Itachi, I Have a Plan to Deal With the Uchiha

"Itachi, I never expected you to work here of all places..."

Youhu found a seat and sat down, watching Itachi as he stared at the screen. He continued, "No wonder people in the clan always complain that you're unwilling to share intelligence. You can't exactly gather much information sitting here."

"I'll talk to the Clan Head another day. I'll tell him it's a matter of your capability, not your attitude."

"..."

Itachi turned slowly. After his gaze shifted to Youhu, he turned back to monitor the surveillance.

Before yesterday, Itachi hadn't been familiar with the name Youhu. He only knew that there was such a clan brother—someone who was usually sunny and cheerful, but whose strength was nothing to write home about.

He had only awakened his Sharingan in his teens, and he hadn't shown any remarkable performance during the Chunin Exams.

But the events of yesterday had etched the name Youhu firmly into his memory. He couldn't forget the rumors Youhu had spread, nor could he forget that Youhu had caused his parents to divorce and had his father marry the Third Hokage.

It was complete nonsense, destroying the precarious relationship between the clan and the village.

He didn't know what the Third Hokage was thinking, letting someone like this join the Anbu. Did the Third really believe that Youhu was an Uchiha who leaned toward the village's side?

Itachi truly couldn't understand it; even with his "Hokage Mindset," he couldn't make sense of it.

Seeing that Senju Itachi was unwilling to reply, Youhu became even more interested. He leaned in toward the former and said:

"Itachi, why aren't you saying anything? Are you looking down on your brother Youhu?"

"Let me tell you, when it comes to work, you shouldn't take it too seriously. All the credit for our overtime goes to Captain Kakashi; only slacking off truly belongs to yourself."

"What's the point of monitoring the clan grounds? Isn't the Hokage just afraid of a clan coup? With the Hokage's strength, wouldn't stopping an Uchiha coup be simple? At worst, the village would just fall into civil war."

What are you talking about? Is a coup something that can be spoken of so casually?

Faced with Youhu's earth-shattering words, even someone as calm as Uchiha Itachi couldn't help but be moved. He frowned and said:

"Brother Youhu, this is the Anbu. Please, stop talking nonsense. There has never been any talk of a coup within the clan. We are only working to protect the safety of the village."

"Alright, alright, I know it needs to be kept confidential. After all, you are my Anbu senior."

Youhu's tone was extremely perfunctory, but his mouth showed no signs of stopping: "After Shisui saved me before, he also put on this serious expression. The clan members don't actually want a coup; they're just complaining at the clan meetings."

"We must trust in the Hokage's vision. Under the Hokage's leadership, no one would want a coup."

Uchiha Itachi's brows locked tight. He felt that Youhu wasn't quite right in the head. Did Youhu treat a coup as if it were just a minor skirmish between students at the Ninja School?

Once a coup occurred, the current peace of the village would vanish completely.

Thinking of this, Uchiha Itachi's tone turned low: "Brother Youhu, please be serious. Otherwise, I will apply to the higher-ups to no longer be in the same squad as you. Do you even have the clan and the village in your eyes anymore?"

Youhu shifted his gaze, his voice changing from cheerful to serious:

"Itachi, do you really think I don't know about the conflict between the Clan and the Village? Do you really not know what the consequences of a Clan Coup would be? The Third Lord wouldn't just insert an Uchiha into the Anbu for no reason."

"But what if you do know? Can you save the Clan and the Village?"

"The Clan is quietly purchasing military supplies. Are you going to report it or not? If you report it, the High Official will decide to deal with the Uchiha. If you hide it, the ambition of the clan members will continue to swell until it devours the Uchiha entirely."

"You and Shisui have been enduring humiliation by the Hokage's side, but has that ever changed anything?"

Hearing this, Uchiha Itachi felt enlightened. Everything he and Shisui had done so far seemed to have had no effect; they hadn't even been able to suppress the voices calling for a coup among the clan members.

On the contrary, Youhu had stumbled into a solution by accident, using an absurd lie to divert the clan members' attention, shifting the Clan's focus from a coup to digging up scandalous information on the Hokage.

In this regard, he and Shisui were far inferior to Youhu.

Seeing Uchiha Itachi fall silent, Youhu continued, "Itachi, I know you have an opinion of me, but do you still think my suggestion was wrong?"

"Having your parents divorce and having your father marry the Third Hokage is the best way to stop the clan members from staging a coup."

"It satisfies the clan members' wish to have a Hokage husband, and it elevates your status. Perhaps in the future, you could even become the Hokage of Konoha."

"All of this only requires you to persuade your parents to make a small sacrifice."

"Otherwise, there is only one other way to save the Clan and the Village."

At this point, Youhu's gaze turned sharp, and he whispered like a demon:

"The head of the Uchiha Clan is Fugaku, and the core of the coup is also Fugaku.

"As long as you can kill your father and defect, it would also resolve the conflict within the clan. This is also a form of sacrifice; you only need to sacrifice your father's life to save the Village from dire straits."

"You wouldn't want to cause trouble for the Hokage, would you?"

After speaking, Youhu returned to his witty tone and said with a grin, "Everything above was just me making things up. Don't take it to heart, Itachi. The Clan and the Village are thriving; it's just a small misunderstanding."

"As long as we work together, the Clan will eventually be able to integrate into the Village."

"I wouldn't just attack my own clan members, and you, Itachi, are Fugaku's good son—how could you ever lay a hand on your own kin? At least for me, I wouldn't be willing to sacrifice someone to save the Clan."

"After all, who knows? The next person to be sacrificed might be me."

"Brother Youhu, please don't make jokes like that again..."

Itachi said with lingering fear. He felt that Youhu was a demon who could manipulate hearts at will. The only thing to be thankful for was that this demon was biased toward the Clan and the Village and, at most, would only tell some rather malicious jokes.

But that might not be the case in the future. For the sake of the Village's peace, he would have to keep an eye on Youhu.

Just then, Youhu, who was looking at the screen, noticed a black dot flash across the surveillance near the Konoha Barrier and shouted to Itachi:

"Itachi, rewind the surveillance on your right by five seconds. Someone has breached the Konoha Barrier."

Itachi was slightly startled. He followed Youhu's prompt and rewound the surveillance footage by a few seconds. After focusing his eyes, he indeed saw an inconspicuous black dot in the frame.

After zooming in on the black dot, it revealed a blurry human figure. The vague figure had breached the Konoha Barrier without triggering any alarms.

The next moment, the figure vanished into a vortex and never appeared again.

Seeing this, Itachi fell into a deep silence. He felt that this person looked somewhat familiar.