Uchiha Fugaku, Your Conspiracy Has Been Exposed!

Was it really destroyed?

Uchiha Kazuto... So you were the one hiding things most deeply all along. What are you people planning?

I couldn't make sense of it. I really couldn't. But what if everything Uchiha Kazuto had said was true?

What if it was all true?

This was all a conspiracy by Shimura Danzō and Uchiha Fugaku.

I couldn't make sense of it. I really couldn't!

Uchiha Shisui felt like his head was about to explode. Uchiha Kazuto's story was obviously so unconvincing, and yet if you applied it to Shimura Danzō, somehow it all seemed perfectly reasonable.

Because Shimura Danzō really was a piece of shit. No matter how often Shisui called him Lord Danzo or how respectfully he acted toward him, he knew Shimura Danzō was a thoroughly despicable man.

Besides, Shimura Danzō had just tried to kill him and take his eyes.

What if Shimura Danzō hadn't tried to seize his eyes simply because he was suspicious? What if his real goal was to control Lord Hokage and become Hokage himself?

A dazed look came over Uchiha Shisui's face. He couldn't make sense of it. He really couldn't!

"Shisui, I know you still don't fully believe me. That's all right. Let's head back to the clan. It's time to expose Uchiha Fugaku's conspiracy!"

Uchiha Kazuto said.

Then he picked up Shimura Danzō's corpse and hurried back toward the clan with Uchiha Shisui.

Clatter! Crash!

"Ah! What's going on?"

As the teacups fell to the floor, Uchiha Fugaku collapsed, his body limp. The other members of the Uchiha Clan's Dove Faction also fell around him.

While they were still bewildered, the Hawk Faction members stood up.

"Fugaku, you never saw this coming, did you? Your conspiracy with Shimura Danzō has been exposed!"

Uchiha Setsuna looked at Uchiha Fugaku gravely and spoke slowly.

"W-what conspiracy? Did you do this? Elder Setsuna, why?"

Uchiha Fugaku struggled to raise his head and stared at Uchiha Setsuna, his eyes filled with confusion. He understood now: Uchiha Setsuna and the Hawk Faction had poisoned the tea. Damn it! Was this something a ninja should do? Who would expect their own people to use poison?

But he didn't understand why they had poisoned them, or what conspiracy they were talking about. What conspiracy between him and Danzo? He knew nothing about it!

"Heh. Fugaku, even now you still won't admit it?"

Uchiha Setsuna sneered, then gestured. Several Hawk Faction members stepped forward and used chains to bind Uchiha Fugaku tightly.

"Admit what? Elder Setsuna, have you misunderstood something?"

Uchiha Fugaku shook his head, desperately trying to explain. He thought he was beginning to understand the situation. Uchiha Setsuna seemed to suspect that he had some connection with Shimura Danzō and was plotting against the Uchiha Clan. But he really wasn't! He had only sent his son into the Anbu. Given what he knew of his son, their plan should already have been exposed, but he truly had no dealings with Shimura Danzō.

"Heh. You teamed up with Shimura Danzō, treating us like cannon fodder. You kept making concessions so that the clan would grow increasingly dissatisfied with the village, then worked with Shimura Danzō from within to incite us into staging a Coup. Once we killed Lord Hokage, Shimura Danzō would come forward. And you, having already conspired with Shimura Danzō, would claim you'd been dragged into it and forced to act, disown us, and sacrifice us to become Shimura Danzō's dog, dragging the clan into ruin! Fugaku, we've seen through your conspiracy!"

Uchiha Setsuna looked at Uchiha Fugaku and spoke slowly. He knew Uchiha Kazuto had made the whole thing up, but... but... the more Uchiha Setsuna thought about it, the more it seemed true. Wait—could this actually be the truth?

He remembered Uchiha Fugaku's past actions: constantly making concessions to the village, willing to negotiate over any demand, even sending his own son into the Anbu, while that bastard Shimura Danzō had kept oppressing the clan all along.

Wait, could this actually be the truth? Were those two really plotting something?

That bastard Shimura Danzō really did seem to have wanted to become Hokage for a long time.

If the Coup succeeded and Hiruzen Sarutobi died, then Shimura Danzō could step forward while Uchiha Fugaku suddenly switched sides... The thought sent a chill through Uchiha Setsuna. His gaze toward Uchiha Fugaku changed at once.

If he'd felt even a little guilty before, now he was furious and shocked. What if it was true? What if it really was?

If not for Kazuto, their Coup might have ended in total annihilation, letting Shimura Danzō and Uchiha Fugaku carry out their conspiracy and drag the Uchiha Clan into ruin.

"..."

Silence!

Everyone fell silent.

The Dove Faction members stared blankly at Uchiha Setsuna and Uchiha Fugaku.

They hadn't wanted to stage a Coup in the first place. But the village really had been pushing them away more and more, and the Hawk Faction had kept pressuring and coercing them, so they'd had no choice but to take part.

But now...

Everything had suddenly become complicated. Could it be that the Hawk Faction hadn't wanted a Coup either? That the ones who truly wanted one were Uchiha Fugaku and Shimura Danzō, and this was all their conspiracy?

Before, if they'd heard Uchiha Setsuna say that, they would have thought he'd gone mad and was talking nonsense. How could Uchiha Fugaku, their clan head, conspire with Shimura Danzō and plot against both Lord Hokage and the Uchiha Clan?

But look at the situation now. They were discussing a Coup, and staging one had always been the Hawk Faction's goal.

The Hawk Faction had no reason to poison them and claim it was all a conspiracy by Shimura Danzō and Uchiha Fugaku. That would mean the Hawk Faction had never wanted a Coup at all, which completely contradicted everything they'd done before.

There was only one possibility: everything Uchiha Setsuna had said was true!

"?"

Uchiha Fugaku was completely stunned. No, Elder Setsuna, what are you talking about? Did I hear that right? Was this some kind of genjutsu? When had he ever conspired with Shimura Danzō? When had he ever had a scheme? This couldn't be right, could it?

This couldn't be right!