In the original history, Senju Tobirama hadn't taken a large contingent from the Uchiha Clan to fight in the First Shinobi World War. He'd brought only Kagami Uchiha.
This made the Uchiha Clan feel that Senju Tobirama had never trusted them, from beginning to end—and of course, that was true.
It also laid the groundwork for what happened later: after Senju Tobirama died, the other clans refused to obey the Third, forcing him to focus on internal conflicts within the village.
At the same time, because they hadn't participated in the First Shinobi World War, the Uchiha Clan's strength had been preserved. Among Konoha's ninja clans, they had the largest number of shinobi.
Naturally, that gave them ideas they shouldn't have had.
After all, the Uchiha Clan had been put in charge of the Police Force. To put it nicely, it was called the Police Force, but to Senju Tobirama, they were just a bunch of useful tools.
The jobs they did were all thankless ones.
For instance, people might get into a brawl in the street just because they'd had a little too much to drink, even though they were actually on good terms.
But according to the rules, anyone who fought in the street had to be locked up.
It didn't matter how long they were kept inside. Once they'd been arrested, they weren't going to be friendly toward you.
But the Police Force had no choice but to do that kind of work.
And given the special status of Konoha's other ninja clans, could the Uchiha go arrest members of those clans without the Hokage's authorization?
No way.
So when someone from a clan broke the law, it was no big deal. But if I've had a little to drink and mess around with my friend, and you arrest me for it, what's that supposed to mean?
Naturally, resentment would only keep growing.
So in the original history, the Uchiha Clan had more than enough reason to want to rebel.
It was bad enough that they weren't valued. Even the authority in their hands felt like a joke.
But things were different now.
Oh, it wasn't that Yuya valued the Uchiha. To be honest, if you wanted Yuya to value your Uchiha Clan, you'd have to get a few people killed and awaken the Mangekyo in your eyes first. Then he'd definitely pay attention to your clan.
Yuya was using the Uchiha as tools too, but in a different way from Tobirama.
Tobirama had worried that the Uchiha would expand their authority by taking charge of too much. But as far as Yuya was concerned, since the Uchiha were the Police Force, they had to handle everything that happened in Konoha, right?
Someone was causing trouble over on Commercial Street. Why weren't you arresting them?
Did you make the registry I told you to compile? You didn't? Then what if spies from an enemy nation have slipped in?
Well, you couldn't deny it: with all the major projects Konoha had been undertaking, it would've been stranger if ninjas from other countries hadn't come to gather intelligence.
Especially since those ninjas knew they were there to do something shady. They were on edge, and if anything seemed wrong, it was only natural for them to attack and try to escape.
But in Yuya's eyes, that was a problem with the Police Force.
You only noticed the enemy ninjas after they'd infiltrated Konoha. Couldn't you have spotted them before they got in?
What could the Uchiha Clan say?
They really hadn't noticed.
The Uchiha were stubborn and proud, so there was no way they'd say something like, "This isn't our responsibility. The village's defenses weren't good enough."
But if you thought about it, Yuya had entrusted this to the Police Force. Didn't that mean they were responsible for part of the village's defenses?
Were they expecting Anbu to handle all of the village's defenses?
Then why call them Anbu? They might as well call them the Konoha Doorkeeper Squad.
So Konoha needed to strengthen the guards at the main gate, as well as at other locations.
Most importantly, someone had to keep an eye on the Hokage Office. It was the highest seat of power in Konoha, after all.
Three squads patrolling in shifts was the bare minimum. That alone took more than a dozen people.
They also had to guard Konoha's gate and the surrounding walls. Fewer than three squads wouldn't even be enough to cover the whole stretch of wall.
But three squads couldn't watch the place twenty-four hours a day, could they? To ensure they got enough rest and could stay combat-ready, they'd need to work in three shifts. That came to around forty people.
And that was just the guards at those two locations.
Commercial Street was such an important place. If you didn't send people to watch over it, sooner or later you'd have to deal with thefts and robberies every few days.
To say nothing of the people from Kirigakure and Sunagakure there. In a way, if Konoha lost face here, it would lose face on the international stage.
Well, the spies from other countries had been exposed on Commercial Street. Konoha had already lost face abroad.
The Uchiha were proud, so naturally they cared a lot about their reputation.
Needless to say, when Kagami Uchiha, who was by Senju Tobirama's side, heard from his clanmates that an enemy ninja had attacked people on the stretch of Commercial Street they were responsible for patrolling, his face turned ashen.
No one had died, but several people had still been injured.
What was this supposed to be?
It was humiliating!
Oh, so this was the Uchiha Clan, the clan as famous as the Senju?
What a joke. You couldn't even catch enemy spies while watching the gate, and someone nearly killed people right in front of you while you were on patrol. Was this all the Uchiha Clan amounted to?
Of course, that was just what they imagined others were thinking. But often, imagining it could hurt even more.
So they increased patrols on Commercial Street, sending out four squads in three shifts. There you go—that meant several dozen more people.
And besides the Police Force's routine patrols around the village, there was also...
The Research Institute Yuya had recently established. He'd given strict orders that no unauthorized personnel could be allowed inside. The Uchiha Clan had to guard the place, and three Hyuga Clan squads had also been assigned to watch over it.
That showed just how important it was.
Naturally, the Uchiha Clan had to send people there too.
And what about the Steel Mill? Was it important? Did it need guards? More people had to go there.
What about the Grain Processing Plant?
At the end of the year, Konoha's villagers were counting on the canned meat produced there to get a taste of meat. Didn't that place need guards too?
Simply put, there weren't many clan members left guarding the Uchiha Clan Compound these days. They just didn't have enough people.
That was truly a strange turn of events. The Uchiha Clan had spent every day complaining that they weren't involved in the village and that the villagers were ostracizing them.
Then they finally got involved, only to discover that they were the ones falling short.
Hadn't they been given enough consideration this time?
Yuya had the Uchiha guard just about every important place in the village. But they were the ones falling short. There was nothing he could do about that.
Senju Tobirama listened from the side, his eyes narrowing.
Call it prejudice or even racial discrimination—fine, maybe that wasn't quite the right word—but Senju Tobirama simply didn't trust the Uchiha Clan.
He'd had his doubts about Yuya assigning so many guard duties to the Uchiha Clan.
But since it was Yuya's decision, Senju Tobirama decided to wait and see.
Meanwhile, the Uchiha squad leader had already lowered his head, waiting to be reprimanded.
Kagami Uchiha looked grim too. Senju Tobirama had never liked the Uchiha Clan, and now his own clan had messed up. Wouldn't that mean Lord Hokage would...
Unexpectedly, Senju Tobirama only frowned and patted the squad leader on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Keep patrolling, and just make sure nothing like this happens again."
Then he walked away.
Kagami Uchiha and the squad leader were both baffled. Was that really something Lord Hokage, who had always targeted the Uchiha Clan, would say?
Actually, it made sense if you thought about it another way. Senju Tobirama had always targeted the Uchiha Clan because he believed the clan was evil. Naturally, he didn't trust them.
If he didn't trust the Uchiha Clan in the first place, why would he hold them accountable over this?
To Senju Tobirama, it was just an entirely ordinary occurrence.
The Uchiha?
I never thought I could count on them.
Of course, that was how Senju Tobirama saw it.
But from the Uchiha's perspective, it was different.
Especially when...
The next day, Senju Tobirama brought someone to the Uchiha Clan Compound and announced that he wanted to build a factory there. That left the entire Uchiha Clan even more bewildered.
Was this really the Second Hokage?
Had someone possessed him?!
Before you continue