated like a Jinchūriki—feared, isolated.
So he laid his heart bare. He reminded them he was one of them. Not some monster, just a ninja who had endured.
And it worked. The crowd's perception shifted. Their fear was replaced with something more human.
But he knew it wasn't enough. This was just one room, a single group. When he returned, he would need to ask Kurenai-sensei to help shape the narrative even further.
Suddenly, the pinned man shouted again, "You've been through oppression too! So why make things harder for people like me?!"
Aoba turned and shook his head. "Because you let your pain twist into hate. You don't just want justice—you want revenge on everyone. Tell me: if a dog bit you, would you try to kill all dogs?"
The man scowled.
"No. A sane person would deal with the dog that bit them—not massacre every dog. But you—you're trying to destroy everyone in the village because you were hurt once. That's not justice. That's madness."
Many shinobi looked at one another. His words struck a nerve.
Aoba continued, "For the safety of this village—of your families—I have to identify people like him. Not because of a single mistake, but because the darkness in their hearts can explode at any time."
The crowd was silent, but many understood. Some even breathed a sigh of relief.
At least Aoba wasn't hunting everyone with doubts. Only the truly dangerous ones.
As for the man still muttering curses beneath his breath, no one listened anymore.
Nara Shikaku stepped forward, motioning to two shinobi. "Take him away."
They hauled the man off. As for what would happen to him… only Aoba knew.
Officially, he wasn't involved in detaining suspects. But with his sensory prowess, he tracked where they went. The previous few like this one were taken to a well-hidden underground location.
It wasn't Konoha's prison.
Aoba guessed it was one of Root's secret facilities. He couldn't be sure—Shimura Danzō had never entered from that same path.
Minato came forward. "You've done more than enough today. You must be exhausted from using so much chakra."
Aoba smiled faintly and nodded. "Yeah."
In truth, he hadn't used much chakra at all—but Minato didn't need to know that.
Just then, an Anbu shinobi in a mask landed beside them.
"Kawaki Aoba. I bring an order from Lord Hokage."
He didn't say more, and Aoba understood. He invited the Anbu inside.
Once alone, the masked figure spoke plainly:
"The Hokage has ordered you to probe the thoughts of a young boy with your Good and Evil Perception. He wants to know the boy's true attitude toward Konoha and the Hokage."
The name wasn't unfamiliar.
Uchiha Shisui, descendant of Uchiha Kagami, one of the Third Hokage's former teammates.
Shisui hadn't even graduated from the Academy yet, but already he was drawing attention from the highest levels. It seemed his reputation as a prodigy wasn't just hype.
Aoba accepted the task and resumed the screening.
By the time he'd finished with three more candidates, the sun was beginning to set.
Then, a young boy walked in—Uchiha Shisui.
He stood calmly, meeting Aoba's gaze without a trace of nervousness.
And Aoba immediately knew—this boy was different.
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