They said goodbye to Hatake Sakumo and Tsunade.
Fucheng looked at the nearly two hundred Uchiha ninja waiting silently behind him and nodded in satisfaction.
"Your discipline is holding up well!"
As he said goodbye to Tsunade and Sakumo, the Uchiha ninja, their faces stern, had stood in formation, ready and waiting for orders.
Their strict discipline made the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi look uneasy.
Among the crowd behind the Third Hokage, Shimura Danzō, who was keeping himself hidden, was also deeply unsettled.
He was now beginning to suspect that the position of Uchiha Clan head really would fall to Uchiha Fucheng, the one who had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Uchiha Fucheng had deliberately put on this display of battle discipline and a ninja's presence!
More than thirty Uchiha Jōnin led the others, all radiating their full fighting spirit.
Standing in formation, stern and waiting for orders, they made it easy for the village to sense the tremendous power a united Uchiha could unleash.
The basic logic behind this move was the same as what he had told Fugaku.
"Fight for peace, and peace will endure. One punch now saves you from a hundred later."
Seeing the Third Hokage and the Konoha advisors hesitate and proceed cautiously, Fucheng was even more pleased.
"By deliberately displaying our strength and contributions in battle, I've made sure we're putting on a proper show for our return."
Fucheng pointed toward the clan compound and shouted, "All Uchiha, return to the clan grounds!"
At his command!
The more than two hundred Uchiha marched off the plaza in orderly formation.
Even the Uchiha ninja themselves felt triumphant.
They had the grand confidence of men who thought they were "the greatest in the world."
Standing in the ranks, Fugaku was dumbfounded by his younger brother's series of exaggerated maneuvers.
Neither he nor their late father, when serving as clan head, had ever put on such a show.
That night, at the heavily guarded Naka Shrine.
Maintaining his powerful presence, Uchiha Fucheng gave the Uchiha elders no time to think things over.
He moved swiftly, summoning every Jōnin and Special Jōnin in the clan in his capacity as acting clan head.
He intended to hold a clan-wide meeting of all the senior leadership.
The First Elder, Uchiha Setsuna; the Second Elder, Uchiha Chiyan Zhi; the Third Elder, Uchiha Liyao; and two former elders who had stepped back from the clan's inner circle—
together with the brothers Uchiha Fucheng and Uchiha Fugaku, the seven of them now sat in the main seats on the raised platform at Naka Shrine.
Apart from the seven seated on the platform,
the shrine courtyard was filled with cushions arranged according to the various family branches.
Twenty-seven core elite Jōnin with formidable combat strength.
Forty-four ordinary Jōnin of moderate strength.
Nearly fifty Special Jōnin and young elite ninja.
These were the Uchiha Clan's high-level fighters who could currently be shown in public.
Of course, the three elders and the various branches must have had some hidden experts within the clan.
It was only natural for cautious old men to keep some strength in reserve.
But this hidden strength didn't matter.
If they weren't qualified to sit in the open, they had no say in deciding the clan's direction.
Fugaku had always nominally held the title of "acting clan head."
Although several elders were unwilling to support his succession, Fugaku was captain of the Konoha Military Police Force, and he could convene this senior meeting under the title of "acting clan head."
By the clan's rules, there was nothing wrong with that.
It was also thanks to Fugaku's name that Fucheng had been able to convene the meeting so quickly and smoothly.
After Fucheng awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, the usually rigid Fugaku seemed to have changed his personality.
Even when he didn't understand or doubted Fucheng's opinions and ideas, he still made sure they were carried out and put into practice.
The change surprised even Fucheng.
He felt that Fugaku was the one who seemed like a different person.
Fugaku sat expressionless. Looking at the Uchiha gathered before him, he said, "You may have heard that Fucheng has awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan."
Uchiha Fugaku's voice was deep and solemn.
"I called this senior clan meeting today to formally determine who will inherit the position of clan head.
Once the ninja war begins, we'll face even more savage and ruthless enemies.
Without a clan head, the Uchiha lack sufficient unity.
As acting clan head, I propose that Uchiha Fucheng formally take over the position."
The First Elder, Uchiha Setsuna, furrowed his brow.
He immediately snapped back, "I oppose! Fucheng is too young. He's only sixteen. How could he bear all the pressures that come with leading a clan?"
The Second Elder said nothing, but he glanced at the other elders' expressions and smiled knowingly.
The Uchiha Jōnin sitting formally in the shrine courtyard couldn't help murmuring among themselves.
The quiet Naka Shrine was suddenly like a still lake struck by a stone.
The noisy discussion sent ripples across its surface.
Uchiha Fucheng, who had been resting with his eyes closed, raised his eyelids slightly at the sound.
His Mangekyō gaze flashed like a bolt of lightning.
It shot from his eyes at once.
A flash of light, blood-red.
Dazzling and impossible to look at...
Those eyes, so terrifying, appeared on Fucheng's face.
The Mangekyō Sharingan's mysterious pattern instantly made the Jōnin below, who had just been whispering, hold their breath.
The shrine meeting fell utterly silent.
"You oppose?" A smile tugged at the corner of Uchiha Fucheng's mouth.
If he hadn't wanted to maintain his dignity, he might have let out the legendary "Uchiha laugh."
Fucheng stared brightly at the First Elder. "Elder Setsuna, I'm afraid you've forgotten. You're the only active ninja still bearing responsibility for the assassination of the Second Hokage.
Because of your mistake, the clan lost no fewer than eleven Jōnin.
You tore eleven families apart, yet you, the ringleader and chief culprit behind the assassination, managed to walk away unscathed."
"You!" Uchiha Setsuna's face filled with fury. "I—"
Before he could finish, Uchiha Setsuna suddenly went blank!
Uchiha Setsuna first rose from his cushion.
Then he dropped into a full dogeza, prostrating himself before the ninja below.
"I'm sorry. I was wrong!"
The elders on the platform and the Uchiha Jōnin below all stared in astonishment.
Many even activated their Three-Tomoe Sharingan to observe the First Elder closely.
From their perspective, Elder Uchiha Setsuna had merely met Fucheng's gaze, then immediately gone from furious to dazed.
Still wearing that vacant expression and speaking in a dazed voice, he bowed down before everyone and admitted his mistake.
"That's genjutsu!"
"Control through the Mangekyō Sharingan?!"
The Second Elder, Uchiha Chiyan Zhi, looked just as confused and shocked.
As an Uchiha old enough to have seen Lord Madara's Mangekyō Sharingan,
he knew that Lord Madara, as clan head, had kept strict control over the clan.
He'd never had the chance to witness the Mangekyō Sharingan in action during an internal clan conflict.
"I never realized the difference in ocular power between Sharingan users could be so vast."
It was like an Uchiha ninja with the Sharingan crushing a child in the clan who hadn't awakened it.
With just one glance!
Fucheng had used genjutsu to force the First Elder, who had an exceptionally strong resistance to genjutsu, to kneel and apologize.
As everyone stood in shock, Uchiha Setsuna, who had fallen to his knees, gradually came to.
"What am I doing?" Uchiha Setsuna was so furious he nearly ground his teeth to pieces.
He was just as shocked by Fucheng's Mangekyō Sharingan.
This was completely beyond Uchiha Setsuna's expectations:
The Mangekyō was indeed stronger than the Three-Tomoe, but it couldn't be so powerful as to completely suppress him, leaving him unable to resist!
Uchiha Setsuna remained kneeling, frozen in place, terror on his face.
He looked at Uchiha Fucheng, who was smiling down at him, his thoughts churning like boiling water.
"If the Mangekyō is this powerful, can it completely counter the Sharingan? This is the kind of advantage that lets one person slaughter an entire clan!"
The other elders on the platform were just as sharp, having learned much with age.
They immediately understood the First Elder's fear.
Before they could hesitate, an even more astonishing sight appeared before them.
Bright blue chakra, like flesh threaded with lightning, rapidly filled a massive skeletal frame.
At the top of the skeleton, the skull was wrapped again and again in blue ocular power, taking on the appearance of a samurai helmet.
The elders on the platform and the elite Jōnin who had encountered the clan's secret records all cried out in shock:
"Susanoo?"
"Susanoo!"
Before you continue