Soon after leaving the secret gathering, Hiro returned to a relatively secluded courtyard tucked away deep within the Uchiha clan compound. This quiet residence was the modest home he shared with his brother, Shisui.
Their parents had died in the line of duty during a dangerous mission years ago, leaving the two brothers to depend entirely on each other for survival in a village that increasingly viewed them with suspicion.
A faint, warm light still flickered gently from inside the house. Hiro landed completely silently in the dark courtyard, flawlessly concealing all physical traces of his presence and suppressing his chakra. He walked silently over to the sliding wooden window and carefully peered through a narrow crack.
Inside the quiet room, a young boy sat perfectly upright at a low wooden table, his attention focused entirely on a basic ninjutsu scroll illuminated by the soft lamplight.
His developing features were striking, bearing a very clear, distinct resemblance to Hiro's own eyes and brows, though he naturally appeared much more youthful and innocent.
Despite his incredibly young age, his dark gaze was exceptionally focused and brilliantly sharp, exuding a profound steadiness and maturity that vastly surpassed his chronological years. This remarkable child was Uchiha Shisui.
He suddenly seemed to intuitively sense a shift in the ambient atmosphere and immediately looked up from his scroll toward the window. His small face was initially guarded and highly alert, but as soon as his eyes recognized the familiar silhouette standing outside in the dark, his tense expression instantly transformed into pure, unadulterated joy.
"Brother!"
He excitedly jumped up from his cushion, ran directly to the entryway, and quickly pulled the sliding door open. Seeing Hiro standing quietly in the pale moonlight, looking slightly travel-worn but possessing incredibly bright, piercing eyes, the genuine smile on Shisui's face grew even more radiant. However, the highly perceptive boy quickly and keenly sensed an entirely unusual, heavy aura radiating from his older sibling.
It was an overwhelming sense of absolute solemnity, unbreakable resolve, and a deeply hidden, driving urgency that felt exactly like a silently burning flame.
"Brother, you are finally back home! Did the Elder..."
Before Shisui could even finish his sentence, Hiro swiftly pulled the boy inside the house, quickly slid the door shut behind them, and immediately formed a rapid hand sign to set up a highly effective, simple soundproofing barrier around the perimeter of the room.
"Listen to me very closely, Shisui. There is absolutely no time to explain the full details right now."
Hiro crouched down to the floor, placing his hands firmly and reassuringly on Shisui's small shoulders, directly meeting his brother's clear yet visibly confused eyes with an incredibly level, serious gaze.
"We are permanently leaving Konoha. Right now, tonight, immediately. You are coming with me."
Shisui completely froze in place, his large, intelligent eyes blinking rapidly as if his developing mind hadn't quite processed the massive weight of the statement. Leaving... Konoha? But where are we going? Why do we have to leave our home?
"We are going to a secure place where we can actually survive, a new place where the Uchiha can finally gain true freedom and the respect we deserve."
Hiro spoke rapidly, but he made absolutely sure that every single spoken word was incredibly clear and heavily powerful.
"Konoha is absolutely no longer our true home. The paranoid high-ranking officials ruling the village have been constantly, systematically marginalizing and brutally suppressing the Uchiha. If we foolishly choose to stay here, daily life for us and our remaining clansmen will only get drastically harder, and there may very well even be immediate, lethal danger heading our way. I absolutely cannot wait any longer for the axe to fall, and I absolutely refuse to ever leave you alone in this highly dangerous, toxic place."
Seeing a profound, absolute seriousness resting in his brother's dark eyes that he had absolutely never, ever seen before, along with a deeply hidden, lingering trace of historical pain, the initial surprise painted on Shisui's small face slowly faded away entirely.
He had always been exceptionally intelligent since his earliest childhood memories and entirely relied on his older sibling for guidance; therefore, he wasn't entirely oblivious or blind to the suffocating, oppressive political atmosphere constantly hanging over everyone within the clan compound.
His deeply respected brother returning late in the dead of night and urgently speaking of permanent defection... this was absolutely, undeniably not a mere joke or a training exercise.
He courageously didn't shed a single tear or ask any further, unnecessary questions out of childish fear; he simply pursed his lips incredibly tightly in deep thought and then nodded his head heavily in absolute agreement.
"I completely understand, Brother. Wherever you choose to go, I will absolutely follow you."
His crisp, remarkably decisive answer perfectly showcased an incredible level of absolute trust and unwavering determination that extended far, far beyond his physical age.
Hiro felt a profound, comforting warmth blossom deep within his chest and affectionately, firmly ruffled Shisui's dark hair.
Although he technically possessed all the integrated memories of the body's former occupant, directly and physically feeling the profound, unbreakable emotional bond existing between himself and his dear brother still deeply moved his soul.
Furthermore, it was highly fortunate that Shisui was still incredibly young and thankfully hadn't been thoroughly, systematically brainwashed by the village's highly manipulative, so-called Will of Fire ideology just yet. The current, pure-hearted Shisui completely held one hundred percent, unconditional trust entirely in his genius older sibling.
"Good. Now, go quickly change into durable clothes that are exceptionally easy to move and fight in. Bring your standard ninja tool pouch, and... make absolutely sure to bring the short sword your mother left behind for you. Do not pack or bring absolutely anything else; I will ensure we buy you entirely new things later once we are safe."
"Understood!"
Shisui immediately turned and ran into the inner room. He soon emerged, having rapidly changed into a highly functional, dark-colored training suit perfectly suited for night travel. He firmly shouldered his small, fully stocked ninja tool pouch and carefully, securely tucked a flawlessly maintained short sword horizontally into his waist sash.
His physical movements were incredibly swift, highly methodical, and entirely orderly, perfectly displaying an exceptionally excellent foundation of strict ninja discipline.
Hiro was also actively organizing his own gear incredibly quickly in the main room. He systematically placed some highly important personal items, a relatively small but necessary amount of hard currency, and several highly classified scrolls meticulously recording his own advanced, personal insights into Fire Style jutsu and complex genjutsu directly into a compact sealing scroll.
He paused for a brief moment and slowly looked around the quiet home he had continuously lived in for many years. His dark gaze lingered heavily for a fleeting, emotional second on a slightly blurred, framed photograph of his deceased parents resting on the shelf, before his eyes turned completely cold and firm once again. Foolishly lingering on the past would absolutely only bring them immediate, lethal danger.
In absolutely less than ten short minutes, the two brothers were completely packed and ready for the road. Shisui stood quietly right beside Hiro, his small hand instinctively and tightly gripping the lower corner of his brother's dark shirt. He looked up, and although there was undeniably a tiny bit of natural, human unease regarding the vast unknown visible in his dark eyes, there was vastly even more total, absolute trust in his brother and an unyielding, fierce courage to bravely face the entire world together.
"Are you afraid of what comes next?" Hiro asked softly.
Shisui slowly shook his head, then paused and nodded slightly, whispering honestly: "A little bit... but as long as I am standing right here with you, Brother, I am absolutely not afraid of anything."
Hiro gently reached down and securely took Shisui's hand into his own, distinctly feeling the living warmth and the surprising, underlying strength resting within that small grip. "Hold on incredibly tight to me, and let us go."
He smoothly dispelled the active soundproofing barrier with a wave of his hand. Leading Shisui closely by his side, they instantly became exactly like two intangible, silent shadows flawlessly blending into the pitch-black night, completely and silently leaving the modest home that was rapidly about to become nothing more than a distant part of the past, heading directly toward the highly classified, planned rendezvous point.
They sped effortlessly and silently across the rooftops toward an ancient, completely abandoned watchtower that strategically overlooked a large part of Konoha's perimeter, yet remained sufficiently hidden and overgrown by the surrounding forest.
In absolute, objective truth, it would have been vastly, significantly safer for their overall survival if he could have successfully tamed a few more powerful shadow familiars utilizing the Ten Shadows Technique prior to formally defecting. However, while physically residing inside Konoha, the entire Uchiha clan compound was constantly under heavy, paranoid surveillance by the high-ranking officials' Anbu operatives. This highly suffocating environment made it truly, exceptionally unfavorable and dangerous for Uchiha Hiro to openly conduct the highly destructive, loud taming rituals right here in the village.
He logically decided he would seriously worry about continuously expanding his arsenal immediately after safely leaving Konoha's borders; his current, overwhelmingly vast reservoir of physical and ocular strength was easily more than enough to handle any immediate threats for now.
With the highly experienced Elder Setsuna actively providing political and physical cover from within the clan, Konoha's leadership absolutely wouldn't discover the shocking reality of their defection for quite a while. Furthermore, although the profound depths of the Ten Shadows Technique and the god-like Six Eyes absolutely hadn't been fully, completely developed or mastered just yet, Uchiha Hiro could already seamlessly manifest and actively use the ultimate absolute defense, the Susanoo. Armed heavily with the catastrophic, physical manifestation of the Susanoo, Uchiha Hiro could completely and undeniably be considered a highly legitimate, devastating Kage-level combatant on any battlefield.
Unless the legendary Sannin somehow perfectly teamed up to fight him all at once, or the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, decided to personally hunt him down across the continent, Uchiha Hiro fundamentally didn't fear absolutely anyone else currently breathing in the ninja world.
Wait, he mentally calculated, the current, younger iterations of the Sannin, even with the three of them fighting perfectly combined, were historically absolutely no physical match for Hanzo of the Salamander during the recent war. Although Hanzo's lethal, poisonous strength was indeed completely terrifying—one could easily say he currently stood proudly among the absolute first, highest tier of active powerhouses in the current Ninja World—he ultimately still hadn't fully exceeded the absolute, highest pinnacle of the Kage-level threshold.
The sheer historical fact that Hanzo could overwhelmingly defeat the Sannin simply meant that the current, younger Sannin had absolutely not yet reached the true, individual Kage-level of power themselves. It was currently completely unknown if Jiraiya had successfully learned and mastered the elusive Sage Mode at this point in the timeline, so logically, the three of them should currently be resting somewhere in the transitional power stage sitting squarely between an Elite Jonin and a true Kage.
With the absolute, impenetrable defense and crushing offense of his Susanoo, Uchiha Hiro could easily and confidently put up a massively devastating fight against any of them.
As for the revered God of Shinobi, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the currently adapting Uchiha Hiro absolutely knew he realistically couldn't completely beat him in a prolonged, drawn-out battle of attrition just yet. After all, the aging Hokage was currently still operating relatively close to his absolute, terrifying physical and elemental peak; a highly complex, combined elemental assault of earth cages and roaring fire would highly likely physically stress and eventually break through the early stages of the Susanoo.
Although that scheming old warhawk Danzo was also technically sitting at a Kage-level of combat threat, the actual, raw weight and sheer scale of his specific Kage-level strength was far, far inferior when directly compared to Hiruzen Sarutobi fighting at his absolute peak. Moreover, Danzo's most highly guarded, lethal trump cards—the stolen, grafted Sharingan and the reality-warping forbidden jutsu, Izanagi—were specific, highly classified things that Uchiha Hiro already intimately, flawlessly knew absolutely all about from his transplanted memories.
A high-level ninja battle, in the absolute end, fundamentally and entirely boils down to a lethal game of severe information disparity. If Jiraiya had actually possessed absolutely all the classified intel regarding the Six Paths of Pain and had wisely activated his Sage Mode before ever entering the Hidden Rain, he highly likely might not have necessarily lost his life to Pain.
After all, Nagato's borrowed, physical control over the divine power of the Rinnegan was completely and vastly inferior when directly compared to the true, original wielder, Uchiha Madara.
However, despite its absolute power, heavily utilizing the Susanoo continuously rapidly consumes one's precious eyesight and places a massive, agonizing burden on the cellular structure, so it is always vastly, infinitely better to tactically avoid actively using it unless absolutely, strictly necessary for immediate survival.