Shisui's gaze fell upon the other person, scrutinizing him.
From the way the other party had infiltrated the room, he had already detected a familiar concealment style unique to the top-tier Ninja of the Uchiha Clan.
However, when the person's true face was fully revealed, a trace of doubt rose in Shisui's heart.
The contours of that face, the essence between the eyebrows, even the slight press of the lips when silent, all felt strangely familiar to him, as if he had seen them on a certain page of the clan registry, or in a certain yellowed old photograph.
But no matter how he searched his memory, he could not match this face with any known living Uchiha Clan's member.
There were indeed disabled people in the clan, but someone so young who had lost an arm and possessed such a deep aura could not have escaped his notice.
"It seems… we've never met before, have we?" Shisui spoke first, his voice gentle with a probing tone.
His body appeared relaxed, but in truth, his Chakra was already circulating quietly within him, his Sharingan ready to activate at any moment.
This uninvited 'clansman' gave him an extremely dangerous feeling, much like when he had first met Hikari.
Adult Sasuke did not answer immediately.
He slowly walked forward a few steps, his footsteps silent, yet deliberately allowing Shisui to see his movements clearly. He stopped when he was about three steps away from the desk.
Then, he slightly raised his eyelids, and the pupil of his right eye instantly turned crimson, three black tomoes slowly emerging.
The Sharingan.
And a very mature, stable Three-Tomoe Sharingan at that.
This served as both proof of identity and an invisible pressure and opening statement.
Adult Sasuke's gaze swept past Shisui, landing on the two flags hanging on the wall behind him.
One was the concise five-pointed star flag of the Land of Stars, the other was the Uchiha Clan's thousand-year-old crest, symbolizing the flame and the war fan.
The two flags hung side by side, appearing so harmonious in this unfamiliar time and space that they even seemed somewhat glaring to Adult Sasuke.
"Why—" Adult Sasuke's throat was a little dry, the question practically escaping his lips. "Only Sasuke stayed in Konoha? Where are the other clansmen?"
Shisui's brow furrowed slightly.
The other party's question was direct, and the condescending, questioning tone carried the unique pride of the Uchiha Clan.
Moreover, this attitude suggested he wasn't someone sent by Itachi.
Shisui could sense the complex, painful emotions in the other party's eyes.
"It seems you've come for Sasuke's sake," Shisui's voice remained gentle, his finger tapping lightly on the desk. "But you don't seem… to be one of Itachi's people."
Adult Sasuke remained silent, neither confirming nor denying it.
His gaze remained fixed on those two flags, but uncontrollably, fragments of his own memories churned in his mind.
The blood and fire of the night of the massacre, his brother's back as he stood for a long time before their parents' bodies, the despair of running alone through the empty clan grounds, the determination to defect from Konoha and go to Orochimaru, the collapse after learning the truth in his final battle with Itachi, the obsession with revenge against Konoha, and finally, the mutual understanding with Naruto at the Valley of the End—
All the pain, struggle, hatred, and redemption were built upon the cornerstone of 'The Uchiha are destroyed... only I remain.'
Yet in this divergent timeline, not only had the Uchiha Clan survived, they seemed to be thriving.
Adult Sasuke hadn't been idle in Konoha these past few days, secretly gathering various information about this time and space. He had learned a lot about the Land of Stars from passing merchants and travelers… rumors, as well as newspapers brought by those who had visited the Land of Stars. After summarizing, he had obtained some useful intelligence.
The Uchiha survivors had migrated to the Land of Stars. Not only had they avoided the tragedy of annihilation, but they had also become a significant and influential clan within the Land of Stars.
Shisui, as clan head, was the Minister of Police in the Land of Stars, in charge of the nation's internal security forces. And there was a woman named Uchiha Hikari, who turned out to be the Minister of Military Affairs for the Land of Stars.
Adult Sasuke had never heard that name before, but it was clear that the Uchiha's status in the Land of Stars was much higher than it had been in Konoha.
An indescribable sense of sorrow and absurdity seized him.
So… another possibility truly could have existed.
So… the night of the massacre wasn't just about the desperate option of 'Uchiha Itachi slaughters the entire clan to protect his younger brother'.
So… tragedy was not predestined.
Then what were all his experiences in his own timeline supposed to be?
Itachi's choice of massacre, his own hatred, those rivers of blood and tears, those pains that tormented him day and night—
What were they supposed to be?
Seeing the intense emotional turmoil that surged and was forcibly suppressed in Adult Sasuke's eyes, Shisui understood in his heart.
He sighed softly, a sigh containing too much helplessness and gravity.
"Since you're asking that," Shisui's voice lowered. "You must know quite a bit about what happened that night."
"The truth is, it wasn't that we didn't want to take Sasuke with us, but the circumstances at the time wouldn't allow it."
He paused, his gaze becoming deep, as if returning to that bloody night.
"Can you imagine it? After the surviving clansmen, forcibly enduring their grief and anger, hastily evacuated that land soaked in the blood of their loved ones, what feelings would they have when they saw the only younger brother of the very executioner who had slaughtered countless of their closest kin?"
Shisui's tone was very light, but each word was weighty, hammering against Adult Sasuke's heart.
"Hatred consumes reason... sorrow distorts judgment. Even if Hikari-sama and I strictly forbade it, even if we promised to protect him and teach him, you can't guarantee that on some night in the long future, at a moment when some clan member who had lost their loved ones woke up from a nightmare, that knife of revenge wouldn't be pointed at Sasuke, who was still just a child back then and knew nothing."
Adult Sasuke's body trembled slightly.
He closed his eyes, and the Sharingan in his right eye extinguished with them.
Yes, Itachi's act of massacre was a sin that could not be bypassed no matter what.
No matter how his motives were whitewashed as 'noble' and 'helpless', they couldn't change the fact that he had personally slaughtered his parents and clansmen.
After that night stained red with blood, the identity of Uchiha Sasuke would forever be bound to the brand of 'the executioner's only younger brother' in the eyes of the surviving clansmen.
Taking him away would likely mean placing him in an even more dangerous situation, amidst the uncontrollable vortex of hatred from the survivors.
Leaving him in Konoha, under the watchful eyes of Danzo and the Third Hokage, though it also meant surveillance and exploitation, at least… until Sasuke's Sharingan evolved enough to hold value… his life was relatively safe.
Danzo's greed, ironically, served as a kind of protective charm for the young Sasuke.
'So… that was it, huh.'
Adult Sasuke slowly opened his eyes. The turmoil in them had subsided, leaving only a deep silence.
He didn't ask further about the whereabouts of the other clansmen... the answer was self-evident.
He had received the explanation he sought… one even crueler, yet also more realistic, than Itachi's talk of 'testing my capacity', 'protecting Konoha', and 'making you hate me and grow stronger'.
Without another word, he turned, preparing to melt back into the darkness as silently as he had come.
Just as he turned, the night wind from the window happened to brush past, blowing aside the slightly disheveled bangs on his forehead.
In the gap of those bangs, Adult Sasuke's left eye flashed.
A strange pale purple, displaying concentric, rippling patterns!
'The Rinnegan?!'
A thunderbolt exploded in Shisui's mind.
"Wait."
Almost instinctively, just as Adult Sasuke was about to disappear completely into the shadows, Shisui's voice sounded again.
Adult Sasuke's footsteps halted, but he didn't turn around.
"If you're going to find Sasuke," Shisui said slowly, "Could you help me... deliver a message for him?"
"Tell him that Aunt Mikoto, in the Land of Stars, misses him very much."
"!!!"
Adult Sasuke's body trembled.
He spun around sharply, the Mangekyo Sharingan in his right eye activating instantly, its six-pointed star pattern spinning wildly.
Meanwhile, the pale purple, ripple-ringed Rinnegan in his left eye was also fully revealed. Overwhelming Ocular Pressure surged forward immediately!
Almost simultaneously, Shisui moved too!
A pair of crimson Mangekyo Sharingan also activated, their blade-like patterns rotating.
Two of the world's top-tier Ocular Powers clashed and collided silently within the cramped study!
The air seemed to freeze... the lights flickered erratically. Scrolls on the desk rustled as if stirred by an unfelt wind.
There was no earth-shattering clamor. This was a silent contest, concerning spiritual will, the pure strength of Dojutsu, and the secrets hidden deep within their eyes.
This clash lasted less than a second.
A faint trickle of blood silently slid down Shisui's eye corner.
He grunted softly, his body swaying slightly, but the corner of his mouth curled into a smile.
"As expected… it's the Rinnegan after all…" he murmured, his voice a little hoarse, yet filled with certainty.
The Mangekyo in Adult Sasuke's eyes slowly returned to normal, reverting to a deep black, while his left eye was again hidden by his bangs.
He gave Shisui a complex look, his gaze lingering for a moment on Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan.
Finally, without a word, his form instantly vanished from the spot.
Shisui slowly sat back down in his chair, raising his hand to gently wipe away the blood trail from his eye corner with his fingertip.
The bloodstain was particularly glaring.
"A wielder of a single Rinnegan, huh?" He muttered to himself.
"This matter… must be reported to Shura-sama immediately."
After leaving the compound where the Land of Stars' diplomatic team was staying, Adult Sasuke raced silently like a night owl across the continuous rooftops of Konoha. The cold night wind whipped against his cheeks, but it couldn't cool the raging storm in his heart.
'Mother… is alive.'
'In this Space-Time, after that bloody night.'
Fragments of his few memories of his mother kept surfacing: her gentle smile during his childhood, her busy back in the kitchen every day after school, the indulgence when she gently stroked his face, and finally, those two figures lying in pools of blood on that last night.
In his time and space, all of this had turned to ashes, becoming the driving force that supported his pursuit of power and his revenge against that man.
But here, on a divergent branch of time and space, his mother had survived, missing the child who had been left behind, from afar in the Land of Stars.
"Ha—" An extremely soft, derisive laugh escaped from the depths of his throat, whether mocking the absurdity of fate or ridiculing his own obsession was unclear.
The intention behind Shisui's final words was obvious.
He wanted to use him as a messenger to convey this information to the Young Sasuke of this Space-Time, hoping to stir ripples and potentially guide Young Sasuke down the path of breaking with Konoha and defecting to the Land of Stars.
Just like—
He himself, back then, driven by his desire for power and revenge, had unhesitatingly defected from Konoha at Orochimaru's instigation!
He stopped on the roof of a building, a spot from which he could clearly see the familiar apartment building across the way.
That was where the Young Sasuke of this Space-Time currently lived.
It was already the middle of the night. The cold moonlight spilled over the streets and buildings, plating everything in silver.
In the distance, the rock faces of the successive Hokages silently watched over the village.
Konoha—
Aside from his bonds with Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, and the others, what was there about this place for him to miss?
Once, this was the rotten place he had sworn to destroy... later, it was the village he and Naruto protected together.
But that sense of belonging stemmed more from his bond with Naruto, Sakura, and the others than from a love for the village itself.
The Konoha of this Space-Time felt even more foreign to him.
Activating his Sharingan, his gaze swept over the dark corners around Young Sasuke's apartment.
Sure enough, at several prime surveillance points, two Ninja with exceptionally well-concealed auras were lurking.
The fluctuations of their Chakra carried the signature of Root… that erasure of individual emotions.
Danzo's people.
'Surveillance, huh… they never let up, as expected.' A cold glint flashed in Adult Sasuke's eyes.
'That rat Danzo, lurking in the gutter… his greed for the Sharingan was sickening in any timeline.'
There were certain things Shisui truly couldn't do easily.
As the Minister of Police of the Land of Stars and the leader of the Uchiha Clan, his profile was too large... every move he made tugged at the nerves of all parties.
If he were to directly contact Young Sasuke, it would be like dancing on the sensitive nerves of Konoha's higher-ups, potentially triggering unpredictable backlash and even endangering Sasuke.
But he was different.
A 'foreigner' of unknown identity and mysterious movements, a 'clansman' who also possessed Uchiha blood.
Some words might be more fitting coming from him.
More importantly—
The revelation brought by Shisui's appearance, that the Uchiha Clan hadn't been wiped out, was already like a spark thrown onto dry kindling.
Now that Young Sasuke knew, yet hadn't immediately taken drastic action to confront or seek the truth, this unusual 'calmness' would only provoke deeper suspicion from Konoha's higher-ups.
They wouldn't believe Young Sasuke was truly indifferent... they would only suspect he was secretly plotting something, or waiting for something.
Someone needed to give him a push, at least to make him understand that he wasn't alone in the fog, that he had the right to know the truth and the right to choose his path, even if that path was full of thorns.
Adult Sasuke's figure silently vanished from the rooftop.
The next time he appeared, he had easily bypassed the tight surveillance network of those two Root's Ninja and entered the familiar yet unfamiliar apartment room.
The room was dark inside, with only the cold moonlight shining through the window, providing a faint glimmer of light.
The air held a slightly cool, lonely atmosphere.
It didn't feel like a home... more like a temporary inn.
Standing in the shadows of the room, Adult Sasuke's gaze swept over the simple furnishings, finally settling on the deeply sleeping Young Sasuke lying on the bed.
Whether it was exhaustion from the exams or the shock of Gaara's words, the sleeping Young Sasuke had his brow deeply furrowed, his body occasionally twitching restlessly.