Konoha lay beneath the night sky, peaceful on the surface, as if nothing in the world could disturb its calm.
Inside the Seventh Police Unit's office, moonlight spilled through the windows. The room was in disarray. Three figures remained.
"So… the intel was fake?" Kakashi muttered, his voice heavy. "An enemy ploy?"
Uchiha Yoru's eyes lingered in his mind. Those cold, two-tomoe Sharingan filled with unmistakable killing intent. Kakashi knew one thing for certain now. If he ever leaked what he had seen tonight, Yoru would kill him without hesitation.
"But if it's real…"
A horrifying possibility surfaced, and Kakashi's breath hitched.
Danzō painted the Third Hokage as a master schemer. Yet the information in that scroll suggested something else entirely. Danzō himself was ruthless beyond measure. Meanwhile, the Uchiha bore endless suspicion and pressure, yet still stood on the front line, guarding the village.
"Protecting Konoha… is that really the Police Force's purpose?" Kakashi wondered.
When he first joined the unit, everything he saw pointed toward that answer. Patrols. Order. Vigilance. An almost obsessive resolve to protect the village at all costs.
"So this is the Uchiha?"
The thought tasted bitter.
Pride. Arrogance. Sharp tempers. That was the reputation. But beneath it, Kakashi had seen something else entirely.
The Third Hokage schemed. Danzō crossed any line necessary. The Uchiha were tied to the Nine Tails incident. Everything blurred together until Konoha itself felt unfamiliar. Beneath its warmth lay deep, suffocating darkness.
"The Nine Tails was controlled by the Sharingan… and Root has been collecting Sharingan…"
Kakashi's hand trembled as it touched his left eye.
"The Sharingan isn't exclusive to the Uchiha anymore. If Root truly has them…"
If that was true, then the Nine Tails disaster had far more suspects than anyone admitted. And Root served the Hokage's authority. Did the Third know? Or was he complicit?
Kakashi didn't notice when the lingering paralysis in his body finally faded.
Across from him, Shisui stood rigid, his three-tomoe Sharingan spinning uncontrollably before finally slowing. The office was silent. Moonlight illuminated Uchiha Yoru, seated calmly at his desk.
"Yoru-niisan…" Shisui began, then stopped.
He didn't know what to say.
Yoru looked at them both, his voice even.
"Tonight never happened. Forget it."
He paused.
"Shisui, you are still my clansman. Kakashi, I still consider you a comrade. On the battlefield, I would still trust you with my back."
Yoru closed his eyes, leaning back as if simply enjoying the moonlight.
To Kakashi and Shisui, it looked like a man carrying everything alone.
They hadn't forgotten the contents of the scroll. With Sharingan-level perception, it was burned into their minds.
Yoru, meanwhile, finally relaxed.
He had waited three days. The trap had worked.
He had intended to draw in Kakashi. Shisui was an unexpected bonus.
The bait was simple. Records of Uchiha who had died under suspicious circumstances since the Third Shinobi War. Some had even destroyed their own eyes before death. Too many coincidences.
Six confirmed missing three-tomoe Sharingan.
The deaths were real. The disappearances were real. What Yoru added was implication. Root. ANBU. Shadows within the village.
Not fabricated lies. Just carefully arranged truths.
If you wanted to pull someone into your camp, lies were useless. Lies always collapsed eventually.
Danzō had possessed Sharingan long before the massacre. That much was certain. He had ordered Yamato to retrieve Kakashi's eye. He had used Izanagi when stealing Shisui's right eye. Orochimaru's involvement alone proved it had all started early.
That was enough.
"Yoru…"
Kakashi pressed a hand to his wounded shoulder, his expression conflicted. In the end, he said nothing. A moment later, he vanished into the night, his figure flickering across rooftops.
Only Shisui remained.
"Yoru-niisan," he said firmly. "I am an Uchiha. I have the right to know the truth."
Guilt weighed heavily in his voice.
"All the darkness… you've been carrying it alone. I have power, but I knew nothing."
He bowed deeply, placing his forehead to the floor.
"Please. I am Uchiha Shisui."
Silence stretched.
At last, Yoru exhaled, a long, weary sigh echoing through the dim office.
"Shisui," he said quietly, "remember this. Konoha was founded by the Uchiha and the Senju. The Senju are gone. That means the responsibility to protect this village falls to us."
The conviction in his voice was absolute.
Shisui's heart jolted.
When had his thinking become so narrow? When had he started seeing only the clan, and not the village itself?
Changing someone's beliefs was never easy. Yoru had no intention of destroying Shisui's faith. It was enough to reshape it before it fully solidified.
Without realizing it, Shisui's resolve sharpened.
The Uchiha existed to protect Konoha.
And Konoha…
Belonged to the Uchiha.