"Fine! The family's future can only depend on me!"
Uchiha Ming thought to himself, then changed the subject and said, "Then are we, the Uchiha Clan, supposed to just admit defeat and let the clan's dignity be swept into the dust?!"
"Of course not!"
"Yeah! How could that be possible?!"
"We merely need to consider it carefully!"
"..."
Seeing Uchiha Ming steer the discussion toward the Uchiha Clan's illustrious reputation, passed down for a thousand years, everyone waved their hands in refusal. They neither agreed nor objected, instead employing a stalling tactic.
Uchiha Ming's brows drew tightly together. No matter how hard he thought about it, he could not understand why these elders were so indecisive, as though they feared the Tsuchigumo Clan. Had the Uchiha Clan truly declined to such a state that they did not even dare retaliate against some insignificant Tsuchigumo Clan?
"Sure enough, with vermin like them in the family, how could they possibly manage it properly?" Uchiha Ming roared angrily to himself. The scene before he had left the Hokage's office kept flashing through his mind.
At the time, before the future Second Hokage—Tobirama Senju—he had solemnly promised that once he returned to the clan, he would bring glory and prosperity to it. He would make the Tsuchigumo Clan, which had dared challenge Konoha and the Uchiha Clan, pay the price and let them know Konoha's might.
Yet reality dealt him a crushing blow. After returning to the Uchiha Clan and proposing this retaliation, not a single elder agreed. He had even brought out all the intelligence on the Tsuchigumo Clan.
Even with conclusive evidence in hand, these clan elders still hesitated, not daring to take action.
This was simply the greatest humiliation of the Uchiha Clan!
Uchiha Ming's heart brimmed with fury and unwillingness.