Inside the Uchiha Clan Compound.
Ever since admitting that he possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan, Fugaku had begun lying low as well.
Fugaku knew perfectly well that, with three pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan, the Uchiha were no longer far behind the Senju faction in raw strength.
Originally, he and some members of the clan had believed that the Uchiha were ready to force a showdown with the Senju faction.
They could make a bid for the Hokage position, or at least secure a seat as an elder advisor.
For various reasons, however, the calls for a Uchiha coup had been suppressed. The clan had chosen to bide its time and keep an even lower profile.
One reason was Oto's uncompromising stance at the clan meeting. She had beaten the radical clansmen into submission, with Shisui Uchiha firmly at her side.
According to Oto, if the Uchiha wanted to run for Hokage, they at least needed the villagers' trust rather than simply nominating themselves.
In peacetime, that argument would inevitably have met fierce opposition from the radical clansmen.
Under the Third's faction and its policy of slowly boiling the frog, the Uchiha would inevitably be shut out of the Hokage position.
But the major incidents of recent days had gradually thrown everything into disarray.
Ever since its appearance, the Akatsuki had attacked both Konoha and Sunagakure, even killing Sunagakure's One-Tail, Shukaku. Even Kirigakure, isolated far overseas, had reported an Akatsuki attack.
Another attack on Konoha in the future was not out of the question.
Fugaku sat in his courtyard with a cup of hot tea, taking a small sip as an Uchiha ninja appeared before him with intelligence concerning the Kirigakure envoy, Kisame Hoshigaki.
Uchiha Fugaku frowned when he heard the conditions for returning Samehada.
Unlike ordinary ninja, the Uchiha had intelligence