Upon reaching the Uchiha compound, he silently sneaked in, left a message, and left for a cliff in the village. Shisui was bleeding heavily; he had taken about 2 dozen root operatives, but he was still poisoned by Torune's touch. He knew he didn't have long to live, so he contacted Itachi.
Itachi, upon receiving the message, quickly left. Arriving at the cliff, he was met with a sight he never thought possible. Shisui was injured, and poison marks were spreading as far as he could tell."Shisui! What happened?" Itachi hurried over. Shisui went on to narrate his encounters. At the end of it, Itachi stood silent, his face grim. He knew that his current self was weaker than Shisui; if it had been him, he would have died. "Itachi, conflict between the village and Uchiha is inevitable. I leave the rest up to you, my friend." Saying he gouged out his remaining eye and handed it over to Utachi, and jumped over. Itachi had barely reacted, and Shisui was gone. He recalled his smile; even blinded, he still smiled and thought about the village. A rush of emotions shook him all at once, in his frustration, his 3 tomoe sharingan began to change a 3 blade shuriken swirling in his eyes. Itachi stood over the hill, processing everything Shisui had told him. He saw it clearly now, the darkness of the hokage faction, darkness corrupting the wills of fire seeking to protect the leaf village. He now understood his father, Fugaku, and his opposition to the hokage faction. Itachi flicked down the hill, recovering Shisui's body, he left for the Uchiha compound.
Several minutes later,
A hush of silence enveloped Fugaku's office, the 3 elders stood with grim faces at what Itachi had told them, and with fury they looked at Shisui's body, mangled from the fall. A fury like never before overtook them. "Clan leader! They have gone too far. We must avenge Shisui." Yashiro said, drawing nods from the other two elders. Itachi stood silent, his thoughts heavy. "Itachi, what are your thoughts?" Fugaku asked his son, "We must avoid all-out war, but this cannot go unpunished." Fugaku nodded in agreement, "All-out war will involve the civilians, and if we do that, the other clans will stand with the hokage faction regardless of our justification. But this will not go unpunished. We will show them why we are the Uchiha.
Yashiro, assemble 5 squads of covert operatives in the clan. It seems the Hokage faction no longer needs their successors." Fugaku's words sentenced them to death. Over the next couple of days, tensions rose, those in the know guessed something major had happened as clan heirs were falling lives leaves.
In the Hokage's office, Hiruzen sat in his chair, "Danzo, give me one good reason I shouldn't abolish root and revoke your seat as an elder?" Hiruzen's words shocked Homura and Koharu, but Danzo was unperturbed. "Abolish root? Hiruzen, even you are not that short-sighted. Root is an essential part of the village and protects the village against those who threaten the village." "Tell me then, was Uchiha Shisui a threat to the village? No! He was not! He was a sympathizer. Someone who would have stood against the Uchiha for the village. Now you have soured our relationship with the Uchiha, there is no going back now."
"Hiruzen, the village does not need the Uchiha. The Uchiha are a threat that needs to be eliminated." Hiruzen massaged his brows. 'This idiot.' Danzo was truly infuriating him; he recognized the threat the Uchiha posed, but not every threat was meant to be eliminated some rose from misunderstandings. "The Uchiha are rampantly killing members of our clans like livestock. What are you gonna do to stop them? Your Shimura clan will be annihilated. We lacked the power to annihilate the Uchiha back then, and even more so now, seeing as how they have grown in power. We are outmatched, and Speculations regarding Shisui's death will only make us isolated from the other clans."
Danzo couldn't retort; he knew Hiruzen was right, but he wasn't about to admit that he was wrong. He stayed silent. 'Even if lord second disregarded Danzo's lack of courage, his inability to think ahead still would have hampered his promotion to Hokage. Hiruzen is thinking long term, but in doing the threat may fester beyond what we can control. Should the Uchiha betray the leaf, we will be in for a reckoning.' Homura silently watched the exchange between the two, his thoughts flowing. The meeting ended with no resolution, with the Uchiha venting out, Hiruzen could only take measures to minimize the loss of life. He couldn't command the Uchiha to stop, as that would open a can of worms he didn't want investigated. He thought of Shisui's death, the possibility of Shisui having awoken the mangekyo that was the only temptation worthy enough for Danzo to make a move. Shisui had become a world-class shinobi renowned for his genjutsu; assassinating him would be difficult if not foolish, yet Danzo had moved anyway.
His suspicions about a Mangekyo Sharingan grew deeper, but it also meant that Danzo was now in possession of those eyes. Something, if not used against the Uchiha, then definitely on him.'It doesn't matter. You are not ready to have this seat, and I fear you might never be. 'With Tsunade and Jiraya outside the village, unless a major event took place and he incurred massive losses, no one could force him to abdicate the Hokage seat. Taking a pen, he began to plot how to deal enough damage to the Uchiha so that they would sheath their blade.
Should the leaf also fall into a civil war, a 4th shinobi would be inevitable, and the village wasn't ready. Taking out a profile, he looked at Kudo Tanehiko's information. "Another one lost." He murmured in regret.It didn't take a genius to realize that Danzo must have made a move on the Tanehiko household, but given Murata Tanehiko's connections, it was impossible for his son to enter root. "We have grown weaker." Hiruzen lamented.