Outside Shisui's house, the night was as dark as ink, the chirping of insects silent.
"Shisui."
Itachi's voice pierced the silence. Beneath the calm surface was a stubbornness suppressed to the extreme.
The door opened lightly.
The moonlight outlined Shisui's tall figure. He looked at Itachi with slight surprise.
The moment their eyes met, Shisui's heart sank sharply. Itachi's eyes, usually as still as an ancient well, now reflected a near-maddening, heart-palpitating sharpness, icy and piercing, completely unfamiliar.
"Itachi, it's so late, you..."
"Come with me to a place!" Itachi directly cut him off, his tone resolute and decisive. The hidden madness within was more biting than the night wind.
"Where?"
Shisui's unease instantly amplified. The news of Kumogakure abducting Makoto was like a fuse. He had anticipated Itachi would explode.
He just didn't expect the eruption to come so quickly, so decisively.
"The Sarutobi Clan's compound." Itachi's gaze pinned Shisui squarely, without the slightest evasion, "Right now."
'The Sarutobi Clan? Hokage-sama's clan's compound?'
Shisui's brows instantly knitted into a tight knot. "Itachi, that's too risky. Trespassing there, if discovered, the consequences..."
Words of dissuasion rushed out, seemingly forgetting his own 'heroic feat' from not long ago, bringing the corpse of the Kumogakure's envoy leader in the middle of the night to frame the Hyuga Clan's compound.
Or perhaps, deep in Shisui's heart, he believed the clans of the Konoha's leadership were separated by a vast chasm from the other major Konoha's clans.
"I want to see with my own eyes," Itachi's voice remained steady, yet carried a cold and ruthless that froze the air. "To confirm what exactly is the 'truth' Makoto spoke of."
The blow of his younger brother being abducted by Kumogakure was too great for Itachi, filling his eyes with determination and finality.
All of Shisui's dissuading words were choked back by this look from Itachi.
He understood the Uchiha Clan too well, understood Itachi's obstinacy too well. Once he set his mind on a path, not even Nine Biju could pull him back.
Silence, only the rustling of the night wind through leaves.
The long stalemate ultimately turned into a sigh so heavy it almost thudded to the ground. Shisui's helplessness was mixed with a trace of indulgence bordering on doting.
"Follow me. Suppress all presence, not a single trace of Chakra fluctuation allowed!"
Two figures instantly merged into the thick night.
Shisui's top-tier skill was exerted to the utmost at this moment. With Itachi, he moved like the most experienced ghosts, shuttling soundlessly between Konoha's rooftops and alleys.
The patrolling Konoha's Military Police Force, the vigilant Anbu, the intangible sensory barriers... all obstacles were expertly avoided by Shisui without a trace.
The heart of Konoha, this most prosperous land, stood… the Sarutobi Clan.
Relying on Shisui's abilities, they successfully infiltrated this area.
Lurking in the shadows, their gazes swept over this astonishingly vast compound. Though the lights were sparse, the bustle of its core area was hard to conceal.
Itachi, silent as a leopard, climbed to a vantage point, crouching on a power pole hidden within dense tree foliage. His field of view suddenly opened up.
Below, the Sarutobi Clan's core training ground was brightly lit. Even late at night, figures still moved about in the grounds.
A single glance revealed that the number of Sarutobi clansmen sweating and practicing Ninjutsu actually surpassed that in the training grounds of the Uchiha Clan, one of the two Warring States Period's titans.
By the sidelines, even more Shinobi wearing the Sarutobi Clan's emblem observed, instructed, and rested.
The entire training ground was filled with an almost boiling sense of power, so vigorous it was even somewhat aggressive.
A scene of thriving prosperity and unmatched strength!
Itachi's pupils abruptly contracted to pinpoints. A cold chill instantly crawled up his spine, covering his entire body.
'The Sarutobi Clan... though strong in the Warring States era, when had they ever had such scale? The numbers of their Shinobi even surpassed the Senju and Uchiha!'
'In just a few decades since Konoha's founding... their Shinobi numbers had swollen to this extent?'
What made Itachi's heart pound even more was that he had never seen many of the faces in the field in the cruel Shinobi Wars, nor were they traceable even on the lists for slightly dangerous out-of-village missions.
The answer of the Sandaime Hokage's Will of Fire pierced his mind like an ice spike.
Hiruzen's image of 'impartial and selfless', 'wholly devoted to the village', pristine and pure, under the glare of these blinding lights, emitted a teeth-grating, cracking sound on the verge of complete shattering!
Makoto's words, tinged with sarcasm yet now appearing incredibly accurate, exploded in Itachi's ears like a curse.
"Can you guess the current number of Shinobi in the Sarutobi Clan? It's even larger than the Uchiha Clan!"
"They're simply a bunch of parasites, sucking the blood, gnawing on the flesh and bones of Konoha's other great clans to grow stronger rapidly."
'Those parasites... sucking the blood...'
'Gnawing on flesh and bones...'
Every single word found its most glaring, coldest confirmation on this bustling training ground symbolizing the Sarutobi Clan's prosperity.
Itachi's breathing almost halted in that instant. Crouched on the cold power pole, his eyes completely sank, bottomless, like a cold pond devouring all light.
He slowly turned his head to look at Shisui beside him.
Shisui was also stunned by the scene before him. He subconsciously touched his distinctive garlic-bulb nose, his face habitually wearing a gentle expression, his tone carrying a trace of naive sentiment.
"Hmm... I truly never expected the Hokage-sama's clan to have developed so prosperously these years. This number of Shinobi is even greater than our Uchiha Clan's..."
The word 'prosperous' was like a red-hot branding iron, searing Itachi's heart.
The Third Shinobi World War was extremely cruel. Konoha fought against many, the numbers of Shinobi in every clan were rapidly decreasing. And the Sarutobi Clan...
Shisui's sentiment became the final straw that broke the camel's back.
Itachi's voice sounded low, each word seeming fished out from an icehouse, dropping into the silent night.
"See it clearly?"
"The hope for resolving the conflict between the village and the clan can no longer be placed on the Konoha's leadership."
"If even the Sandaime Hokage is like this..." Itachi's address held none of the former respect, "...then even more so for Shimura Danzo and the two other high-ranking advisors."
"What they represent has never been the interest of the entire Konoha."
Shisui understood Itachi's meaning. His smile stiffened on his face, the gentleness in his eyes wavering and filled with confusion for the first time.
"Then... then who... can we place our hopes on?"
'Place hopes on who?'
Itachi fell silent.