Chapter 177 – Guess Who?
"Calm down, Kawa."
Just as Uchiha Kawa's kunai was about to pierce Uchiha Asahi, Uchiha Kei's hand clamped down on his wrist like iron. The single tomoe of his Sharingan spun slowly, reflecting Kawa's madness.
Kei could see it clearly—Kawa looked as if he had been pushed past his breaking point.
Cold sweat drenched his body, his breathing was ragged, and his entire frame trembled with exhaustion.
Most striking were his eyes: crimson with a single tomoe, rotating sluggishly but carrying a vacant dullness. He was conscious, yet not truly present.
"Overstimulated?" Kei frowned.
The genjutsu he had cast was one he had once designed to stimulate the Mangekyō—terrifying in its intensity. To Kei, with his three-tomoe Sharingan and his own strong psyche, it had been tolerable, little more than a haunting nightmare. But to someone like Kawa, who lacked even a matured Sharingan, the experience was overwhelming.
Even so, Kei knew that normally the illusion wouldn't cause lasting harm. At worst, a day of disorientation.
But before Kei could decide his next move, Kawa's eyes rolled back. His body went limp, collapsing unconscious to the ground.
"Kawa."
The father rushed to his son, panic etched on his face. He checked him over clumsily, but without medical ninjutsu—or the eyes to see beneath the surface—he could only confirm that Kawa was breathing. Beyond that, he was helpless.
"Lord Kei, my son… is he going to be alright?" Asahi asked, voice trembling.
"He should be fine. He's only asleep." Kei kept his tone calm, though in truth he wasn't entirely certain. Still, assurance was better than panic.
"Let him rest. My genjutsu is too much for those without Sharingan."
Asahi fell silent, worry carved deep into his expression. Sharingan was priceless, yes—but what use was it if it cost his child's life? For a father, nothing outweighed the safety of his son.
Thankfully, Kawa didn't sleep long. Barely half an hour later, he stirred, groggy but conscious.
"You're awake?" Kei asked, raising a hand to stop Asahi from rushing forward.
"L-Lord Kei?" Kawa blinked, disoriented. His gaze landed on Kei, conflicted and shaken.
The illusion still clung to him, vivid and unforgettable. It had scarred him deeply.
"You endured an illusion. Focus your chakra into your eyes," Kei instructed, ignoring the boy's turmoil. What mattered now was whether the experience had ignited the Sharingan.
He remembered well how Sasuke, at just seven, awakened his Sharingan after Itachi's genjutsu—only for the eyes to lie dormant until later. Such cases were rare, but possible. Kei had to be sure.
"Yes, Lord Kei."
Kawa steadied his breath, drew chakra into his eyes, and shut them tight. When he opened them again—his gaze burned scarlet.
The Sharingan.
"Well done." Kei allowed himself a rare smile. He plucked a small mirror from the desk and handed it to him.
"See for yourself. You survived. And you got what you wanted."
Kawa stared dumbly into the mirror. A pair of single tomoe stared back at him. For a long moment, he was frozen. Then, tears welled in his eyes.
"Father…"
Asahi knelt beside him, voice breaking. The two embraced tightly, sobs escaping despite themselves.
Kei watched, sighing inwardly. He had neither the time nor patience for sentimentality.
"Enough. Report your duties, then go home," Kei ordered flatly.
"Rest for a day. I expect you to return tomorrow in proper condition."
"I—no, I can work now!" Kawa protested, kneeling low in desperate loyalty.
"Lord Kei spares me, yet I—"
"Silence." Kei cut him off with a sharp smile.
"I can judge your state better than you can. You're not the first I've dismissed for rest. Kakashi was the first."
Both father and son stiffened at the name. But they did not argue.
"Before you leave, remember one thing." Kei's gaze sharpened, his Sharingan spinning faintly.
They dropped to their knees at once, voices uniting without hesitation.
"We will never betray Lord Kei. Never reveal anything we've seen."
Kei gave a satisfied nod, waving them away. He himself turned and left the office.
He rarely lingered in the Police Force unless absolutely necessary—everyone knew that. But today was different. With Asahi also gone, responsibility for the squad would fall to Imai Kenta, a commoner-born shinobi.
"I wonder," Kei mused with a quiet, dark amusement as he stepped into the corridor, "what the other two squads will think of that. And whether young Imai Kenta will lose his mind."
Stirring up trouble for the other two squads in the Police Department, and throwing Imai Kenta into the pit as well—Uchiha Kei felt absolutely no pressure.
After all, he really did have important business today. He had already arranged to meet with Hyūga Ayaka.
Since they were supposed to be collaborators, Uchiha Kei wasn't about to let this woman sit around idle.
Of course, he'd already thought of how to "paint the cake" for her. Her ultimate goal was breaking free from the Caged Bird curse, wasn't it?
Simple enough—the people on the moon had no shortage of methods for that.
But beyond that, Uchiha Kei had other preparations to make.
He was going to make a move against Uchiha Shuu. And to lure Shuu out, he needed proper bait.
That bait could be part of Uchiha Yuu's remains… or his manuscripts.
Kei himself leaned toward the manuscripts. For example, he could forge a letter in Yuu's handwriting to lure Shuu in. With the Sharingan, imitating his style would be child's play.
As he made his way silently through the forest near his training ground, Kei soon spotted Hyūga Ayaka.
She hadn't gone deep into the woods, but had instead chosen a spot right along his path—clearly, she had prepared carefully.
"Sorry I'm late," Kei said as he approached. His words were polite, but his tone carried no hint of apology.
"It's fine, I just arrived," Ayaka replied with a faint smile.
"So, what did you want to discuss today, Kei-kun? You should know, some of the things hidden in this forest make it very unwise for me to wander in too far."
"How's your training in medical ninjutsu coming along?" Kei ignored her question and went straight to the point.
"Barely passable," Ayaka laughed softly. "I'm hardly a genius like Kei-kun, opening my eyes straight to a three-tomoe Sharingan."
"But patching up physical injuries—when combined with the Byakugan to observe the body's inner workings—that much, I can manage."
She had indeed worked hard over the past half year. To go from nothing to a functioning grasp of medical ninjutsu in that time was no small feat.
Of course, she already had a foundation. The Hyūga's Gentle Fist required intimate knowledge of the body's structure.
Every shinobi needed to understand human anatomy to some degree, but none studied it as precisely as the Hyūga.
Kei, too, knew anatomy—but only the parts that let him kill efficiently or disable quickly.
"That's good enough. Can you repair a heart?" Kei asked calmly.
"Don't worry—the subject is already dead. But I need the body intact for other purposes. What I want from you is to restore the corpse, keep it looking as whole as if it were alive."
"Restore a corpse?" Ayaka frowned.
"That's… extremely difficult. You know why. Once a person dies, their chakra and cells lose vitality. Without active chakra and living cells, I can't stimulate regeneration. Unless, of course, the body was very freshly dead."
"What if I sealed it into a scroll the moment it died?" Kei frowned—he hadn't realized the process would be this complicated.
"Kei-kun really does plan ahead," Ayaka mused. "In that case, yes—it might be possible." She tilted her head slightly, her eyes shining with curiosity.
"Whose corpse are we talking about? Uchiha Obito?"
She really dared to ask. Obito wasn't even dead, and even if he were, Kei wouldn't waste the effort to dig him up.
Bloodline clans guarded their corpses fiercely, especially those who had awakened their kekkei genkai. No one wanted their dead to fall into enemy hands.
As for Kei? He had no interest in stockpiling corpses. Better to burn them all and be done with it.
He already had the Sharingan—that was more than enough.
Still, to keep her guessing, Kei allowed a faint smile to cross his lips.
"Why don't you guess?"
"My guess?" Ayaka's lips curved into a knowing grin. "It really is Obito, isn't it?"