I am not yet strong, but when I am, things will change!

"So, Sasuke, you mean..." Itachi narrowed his eyes slightly. As he recalled what Danzo had done, a trace of killing intent seeped into his gaze.

The village still mattered deeply to him, but Danzo was not the village. On the contrary, he was a parasite eating away at it, the chief culprit driving a wedge between the clan and the village-and an enemy who had nearly killed his little brother!

After enduring repeated bouts of crushing mental pressure, Itachi felt his thinking had broadened considerably. At least he probably would not go to such extremes as before. Probably.

"The thorn I'm talking about isn't just Danzo." Sasuke shook his head, paused, then continued.

He disliked scheming. To him, schemes like Danzo's were actually pretty useless, with countless ways to break them.

But first, he had to straighten out these three unreliable fools' thinking and get them to agree on a way out of their predicament.

If one of them got hotheaded and suddenly went off the rails, that would be a real joke.

"First, a coup is definitely out. I don't know the first thing about politics. And as for the three of you, all I can say is that your political intelligence is actually even worse than mine.

"I won't even get into slaughtering your own family, sitting around waiting to die, or waving your trump card in the enemy's face and getting both yourself and the clan killed.

"Sure, you haven't done any of that yet, but if even you can foresee it with your intelligence, then those really must be the things you're going to do.

"So when it comes to politics, there's no way we can outplay those scheming old bastards."

"...That makes sense." ×3

The three wanted to argue with Sasuke, but could not find the words. They had, after all, done plenty of stupid things.

If a coup was out, was Sasuke planning an outright rebellion with their three pairs of Mangekyo? ×3

"And an outright rebellion is even more out of the question. We have three pairs of Mangekyo here, but the village isn't full of pushovers, either. If we really fought it out, both the Uchiha and Konoha would be wiped off the map, leaving only four great hidden villages in the Shinobi World.

"Even setting all that aside, the Sage of Six Paths told me there's a world-threatening crisis ten years from now that I'll need to stop. If both the Uchiha and Konoha are gone, am I supposed to rely on the vermin in the other four great hidden villages to fight it?

"How could I possibly save the world working with them?

"Besides, if we want to become Hokage, why bother with a coup? Overwhelm them fair and square, and no one will have anything to say."

Sasuke shrugged and spread his hands. Things were nowhere near the point where mutual destruction was their only option. Not one of the four people present was completely devoid of affection for Konoha.

Besides, with the Third Hokage, Danzo, Mitokado Homura, Kakashi, and Guy, the village had at least five fighters around Kage Level. Tsunade and Jiraiya, those two unofficial assets, had to be counted as well. Even if one was off whoring himself out of contact and the other was afraid of blood, neither was a pushover.

And if the plot went off the rails and Nagato or Obito came to get involved, they would be completely screwed.

So neither a coup nor a rebellion had ever been part of his plans.

As for resolving the problems between the Uchiha and the village, there were lessons to draw from both the Shinobi World's political landscape after the Fourth Shinobi World War and the world order of his previous life.

"Then what exactly should we do?" After a moment of silence, Fugaku spoke helplessly. Red light flickered in his eyes as he foresaw countless more tragic futures resulting from coups and rebellions.

He was beginning to wonder whether he had been too pessimistic about the future when he awakened his Mangekyo, causing a Dojutsu that should, in theory, have been absurdly overpowered to show him nothing but tragic futures.

"It's simple. First, we Uchiha have never been traitors to Konoha. Our ancestors founded Konoha together with the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju. Even the name Konoha came from our clan. In terms of seniority, apart from the Senju Clan, whose main force died in the Land of Whirlpools and whose survivors integrated into Konoha, no one in the entire village has been here longer than us Uchiha."

As he spoke, Sasuke noticed the light flickering in their eyes and hurriedly added another point.

"Of course, that's part of the reason our clansmen are so unhappy with the village now. Frankly, what Uchiha doesn't think highly of himself? Even Obito Uchiha, the former war hero famous for not acting like an Uchiha, still embodied that arrogance in our bones when he was alive.

"That's also why our clansmen are so easy to provoke. You can hardly blame the Second Hokage for being wary of the Uchiha Clan back then. We're a clan of love, but that love can all too easily turn into hatred.

"Some of what's happened over the years is because the Third Hokage really is muddleheaded. But the bigger reason is Danzo's constant scheming. Otherwise, our relationship with the village would never have deteriorated this far."

"True. So often, we tried to ease tensions with the village, only for one problem to crop up before the last had settled. Every so often, the village would suddenly do something against the Uchiha, and then the Uchiha would get angry and retaliate..." Uchiha Fugaku let out a long sigh as he recalled all the unusual incidents that had occurred during his years managing the Uchiha Clan.

"So what we need to do is simple. First, clear away the false accusations hanging over us and let more people in Konoha see what we Uchiha are really like.

"Of course, if we want the people of Konoha to see the good side of the Uchiha Clan, we first have to let our clansmen see the good side of Konoha. That's actually pretty easy. Danzo definitely won't dare pull any tricks for a while, so we can take a small portion of the clan's money and use it. Whether we secretly hire people to show our clansmen some friendliness or do something else, there are plenty of ways.

"And you two, Dad and big brother, definitely know our clansmen better than I do. Put simply, they're cold on the outside but warm on the inside, with sharp tongues and soft hearts. Once we establish that initial positive cycle, we can try taking it a step further, like expanding recruitment for the police force.

"That's where our clan's astronomical wealth can finally do some good. For example, we could give commoner ninja who join the police force some ninjutsu as compensation or benefits."

"The foundation of our clan is the Sharingan. Those low-level ninjutsu in the clan's vault really aren't much use to us. And I can see how doing this would win us considerable goodwill. But... wouldn't it make the village even more wary of us?"

After foreseeing the scenarios Sasuke described, Fugaku found that in ten possible futures, the Uchiha did become more popular with the village's commoner ninja and even other people. But the leadership also targeted them more heavily. Given their current situation, this was indeed an overly sensitive move.

"Of course. It's like privately distributing disaster relief or stockpiling armor and crossbows back in the Warring States period. For a regional lord or even a minister, doing those things would undoubtedly be inappropriate.

"But we aren't guests here. We just need to let Hiruzen Sarutobi and the villagers see our value and our strength, then compare those with the friendly attitude we've shown them. After that, nothing will stand in our way."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, tilted his head back, and laughed.

All they needed now was to finish the initial preparations. Once he had some time to grow, it would be time to flex his muscles and lay his cards on the table.

"I am not yet strong, but when I am, things will change!"