"Sōken."
"Don't you have anything to say?"
Shisui was known as Shunshin, and his mastery of the Body Flicker Technique was truly unparalleled. No one in the entire Uchiha Clan could match him. Unfortunately, the Fourth, known as the Yellow Flash, had already passed away. Otherwise, Shisui could have challenged him and his Flying Thunder God Technique.
With a single Body Flicker, he passed Uchiha Arashiyama and the others, arriving beside Sōken.
"What do you want me to say?"
Sōken asked in return, his expression unchanged.
"..."
Shisui's mind went blank. He didn't know how to answer, yet he felt stifled and uneasy. He racked his empty brain, stammering, "Well, about tonight... Lord Hokage..."
"Enough. Shut up! You look so miserable, you're making my teeth ache."
Sōken cut off Shisui's incoherent rambling, sounding thoroughly exasperated.
"Shisui, I'm glad you made that choice tonight, and I understand your unease. With Arashiyama and the others here, I can tell you plainly: I'm firmly against an armed coup. Infighting only harms the village and the clan. I want to save the Uchiha, not destroy them."
"Don't worry that I'll go back on my word and launch a coup by force. Of course, I won't deny that it's a last resort. But as long as other possibilities remain, I won't choose that dead end."
Uchiha Arashiyama and the others following behind him remained calm. Clearly, this wasn't the first time they'd heard him say this.
Seeing that, Shisui felt a little more at ease.
Though he had chosen to support Sōken, that didn't mean he had wholly taken the clan's side. He was a man who had wanted to prevent the village and the clan from fighting each other right up until his death. He supported Sōken because Sōken's arguments had given him a faint hope that perhaps a hopeless situation could still be salvaged.
Rather than sink into a life of useless inaction, he might as well support Sōken and struggle with all his might.
His original goal had never changed: he wanted the village and the clan to truly become one, without distinction between them.
"Sōken, that plan you mentioned... when is it happening?"
Just a few seconds later, Shisui was already thinking about the "plan" Uchiha Chihaya had accidentally let slip.
Before he'd made his decision, he'd been torn between two sides. Once he'd chosen, though, he'd grown impatient. He'd wandered alone in the dark without hope for too long, and he longed to see a glimmer of light, even if it was only the faintest ray...
"Let's talk about it at my place."
Sōken picked up his pace.
The fully armed clan members gathered at the entrance to the Uchiha district were already in sight. At the front stood three old men with white hair and beards. His grandfather, Genji Uchiha, was among them. These three elders were the clan's leaders.
"Grandfather, Elder Ryuji, Elder Hōmaru."
Sōken came to a halt on the stone-paved road.
"Sōken, what happened?"
Genji Uchiha, Sōken's grandfather, was nearly seventy. He stared intently at his eldest grandson. Unlike the relaxed, carefree man he'd been at home earlier, he now wore black-and-purple combat clothes overlaid with pale-purple lamellar armor. A katana hung at his waist. He was brimming with killing intent, plainly ready for a fight.
The other two elders and the more than twenty clan members behind them were dressed much the same.
Seeing this, Sōken sighed inwardly.
The conflict between the village and the clan had grown so acute that the clan members were always prepared for battle. At a time like this, dreaming of making peace with the village was pure fantasy. The resentment and anger so many people had built up... Unless someone had Talk no Jutsu on the level of the Six Paths, there was no way to dispel it easily.
He glanced back at Shisui, whose face had gone pale. Shisui had clearly understood a great deal from the clan members' reaction.
"Nothing major. The Mist Ninja wanted revenge on me and sent spies to attack me on the road. It's been dealt with. Grandfather, Elders, you can let everyone go back and rest. There's no need to worry about anything happening tonight. Things haven't... reached that point yet. None of us are prepared."
Sōken answered in a clear, ringing voice.
The elders weren't the only ones who heard him. Everyone else did, too.
Genji Uchiha exchanged a discreet glance with the two elders beside him.
Soon, Elder Ryuji stepped forward and led a group back into the clan compound to spread the news Sōken had brought. They reassured the tense clan members, and the district—which had been on high alert—let its sharp killing intent subside.
The Uchiha Clan's reputation as Konoha's Best wasn't for show.
Any Uchiha who awakened the Sharingan and didn't die on the battlefield would eventually reach the Three Tomoe stage. That was why the Uchiha Clan truly had more Jonin than any other clan in Konoha. It was also one of the reasons the Uchiha dared to plan a coup.
"Kid, now you can tell us what really happened."
Uchiha Hōmaru stood just over five feet tall, much shorter than Sōken, who was already five foot eight at fifteen. He was shorter than many of the people around them, too. But no one would underestimate Elder Hōmaru, who in his youth had been known as Explosive Flame.
He might have been short, but he was powerful. Of the clan's six elders, Uchiha Hōmaru was unquestionably the strongest. Even Genji Uchiha was no match for him.
The short old man craned his neck to stare at Sōken, his scarlet eyes brimming with killing intent.
"Do I really need to spell it out? If the Mist Ninja had the ability to plant so many Jonin-level spies in the village, they wouldn't have been driven back into the sea to eat fish during the Ninja Wars." Sōken smiled mockingly. "It was that old bastard Danzo. The Third Hokage turned a blind eye, too. But I don't have enough evidence to accuse Danzo."
"Who needs damn evidence? The only real solution is to find a chance to kill that bastard," Elder Hōmaru growled, clenching his fists until they cracked. "I knew Danzo was no good back then. After the Second Hokage died, I wanted to take some people and kill that bastard. But Kagami stopped me."
As he spoke, he glanced at Shisui, Kagami Uchiha's grandson.
Shisui hesitated, as if he wanted to say something.
In the end, all he could do was smile bitterly.
"Let's drop it. Elder Hōmaru, it's only natural that Danzo is against us. There's no point getting angry over him. More importantly... where's our Lord Clan Head? Is he in the clan, managing things?"
Sōken changed the subject. Even if they really intended to deal with Danzo, they couldn't openly plot it like this.
At Sōken's question, Elder Hōmaru's expression darkened.
"The clan head is on duty at the Police Force. He has to maintain order in the village, so they can't use him as an excuse to come after our clan. For now, a few of us old men are in charge of clan affairs," Genji Uchiha said unhurriedly.
The Uchiha Clan's district had been relocated twice.
The first relocation had been Second Hokage's doing. He tied the Uchiha Clan to the Police Force, turning a clan that was already unpopular into outright villains in the eyes of the public. The second relocation had happened four years ago, after the Nine-Tails' Rampage. The Third Hokage had moved the Uchiha Clan to a more remote corner of the village's Northeast Corner.
As a result, the Uchiha Clan and the Police Force were now in separate locations.
Otherwise, in the past, the clan head could have managed clan affairs while stationed at the Police Force.
"Genji, stop making Fugaku look good. I didn't see it before, but now I've realized that boy can't make up his mind. As clan head, he doesn't protect his own people. All he ever talks about is the village. Does he really need to worry about the village's problems? Does he not know what the Police Force is like now? With Anbu around, when is there ever a chance for him to be useful?"
Elder Hōmaru grumbled angrily. "Honestly... I don't even know what to say about him. We were blind to support him as clan head."
As he spoke, he suddenly turned to Sōken again. "Hey, kid. You told me before that you wanted to replace Fugaku as clan head. Did you mean it?"
"Of course I did."
Sōken nodded solemnly.
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