Uchiha Human Rights Report

"According to statistics, in Konoha, an Uchiha suffers discrimination approximately every twenty-six minutes."

That opening sentence immediately made the Third Raikage Ai double over with laughter.

"Heh, this kid always manages to surprise me."

"Dodai, what do you think about giving this kid the honorary title of Kumogakure Jonin?"

Ai looked at the secretary beside him, still grinning from ear to ear.

"...Lord Raikage, wouldn't that be inappropriate?"

Dodai pressed down the twitching corner of his eye, trying to keep his Raikage from adding fuel to the fire at a time like this.

"Hahaha, this kid's blade has struck right at Konoha's main artery. Won't that old man Sarutobi Hiruzen be furious to death?"

Ai still could not control his expression as he gloated.

"If he can't even manage his own house, what face does he have to show himself outside? If I were Sarutobi Hiruzen, I'd just slit my own throat!"

Under the Shinobi World's law of relativity, seeing an old rival suffer misfortune was even more gratifying than stumbling into good fortune yourself.

"Keep reading, keep reading! Let me hear what else this kid has to say!"

The Raikage swayed the wine cup in his hand—large enough to hold an adult human head—and lounged on the sofa, bobbing his head as he enjoyed himself.

"According to a high-ranking Root official who wished to remain anonymous, from the moment an Uchiha is born, they cannot escape three things: death, battle, and discrimination. Their entire lives are either spent being discriminated against or on the way to being discriminated against."

"Hehehe."

"This kid did a fine job!"

Ōnoki slapped the table, his large nose turning red with excitement.

"Now let's see whether that old bastard Sarutobi Hiruzen can still put on that compassionate, world-weary act!"

"And those damn Uchiha—now someone's got them by the sore spot, huh?"

"Either suffering discrimination or on the way to suffer discrimination? Good, good, good! This is truly satisfying!"

As the saying went, enemies were bound to cross paths. Back then, Ōnoki and his teacher had both been humiliated beyond measure by Uchiha Madara and branded "weaklings." It was one of the greatest humiliations of his life.

But Uchiha Madara had long since passed away, so he could only vent his resentment on the Uchiha clan. Moreover, expanding Iwagakure's sphere of influence meant inevitably opposing Konoha. Now that both of these enemies were simultaneously having a terrible time, how could he not be thrilled?

"What are you staring at? Get over here and learn how they write!"

Ōnoki cast a sidelong glance at his foolishly grinning son, Kitsuchi. Amid his delight, he once again felt the anguish of having no worthy successor.

I've met that old Hozuki Zangetsu too. How did that thick-browed, big-eyed fellow manage to have such an outstanding son?

Where did I go wrong?

"Oh, okay, okay. I'm coming."

Kitsuchi scratched his head and ran over with a silly grin, continuing to read for his father.

"Violence often extends beyond the physical. According to stories passed down among the Uchiha elders, the villagers of Konoha often subject Uchiha clan members to emotionally suffocating cold violence. This is also the origin of the Uchiha catchphrase, 'I can't breathe.'"

Shamon stared at the document in his hands in disbelief, drawing a sharp breath before turning to Chiyo beside him. "We don't have anything like that in our village, do we?"

Chiyo narrowed her eyes and gave it some serious thought before confirming, "We should not."

"For Konoha, having a clan like the Uchiha—it's hard to say whether that's a blessing or a curse."

"I don't know whether the Uchiha are a blessing or a curse for Konoha. I only know that it's fortunate the boy from Kirigakure didn't turn his fire on Sunagakure. Otherwise, who knows whether our village could have withstood this kind of offensive."

Ebizo, beside them, rarely offered his opinion. The others all nodded in agreement.

But for now... they would just have to see how Konoha dealt with it.

"Konoha came into this world drenched from head to toe, every pore flowing with Uchiha blood and miserable cries."

Hozuki Zangetsu widened his eyes and carefully studied his son, as if seeing him for the first time.

Who would have thought that such an upright man as me could produce a son with such a twisted mind?

Hozuki Shingetsu smiled faintly. This was only the beginning.

The grand show he had meticulously arranged, using the Uchiha as bait, had only just raised its curtain!

Who in the Shinobi World did not know about the mess between the Uchiha and Konoha?

Objectively speaking, the Uchiha had once been illustrious. They were legitimate direct descendants of the Sage of Six Paths, a clan that had followed him in pacifying the Shinobi World.

As one of the only two founding clans of Konoha, the Uchiha ended up without even a single place in Konoha's core circle of power. No matter how one looked at it, that was indefensible, wasn't it?

And unlike the Senju, whose main line had ostensibly faded away while their branches concealed their names and scattered throughout Konoha, the Uchiha clan was still alive and well. Whether in total clan population, number of shinobi, or number of top-tier shinobi, they could absolutely be called Konoha's largest clan.

With those qualifications, was it really appropriate to exclude them outright using that ridiculous claim that "the Uchiha clan is inherently evil"?

Not to mention that the Uchiha's contributions were no less than anyone else's. Ever since Konoha was founded, they had shed blood for Konoha both in peacetime and on the battlefield. Why had they never received fair treatment from Konoha?

Using them when needed and casting them aside afterward—who could accept that?

In this regard, the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, had done somewhat better. He knew the village had wronged the Uchiha and needed to ease their resentment, so he took Kagami Uchiha as a disciple to improve relations and painted them a grand picture of future hopes for the Hokage position.

But once Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō, who had each inherited part of the Second Hokage's will, took power, things went completely to hell.

The relationship between the Uchiha and Konoha could not exactly be called one of mutual respect. At most, it was like walking on thin ice.

Especially now, after Kagami Uchiha's death and more than a decade of the Uchiha clan controlling Konoha's Police Force, the Uchiha had increasingly grown alienated from the village.

Hozuki Shingetsu had keenly seized upon this point and kicked hard at the cripple's good leg.

Doesn't Konoha still have the strength to respond?

Looks like I haven't given you enough trouble yet!

Were they still hoping to handle this coldly until the matter faded away and everyone's attention shifted elsewhere?

I paid to get you trending across the Shinobi World. Aren't you going to keep it going?

Of course, no matter what, the Uchiha clan still possessed Konoha's original shares. At this point, the conflict between them had not remotely reached the point in the original story where the Uchiha stood on the verge of extermination.

The most important reason was... Konoha was truly enormous at this time. And aside from the Uchiha, it truly had many powerful shinobi.

It was nothing like the period before the original story began, when the top-tier experts were either old, dead, crippled, or injured, while the only remaining Jiraiya was rarely home. Konoha simply lacked the strength to suppress a rebellious Uchiha clan.

But now... to put it bluntly, Uzumaki Mito alone could suppress the entire Uchiha clan.

But that did not matter. As the saying went, as long as you swing the hoe well enough, no wall corner cannot be dug out.

The seeds of conflict between the Uchiha and the village had already been planted. There was no need to worry that they would not sprout.

Should fate change and the divine artifact pass to another, should this Uchiha crown prince be on the verge of being deposed, Hozuki Shingetsu might still have a chance to snatch some gains. If he brought some Uchiha clansmen to Kirigakure then, could he not establish a "Konoha Government-in-Exile" and shout, "The true Konoha is in Kirigakure"?

Hiss... just imagining that scene was exhilarating!

But for now... they would see how far this bullet could fly.

"Citing a well-informed source who wished to remain anonymous, the reason the Uchiha clan was not affected by Uchiha Madara's defection back then was because the Konoha authorities treated the Uchiha like livestock, forcing them every year to hand over the Sharingan of deceased clan members. The Uchiha had no choice but to submit beneath the bloody slogan: 'Keep the eyes, not the people; keep the people, not the eyes.'"

The moment Sarutobi Hiruzen saw those words, a string in his mind snapped.

"He's slandering me! He's slandering me!"

On this day, Konoha finally learned the terror of being attacked by public opinion.

I think this part turned out pretty interesting, right? I had a lot of fun writing it, anyway. So leave some paragraph comments, recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, and the like—give the book a little more traffic. Otherwise, it always feels like I'm playing a single-player game.