A spinning leaf floated down into the waters of the Nanga River.
Itachi stood silently at the edge of the cliff. The red Sharingan in his eyes spun rapidly with three tomoe.
At the moment the tomoe came together, he closed his eyes.
With Shisui's death, Itachi was bound to awaken his eyes.
Leaning against the tree, Hatake Satoru quickly moved off the cliff.
Just a second before Shisui hit the water, Hatake Satoru grabbed his clothes and pulled him up in one motion.
"You fall pretty fast, Shisui. That was close."
Shisui, who had already made peace with dying, froze when he suddenly heard that voice mid-air.
"Blue… Satoru-kun?"
"Hey, not bad. I thought you'd pass out, honestly."
Still holding onto Shisui in mid-air, Satoru paused just a second to plan the fastest way home.
He had already mapped out this route before, back when his teleportation range wasn't far enough.
Now was the perfect time to try it.
Holding onto Shisui—who was about the same size as him—Hatake Satoru instantly moved toward the Hatake household.
The sound of the waterfall vanished in an instant, like they'd left the river the moment he finished his sentence.
Shisui frowned slightly, still in disbelief.
Without his eyes, he couldn't clearly see what was happening. He could only guess where they were by the sounds around him.
He was good at using Body Flicker, so of course he knew what it felt like to instantly leave a place.
But this time, it felt different from just moving fast.
It was more like something *cut off* for a moment. Even though that moment was so short it was almost impossible to catch.
Because his vision was gone and only his hearing remained, Shisui clearly noticed the sound of the waterfall stop for just a split second.
Then everything went completely quiet. Far away, he could faintly hear people talking.
"Was that space ninjutsu?!"
"You can just cut through space when you move?!"
Shisui grabbed Hatake Satoru's sleeve, shocked, and turned his blind eyes in his direction.
Satoru was using his foot to slide open the front door, but when he turned around and saw Shisui's two empty eye sockets staring at him, he almost choked on his own breath.
"Ninjutsu? Hell no, I don't even have chakra."
Satoru helped Shisui over to the tatami mat and sat him down, then grabbed a pair of sunglasses from a shelf and put them on him.
Seriously, those hollow eyes in the dark were way too creepy.
Shisui perked up for a second, then slumped again.
In his mind, it was still hard to think of things outside of ninjutsu. He couldn't really imagine other kinds of powers yet.
But looking at it now, maybe the plan Satoru mentioned before really *could* work.
Even though he had no chakra in his body and usually acted like a normal guy just joking around with them…
This guy—was seriously strong.
So strong, it was honestly hard for them to even understand it.
"But forget about me. What about you?" Satoru asked. "That village you wanted to protect… is *this* what it gave you in return?"
"They pushed you to the point where you thought dying was the only choice, just because you chose a different path?"
Satoru let out a cold snort through his nose as he dug out the emergency first-aid kit he had stashed in a cabinet.
His own healing technique only worked on himself, so it wasn't any help here.
Shisui's injuries, aside from the holes where his eyes used to be, were mostly surface wounds.
He was exhausted, sure, but not in danger of dying.
Still, Uchiha eyes were basically like USB drives—take them out, plug them in, no big deal.
Satoru stroked his chin and looked at Shisui, who seemed to be thinking clearly and speaking normally.
Didn't seem like there was anything seriously wrong.
Shisui was quiet for a while before finally replying in a low voice.
"I didn't know Danzo had such big ambitions… He wants to wipe out the whole Uchiha clan."
"But, I mean… that's Danzo's problem. It's not really the village's fault."
Satoru didn't hold back—he poured alcohol directly onto Shisui's wounds and said cheerfully,
"Oh? And do *you* actually believe that?"
Shisui winced from the sting and went quiet.
He had always been loyal to the village. He and Itachi had been trying for so long to ease the tension between the clan and the village—even though the two sides were practically impossible to bring together.
To be honest, he was worn out.
In the end, he was even willing to bear the blame for putting the whole Uchiha clan under genjutsu, just to take the burden on himself.
He did everything for the village.
But even so, Danzo still went after him. Took his eyes. Tried to wipe out the Uchiha.
"I…"
Satoru glanced over the bandaged-up Shisui. Even with his forehead protector off, that messy curly hair of his still stood out.
"Well, don't stress too much. You've got plenty of time to think about it."
"Because you're already dead."
Hatake Satoru pulled an electric hair straightener out of the drawer. It wasn't exactly something that matched the image of a single guy.
But actually, he and Kakashi had messed around with it when they were kids, trying to figure out how to make their hair lie flat.
Of course, judging by their shared messy silver hair now, this thing probably hadn't worked since they were ten.
"Alright!"
"That should do it."
Hatake Satoru rolled up his sleeves, looking pleased as he glanced at Shisui, whose hair had been completely turned into straight black short hair.
He even had a little M-shaped fringe on his forehead. He didn't look like a ninja anymore—more like some high school student who hadn't graduated yet.
Wearing sunglasses, Shisui clearly had no idea he'd just been given a whole new look and tilted his head in confusion.
Still, keeping this guy blind like that wasn't a great idea.
Hatake Satoru looked out the window toward the Uchiha clan grounds.
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