In the Hokage's Office, Hiruzen Sarutobi sat rigidly in his broad chair. The pipe slipped soundlessly from his fingers and struck the cold floor with a sharp clack.
On the Canopy Screen, he had watched the brilliant young genius he loved like his own son—Shisui Uchiha.
He had watched Shisui driven into a corner, tear out his own eye, and fall into a bottomless abyss with that heartbreaking smile on his face.
"Shisui..."
His cracked lips moved soundlessly, but no words came out.
That child, so steadfast in his beliefs, who had inherited the true Will of Fire... was dead.
He had not died on a mission or at an enemy's hands.
He had died in... Konoha's darkness.
In the darkness that the village under Hiruzen Sarutobi's leadership had failed to root out—and, to some extent, had allowed to exist.
Grief crashed against his heart like a tidal wave. A beautiful life had been cut short.
Even at the very end, Shisui had been thinking of "protecting the village" and "the Uchiha name."
Yet guilt and self-doubt surged heavier than grief, threatening to drown him.
I was the one... I was the one who failed him.
If only I'd stood firmer against Danzo.
If only I'd moved faster to ease the Uchiha's grievances.
If only I hadn't allowed Root to exist, hadn't let that darkness grow beneath the sun.
Every if only was a blunt knife sawing at his conscience.
He had seen Danzo's obsession. He had understood the Uchiha's plight. Yet he had kept hesitating, searching for an impossible balance between "the greater good" and "compromise."
And what had come of it? The young man he admired most had been driven to his death by the comrade he trusted most!
In that moment, the mantle of "Hokage" felt laughably hollow to Hiruzen Sarutobi.
He preached the Will of Fire, yet could not protect a genius from his own village.
The peace he upheld could apparently survive only by devouring its finest young people.
He could almost see Shisui's final smile as he fell. It had not been a farewell. It was a question—one that challenged his weakness, his policies, and the worth of a "peaceful" Konoha built upon countless sacrifices in the dark.
The office fell silent. Hiruzen Sarutobi sat alone in the shadows, his hunched back making him look as though he had aged ten years in an instant.
He reached out, his hand trembling as he tried to pick up the pipe, but in the end, it fell weakly to his side.
Shisui's death was more than the loss of a genius.
It was a mirror reflecting every helpless choice, compromise, and failure of Hiruzen Sarutobi's years in power. It showed the darkness beneath Konoha's seemingly bright surface—a darkness he could no longer ignore.
He slowly closed his eyes. At last, two trails of tears slipped silently down his weathered cheeks.
In the Mizukage Office, Mei Terumi watched the scene and sighed inwardly. What a waste. Another handsome young Uchiha killed by that scheming old bastard Shimura Danzō!
The Canopy Screen cared nothing for how anyone felt. The next day, it began its broadcast right on time.
[On-screen, the largest underground meeting hall at Naka Shrine was brightly lit by candles. Even so, its feverish atmosphere seemed to reach straight through the screen.]
[Fugaku Uchiha stood before the seat of honor, his face weary and grave. He tried one last time to calm his clansmen, who were close to boiling over:]
["Please, wait a little longer! Shisui has already gone to negotiate with the Hokage. What we need is time, not reckless action!"]
["Wait? How much longer are we supposed to wait?" First Elder Setsuna Uchiha shot to his feet and slammed his cane against the floor. His voice was hoarse but rousing.]
["Until Danzo's Root has a blade at every one of our throats? Until the Konoha Leadership's so-called 'final ultimatum' takes effect? Fugaku! Your hesitation and weakness are leading the clan to ruin!"]
["Exactly!" the Second Elder added sharply. "Shisui said he would attend this meeting, but there's been no word from him! Itachi is missing too! What are you still counting on? The enemy's mercy?!"]
[The crowd erupted. Cries of "Coup! Launch the Coup now!" rose from every side, nearly lifting the roof.]
[Fugaku Uchiha felt a deep helplessness. His clansmen's emotions had been set ablaze. Words could no longer calm them.]
[Just then, a smile of certain victory appeared on the First Elder's face.
[He thrust his right hand high, holding a strange remote control that gleamed with dark blue light—the "token" Morpheus had left them.]
["Fugaku! And all you clansmen who have been kept in the dark! Did you think we came unprepared? Did you think I'd blindly send you against all of Konoha?"]
[The First Elder's voice sharpened with excitement. "Look! See the power we possess! See what real hope looks like!"]
[He jabbed a button on the remote control.]
[Hummm—!]
[A beam of blue light burst from the device and enveloped a radical Uchiha Chunin in the crowd—one who had been placed there in advance!]
["Aaagh—!" The Chunin let out a low roar, not of pain but of power surging through him!]
[The next instant, an astonishing change took place! His muscles swelled, and veins bulged beneath his skin!]
[Then he snatched out a kunai. Without even forming a hand sign, he hurled it forward on the strength of his body alone!]
[Whoosh—!]
[The kunai tore through the air with a piercing shriek. Moving too fast for the eye to follow, it punched through a massive stone pillar in the distance, one so broad it would take two people to encircle it!]
[Stone fragments flew everywhere! The force, speed, and precision were far beyond what a Chunin should have been capable of—nearly on par with a Special Jonin who specialized in Taijutsu!]
[The entire hall fell silent! Everyone stared, stunned by the impossible sight!]
["Did you... did you see that?!" The First Elder's face flushed with excitement, and his voice trembled. "That is the power of the Uchiha!"]
["We can create powerful fighters in an instant! And we have an endless supply of weapons! Fugaku! What reason do you have left to stop us?!"]
[Fugaku Uchiha's face turned white as paper.]
[He looked at the clansman, whose eyes burned with even greater fervor after his surge in strength, then at the Four Elders and the ambition and madness mingled on their faces.
[He looked at the flames called "hope" now blazing in the eyes of his clansmen, and his heart sank into a bottomless abyss.]
[He could not understand what was happening. Had the Four Elders found some artifacts left behind by the Uchiha?]
[After all, the treasury passed down through generations of the Uchiha had always been guarded by the Four Elders together. Even he, the clan head, needed the approval of all four to enter.]
[Now Itachi and Shisui were both absent. He no longer had even that last support.]
[Fugaku Uchiha knew he could no longer stop them.]
[Resistance would only plunge the Uchiha into immediate infighting and division.]
[A suffocating despair seized him.]
[But his duty as clan head drove him to make one final attempt.]
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