Chapter 13: Chapter 13 : Stir Up Trouble
The Hokage's office was quiet, but the air inside was heavy with worry.
Sarutobi Hiruzen sat behind his desk, rubbing his temple slowly. Shisui Uchiha had vanished. No one had seen or heard from him. And for Hiruzen, that was deeply troubling.
He had placed his trust in Shisui. The boy was loyal, wise beyond his years, and above all, he was Kagami's grandson who carried a powerful Mangekyō Sharingan ability.
A peaceful solution.
That was what Hiruzen wanted between the Uchiha and the Village, but the relationship between one of the founding clans of the village and Konoha was getting tense as days went by.
Hiruzen thought that Shisui might be able to solve this issue. That it wouldn't come to bloodshed.
But now, Shisui was missing. And with him, the one plan Hiruzen had to avoid civil war.
He called for Itachi Uchiha. If anyone knew where he was, it would be him.
Itachi arrived quickly, kneeling before the Hokage. His face was calm, but his eyes were filled with concern.
"I don't know what happened," Itachi said. "We were supposed to meet… but he never came. I've searched but found nothing. There were clear signs of fighting near Naka Shrine and near the forest area."
"We ANBU found blood stains and burn marks. But besides that, nothing."
Hiruzen leaned back, troubled. "We must find him soon. His power... we cannot afford to lose it."
Just then, the door to the office flew open. Danzo Shimura barged in, his body wrapped in fresh bandages. His right arm was gone, and most of his face was covered in white cloth. But even worse, Hiruzen noticed something small—his right eye was different. It wasn't the same as before.
Danzo clearly came in with something urgent to say, but when he saw Itachi in the room, he went silent. His gaze locked on the young Uchiha, cold and intense.
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes. "Itachi, leave us."
Itachi stood, gave a short bow, and left without a word—but not before noticing Danzo's bandages.
Once the door closed, Hiruzen stared at Danzo. "What happened to you?"
Danzo didn't answer the question. Instead, he pointed sharply in the direction Itachi had gone. "It's the Uchiha. They've taken it too far. I believe Itachi is a spy—feeding the clan secrets. He's more dangerous than you realise."
Hiruzen frowned. "You barged in here, wounded and furious, just to throw baseless accusations?"
Danzo didn't back down. "You don't understand, Hiruzen. Something terrible has happened. Something that changes everything."
There was silence for a moment before Hiruzen asked quietly, "What did you do to Shisui?" He had a feeling that it was Danzo. Who else could it be?
Hiruzen fully knew that if there was one person who hated Uchiha to the point that he would try to exterminate every last one of them, then it was Danzo. Good thing he wasn't the Hokage.
Danzo's eye twitched.
"I know you're involved," Hiruzen said, voice sharper. "You show up with new bandages. A new eye. You came because something went wrong. You did something, didn't you, Danzo?"
Finally, Danzo spoke, voice low and bitter. "I took his eye."
Hiruzen rose from his chair, furious. "You what?!"
"I did what needed to be done!" Danzo shouted back. "He had the power to control minds. That ability is too dangerous for one man to have—especially a Uchiha. I took the Mangekyō to protect the village."
"You betrayed a loyal shinobi! You attacked Shisui without warning!"
"I would've kept quiet," Danzo said darkly, "if I still had it."
Hiruzen froze. "…What do you mean?"
Suddenly Hiruzen had a very bad feeling. Seeing Danzo's new eye and more than the usual amount of bandages on him. His mind started to work, and all the outcomes pointed to one result which he didn't like at all.
Danzo's voice dropped even lower. "Someone stole the eye from me."
That silenced the room.
Danzo continued, bitter and grim. "Right after I took the Mangekyō, I was attacked. My hand was cut off. My men were killed instantly. My other eye was slashed. The attacker was masked. I don't know who they were… but they took Shisui's eye and vanished."
Hiruzen sat down heavily, his mind racing.
Danzo added, "If I had kept the eye, I would've never told you about this. But now… it's out there. That kind of power… if the wrong person uses it, we won't even know we're being controlled."
The Hokage closed his eyes. This was worse than anything he imagined.
"Hiruzen, it's not time to regret what's already done. It's time to take action," Danzo gritted his teeth. His blood was boiling. If he got his hands on that masked man, he'd learn why Danzo is called the Darkness of Shinobi.
"Tighten the village security. Search for any hidden spies and call the elders," Hiruzen barked.
One Mangekyō was now lost. The other was still with Shisui—but Shisui himself was missing. It's not far-fetched to say that both were taken by that mysterious enemy. No one knew if Shisui was alive, dead, or worse. And now, an unknown figure was walking around with the most dangerous genjutsu in history.
"This is no longer just a clan problem," Hiruzen said. "It's a national threat."
...
Sukuna scrapped the idea of not using his cursed technique and putting a binding vow on that. While the benefits of putting such a restriction onto himself for a certain period of time were impressive, ultimately, he didn't wish to put himself at any sort of disadvantage.
He had just recently made such a big move. What if somehow someone traced him? While he took all the precautions he remembered, there could still be ways he didn't know.
Having his technique sealed like that was dangerous. Rather than that, he put a binding vow on his total usage of cursed energy.
He put a simple binding vow to block 50% of his cursed energy reserves, leaving him with only half of his original reserves, which still rival Yuta Okkotsu by the way, so a 50% decrease wasn't going to affect him unless he fought someone very strong.
In fact, having all that cursed energy was actually hindering him rather than helping him. Controlling cursed energy is hard. He was trying to control an entire ocean's worth of cursed energy before now.
He didn't even realise how ridiculous it was. If he had realised sooner just how much harder it was to control large cursed energy reserves, he would've done this a long time ago.
He was sure that his improvement over the year would have skyrocketed if he hadn't been held back by learning how to control cursed energy with those vast reserves.
Cursed energy and cursed technique are like electricity and electrical appliances. Pushing more electricity doesn't necessarily increase power or output if the efficiency of how the electricity works inside the appliance is poor.
"I'm lucky to have Sukuna's template. Dude doesn't have to worry about running out of cursed energy. He was quite like Gojo in this regard. Gojo was super efficient, thanks to his Six Eyes, that he hardly used even 1% of his total reserves in anything he did. His CE recovery mostly outpaced his CE usage."
Ryomen Sukuna was the same. While his efficiency was excellent, it didn't come close to what Gojo had with Six Eyes. However, Sukuna more than covered that lack of ultra-efficiency with his ridiculously large cursed energy reserves.
"So, I don't have to worry about cursed energy reserves. Even if I had only half of his reserves, close to Yuta, even then I would have plenty. However, bad efficiency and low output. That was a bane for every sorcerer."
Sukuna knew that he had to work on his efficiency and output now. Especially his output. If possible, put a binding vow to increase it. He had some plans.
In fact, his current binding vow was already good enough to evolve further.
"However, right now, more than anything, I have to figure out Reverse Cursed Energy, or RCT for short." He had been trying for days now.
It was hard. To reverse his cursed energy, he first had to have a perfect understanding of his own cursed energy nature.
At first, he thought it was similar to Ryomen Sukuna. Sharp and deadly. However, he was wrong.
His cursed energy was different. It was sharp and deadly, but lacked malice like Ryomen Sukuna. There was also some sort of darkness in it which he couldn't figure out.
He slowly brought his hands up and emitted a little bit of cursed energy. He saw the cursed energy which was earlier just blue had now taken a darker tone.
Not black but closer to deep blue. It could be just that his concentration on CE was getting better, hence a proof that his efficiency was increasing. He doubted it...
He had a feeling that there was more to it that he didn't understand.
"Perhaps I need to get a professional's input regarding this," he muttered, wondering who he could ask for help.
xxx
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