Quite a few Uchiha clan members, weary of Konoha's internal strife and subjected to prolonged suppression, had begun privately discussing leaving Konoha.
Some wanted to leave alone.
Some wanted to take their families and establish a new settlement.
Some even suggested establishing a separate branch outside, leaving the Uchiha clan a way out.
This gave Fugaku a terrible headache.
Yet between the lines, there was not the slightest hint of him urging Lie Yang to return.
Lie Yang remained silent for a long while after reading the final line.
Kurenai Yuhi watched his profile.
"What did he say?"
"About Konoha's situation."
"And?"
Lie Yang folded the letter.
"Some within the Uchiha want to leave Konoha."
Kurenai Yuhi frowned.
"Because of you?"
"Only because I showed them that leaving Konoha was not necessarily a dead end."
"Fugaku is very worried."
"He isn't worried about the clan members defecting."
Lie Yang lightly tapped the letter with his fingers.
"He is worried that the clan members will be driven into a corner by Konoha before they are prepared."
Kurenai Yuhi said nothing.
Lie Yang had already seen through Fugaku's true intentions.
The Senju clan had gradually declined.
The Uzumaki clan had been completely destroyed.
Meanwhile, under Konoha's years of exclusion and suppression, the Uchiha had increasingly become like a taut string.
Fugaku knew very well that Konoha's balance would break sooner or later.
He lacked the ability to take the entire Uchiha away, nor did he dare rashly launch a coup.
So, he needed a fallback hidden outside the village.
Lie Yang's existence happened to make that fallback possible.
As long as a branch of Uchiha blood continued outside, the clan would not be wiped out by Konoha in a single sweep one day.
Fugaku claimed to have a headache, but he might