The relocation order meant more than moving

On the first day after the Nine-Tails' Attack, Konoha looked like a village that had been brutally hollowed out.

Charred wooden beams and rubble littered the streets.

The medical stations were packed with wounded people, while ninja and ordinary villagers cleared debris together. The weeping was less piercing than it had been last night, but deeper, more muffled, like a stone pressing down on everyone's chest.

The Uchiha Clan Compound had not truly settled down either.

The clan members had stayed awake all night. Some were compiling rescue lists, some were checking which members had taken part in the rescue efforts, and others were watching over the records sent back from South Street.

They knew the Nine-Tails' Attack was over.

But for the Uchiha, something far more dangerous was only just beginning.

That morning, an order from Konoha High Command arrived at the Clan District.

The messenger ninja did not enter the clan meeting hall. He simply handed the scroll to a member of the Konoha Military Police Force and hurried away. The scroll was thin, yet the moment it was unrolled, the mood in the hall darkened.

High Command demanded that the Uchiha cooperate with post-disaster security adjustments.

The justification was worded politely.

The village's central district had suffered extensive damage, and the Konoha Military Police Force needed to rebuild its stations on the outskirts to facilitate coordinated deployment and centralized security measures, and to prevent misunderstandings during the investigation into the Nine-Tails Incident.

There was no mention of "expulsion."

Nor was there any mention of "isolation."

It was merely relocation, merely an adjustment, merely for the village's safety.

But after reading the scroll, Uchiha Gen felt nothing but an icy chill.

Here it was.

It had come a little later than in the original course of fate, but it had come all the same.

Danzo had failed to pin the blame firmly on the Uchiha at the first meeting, but he had still pushed them down that all-too-familiar path.

Move the Uchiha to the outskirts, to a place where everyone could more easily suspect them, monitor them, and cut them off.

An elder snapped, "What do they mean by this? We helped with the rescue efforts last night, and now they want us to move?"

Another young clan member gritted his teeth. "This is humiliation!"

"If we'd known, we shouldn't have saved those people last night."

At those words, several people in the hall turned to look.

The clan member who had spoken flushed red, but he did not lower his head.

It was not that he had no conscience.

He simply felt wronged.

After a night of fighting fires and saving lives, all they had received was a relocation order. That was enough to breed resentment in any Uchiha.

Uchiha Fugaku sat at the head of the hall, silent for a long time.

He understood the danger of this scroll better than anyone.

It did not openly accuse them of a crime, so the Uchiha could not firmly refuse on the grounds of a false accusation.

It carried the banner of post-disaster security adjustments, so many people in the village would even consider it reasonable.

And once the Uchiha actually moved to the outskirts, the Konoha Military Police Force would go from the center of the village's law and order to a suspect clan watched from afar.

Standing in the hall, Uchiha Gen suddenly spoke.

"This isn't just a move."

The clan meeting hall fell silent.

Fugaku looked at him. "What did you say?"

"This isn't just a move, nor is it an ordinary adjustment of our stations."

Uchiha Gen looked at the scroll.

"This is the beginning of isolation."

Several elders' expressions shifted.

Someone frowned. "Don't be alarmist."

Uchiha Gen raised his head. "If this is only about rebuilding stations, why does the entire Uchiha Clan District have to move to the outskirts? If it's only to make deployment easier, why not temporarily assign more personnel to the police force instead of making our clan leave the area where we've always lived?"

He paused.

"Once we move out, the Uchiha the villagers see will no longer be the police force that patrols, keeps records, and settles disputes. We'll be a clan living on the outskirts, one High Command has told them to guard against."

Those words made many faces in the hall darken further.

Uchiha Gen did not stop.

"Distance will become an impression. That impression will become rumors. Those rumors will become new evidence."

The elder who had first opposed him said gravely, "Then what do you propose? Defy orders?"

The moment that phrase landed, the atmosphere in the hall tightened.

Defy orders.

With the Nine-Tails' Attack only just over, those words alone were enough to push the Uchiha to the edge of a cliff.

Uchiha Gen shook his head.

"We can't defy orders."

A radical young clan member immediately snapped, "Then we move? They tell us to leave, and we just leave?"

"We can't move immediately either."

"Then what exactly are you saying?"

Uchiha Gen looked at Fugaku.

"Stall."

Fugaku's gaze flickered.

"Use post-disaster reconstruction as a reason to stall."

Uchiha Gen walked to the center of the clan meeting hall, his voice growing steadier.

"What the village needs most right now is manpower. Roads need clearing, the wounded need escorts, missing people need to be registered, food and medicine need distributing, and order needs to be maintained in temporary shelters."

"The Konoha Military Police Force is already responsible for public order within the village."

"We can volunteer to take part in reconstruction. As long as the Uchiha appear on the streets every day, doing things the villagers can see, High Command won't be able to so easily portray us as nothing more than a threat to guard against."

The clan meeting hall was silent.

This approach did not sound like a counterattack.

It even seemed somewhat meek.

The Uchiha volunteering to clear roads, escort people, and distribute supplies?

A radical clan member sneered. "You're telling the Uchiha to suck up to the people who suspect us?"

"This isn't about sucking up."

Uchiha Gen turned toward him.

"It's about letting them see with their own eyes that the Uchiha are still working for the village."

The other man was about to say more, but Uchiha Gen had already continued.

"We saved people last night, so at today's High Command meeting, the claim that the Uchiha stood by and did nothing couldn't simply be accepted."

"If we take part in reconstruction every day from today onward, leaving names and records every day, then the relocation order won't be something High Command can carry out with a single word."

"Because the people they'll be moving will no longer be a silent, suspect clan, but a group helping the village restore order."

A conservative elder frowned. "Won't doing this make the Uchiha look guilty?"

"Silence would look more like guilt."

Uchiha Gen answered without hesitation.

The elder's expression darkened.

But Uchiha Gen did not back down.

"If we had no rescue records from last night, the only thing left at the High Command meeting would have been the Sharingan in the Nine-Tails' eyes."

"If we do nothing today, tomorrow all the villagers will talk about is how the Uchiha are being moved away."

"We can't keep waiting for others to explain things on our behalf."

At those words, Fugaku tapped a finger lightly against the table.

He remembered the question raised in the clan meeting hall last night.

If the Uchiha had no rescue records at all, who would speak for them?

Now the question had taken another form: if the Uchiha did not actively take part in reconstruction, who would prove for them that they still belonged to Konoha?

An older clan member said hesitantly, "Even if the police force goes out to help, the villagers may not appreciate it."

"Of course they won't at first."

Uchiha Gen spoke.

"Some will give us cold looks, some will be afraid, and some will think we're putting on a show. Root may even deliberately spread that claim."

"That's why we can't just do the work. We also need to make the records public."

Uchiha Makoto raised his head.

He was still holding the charcoal pencil he had worn black with writing last night.

Uchiha Gen looked at him.

"Just like last night, record the clan members taking part in reconstruction, the neighborhoods we help, the wounded we escort, the missing people we register, and the supplies we distribute."

"Compile everything once a day, submit it to the police force for filing, and send a copy to the Hokage Building."

An elder immediately said, "Send it to the Hokage Building? Isn't that laying ourselves bare for them?"

"Even if we don't send it, they'll assign people to watch us."

Uchiha Gen spoke calmly.

"Rather than let others secretly write down what we've done, we should write it down openly ourselves."

The clan meeting hall fell silent again.

Those words had no sharp edge, but they were practical.

Fugaku finally spoke. "You want to use public records to hold up the relocation order?"

"Yes."

Uchiha Gen nodded.

"They can say the relocation order is for safety. Then we'll let everyone see that pulling the police force out of the village right now would be what compromises safety."

"Once civilian attitudes have changed a little and we've built up rescue and reconstruction records, we can push to renegotiate the scope of the relocation and the police force's authority."

Fugaku closed his eyes for a moment.

Everyone in the hall waited for his decision.

At last, he opened his eyes.

"The police force will not publicly oppose the relocation order for now."

The radical clan members' expressions changed.

Fugaku continued, "But we will request a delay in its implementation on the grounds of restoring order after the disaster."

Uchiha Gen felt a little of the tension ease inside him.

"Starting today, the police force will assign young clan members to assist with reconstruction. Uchiha Makoto will compile the rescue records, and Uchiha Gen will help draw up the lists."

Several elders exchanged glances. Though dissatisfied, they did not immediately object.

Fugaku looked at Uchiha Gen.

"What is the first step in making these records public?"

That was exactly the question Uchiha Gen had been waiting for.

He raised his head, his voice clear.

"Publish the list of those who took part in rescue efforts on the Night of the Nine-Tails."

"Let every member of the clan know what we did last night."

"And let the village know that, starting today, the Uchiha Konoha Military Police Force can no longer exist only under a cloud of suspicion."