Ren did not lose his temper at Inabi's roar. He simply regarded the senior Military Police Force officer who was trying to defend the established order.
Veins bulged on the back of Inabi's hand as he gripped his ninja blade, but the kunai pressed against his neck kept him from moving.
"Fabricating lies? Trying to seize power?"
"Inabi, your vision is as limited as your strength. It's pathetic."
Ren paid Inabi no further attention. He turned to face the hundred-odd Uchiha gathered there.
"Many of you, including our lofty Clan Leader, have been carrying a question you could never resolve."
Amplified by chakra, Ren's voice carried across the entire gathering.
"You keep wondering why the Konoha Leadership targets us like this."
"Why won't they leave the Uchiha alone, no matter how much we yield or compromise? Have we really done something wrong?"
The room fell utterly silent. Everyone held their breath.
This was the boulder weighing on every Uchiha's heart, crushing them until they could barely breathe.
Ren paced across the open floor and gave them the answer.
"Today, I'll tell you the truth. Konoha's relentless suppression of our clan..."
"...isn't because we've done something wrong, and it certainly isn't without reason."
"First, there's the legacy of history. Years ago, Madara Uchiha defected from Konoha and fought the First at the Valley of the End."
"From that moment on, a seed of suspicion took root in the hearts of the Konoha Leadership, one they could never uproot."
"In their eyes, the Uchiha Clan is inherently evil. Betrayal runs in our blood!"
"Second, there's the threat we pose today!"
"Have you all forgotten what appeared in that beast's eyes during the Nine-Tails' Attack a few years ago?"
"It was the pattern of the Mangekyō Sharingan! Regardless of who actually controlled the Nine-Tails, the Konoha Leadership has already charged that blood debt to the Uchiha. Nothing can wash it away."
"Third, and most importantly, there's the fundamental reason!"
Ren stopped pacing.
"It's the sheer strength of our clan. We possess the strongest kekkei genkai in the Shinobi World. We possess terrifying combat power that can easily decide the outcome of a war."
"That strength, completely beyond their control, is what the leadership fears most!"
Sharp gasps rang out.
People in the crowd sucked in breaths.
Many of the younger clan members exchanged looks.
They had always thought people hated them because they enforced the law too harshly. They had never considered the issue from this broader political perspective.
Ren spread his hands, his voice echoing through the basement.
"To be completely honest, if I were the Hokage today..."
"...and I faced a clan capable of controlling tailed beasts, a clan that had once produced an unmatched warrior who betrayed the village, and whose combined strength could overthrow the village government, I would fear it too."
"I would suppress it without hesitation too. That is the most basic instinct of anyone in power."
His words sent the entire gathering into an uproar.
"Lord Ren, how... how can you speak for the leadership?"
One young clan member could not accept it.
Ren lifted his head. Violent chakra erupted from his body, its pressure making the air in the basement hum.
"Speak for them? No!"
Ren raised his voice.
"I'm telling you a brutal truth. Konoha fears us because we're too strong."
"But are we wrong? No!"
Ren threw his arms wide and roared toward the ceiling.
"If strength is a crime, then we Uchiha are beyond forgiveness!"
Those words exploded in every Uchiha's mind, stirring towering waves!
If strength was a crime, then the Uchiha were beyond forgiveness!
Those words struck the pride that had long lain buried in the Uchiha Clan's very bones!
The young clan members felt their blood rush to their heads. Their eyes reddened, and their Three-Tomoe Sharingan spun uncontrollably, blazing with red light.
The forty-three elite shinobi Ren had personally trained were swept into a frenzy.
"That's right! We Uchiha are the strongest!"
"Why should we apologize for our own strength?"
Even the conservative elders, usually so meek and forever preaching peace,
could not help clenching their fists. The fire of Uchiha pride rekindled in their clouded eyes.
With just a single sentence, Ren
had swept away all the frustration and humiliation that had burdened the clan for years!
Just as the atmosphere reached its peak, Ren changed the subject.
He turned and thrust his arm straight out, pointing directly at Fugaku Uchiha in the seat of honor.
"Konoha's fear of our strength is instinctive. But—"
Ren's voice turned cold.
"The one who emboldened them to turn that fear into unchecked persecution, who let them brazenly hold a butcher's blade to our throats, is you. Our Clan Leader, Fugaku Uchiha!"
The entire gathering went quiet.
Then an even fiercer uproar erupted.
"What?!"
"The Clan Leader is to blame?"
The conservative clan members angrily protested.
"Ren, you've gone too far! The Clan Leader has devoted everything to this clan, enduring humiliation and making concessions. How can you slander him like this?"
Meanwhile, the hardliners, including Yashiro, frowned, caught between confusion and thought.
They resented Fugaku's weakness,
but they could not immediately understand the logic behind calling him the chief culprit in the clan's desperate situation.
In the seat of honor, Fugaku Uchiha could no longer maintain his usual composure. He stood, his chest heaving with fury.
He stared at Ren as all his pent-up grievances erupted, demanding sharply,
"Ren, stop making these vicious accusations."
"Ever since I, Fugaku Uchiha, became Clan Leader, I have yielded at every turn to preserve our clan, treading as carefully as if on thin ice."
"I will never admit that I drove this clan into a corner. You must explain yourself today. What exactly did I do wrong?!"
Fugaku's voice brimmed with bitter indignation.
He had endured countless grievances and borne the stigma of weakness for the clan's sake,
and now he was being branded the chief culprit. He simply could not accept it.
"What did you do wrong? Fine. Today, I'll tear away that fig leaf and make sure you understand what condemned you!"
Ren strode forward, pressing closer with every step, his powerful presence bearing down on Fugaku.
"Your disastrous decisions are too numerous to list."
"Let's start with the source of every tragedy—the night of the Nine-Tails' Attack!"
Ren stared into Fugaku's eyes and demanded, enunciating every word,
"Tell me. That night, all of Konoha faced annihilation. Countless civilians and shinobi bled and died. Everyone was risking their lives to support Minato Namikaze."
"So why did we Uchiha, the clan with the greatest combat strength in the village, do nothing?! Why didn't a single one of us appear on the battlefield?!"
Faced with that soul-piercing question, Fugaku defended himself loudly.
"Do you think I didn't want to help?! ANBU and Root had our clan grounds completely surrounded."
"And Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi personally issued a strict order for the Military Police Force to remain in the clan grounds and evacuate civilians. We were forbidden to approach the Nine-Tails!"
Fugaku grew more agitated as he spoke, determined to vent all the frustration in his heart.
"Besides, the Nine-Tails had the Sharingan pattern in its eyes."
"Our entire clan was suspected of controlling it. If we had rashly appeared on the battlefield, the leadership would only have become more convinced that we were responsible."
"I ordered us to stay behind to protect the clan from being branded rebels!"
"Utterly stupid!"
After hearing Fugaku's defense, Ren laughed aloud, his laughter dripping with scorn and contempt.
"Surrounded by ANBU? The Third Hokage's orders? Fugaku, did a dog eat your brain?!"
Ren rebutted him sharply, his voice echoing through the hall.
"The man in the Hokage Building who actually held supreme command at the time was Minato Namikaze."
"He was Konoha's legitimate leader. Instead of supporting the rightful Hokage, you obeyed an old man who had already stepped down? Who exactly were you pledging your loyalty to?!"
Fugaku jolted, struck speechless by those words.
Ren gave him no room to breathe, crushing him with relentless logic.
"And that suspicion you mentioned is utterly laughable."
"Precisely because we were suspected of controlling the Nine-Tails, that night was our best opportunity to clear our name. Our only opportunity!"
Ren swept out his hand, pointing at the dumbstruck clan members.
"If you'd had even a shred of resolve, you would have led every clan member who had awakened the Sharingan straight through ANBU's blockade and onto the front line."
"Even if we had used our ocular power to suppress the Nine-Tails, even if half our elite shinobi had died that night..."
"...as long as we had shed blood, as long as we had risked our lives for the village, who would have dared suspect the Uchiha afterward?! Who would have had the gall?!"
The room was silent. Only Ren's deafening roar echoed through it.
"But what did you do? You chose to hide inside your shell!"
"Your decision to stay behind didn't just cost us our only chance to clear our name. It made the Uchiha detached spectators on a night when the entire village was bleeding and dying."
"You showed the Ino-Shika-Cho, the Hyuga, and all those civilians and shinobi who had lost family and comrades that while the whole village was holding funerals, only the Uchiha had escaped unscathed!"
"Your foolish decision completely severed the Uchiha from the village."
"You directly brought every clan's and every civilian's hostility down upon us."
"You turned the Uchiha into an isolated island, abandoned by everyone. If you aren't the chief culprit, who is?!"
Those tightly reasoned accusations tore every one of Fugaku's pretenses and excuses to shreds.
Throughout the basement of the Naka Shrine, every clan member listened with cold sweat pouring down their skin.
As though waking from a long dream, they recalled the villagers' hateful gazes over the past few years,
and the deliberate distance other shinobi clans had kept from them. At last, they understood the root of it all.
"So... that's what happened..."
Yashiro and the other hardliners turned ashen. The fervor in their eyes gave way to profound regret.
They finally understood that the man who had brought the clan to its current plight really was the Clan Leader they had always followed.
Fugaku stumbled back three steps. His legs weakened, and he collapsed into his chair.
His lips trembled violently, but he could not utter a single word in rebuttal.
Ren's words had completely shattered the last line of defense in his heart.
Fugaku was on the verge of breaking down, and the fury ignited throughout the clan was about to consume him.
At that critical moment, the second elder rose from his seat on the raised platform.
Leaning on his cane, he pointed at Ren and shouted,
"Ren, hold your tongue! The decision that night was not the Clan Leader's alone. It was the result of a joint deliberation by our Elders Council!"
Before you continue