Arriving at his home, Kuroto breathed a sigh of relief after noticing that the Shadow Clone left by Shisui was still there.
The Shadow Clone also noticed Kuroto's arrival and quickly greeted him, "Kuroto-San, you are finally back!"
Nodding in response, Kuroto spoke with a smile, "Thank you for the hard work Shisui!"
While Kuroto put some stuff aside, Shisui's Shadow Clone took out a hand note and passed it to Kuroto while explaining, "This is a list of the people that visited you while you were away Kuroto-San, I have recorded their names by the order of their visit."
Shaking his head helplessly, Kuroto reached out his left hand and took the note while saying, "Ah… thanks for the extra hard work I guess!"
As Kuroto read the list while holding it in his left hand, Shisui's clone noticed that Kuroto-San's right hand was bandaged, so he asked with a slightly worried tone, "Kuroto-San, your right hand?"
Kuroto didn't mind Shisui's question and replied casually while still looking at the list, "Oh this? There was just a small accident, nothing major to get worked up about, it should back to normal functioning in less than a week."
Most of the Natural Energy accumulated in his right hand has already been cleared because of continuous Tenseigan Chakra circulation that Kuroto carried out in the past few days.
Initially, his entire right hand up to the shoulder was petrified, but now most of the petrification has fallen and there is only slight skin hardening left that restricts his hand movement.
Therefore, according to Kuroto's estimates, his hands should be back to full working condition within three to five days.
Soon Kuroto read the list of visitors recorded by Shisui's clone.
In the twenty days that Kuroto was out of the village, the one to visit most frequently was obviously his fiancé Hyuga Yui, then there were Kakashi and Guy who are also part of the same Team-11, and finally, there were some other Hyuga people that visited him these days.
Obviously, all of them were turned away by Shisui's Clone, under the pretext of learning a Jutsu in isolation, even Yui was turned away, Kuroto smiled helplessly while wondering how he will make it up to her.
Anyway, that aside, based on this information and other things, Kuroto judged that no one other than Shisui was aware or noticed his absence in Konoha, which is a good thing.
After some more small talk, Shisui's Shadow Clone said goodbye and disappeared with a puff of smoke.
At this time, Kuroto unwrapped his right hand that was bandaged carefully, and started to silently circulate the Tenseigan Chakra Mode around his right hand to wash out the Natural Energy.
Although he was pretty casual about it but with the movement of his right hand being restricted, Kuroto's combat effectiveness has dropped significantly.
The most important point is that he can't use his right hand to print hand seals in this state, so until his hand recovers completely, Kuroto can't even enter into the Tenseigan Chakra Mode, as that also require hand seals!
Not only that, but he also can't use other ninjutsu or Fuinjutsu, and his taijutsu will obviously be limited.
Therefore, putting every other thing aside, his top priority is to restore his right hand into the best working condition as soon as possible.
Knock… knock… knock…
Before long there was a sudden knock at the gate of his house.
While sitting in the drawing-room to continue the chakra circulation, Kuroto glanced towards the gate with the Tenseigan and noticed that it was none other than Shisui who arrived here.
After simply covering his hand with a wet cloth, Kuroto opened the door and led Shisui inside while asking, "Looking at you, you seem to be in a panic Shisui!"
Shisui said while still catching his breath because of rushing here hurriedly, "Kuroto-San, someth-something happened!"
Kuroto wasn't surprised by Shisui's answer because while sneaking inside, he felt that there was something wrong with the Village's atmosphere, and looking at Shisui's serious expression his guess was only confirmed, "Alright, come in and explain everything that happened while I was away."
As soon as both were seated, Shisui immediately informed him of Uchiha Kurumi's death at the hands of a Root ninja, then the Root ninja's subsequent explanation as well as his personal guesses on the entire situation.
After listening to Shisui's explanation, Kuroto muttered to himself, "Why is this Uchiha Shinichi involved again?"
Even about 20 days ago when Kuroto was about to sneak out of the village, Shisui mentioned to him that the Root ninja responsible for monitoring Shinichi; strangely went missing, which caused some tension between Uchiha Clan and the Village.
And now after 20 days, as soon as he sneaked back into the village, there is another matter involving Uchiha Shinichi that has escalated the conflict between the Uchiha Clan and the Village to a more serious degree.
This series of events made Kuroto pay more attention to Uchiha Shinichi.
Although never mentioned in the original series, Uchiha Shinichi is around the same age as Kuroto, even if his strength is not among the best within the Uchiha Clan at this stage; but the fact that he has already awakened the three tomoe Sharingan for quite some time so his talent is also quite evident considering his young age.
After all, If that were not the case, then how come; the proud and arrogant Uchiha Clan send him to confront Hyuga Kuroto?
And now that he thinks about it, Uchiha Shinichi's personality is also quite straightforward, and straightforward people are the best high-class mob class chess pieces to have.
With all that clear, Kuroto muttered to himself, "Could it be possible that Obito has set his sight on Uchiha Shinichi?"
He thinks this because Shinichi shouldn't be the type of person to kill the girl he loved, Kuroto can be sure of this.
And since, Obito often played around Konoha and even sneaked into the Uchiha Clan's Naka Shrine several times, so Kuroto can't rule out the possibility that this is all Obito's handiwork.
'But how come; that idiot decided to act now? Shouldn't he be making his moves for Itachi a few years later? Or is it the legendary butterfly effect that's caused because of my presence? – thought Kuroto.
Kuroto can't even be sure about it, because even if there wasn't any mention of such a thing happening in the original story, it doesn't mean that it didn't happen, so Kuroto is a little confused.
And there is also the fact the current Konoha is quite different than it should have been, the most important point is the time of defection of his teacher Orochimaru and the changes following that!
Kuroto has still not figured out the real reason for his teacher's early defection!
Putting aside the thought about a certain Snake, Kuroto focused on the matter at hand and asked Shisui, "So, where is Shinichi now?"
Shisui didn't expect Kuroto-San to ask this suddenly, but even if he was surprised, Shisui quickly answered, "He was temporarily locked inside a prison room by Patriarch's order to let him stay there until the situation is resolved and his emotions calm down."
After nodding a little, Kuroto asked again, "Has there been any significant improvement in his Pupil Power? I mean did you notice it?"
"Yes, he was even able to break through a genjutsu that I cast upon him, which surprised me completely!" – Shisui nodded while recalling the scene where Shinichi easily broke through a genjutsu that Shisui cast upon Shinichi.
As soon as he heard Shisui say this, Kuroto flicked Shisui's forehead and chided him a little, "Haven't I already told you to not get overconfident of your genjutsu skills? This time you got lucky that it was a person who didn't have any hatred or bad intention towards you, otherwise, you will suffer!"
While rubbing the spot that was a little itchy due to Kuroto-San's flick, Shisui smiled lightly.
"Still not taking me seriously, are you?" – Kuroto spoke helplessly noticing Shisui's naughty smile. After sighing lightly, he removed the cloth covering his right hand and showed it to Shisui, "Look incidents such as these happen with even a bit of carelessness!"
Looking at Kuroto-San's hand, Shisui gulped nervously and finally nodded repeatedly and promised, "Okay-okay, I'll be careful from now on!"
"It's good that you understand, anyway putting that aside." Nodding at Shisui's response, Kuroto asked while going back to the topic, "Why do you think that the person hiding in the shadows used the Root ninja to kill Uchiha Kurumi, and also let Shinichi witness the scene?"
After a little bit of thinking, Shisui replied while looking away from Kuroto-San's right hand, "He wants to provoke conflict between the Uchiha and the Village?"
Shaking his head helplessly, Kuroto replied with a smile, "That's half of the intentions, I suppose!"
"Only half? Then what is the other part?" – Shisui asked in confusion.
"Yeah, this reminds me of a similar incident, a Bad Routine!" – muttered Kuroto.
Why is this a bad routine?
Because so many people use them!
But why do many people use them?
Because the freaking thing always works!
"The Routine?" – But Shisui was confused as he didn't understand what in the Sam Hill was Kuroto-San talking about!
Without any intention of explaining, Kuroto said, "Come on, take me to meet him, I would like to have a talk with him!"
…
Konoha Police Office, Shinichi's Prison Room.
A spiraling vortex appeared in the gloomy confinement cell, and our very own masked-man walked out of it leisurely.
Uchiha Shinichi who was sitting in the corner while covering his head and busy in some thoughts didn't notice the arrival of the masked man.
Chuckling comically while looking at Shinichi's depressed look, he spoke in a deep voice, "Hey there, I heard about all things that happened with you, and I figured I should pay you a visit, and now I am looking at your gloomy state, so I can't help but speak. Do you want some help?"
Upon hearing the voice of the person who left a deep impression on him, Shinichi stood up slowly and asked while turning his eyes to look at the masked-man, "It was you, wasn't it!?"
As soon as he spoke this sentence, the three tomoe rapidly spinning in his Sharingan finally merged together and changed into a strange pattern.
The masked-man was surprised at the sudden change and spoke with a chuckle, "Since you have awakened those eyes, then it's time for you to see through the truth of this false world!"
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Read up to Chapter - 234 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. : p-atreon.com/Milta_translations