In the secret chamber, red eyes stared into red eyes. For a moment, the room fell completely silent.
On the night of the Nine-Tails, Uchiha Fugaku had only just gathered the clan's elites when Danzo blocked them. Not a single Uchiha ninja had even gotten close enough to touch a hair on the Nine-Tails, so none of them had a chance to see the Sharingan in its eyes.
As a result, most of the clan's jōnin thought the recent rumors were baseless.
Even the few older, more experienced members assumed that some elders had been talking about Madara's attack on the village long ago, and the listeners had gotten the story mixed up.
And now you were telling them it was true?
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
A white-haired elder sprang to his feet, breaking the silence. The whites of his eyes were swollen with blood vessels.
"Only the Mangekyō Sharingan can control a Tailed Beast!
No one in the clan has awakened one since Clan Head Madara and his younger brother Izuna did, back in the day."
As he spoke, his deep, booming voice gradually dwindled to a whisper. At last, he pressed his lips together and eyed everyone present suspiciously.
After all, awakening the Mangekyō was difficult, but theoretically, any Uchiha had a chance.
Could the enemy be in this very room?
The atmosphere grew even more awkward.
Everyone in the chamber glanced around, trying to identify the clan member among them who had awakened the Mangekyō.
Shisui? Chen?
Impossible! They were far too young. At their age, even Uchiha Madara had still been playing in the river! And the elders over fifty couldn't possibly—
Gradually, most of the clan members turned their suspicious gazes toward Fugaku, the man known as the "Fierce Eye."
"Ahem!"
Uchiha Fugaku cleared his throat. His expression calm, he reassured everyone.
"It wasn't me, and I believe it wasn't anyone else here, either!
There may be more to the Nine-Tails Incident than meets the eye. Let's set that matter aside for now and discuss the relocation of the clan compound first."
"Hold on!"
Uchiha Chen, who had been quietly keeping to himself and trying to stay unnoticed, finally couldn't hold his tongue any longer.
The Uchiha Massacre had been the result of the perfect convergence of timing, location, and people.
The timing was the loss of trust between Konoha's people and the village after the Night of the Nine-Tails.
The people were Uchiha Itachi, the clan's "most devoted son," and Uchiha Fugaku, its "brilliant" clan head.
Uchiha Chen couldn't change either of those things, but he could still fight for the advantage of location.
If the Uchiha Clan Compound remained in Konoha's most prosperous district instead of moving to the edge of the barrier, would the Konoha High Command still dare to carry out the Night of the Uchiha Massacre?
Even if they did, the price of sealing off the news and preventing the Uchiha from escaping would be ten or a hundred times what it was in the original timeline.
Uchiha Fugaku had brought up relocating the clan compound and the Nine-Tails being controlled by the Sharingan in the same breath. That meant he was inclined to give in to the High Command and move.
The clan members, usually so haughty and unruly, would feel guilty over the suspicion that they had controlled the Nine-Tails. That would make them swallow their resentment.
Uchiha Chen wouldn't stand for it!
He would fan the flames in the clan members' hearts, keep the Uchiha in the center of Konoha, and even turn the tables on Sarutobi Hiruzen!
Uchiha Chen made up his mind, straightened his back, and delivered the speech he had prepared long ago.
"Clan Head, honored elders and uncles!"
Uchiha Chen lifted his chin and surveyed everyone with the traditional "Uchiha nostril-gazing" look. Then he raised his voice.
"I'm young, and I know very little about clan history or the Mangekyō.
Elder, you said the Mangekyō Sharingan can control Tailed Beasts. Can every Mangekyō do that? The Nine-Tails is the strongest of the Tailed Beasts. Could it really be controlled with ease?"
After speaking, Uchiha Chen paused for a few seconds. Once he saw that the clan members had begun to reflect and search their memories, he turned toward a wrinkled, white-haired old man in the corner.
"Elder Setsuna! You're the oldest person in the clan, and you were already an adult before the village was founded. Could you enlighten me?"
The frail old man, thin as a skeleton, slowly raised his head. His cloudy eyes rested on Uchiha Chen's face for a long while before a look of reminiscence appeared in them.
Uchiha Setsuna was the leader of the Uchiha rebels. During the Second's rule, he had led an uprising. After it failed, he was imprisoned for decades and wasn't released until a few years ago.
He was also the only surviving Uchiha who had served as a "shinobi head"—roughly equivalent to a jōnin in the age of the hidden villages—back in Madara's era.
"The claim that the Mangekyō can control Tailed Beasts goes back a long way."
Uchiha Setsuna's voice was dry and hoarse. He spoke slowly, stopping to catch his breath after every sentence.
"As far as I know, Clan Head Madara's younger brother, Lord Izuna, and their father, Lord Tajima, both awakened the Mangekyō. But neither of them ever controlled a Tailed Beast. I don't know whether they chose not to or were unable to.
The only one I ever saw do it was Clan Head Madara, when he controlled the Nine-Tails! But by then, his Eye Power was already far beyond that of an ordinary Mangekyō."
At that, Uchiha Setsuna grinned, then shook his head and said no more.
That was fine. Uchiha Chen had already gotten the answer he wanted.
"So," Uchiha Chen continued, laying out his conclusion while the clan members were still thinking it over, "the only one who could control the Nine-Tails was Uchiha Madara. The source of the problem probably wasn't that someone had awakened the Mangekyō, but that Uchiha Madara possessed a Sharingan that surpassed the Mangekyō!
"So, after Uchiha Madara was defeated by the First, what happened to his body?"
"Back then..." Uchiha Ryoji said, looking troubled and somewhat dazed. "To avoid suspicion, Madara's body was entrusted to the Second, who was serving as acting Hokage, for burial."
"Heh!" Uchiha Setsuna sneered, grinding his teeth. "That damned white-haired bastard loved dissecting corpses and studying all kinds of evil forbidden techniques! That naturally evil old Senju!"
"Could that be true?"
"The Second did have a poor reputation when it came to that sort of thing!"
One clan member was clearly unconvinced, but several older members immediately began recounting Senju Tobirama's "glorious achievements" in grave robbing and dissecting a thousand people!
Before long, with Uchiha Chen deliberately guiding them, the logic closed into a perfect loop:
"That naturally evil white-haired Senju stole Uchiha Madara's Sharingan for experiments. In the end, the test subject took revenge on Konoha and caused the Nine-Tails Incident!"
In this version, the Uchiha were entirely victims, a vulnerable group that deserved sympathy, while the Hokage Faction were the undisputed villains!
The clan members were naturally only half-convinced by this self-consistent explanation. But compared to being treated as "suspects," they would much rather stand on the moral high ground.
More importantly, Uchiha Chen knew that the Hokage Faction couldn't produce Uchiha Madara's body.
The moment they actually investigated, they would discover that Uchiha Madara's body really was missing!
And if they later encountered Obito wearing a mask, that would seal the deal:
A man with both the Mangekyō and Wood Release—that had to be an experimental subject.
At that moment, it was art!
That evil white-haired Senju old ghoul was stuck with the blame!
Before you continue