"Hey. Uchiha kid. Breakfast."
Early in the morning, Uchiha Shisui woke up to a call that sounded almost the same as back home. Staring at the ceiling that had become all too familiar, the not-yet-ten-year-old let out a long sigh. After a quick wash, he followed the Kirigakure ANBU assigned to watch him to the usual dining area.
What surprised him was that breakfast was far more lavish than before. And this place—normally only used by him and Hyuga Makoto—was suddenly crowded with young kunoichi…
"What happened?"
Shisui sat in his usual seat, eyeing the spread that seemed almost perfectly suited to his tastes, and asked the female ANBU who stayed glued to his side.
"It's nothing," she said lightly. "Fourth-sama opened Hyuga Makoto's usage rights, and his first day's performance was… not great. Even drugged up, he barely managed to hold out. So we decided to raise your treatment a notch, too—so you don't end up like that guy. Making an ugly spectacle. All show, no substance. That's all."
She continued, tone casual enough to make Shisui's ears burn.
"If there isn't a successful hit the first time, the next bidding window gets pushed back two or three months. No one wants to gamble that by the time they come back for a second try, you two won't still be as lively as you were when you first 'started work.'"
Hearing her talk about it so offhandedly—then remembering Hyuga Makoto's face yesterday as several Kirigakure ANBU dragged him away, terror and despair written all over it—Shisui swallowed hard.
The moment he'd been placed under house arrest with layers of surveillance, Shisui had already made some mental preparation for the possibility that he might become a breeding tool—something Kirigakure used to obtain the power of the Sharingan.
But learning that the unlucky Hyuga Makoto next door had truly fallen into Kirigakure's hands anyway…
Shisui couldn't help panicking.
"D-Don't you think this is weird?!"
"Weird?" The female ANBU tilted her head. She genuinely didn't understand why Shisui suddenly couldn't control his emotions. "What's weird about it?"
"Why can Kirigakure just… so casually make that many women do something so shameful?! Th-This—this isn't something that should happen only between two people who love each other?! Even if you want to steal the power of the Hyuga and the Uchiha, just making a few people 'sacrifice' should be more than enough!"
Shisui didn't know why he was saying this.
It wouldn't save him from Kirigakure.
It wouldn't make them repent and turn over a new leaf.
At best, it would earn him mockery for being naive.
And yet he still did it.
To vent the pressure and emotions he'd been choking down since his confinement. To keep a final spark alive in the hope and resistance that were dying inside him. And—more than anything—to carve it into his bones that he was a shinobi born and raised in Konoha, a village completely different from Kirigakure.
He should never become the same as the shinobi of the Bloody Mist.
"Honestly, I've been curious about that too."
"Huh?"
The female ANBU nodded—seriously—like she truly agreed.
Shisui froze, mouth opening slightly, his expression turning absurdly blank as he waited for her to continue.
"By common sense, if the goal is just to take the Hyuga and Uchiha bloodline limits into Kirigakure, then sure—you wouldn't need so many people to have a chance at 'getting the seed.'"
She rested her chin on one hand, speaking as if she were discussing mission logistics.
"If the situation were reversed, and it were you Konoha people who captured Fourth-sama—and you had a chance to seize and continue his Shikotsumyaku and that freakish constitution of his—Konoha's leadership would probably only let a handful of people take that seed."
"And once those children were born, they'd be protected like crazy—hidden away as secret weapons."
"But Fourth-sama doesn't seem interested in letting the Hyuga and Uchiha bloodlines form new bloodline clans in Kirigakure."
"He wants those bloodlines to spread completely. He wants them to seep into the village and become part of the foundation of what makes Kirigakure shinobi in the future…"
She sighed.
"Honestly, if Fourth-sama weren't so strong that no one can even muster the idea of resisting him… plenty of powerful clans would've already gone to protest."
"And just to be clear—this morning alone, several bloodline clans came to me demanding I prioritize their people for Hyuga Makoto's usage. They want Hyuga blood in their line first… then they'll toss Hyuga Makoto out once his body's already broken, and let the civilian shinobi fight over what's left."
She was talking animatedly when a young voice suddenly sounded behind her.
The female ANBU stiffened like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. She turned—slowly—face paling.
Behind her stood Kaguya Ren, arms folded, head slightly tilted as if he'd been listening for a while.
"F-Fourth-sama…! W-When did you get here?"
Ren reached out and patted her shoulder, tone light and reassuring.
"Somewhere in the middle. Around the part where you used me as an example and said Konoha would do this and that."
Mikazuki Eri's vision went black.
She had the guts to joke around with a random kid like Uchiha Shisui. Plenty of it.
But joking about Kaguya Ren to his face?
Even if you gave her ten lives, she wouldn't dare.
Seeing Eri look like she wanted to dig a hole and bury herself in it, Ren shook his head, amused. Then he slapped a paper appointment notice into her hands.
"Alright, alright. I'm not Third—some old man who can't take a harmless jab. I'm not going to do anything over that."
"Your new post is decided. Go hand off your current duties to your ANBU superior, then report to your new assignment."
"My… new post?"
Eri hurriedly looked down at the notice—then rubbed her eyes.
Special jōnin rank.
Ninja Academy instructor.
"N-Ninja Academy… instructor? Fourth-sama, are you… are you fully awake?" She looked up in disbelief. "I—I don't have any talent for teaching!"
"I don't have a choice." Ren sighed, sounding genuinely annoyed at the logistics. "Kirigakure's number of sensor-nin is pitiful. People who can spare time to train new ones? Even harder to find."
"You were an ANBU who didn't screw up your missions, and your survival instincts on the battlefield are solid. If a few of these kids close to graduation can learn even a third of your knack for staying alive, I won't have to keep getting headaches over sensor gaps everywhere."
"I… see…"
Eri wasn't the type to be stubborn for no reason. Once she heard she was just being tossed in as an emergency stopgap, she calmed down—though her voice still dipped uncertainly.
"But I'm really not good at teaching. If the students can't learn what I teach, Fourth-sama, you can't blame me."
"I won't. Go on."
Then she straightened and asked dutifully, still thinking like ANBU.
"Then what about the replacement for monitoring this Uchiha kid? He's a genius—if no one watches him closely, he might think of a way to escape—"
"He'll be with me from now on," Ren said.
Eri blinked. "Oh… that's how it is…"
She nodded slowly, then threw Shisui a look that was unmistakably full of schadenfreude.
Well then. Even if you're a once-in-a-generation prodigy, you're not escaping Kirigakure's palm now.
Take care of that body. Get ready to become a father, kid.
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