The Uchiha Clan's Unrest

The two men currently in a standoff felt a jolt of alarm.

Following the explosion, the surrounding crowd had long since fled to avoid trouble.

Now, the noise was coming directly from the direction of the corpse.

They looked toward the sound almost simultaneously, only to find that the source of the commotion was their shared target: the scroll.

Both men were struck by a mixture of shock and wariness.

The seal on the scroll in the corpse's hand broke at that very moment, and the scroll unfurled to reveal its contents.

Previously, only the characters for [Uchiha] were visible, but with the seal undone, the seven characters for [Uchiha Clan Extermination Plan] dominated the top of the scroll.

Meihuo Uchiha's pupils constricted, stung by the words before him.

His black pupils vanished, replaced by three tomoe swirling within crimson irises.

Activating his Sharingan, he instantly copied the contents of the scroll.

Utilizing the power of the Sharingan, he began to read, summarizing the essence of the text.

[Step One: Force the Uchiha Clan's greatest power, Madara Uchiha, to leave.]

[Step Two: Continuously tame the Uchiha Clan with empty promises while offering no real benefits. Constantly exacerbate the conflicts between the Uchiha Clan and other families, including the Police Force, the academy, the hospital...]

[Step Three: Divide the Uchiha Clan. Co-opt one faction, eliminate another, and when a major crisis arises, force the Uchiha Clan to act as the scapegoat...]

[Step Four: Self-destruction. The Uchiha Clan has always been composed of extremists prone to internal turmoil; wait for the optimal moment to incite them to slaughter one another.]

The more Meihuo Uchiha read, the more his heart trembled.

At first, he had scoffed, but upon closer inspection, every piece of intelligence recorded was backed by verifiable facts.

At this moment, he realized the Uchiha Clan had reached a point of life and death.

The third step mentioned in the intelligence—division—had already been completed.

Could it be that only self-destruction awaited them?

On the other side, Shinnosuke Sarutobi, due to the greater distance, could only see the main title, but those words alone told him this would not end well.

This involved the Uchiha Clan and was a matter of life and death.

Regardless, the Uchiha Clan had to remain under the supervision of the Anbu.

He had been raised on the belief that the Uchiha Clan was incredibly dangerous and that he should never pass up an opportunity to suppress them.

This only hardened his resolve to reclaim the scroll; his gaze toward Meihuo Uchiha grew more intense and coercive.

"Meihuo Uchiha, are you going to defy the orders of the Anbu?"

Shinnosuke Sarutobi used his authority as Anbu Captain to pressure him.

This caused the tomoe in Meihuo Uchiha's eyes to spin wildly; was this familiar tactic not one of the methods described in the second step of the scroll?

Using the "greater good" of the village's interests to constantly oppress the Uchiha Clan.

"Tomoya! Shinichi! Activate your Sharingan! Copy it!"

Meihuo Uchiha had no intention of clashing head-on with Shinnosuke Sarutobi; instead, he ordered the two Uchiha Clan ninjas behind him to copy the intelligence on the scroll.

"Shinnosuke Sarutobi, you had better keep this scroll safe for us!"

Meihuo Uchiha's voice was filled with chill. He could give him the physical object, but the information it contained was the most important intelligence, and they had already secured it.

This scroll would serve its purpose far better in the hands of the Konoha high command.

He wanted to see exactly what attitude the Konoha leadership held toward their Uchiha Clan.

Shinnosuke Sarutobi frowned; Meihuo Uchiha's change in behavior was beyond his expectations.

Based on his understanding of Meihuo Uchiha, he would not surrender so easily.

There was only one possibility: the scroll contained a trap.

Because he was further from the scroll than Meihuo Uchiha and lacked a Kekkei Genkai like the Sharingan, he had only seen the title.

He wanted to stop them, but it was already too late.

The other two Uchiha Clan ninjas had activated their two-tomoe Sharingan, which was sufficient to copy such intelligence.

He felt a momentary urge to kill, but after a brief calculation, he abandoned the thought.

He was not confident he could kill three elite Uchiha Clan ninjas in this location.

At the same time, he realized this was a conspiracy directed at the Sarutobi Clan.

How could a spy from Kumogakure appear within their own territory, carrying secret Konoha intelligence that even he was unaware of?

"I will keep it safe. In time, the Hokage will explain everything to you personally!"

Shinnosuke Sarutobi was even more curious about the contents of the scroll; the title was simply too shocking.

Regardless, the Uchiha Clan was a noble family with a thousand-year heritage and one of the founding clans of Konoha.

Could they really be wiped out so easily?

"Move!"

Meihuo Uchiha issued the order, leading his clansmen to turn and leave.

The intelligence in this scroll needed to be sent back, and they had to discuss how to respond.

If what the scroll said was true, the clan was already facing a major problem.

He felt even more hatred in his heart for those traitors who bit the hand that fed them.

After the group left, Shinnosuke Sarutobi finally approached the corpse.

Before he even touched the scroll, its contents were already seared into his mind.

"Damn it!"

Only then did Shinnosuke Sarutobi realize why Meihuo Uchiha's attitude had shifted so drastically!

This intelligence was a massive bomb!

And it was a bomb he had snatched back with his own hands!

He picked up the scroll and headed toward the Sarutobi Clan, rather than the Hokage's office.

Anbu would soon arrive to clean up the aftermath of this explosion.

But the true shockwaves had only just begun.

In the distance, Shinichi Hyuga pierced through layers of obstacles, witnessing the conflict between Shinnosuke Sarutobi and Meihuo Uchiha.

"How wonderful! The dog owner participating is no different from the dog participating."

The changes within the Uchiha Clan would provide him with enough time to persuade the Daimyo of the Land of Fire.

The power structure of this world revealed to him the hidden dangers within Konoha.

The contradiction between the Daimyo and the Kage had always existed.

The village and the country were nothing more than a stitched-together monstrosity.

This was precisely the loophole that Shinichi Hyuga could exploit.

Inside the Uchiha Clan.

At this time, the Uchiha Clan's compound still occupied the center of Konoha, not that remote corner where one needed to consume a military ration pill just to walk through the front gate.

Bursts of arguing erupted from the Uchiha Clan's meeting room.

Both the Hawk Faction and the Dove Faction were debating the intelligence brought back by Meihuo Uchiha.

In the end, they determined that regardless of whether it was true or false, the events described were already unfolding; the oppression Konoha had placed upon their clan was laid bare in that moment.

They finally reached a consensus.

That was to gather the clansmen and ensure their own survival.

Order after order was sent out, and the Uchiha Clan ninjas performing missions across the Ninja World began to assemble.

When everything had finally settled, Shisui Uchiha, that member of the Dog Faction, arrived fashionably late.

This time, the attitude of the Uchiha Clan toward him was no longer what it had been before.

Instead, it was filled with wariness, and in the hearts of some, he was even regarded as a hypothetical enemy.

According to the intelligence, Shisui Uchiha was very likely the person who would annihilate the Uchiha Clan.

At the same time, he was the dog of the Third Hokage.

Fugaku Uchiha hid in the shadows, still feeling fortunate that Shisui Uchiha was there to draw the fire.

Otherwise, he would have been the one branded a dog!

The Sarutobi Clan.

When the Third Hokage saw that his foolish son had actually snatched back a massive bomb, he was shocked by the contents of the scroll.

Wasn't this exactly what he was doing himself?

He then hurriedly dragged Shinnosuke Sarutobi toward the Hokage's office.

Now that Minato Namikaze was the Hokage to take the heat, why should he be the one charging into the fray?

After Minato Namikaze saw the intelligence, he felt a splitting headache.

Summon the elders for a council.

Everyone knew deep down that although the source of this intelligence was questionable, the content itself was a viable, ongoing plan.

At the same time, they remained wary of the unusual movements within the Uchiha Clan.

It was then that Minato Namikaze took the initiative, proposing to have a talk with Fugaku Uchiha.

Shinichi Hyuga watched from the shadows, deducing the unfolding of the entire event.

He sold the intelligence regarding the plan to exterminate the Uchiha Clan to the Bounty Office.

Within Konoha, a new rumor began to replace the one concerning the Hyuga Clan.

Everything was going according to plan.

He felt nothing but contempt for the Uchiha Clan; they knew the blade was already at their throats, yet they dared not even resist.

The Uchiha Clan knew only how to protest, yet they took no practical action whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Shinichi Hyuga also received an invitation from the Fourth Hokage to attend their so-called high-level meeting.