Clan Meeting, Angrily Confronting Uchiha Setsuna!

The candlelight flickered, but aside from the slight ripple caused by Senya's arrival at the clan meeting, there was no further movement.

The rest of the clansmen simply entered, took their seats, and remained silent.

They were waiting for the final person to arrive.

"Thump, thump, thump."

As footsteps echoed from the staircase, the sound gradually grew louder.

Uchiha Fugaku walked to the cushion at the very front and sat down.

There were still two empty spots on the cushions below; his own son, Itachi Uchiha, and Shisui Uchiha had yet to appear.

Seeing that the time had arrived, he had already delayed the start of the meeting as much as possible, but he could not hold it up any longer for these two.

With a sense of helplessness, Fugaku was forced to open the proceedings.

"The time has come, so let the clan meeting begin."

Following Fugaku's announcement, one of the elders on the side immediately spoke up.

"Fugaku, the time has come, but what about your good son Itachi Uchiha, who joined the Anbu? And where is Shisui Uchiha? Where have they gone? Every other clansman is present, yet only those two are missing!"

"Fugaku, look at the state of our clan! We live our days cowering under the surveillance of the Anbu and Root! As the clan head, how can you fail to even discipline your own son!?"

"Fugaku! Is this the result of you leading the clan to compromise with that old monkey Hiruzen Sarutobi, letting Itachi Uchiha and Shisui Uchiha join the Anbu!? Is this the result of getting close to the 'Hokage'!?"

"They have likely already become the Hokage's lapdogs! Perhaps they are even now monitoring the clan's movements on behalf of Danzo and Hiruzen!"

Uchiha Setsuna grew more agitated as he spoke; he slammed his hands against the table, stood up, and pointed an accusing finger at Fugaku.

The hardline elders sitting on the left side of the meeting hall all wore expressions of resentment.

At the last meeting, because of Fugaku's support, the group of Uchiha defeatists from the moderate faction had been smug, believing they had grasped the key to the clan's future.

But look at things now: the surveillance by the Anbu had become increasingly severe, the villagers' disgust toward the Uchiha had deepened, and one could see the foolish things this clan head and the cowards of the moderate faction had done!

Fugaku knew clearly that while the conflict between the clan and the village was deepening, the clan lacked the strength to launch a coup at this moment.

It wasn't just the upper echelons of Konoha; even other ninja clans held the Uchiha at arm's length.

The villagers were terrified whenever they encountered them, scattering to avoid them; no one dared to get close, and behind their backs, they constantly wrote letters of complaint to the Hokage.

The Uchiha Military Police Force had suffered no shortage of trouble because of this.

"Under my leadership, we chose the wrong path, but do you hardliners have any better ideas!?"

"Does the clan have the strength to launch a coup now? Did the coups of the past succeed?"

"Since the coup launched during the Battle of Yomi, the clan's elite have been halved. In the Second and Third Great Ninja Wars, how many more clansmen were sacrificed! What do you have to launch a coup with!"

"The Sarutobi clan alone has over a thousand registered ninjas! How many more of our clansmen can we afford to lose! Must you lead everyone in the clan to their deaths?"

Fugaku's words left Uchiha Setsuna without a rebuttal.

Setsuna sat back down, but his face remained filled with indignation.

"That doesn't mean you can lead the clan to compromise with that old monkey Hiruzen! Bowing and scraping before him! What about the glory of the Uchiha!"

"Have you all forgotten the glory of being one of the two strongest clans in the ninja world!"

Uchiha Kagerou, sitting beside Setsuna, looked at the clansmen below and tried to incite their emotions.

"That's right! We cannot forget the glory of the Uchiha!"

"The Senju have already faded away! We Uchiha are destined to reach the pinnacle of the ninja world!"

"If we can't win a coup, why don't we defect from the village! At worst, the clan will just leave Konoha!"

The anger of the clansmen below was successfully ignited by Uchiha Kagerou.

"Hahahaha, do you want to laugh me to death and then steal my combat gear and ninja blade?"

Senya's laughter and words suddenly pierced the nerves of these people.

The meeting hall fell silent.

Setsuna was once again enraged by Senya.

"You junior of the clan! How dare you mock the glory of the Uchiha clan!"

"I admit you have a bit of talent, kid, but with your performance just now, where do you place the clan!"

"Don't think that just because your parents are dead, we have to tolerate such insolence from you!"

"Are you worthy of our ancestors? Are you fit to be a member of the Uchiha clan? Are you worthy of the fan crest on your back!?"

As Setsuna's words fell, the clansmen around Senya had eyes turning blood-red, the tomoe within them spinning rapidly; a few even broke through from two-and-a-half tomoe to three.

Senya sat up, his eyes opening wide, the tomoe within them spinning so fast they almost formed a solid circle.

"I ask you, what is glory! Is the merit earned by dead clansmen called glory? You live in a comfortable environment now; even if you are being watched, if you are unhappy, then resist! You only know how to shout about glory with your mouths, but which one of you has brought glory to the Uchiha!!!"

"A coup? Defection? Whether we die in battle or flee, what happens to the old, the weak, the sick, the disabled, the women, and the children in the clan! Once we are gone, do you expect Danzo and Hiruzen to provide for them!!!"

"Are we not the Clan of Love? You idiots who have nothing but coups on your minds! Do you even care if your clansmen live or die? Have you forgotten why your Sharingan were awakened in the first place!?"

"Can you all use your brains for once? A few words are enough to make you lose the ability to think, to lose your composure, to lose your reason! Are you still Uchiha ninjas like this? Are you worthy of the name of Uchiha ninjas!!?"

The elders of the hawkish faction lowered their heads in an instant.

Only Setsuna glared at Senya, his anger intensifying as he recalled how he had mistaken Senya's back for that of Uchiha Madara earlier.

That detestable brat, how dare he make me lose face!

Watching Senya's words and actions, Fugaku felt his heart soften; it seemed that besides Itachi and Shisui, there was another genius among the younger generation whom he had previously overlooked.

The clansmen sitting below also felt a sense of shame, clenching their fists tightly; some even shed tears, pounding their own thighs as they loathed their previous thoughts.

"Uchiha Kura's mental defense broken, Uchiha Kota's mental defense broken..."

"Accumulated 39 instances of broken mental defenses, obtained a 10% increase in chakra."

Senya calculated in his heart; it seemed that copying talents he already possessed only yielded a marginal improvement.

However, this familiar state, this familiar feeling—everything had returned! Senya was currently feeling absolutely high!

Sixteen years, he had finally experienced this thrill once again!

It was this very thrill that had led the sixty-year-old retired Senya to venture into the internet and hatch the plan to become an influencer, though it was unfortunately cut short.

But now, everything was back!

However, Senya was not merely a man of malicious hobbies; in his past life, whenever he broke someone's mental defenses, he would always provide them with a new perspective based on his own synthesis.

As the saying goes, there is no construction without destruction; if one does not shatter another's original concepts, how can one establish a new beacon?

As a "sunny and cheerful boy," Senya was not an irresponsible person, except for those "trolls" from before—those were purely "man-children" whose lives had been too smooth.

To them, Senya could only serve as the first hurdle in their lives, letting them experience what it meant to face setbacks.

Seeing that only a few people had their mental defenses broken, Senya was just about to apply more pressure on the hawkish faction, intensifying his efforts and dropping some heavy bombshells, when Yashiro of the dovish faction spoke up.