No-Result Meeting

Uchiha Shūichi swept his gaze over everyone in the meeting hall. His expression remained calm, though a hint of disdain showed through.

The Uchiha might be making a lot of noise now, but after Uchiha Shisui's death, the clan was actually in a state of panic. Most of them were afraid that Konoha's higher-ups would come after them. There was no way they would truly confront Konoha's leadership.

Uchiha Shūichi had seen it clearly from the start. The Uchiha had said a lot, but rather than hating Konoha, they were venting the fear and unease in their hearts!

At least in the short term, Shisui's death had left the Uchiha Clan too afraid to stand up to Konoha. Even in the original story, the Uchiha didn't start stirring again until two years after Shisui's death.

There were real reasons why Konoha ultimately wiped out the Uchiha Clan. In fact, even without Uchiha Itachi, this group of Uchiha couldn't possibly have succeeded in their so-called coup.

Konoha's leadership may have been corrupt and decrepit, but the Uchiha Clan wasn't much better. They had no allies outside the clan, their members were divided, and information about their planned coup had long since become common knowledge. It would have been truly bizarre if a clan like that had still succeeded.

Seeing the other Uchiha fall silent, Uchiha Fugaku, seated at the head of the table, let out an almost imperceptible sigh of relief. Then he spoke earnestly:

"Now isn't the time to turn against Konoha. For the time being, we should postpone the clan's plan."

"The clan leader is right. No matter how Konoha caused Shisui's death, this isn't the time to turn against them."

"Exactly. Our most important task now is to gather information on Konoha. Itachi, you're currently the Uchiha Clan's only member in the Anbu. You can look into how Shisui died."

At that, Uchiha Itachi nodded seriously. He had already become estranged from his clan, but he was completely serious about investigating the death of Uchiha Shisui, his close friend.

A short while later, the Uchiha Clan's meeting came to an end. As for the outcome, there wasn't one. The so-called coup had neither begun nor been called off; it had simply been put off again.

Honestly, Uchiha Shūichi found the Uchiha Clan's planned coup a little ridiculous. They claimed they were going to rebel, but Konoha had already installed cameras in the clan compound, and the Uchiha still hadn't even reached a decision among themselves!

It was only because this was a supernatural world, and the Uchiha Clan had what was considered the strongest bloodline in the Shinobi World—and was one of the strongest fighting forces in all of Konoha—that they'd survived this long. With political instincts like theirs, they would have been crushed countless times over otherwise.

No one in Konoha dared openly dispute that the Uchiha Clan was the strongest in combat. Just now, there had been more than twenty Three Tomoe Sharingan users in the shrine, all of them Jonin-level experts.

And Uchiha with the Three Tomoe Sharingan were formidable even among Jonin. They might not all be Elite Jonin, but they certainly weren't weaker than the veteran Jonin.

In fact, Konoha had only a little over a hundred Jonin in total. Even counting the Special Jonin, the number would at most triple.

The official definition of a Special Jonin was a ninja whose ability in a particular area had reached or even surpassed Jonin level, but who still had some shortcomings in overall ability—that was the official explanation.

In reality, Special Jonin had another meaning these days. It could also refer to a ninja whose strength had reached Jonin level, but whom Konoha didn't want to promote to Jonin for one reason or another.

Jonin had the right to vote for the Hokage. Every new Hokage needed votes of confidence from at least half of all Jonin. So every Jonin counted as a small faction within Konoha.

The Uchiha Clan alone had more than twenty Uchiha who had awakened the Three Tomoe Sharingan. Add the ninja who hadn't awakened the Three Tomoe but had reached Jonin level, and they had around thirty Jonin-level fighters in total.

If all of them became Jonin, the Uchiha Clan alone would hold about a third of all Jonin votes in Konoha. That was something Konoha's leadership could never tolerate.

That was why the Special Jonin rank was so necessary. It seemed almost equivalent to Jonin, but lacked the most important privilege of the rank. Even if a ninja truly had Jonin-level strength, Konoha's leadership had an excuse to keep them from becoming Jonin: a Special Jonin was still a kind of Jonin, after all.

The Uchiha Clan had more than thirty ninja with Jonin-level strength, but only thirteen or fourteen were actual Jonin. That was despite the Uchiha being so strong that some of their ninja couldn't possibly be fobbed off with the rank of Special Jonin.

After the meeting, Uchiha Shūichi had only just left when he felt someone touch his shoulder. He frowned, but kept up appearances and walked away as though nothing had happened.

A short while later, Uchiha Shūichi returned to the cliff where Uchiha Shisui had taken his own life. There, he saw a young man standing alone.

Two lines descended from the young man's expressionless face, giving him a melancholy look. It went without saying that this was Uchiha Itachi.

When Uchiha Itachi saw Uchiha Shūichi appear, a faint smile finally crossed his face. In a low voice, he asked:

"Shūichi, you're finally here!"

"Do you know what happened to Shisui?"

Uchiha Itachi knew Uchiha Shisui's nature well. If Shisui had truly wanted to take his own life, or if he had been gravely wounded and near death, the first person he would have gone to was Uchiha Shūichi. Itachi would have been the second.

Shisui would have gone to Uchiha Shūichi first because Shūichi was already eighteen. Naturally, an adult would inspire more trust than a boy of thirteen or fourteen.

Hearing Uchiha Itachi's question, Uchiha Shūichi shook his head, as he had already prepared to:

"I don't know either... I only know that some time ago, Shisui seemed to have come up with a way to prevent a conflict between the clan and Konoha. Then he went to report it to the Third Hokage."

"After that... I have no idea what happened."

Uchiha Shūichi certainly wasn't going to tell Uchiha Itachi what had really happened. He wouldn't even let Itachi know that he had met with Uchiha Shisui.

Uchiha Itachi was firmly on the side of Konoha's leadership. Anything Uchiha Shūichi discussed with him might be reported to them.

And if those higher-ups in Konoha learned that Uchiha Shisui had met Uchiha Shūichi, they would probably deduce that Uchiha Shūichi possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan with Kotoamatsukami.