Are You Truly Willing to Be the Clan Leader? (Seeking Investment!)

"Sōken."

"Aren't you going to say something?"

Shisui was known as the "Body Flicker," and his mastery of the Body Flicker Technique was truly extraordinary—unmatched across the entire Uchiha Clan. Unfortunately, the Fourth, hailed as the "Yellow Flash," had already passed, or else Shisui might have challenged the Fourth's Flying Thunder God Technique.

With a single Body Flicker, he bypassed Uchiha Arashiyama and the others, arriving at Sōken's side.

"What do you want me to say?"

Sōken asked back, his expression unchanged.

"..." Shisui's mind went blank, unsure how to answer, yet a stifled frustration churned in his chest. He strained to squeeze words from his empty head, stammering, "Well, that is... tonight... the Hokage..."

"Enough, shut up! Seeing you struggle like that makes my teeth ache."

Sōken cut off Shisui's incoherent rambling with irritation.

"Shisui, I'm glad you made your choice tonight, and I understand the unease in your heart. In front of Arashiyama and the others, I can tell you plainly: I am firmly opposed to an armed coup. Infighting harms both the village and the clan. What I want is to save the Uchiha, not destroy it."

"Don't worry about me going back on my word or using force to stage a coup. Of course, I won't deny it's a last resort, but as long as other possibilities remain, I won't choose that dead end."

The Uchiha Arashiyama and the others following close behind wore calm expressions, clearly not hearing this for the first time.

Seeing this, Shisui felt a bit more at ease.

Though he had chosen to support Sōken, it didn't mean he had fully shifted to the clan's stance. He was a man who, even to his death, wanted to stop the conflict between the village and the clan. The reason he backed Sōken was that Sōken's rhetoric gave him a sliver of hope—like grasping at straws.

Rather than sinking into mediocrity, it was better to support Sōken and fight for a chance.

His original intention remained unchanged: he hoped the village and the clan could truly merge as one, without distinction.

"Sōken, that plan you mentioned... when?"

Within seconds, Shisui was fixated again on the "plan" that Uchiha Chihaya had accidentally let slip.

Before making a decision, he was torn; once he committed, his mindset grew urgent. Having trudged alone through hopeless darkness for so long, he was desperate to see the light of hope—even just a glimmer...

"We'll talk about it slowly at my place later."

Sōken quickened his pace.

He could already see the fully armed clansmen gathered at the clan compound's entrance. At the forefront stood three white-haired elders, including his grandfather, Uchiha Genji. These three were the clan's elders.

"Grandfather, Elder Ryuji, Elder Homaru."

Sōken halted on the stone path.

"Sōken, what happened?"

Uchiha Genji, Sōken's grandfather, a man nearing seventy, fixed his gaze on his eldest grandson. Unlike his leisurely demeanor at home earlier, he now wore a black-purple combat suit with light purple layered armor over it, a katana at his waist, and an aura of bloodlust—clearly ready for battle.

He wasn't alone. The other two elders and the twenty-plus clansmen behind them were similarly outfitted.

Seeing this, Sōken sighed inwardly.

The conflict between the village and the clan had sharpened to the point where the clansmen were on constant war footing. To dream of smoothing things over with the village at this stage was pure fantasy. The resentment and anger pent up in so many hearts... unless one possessed a Six Paths-level Talk no Jutsu, there was no easy way to dispel them.

He glanced back at Shisui, whose face had gone pale. Clearly, the guy had picked up on a lot from the clansmen's reactions.

"Nothing major. Some Mist Ninja wanted revenge on me and sent spies to launch an attack on the road. It's already been dealt with. Grandfather, Elders, you can let everyone go back and rest. There's no need to worry about any surprises tonight. The situation now... it hasn't reached that point yet. No one's ready!"

Sōken answered loudly.

His voice carried clearly, not just to the elders but to everyone else.

Uchiha Genji exchanged a subtle glance with the two elders beside him.

Soon, Elder Uchiha Ryuji stepped forward, leading a group back into the compound to spread the news Sōken had brought, calming the tense clansmen and letting the compound's razor-sharp killing intent recede.

Konoha's Best wasn't just an empty title.

For Uchiha clansmen, as long as they awakened the Sharingan and didn't die halfway on the battlefield, they would eventually reach the Three Tomoe stage. Thus, the Uchiha Clan truly had the highest number of Jonin among all Konoha's major families, which was one of the foundations of their confidence in staging a coup.

"Kid, now tell us the truth. What really happened?"

Uchiha Homaru, short in stature—barely over 1.6 meters—stood a good head shorter than the fifteen-year-old Sōken, who was already 1.72 meters, and shorter than many around him. But no one underestimated this elder, once known as "Explosive Flame" in his youth.

Despite his small frame, his strength was immense. Among the clan's six elders, Uchiha Homaru was undoubtedly the strongest, surpassing even Uchiha Genji.

The short elder craned his neck to stare at Sōken, his scarlet eyes brimming with killing intent.

"What's there to say about this? If the Mist Ninja really had the ability to plant so many Jonin-level spies in the village, they wouldn't have been chased back into the sea to eat fish during the Ninja Wars." Sōken gave a mocking smile. "It's Danzo, that old bastard. The Third tacitly allowed it, but I don't have enough evidence to pin it on Danzo."

"To hell with evidence! Finding a chance to kill that bastard is the real long-term solution." Elder Homaru cracked his knuckles with a loud pop. "I knew Danzo was no good back then. After the Second died, I thought about taking people to off that scumbag, but Kagami stopped me."

As he spoke, he glanced at Shisui, Kagami Uchiha's grandson.

Shisui opened his mouth but said nothing.

In the end, all the words in his chest turned into a helpless bitter smile.

"Let's drop this. Elder Homaru, it's only natural that Danzo's against us. No need to get angry over him. Compared to that... where is our Lord Clan Head right now? Is he managing things in the clan?"

Sōken changed the subject. Even if they were planning to take out Danzo covertly, they couldn't scheme so openly.

Hearing Sōken's question, Elder Homaru's face darkened.

"The Clan Head is on duty at the Police Force. He needs to maintain order in the village and can't give the village an excuse to attack our clan. For now, we old folks are handling clan affairs." Uchiha Genji said unhurriedly.

The Uchiha clan's compound had undergone two relocations and adjustments.

The first relocation was the work of the Second Hokage, who tied the Uchiha clan to the Police Force, turning the already unpopular Uchiha into outright antagonists. The second relocation was four years ago, due to the Nine-Tails' Rampage, when the Third Hokage moved the Uchiha clan to an even more remote corner in the northeast of the village.

This resulted in the Uchiha clan and the Police Force being separated by distance.

Otherwise, in the past, even while stationed at the Police Force, one could still handle clan affairs.

"Xuanshi, don't bother gilding that kid Fugaku's reputation. We didn't see it before, but now it's clear that kid has no backbone. As clan head, instead of protecting his people, he's all about the village, mouthing off about village matters. Does he need to worry about that? Does he, as Police Force captain, not know what it's like now? With the Anbu around, where's his chance to be useful!"

Elder Homaru grumbled angrily. "Honestly, tch, I don't even know what to say about him... We were blind back then, supporting him to become clan head."

As he spoke, he suddenly shifted his gaze and fixed it on Sōken. "Hey, kid, you told me before that you wanted to replace Fugaku as clan head. Were you serious?"

"Of course I was serious."

Sōken nodded solemnly in affirmation.

Seeking investments, seeking collections, seeking votes!!!