Inside a damp cave in the Land of Rain.

Drip… ​​

The echo of water dripping within the silent cave gave a gloomy atmosphere to it.

At this moment a Venus Flytrap-like extension slowly rose from the ground and a strange face that was half white and half black with green hair and yellow eyes appeared within those green flytrap-like leaves.

The swirled masked man sitting upon a rock glanced slightly at the strange existence without batting an eye and asked casually, "How is the situation?"

The strange half-black-half-white person who appears to be more of a plant and less of a human, while still being partially submerged underground replied to the masked man's question, "The conflict between Cloud Village and Konoha Village is almost over, both parties seem to have agreed for the peace talks, which is completely different from what you expected."

The masked man was silent for a while listening to the person named Zetsu, and asked another question, "Why did Cloud Village Slow down their offensive, they were at a complete advantage?"

At the beginning of the raid Cloud Village's movements seemed unstoppable, completely breaking through the frontal defense of Land of Fire. Including the masked man, everyone believed that this time Cloud Forces would be able to reach the Konoha Village without much problem.

No one expected that not only Cloud Village couldn't reach the Konoha Village, but in fact, had to completely terminate their attack.

Zetsu Shook his head, "I don't know"

Keeping track of the complete battlefield within the territory of the Land of the Fire already tired out Zetsu, so he was unable to place his attention on the events outside the Land of Fire, and most likely something that happened in the Land of Lightning, Land of Frost, or Land of Hot Water prompted Cloud Village to put forward the idea of peace talks.

But what exactly?

Zetsu isn't clear yet.

The masked man was a little annoyed: "Heh… Cloud Village wasted such a good opportunity!"

Zetsu recalled a little of what he heard and based on the information he had, "There is something that happened at the rear of Cloud's frontal assault units. Before their forces withdrew from the territory of the Land of Fire, the deployment of their forces was quite weird. Even Nibi's Jinchuriki left the assault troops all of a sudden and hurried back to the rear. Whatever happened there is the ke-…"

However, before Zetsu could continue any further, the masked man waved his hand, "Forget it!"

He is not interested too much in this. As far as he thinks, whether Konoha or Cloud, they are all just some pieces on his chessboard. Since the best they are useful is for being played around, there is no point in having many expectations off of them.

So, the masked man doesn't care too much about them.

Since the masked man displayed his disinterest, Zetsu didn't continue the topic and asked, "What are you going to do now?"

The masked man smiled, "From the conflict against Cloud, Konoha's complete distrust of the Uchiha is revealed. We should start with the Uchiha to further weaken the Village's strength."

"What do I need to do?"

"Find an Uchiha Clansmen for me." After a short pause, he continued but this time his tone became gloomier by the second: "I need someone useful enough to stimulate the relationship between the Uchiha and the Village…"

…

Konoha Village, Uchiha Clan.

Knock… Knock… Knock…

A rapid knock on the door sounded from the outside of the courtyard of a house.

Uchiha Shisui, who had just returned home after a long mission, had to drag his tired body to open the courtyard door, and as soon as he opened the door, the young figure of Itachi appeared before his eyes.

The young Itachi noticed Shisui open the door, and he said with clear joy in his voice "Shisui-San, you are finally back!"

The Uchiha Clansmen were obviously aware that Shisui went on some secret mission by the orders of the Hokage-Sama.

So, for the past more than a month, when there was no news from Shisui, nor was there information about his presence on any of the battlefield, all the Uchiha clansmen thought that this is Sandaime-Sama's handiwork. Deliberately sending their most genius ninja to some mission to get rid of him.

Although Itachi didn't believe in it, he was worried about Shisui nonetheless, now finally confirming that Shisui returned safely, Itachi was greatly relieved.

Shisui seemed to notice Itachi's worry, so, with a smile, he led Itachi into the house.

After being seated, Shisui briefly mentioned the details [to the extent that Hokage-sama allowed Team-11] to Itachi and reassured him with a helpless smile, "Don't worry, there is Kuroto-San in our team, so obviously there won't be a danger!"

Hearing some brief explanation from Shisui, and noticing from the gist that Team-11 caused some big troubles in and around the territory of the Land of Hot Water, Itachi looked more curious, "So, Shisui-San, that is to say, Cloud Village slowed down and terminated their offensive towards Konoha because of your team?"

Cloud's strange behavior has left all the villages that aren't aware of the exact situation in strange doubt. There were various speculations even among the discussion of the Konoha Villagers until the final doubt of something being wrong at their rear was pointed out, as soon as Hokage-Sama realized this, he personally led the troops to launch an attack on Cloud's assault troops.

As a result, the assault troop had no choice but to retreat under the offensive.

Shisui smiled and nodded at Itachi's question.

Even now when Shisui recalls the surprised look of Hokage-Sama when he listened to the complete report of the actions taken by Team-11, his mood becomes extremely cheerful.

When the Team-11 returned to Konoha Village, all the doubts were finally cleared.

Precisely because of the surprise attack that Team-11 conducted on the secret warehouse and the regular harassment of the Cloud transport line, the cloud assault troops slowed down their offensive giving enough respite period for Konoha.

From this alone, Team-11 played the most critical role.

After chatting for a while, Itachi suddenly said seriously, "Shisui-San look!"

As he said, Itachi's eyes suddenly turned blood red with two black tomoe revolving around them.

Shisui asked in surprise, "Did you awaken the Sharingan!?"

Itachi nodded, "It happened on the battlefield a few weeks ago."

"Battlefield? What were you doing there?" – again Shisui asked in great surprise.

Itachi said, "I have graduated ea-…."

However, before Itachi could finish, a figure appeared into the courtyard of Shisui's house and said, "Shisui, Patriarch is holding a clan meeting, you are to attend it now!"

Shisui's face suddenly solidified.

He nodded to the Uchiha ninja, and after nodding to Itachi he left his house.

When he arrived at the mansion, Shisui looked at the faces of people present here.

In the room, other than the Patriarch Uchiha Fugaku who sat silently at the center, there were only elites of the Uchiha Police. A dozen of them and without a doubt all of them elite Jonin Class.

Seeing such a group Shisui felt a little depressed.

Even the Special Jonin weren't eligible to participate in this meeting. He can already guess what will be the topic of discussion this time.

"Patriarch!"

After a polite greeting to the Patriarch, he sat at the corner silently.

Fugaku glanced slightly and nodded.

With Shisui's arrival, the Uchiha Clan's meeting officially began.

An elite of the Uchiha Police Force, Uchiha Denki, said, "Patriarch, I have received accurate news that this time the Village lost more than 30 ninjas of the Special Jonin to Elite Jonin Class from the Hyuga, Sarutobi, Nara, Akimichi, Yamanaka, Aburame, and Inuzuka. Some of the high-level ninjas also died in the battles, not to mention countless Chunin and genin.

As he continued talking, this Uchiha elite stood up and said with a fanatical expression, "After suffering such a big loss, Sandaime actually agreed to the peace talks. Many of the clans and villagers are dissatisfied with his actions. This is the best opportunity for Uchiha!"

Another Uchiha elite also stood up as he expressed his views, "There are also rumors that the Hokage also lost some of the strong Anbu elites, so their strength is more weakened."

As soon as the news of the Anbu was discussed all faces turned towards Shisui.

Currently, only Shisui is a member of the Anbu so Uchiha's source of obtaining Anbu intelligence is only him.

Shisui who was bored until a moment ago was now the center of everyone's attention, but unfortunately, he could only say, "I don't have much information, because of being away for the mission, but probably three Anbu squads died!"

Hearing Shisui's words, all the Uchiha had fire ignited in their eyes as they were excited one-by-one. One of them stood up and said to Uchiha Fugaku, "Patriarch, it's the best opportunity, this time the position of Hokage can definitely be the Uchiha's!"

"Yes, Patriarch, please do it!"

"Please give your orders patriarch!"

The atmosphere was getting heated up, as more and more Uchiha's got excited at the opportunity.

The patriarch was still sitting silently.

Finally, after sighing, his gaze fell upon Shisui as he asked, "What is your opinion Shisui?"

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