A Lively Konoha Had No Place for the Uchiha

In the summer of Year 47 of Konoha, ten years had passed since the Second Shinobi World War. The Five Great Ninja Villages, each licking its wounds in seclusion, were growing increasingly restless.

Time seemed to be the best medicine in the world. No matter how brutal the Second Shinobi World War had been, ten years of peace were enough for everyone to forget the pain it had brought.

By now, dissatisfaction with the outcome of the last war was growing in every major village. The victors felt they had been too lenient in their demands, while the defeated believed the unfair treaties weighing them down were like mountains that needed to be toppled.

The survivors of the older generation, who had lived through the war, now held positions of power. They wanted to use what little time they had left to secure lasting peace and room for their villages to survive.

The younger generation longed to distinguish themselves on the battlefield and become heroes admired by all.

Under the sway of such thinking, every village seemed full of life.

This situation did not depend on any one person's will. Whether they wanted to or not, once one village began acting to pursue these ambitions, the others had no choice but to respond.

At first, it all seemed rather comical. The Third of Konoha had become the strongest Hokage, so every village began praising its own historically "strongest Kage!"

The strongest A-B Combo, the strongest Kazekage, the most formidable Tsuchikage, Ōnoki of Both Scales, and so on.

It was hard to understand who they were measuring their so-called strength against.

But it also showed how much confidence all the shinobi had in their own villages.

And so, once this profession of endurance gained great power, shinobi stopped enduring altogether.

Small-scale conflicts broke out constantly, but there was something peculiar about them. They seemed to follow an unspoken understanding, and their scale was kept within the limits each Kage considered acceptable.

The Kage of every village believed these minor clashes were not life-or-death wars, but merely a way to demonstrate their capabilities.

They all understood that conflicts were meant to determine who was stronger, while wars decided who lived and who died.

But how could these seemingly childish contests, where no one was supposed to die, easily determine who came out on top?

Bloodshed was inevitable.

But that didn't matter. The sacrifice of individuals seemed insignificant compared to the interests of an entire village.

What mattered was that, through these conflicts, every village produced its own heroes.

At that moment, Konoha was filled with cheers. The villagers were celebrating as if it were a festival, swept up in the festivities.

It was the day their hero returned to the village. They were "spontaneously" welcoming their village's hero home.

That hero was a shinobi who had risen from the ranks of the common people, the pride of Konoha, the "Yellow Flash" Minato Namikaze.

A big village naturally had all sorts of people. Minato Namikaze had earned his place in the shinobi world, yet there were still ordinary people in Konoha who didn't know who he was.

Some had heard of him but never seen him, while others had never even heard his name.

That was understandable. Years later, when the renowned Sannin Jiraiya returned to the village, most of the villagers wouldn't recognize him either.

But today was different. Whether or not you had known Minato Namikaze before, from now on, as a citizen of Konoha, you were sure to know him.

Every so often, someone in the crowd would tell those who didn't know about Minato Namikaze's accomplishments.

Soon, everyone in Konoha had heard the news.

They heard that he had just driven off A and Killer Bee of the Cloud Ninja Village. A was the leading candidate for the future Raikage, and this feat had added a bold, impressive stroke to Minato Namikaze's record.

They also heard he was a strong contender for Fourth Hokage.

Everyone knew A would become the next Raikage. If our future Fourth Hokage was stronger than the Cloud Ninja Village's future Fourth Raikage, didn't that mean Konoha was stronger than Kumogakure?

They had also heard that the major villages all acknowledged the Yellow Flash's strength. Anyone who encountered him could abandon their mission on the spot. Few people could inspire that kind of response.

Besides, Minato Namikaze had come from the village's commoner shinobi. Sharing the same background as someone like him filled all the villagers with pride.

It was as if, because Minato Namikaze was a commoner shinobi and they were commoners too, they could achieve whatever he had achieved.

In short, today we were all Minato.

Of course, it was impossible to know how many of those cheers came from a real sense of kinship, and how many people didn't care about that at all, but were simply joining the crowd and looking for an excuse to attend a grand celebration.

All in all, it seemed as if an unseen hand had stirred the emotions of the entire village, and those feelings had pushed Minato Namikaze's reputation to its peak.

But people never shared the same joys and sorrows. There was always somewhere that stood apart from the rest of the world.

Uchiha Kei stood on the roof of a house in a remote corner of the Uchiha district, watching it all with cold eyes.

It wasn't that he had anything against Minato Namikaze. He was quite happy to see someone who had been famous for so long.

But life was full of things one couldn't help. Even if you were reincarnated into a manga world, losing everything from your previous life, the helplessness of being human still followed you.

The entire Uchiha Clan was shunned by the village, and he was an elder of one Uchiha branch. Though he was only a teenager, he represented the two hundred or so Uchiha behind him. Every smile or glance of his could be overanalyzed by those with an agenda.

Under these circumstances, how could he casually show what he was feeling?

When you weren't alone and had to take responsibility for one branch of the Uchiha Clan, with yourself at its head, you couldn't help being cautious about every word and action.

That was why the young man before them seemed more mature than his years.

Uchiha Kei wasn't the head of the Uchiha Clan, only the head of one branch. The clan leader was still Uchiha Fugaku, Uchiha Itachi's father.

At present, the Uchiha Clan had more than eight hundred people besides Uchiha Kei's branch. Apart from a few who had joined the festivities despite being idiots, like Obito and Shisui, everyone else looked as if they had just eaten rat droppings.

After all, the Uchiha's authority came from the Konoha Military Police Force, whose duty was to maintain public order in the village. A mass gathering of this scale clearly raised public-order concerns.

The Military Police Force's regulations clearly stated that such gatherings had to be reported in advance.

Any Uchiha with a brain knew that a gathering of this size hadn't been arranged on the spur of the moment. It had to have been organized ahead of time.

But the Konoha Military Police Force had not only received no advance notice; they had no idea what was happening until the streets suddenly filled with people on the day of the gathering.

That alone could be overlooked. It wasn't the first time. These same people had welcomed the White Fang of the Leaf like this, too.

The Uchiha Clan and the Hatake Clan had clashed over that incident.

But that didn't matter either. The Uchiha Clan had never gotten along with any of Konoha's shinobi clans, including the Senju Clan.

So what? The strongest clan in the Shinobi World had to act like it. How could they associate with vermin?

That wasn't what disgusted the Uchiha. What disgusted them were Konoha's elders.

On the day of the incident, one of the two Hokage Advisors came forward and demanded that the Military Police Force maintain public order, or face consequences. The other then ordered the force not to interfere with a gathering spontaneously organized by the people, or go against the villagers' wishes.

Wasn't that taking things a little too far?

Yes, the Uchiha who had talent were all madmen, but madmen weren't fools.

Weren't the Hokage Advisors being a little too blatant about targeting the Uchiha?

That was the attitude of Konoha that truly disgusted the entire Uchiha Clan. Konoha no longer even bothered to hide the ways it bullied them.

Now, counting Uchiha Kei's branch, the Uchiha numbered a little over a thousand. The only two who could take part in this celebration were a pair of idiots, one of whom was Shisui, who was so good at fighting that he had already earned the name Body Flicker Shisui.

The only other two who could keep their faces expressionless were the clan leader, Uchiha Fugaku, and the elder, Uchiha Kei.

Uchiha Fugaku's expression remained blank because he had placed the Uchiha's hopes in the future. He believed that if they could just outlast the Third's dark rule and work to build good relations with anyone who might become the Fourth Hokage, the Uchiha would eventually become part of the village for real.

Minato Namikaze, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya were all within Uchiha Fugaku's circle of friends.

Tsunade didn't count. She was the most legitimate heir, yet somehow also the least legitimate. Fugaku didn't know exactly why, but the fact that she didn't bear the Senju name was enough to tell him there had to be a secret about her.

He didn't know what that secret was, but every great clan had its share of ugly business.

Besides, the clan had lost its heir, and the entire family had disappeared from the village. The Uchiha had no reason to invest in it.

It was clear that Uchiha Fugaku, with his tough-guy face and hawkish appearance, was a complete dove at heart, filled with the instinct to surrender.

Fortunately, he had a knack for keeping the peace by balancing both sides, and he was quite good at it.

Otherwise, if Uchiha Kei had known he was that kind of person, he suspected most of the Uchiha wouldn't have wanted him to become clan leader.

Unfortunately, Fugaku's face and voice were so deceptive.

Even with his mouth closed, he looked fiercely intimidating. The moment he opened it, you felt that if you didn't agree to his demands, he would fight you to the death.

Given the circumstances of the time, the Uchiha needed a strong clan leader more than anything.

Back then, in the face of Uchiha Madara's "defection" and the Hokage's suppression, the long-subdued Uchiha Clan had finally erupted into civil war.

Although the battle had given rise to one of the Uchiha Clan's great forbidden techniques, Izanami, which specifically countered Izanagi, both the doves and the hawks suffered heavy losses. In the eyes of Konoha's other shinobi clans, the Uchiha had even lost the title of the village's most powerful clan.

The Hyuga Clan rose to prominence after that.

That was the battle of Izanami and Izanagi in Uchiha history.

It was also known as the Conflict of the Abyss and Yellow Springs.

The Uchiha refused to accept that they were no longer the strongest clan.

What did they mean, the strongest clan in Konoha? Wrong. They were the strongest clan in the Shinobi World.

The Uchiha Clan longed to reclaim its former glory and desperately needed a strong clan leader to put everything in order.

So Fugaku, who naturally had the face of a big brother, rose to the position.

Every Uchiha was ready to follow this tough man and restore the clan's reputation throughout the Shinobi World. They were willing to give their lives for it.

Who could have guessed that after taking the reins, this big brother would put on the toughest front while constantly making compromises? For the survival and continuation of his people, he could compromise on anything.

It was nothing like what the Uchiha had imagined.

If the clan leader's art of compromise hadn't placated Konoha while also winning the Uchiha benefits, they would have rebelled long ago.

And under those circumstances, Uchiha Fugaku's hold on the clan leadership grew ever more secure.

He also believed that sooner or later, he would lead the Uchiha back into Konoha's big family. The opportunity would come when the Third stepped down and a Fourth Hokage took office with Uchiha support.

Then the Uchiha would never have to face injustice again.

Fugaku believed this without a doubt. After all, he was a young, strong clan leader. Surely he could outlast the Third, an old man. Time was the fairest thing of all, and the advantage was his.

Uchiha Kei was grateful to a clan leader like that.

He was grateful for Fugaku's indecisiveness and his talent for passing the buck.

Otherwise, Kei wouldn't have risen so smoothly.

If Fugaku had been even a little more decisive, Uchiha Kei would have been doomed back then.

Thinking of that, Uchiha Kei, who had been forcing himself to keep a blank expression, couldn't quite match Uchiha Fugaku's natural poker face. He finally laughed.

His laugh wasn't loud, but it drew hostile looks from the Uchiha around him.

Everyone else was seething over Konoha's unfair treatment, and here was an Uchiha elder laughing. What did he mean by that?

Was it just his opinion, or did his entire branch feel the same way?

Many Uchiha looked toward Uchiha Kei, scrutinizing him with all kinds of expressions.

Uchiha Kei didn't care much. Over the years, he had learned to take a lot in stride.

The advantage of being an important person was that someone would always step in to solve your problems. Uchiha Gen, the leader of the Iga Group who served under Kei, was good at easing his superior's burdens.

"Lord Kei, has something good happened? You're smiling so happily."

Given her position and standing under Kei, the question wasn't out of place. On the surface, it was just a subordinate the leader trusted most making small talk with him. In reality, she was giving him a chance to explain his inappropriate behavior in public to the clan.

Humans were social creatures, after all.

Kei seemed to have thought of something even funnier.

"Gen, do you think Kumogakure is holding a grand welcome ceremony too, to greet its heroes, A and Killer Bee? I just wonder if they have any unlucky fools there like we do."

Their conversation was quiet, but shinobi had far better hearing than ordinary people. Even the ordinary clan members who hadn't heard them would be told by the shinobi who had.

After a brief silence, the entire Uchiha Clan burst into laughter.

The Anbu monitoring the Uchiha's movements found it inexplicable.

Amid the laughter, Uchiha Kei disappeared into the crowd.

"Ah, I'm still too weak. I even have to worry about what my clan thinks. That's not very spirited at all. Time to draw another batch and bring more of my own people into the fold."

Hand over your votes!

You really don't understand war, do you? Wars don't erupt out of nowhere. They have causes and consequences; one event just ignites them and turns them into world wars! Does that mean there were no conflicts before that?