"Take care, Lord Hokage."
As they watched the Hokage and his party leave, the taut string that had been stretched to its breaking point inside the Konoha Military Police Force headquarters since the afternoon finally slackened with a twang.
Then, from somewhere in a corner, someone let out a breath. Like a signal, it set off the emotions that had been suppressed for so long.
"Ha... hahaha!"
A young Uchiha was the first to laugh. He wiped his face vigorously, disbelief and excitement still lingering in his eyes.
"We... we did it! The Hokage really just left like that!"
"Exactly!"
Someone beside him immediately chimed in, their voice trembling with excitement.
"So much for the 'strongest Hokage.' In front of us Uchiha, he could only back down! He didn't even dare force us to hand anyone over!"
The suffocating tension that had weighed on the room moments ago vanished, replaced by the heady joy of finally holding their heads high.
"See that? That's the power of the Uchiha!"
"Let's see who dares whisper behind the Military Police Force's back now. We'll arrest the lot of them!"
"We should've done this ages ago!"
Amid the uproar, Uchiha Tekka and Taohuo thumped Yashiro on the shoulder and grinned, baring their white teeth.
Even the usually composed Uchiha Yashiro couldn't keep the corners of his mouth from rising.
Watching his clansmen cheer around him, Uchiha Fugaku finally relaxed.
As the Uchiha celebrated around him, a strange feeling welled up inside him.
So the Hokage could compromise, after all.
Had we been wrong all these years?
Fugaku stared blankly at the entrance to the Military Police Force headquarters. The questions crowding his mind made him desperately want to confide in someone.
He turned his head and looked at Mikoto, whose eyes were full of Uchiha Ren. Then he spotted his little brother Shisui among the crowd, his face flushed with excitement as he chatted with members of the Hawk Faction.
Everything looked so harmonious and natural, as if this was how things were always meant to be.
Fugaku suddenly felt that the questions in his mind weren't worth mentioning after all.
Ren remained where he was, his back to the cheering crowd as he gazed out the window at the Ginza Skyscraper, still ablaze with lights. The Uchiha crest illuminated the Third Hokage and his party below.
Mikoto walked up beside him. Her voice was soft, and her eyes brimmed with tenderness. "It's been a long time since everyone was happy together."
At her words, Ren turned his head slightly. His gaze swept over the young faces behind him, alight with excitement and pride, before settling on Mikoto's lovely, smiling face.
Before he could speak, Yashiro suddenly shouted from the crowd.
"Brothers and sisters, we owe all of this to Lord Ren's leadership!"
Mikoto blinked at Ren, then stepped out through the crowd, the ends of her dark hair fluttering behind her.
She stood before everyone, her clear, bright eyes fixed on her clansmen. Raising her right fist, she spoke with fervor, her voice ringing through the hall.
"Clansmen, it was Lord Ren who helped us reclaim the dignity we had lost!"
Her words lit the final fuse. After a brief silence, fervent cries erupted like a volcano.
"Long live Lord Ren!"
"Long live the Uchiha!"
The waves of cheering grew louder and louder.
The young clansmen's faces reddened as if they were determined to roar out, once and for all, the humiliation and frustration they had endured for over a decade.
Many older Uchiha had tears in their eyes, for they understood better than the young just how hard-won this moment of triumph was.
Disunity within the clan, disregard from the shinobi clans and villagers, and oppression from the Konoha High Command.
They had weighed on the emotionally sensitive Uchiha like three mountains.
Now two of those mountains had suddenly been lifted. How could they not rejoice?
At the heart of the surging cheers, Uchiha Ren stood as still as ever.
He raised a hand to quiet them, and the fervent cheering quickly died down. Only the eyes fixed on their leader remained, brimming with passion and expectation.
"Dignity."
Ren's clear voice echoed through the hall, every word striking home. "It isn't something others grant us. It's something we reclaim through our own strength."
He looked around the hall, his gaze sharp.
"Today, we've simply taken back what was rightfully ours."
"The future of the Uchiha—"
He paused, extended his right arm with his palm facing down, and raised his voice.
"Will be forged by our own hands!"
After a brief silence, even more fervent cheers shook the entire Military Police Force headquarters.
Mikoto gazed at the figure embraced by his clansmen, his presence seeming to grow ever more commanding.
She saw more than the man she loved. She saw a clan head truly capable of leading the Uchiha into the future.
Night deepened, and the heads of the various clans left the Military Police Force headquarters and went their separate ways.
Sarutobi Hiruzen walked at the front, the hem of his Hokage robes stirring in the night breeze.
The cheers and uproar from the brightly lit building behind him pursued them like a wave studded with needles, each cry painfully clear.
"Long live the Uchiha!"
"Long live Lord Ren!"
Every cheer was like an invisible slap across the face of Konoha's supreme ruler.
Utatane Koharu's face had long since turned livid. She stopped abruptly, her chest heaving as she could no longer hold back her surging anger.
Her words came through gritted teeth, sharp with accusation.
"Hiruzen! Are you really going to let them do as they please?! Listen to that! They're provoking us! They're openly celebrating their trampling of the Hokage's authority!"
"If we back down now, the Uchiha will only become even more arrogant and uncontrollable!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen finally stopped walking.
He slowly turned and looked back at the Military Police Force headquarters, which seemed to flaunt its power beneath the night sky.
The light shining through its windows flickered in his cloudy eyes.
He didn't answer Koharu's challenge right away. Instead, he quietly took out his pipe, lit it, and drew a deep breath.
Through the curling smoke, the wrinkles on his face seemed to deepen, but beneath his gentle exterior lay an unfathomable chill.
"Uncontrollable?"
"Koharu, tell me: what can Konoha use to put these 'uncontrollable' Uchiha down right now?"
He turned his head, his gaze cold as he looked at his old friend and fellow advisor.
"The Sannin are away, Minato and the main forces are far off on the front lines, and the village is short-handed."
"The three Uchiha Elders are armed and ready. They have dozens of Jonin and hundreds of Chunin standing by, along with two powerful members of the younger generation..."
"Are you and I supposed to throw our clans into the fight and bury them in bodies?!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen exhaled a ring of smoke that drifted past Utatane Koharu's grim face.
"If we tear away the pretense now, the resulting civil war will make the spies from the other shinobi villages laugh themselves sick—and then they'll take the chance to invade."
"When that happens, you and I will be remembered as sinners against Konoha for all time."
Koharu was stifled by the reality he described, but she still couldn't accept it.
"So we're just going to let them..."
"Let them?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen cut her off. "This is only a temporary 'strategic retreat.' If Heaven wants someone destroyed, it first makes them mad with arrogance."
"The Uchiha's assertiveness will inevitably make the other clans wary and uneasy."
"Today, we've taken a step back. In the eyes of the other clans, that's a concession made for the greater good. The Uchiha's aggression will only leave them more isolated."
"Besides..."
Sarutobi Hiruzen's voice dropped until he seemed to be murmuring to himself. Only Utatane Koharu could hear him.
"Let them fight for the Konoha they built with their own hands, just like our teacher did."
Before you continue