"Sogen."
"Aren't you gonna say something?"
Shisui, dubbed [Body Flicker], lived up to his name with a teleportation technique so slick that no one in the Uchiha clan could touch him. Too bad the Fourth Hokage, the [Yellow Flash], was gone—otherwise, Shisui could've challenged his Flying Thunder God technique.
With one flicker, he zipped past Ranzan and the others, landing right beside Sogen.
"What do you want me to say?" Sogen shot back, cool as ever.
"…" Shisui's mind went blank, unsure how to respond, but a knot of frustration churned in his chest. Squeezing his empty brain for words, he stammered, "Uh, I mean, tonight… Lord Hokage, he…"
"Alright, shut it! You're so awkward, it's making *my* teeth hurt."
Sogen cut off Shisui's rambling with an exasperated huff.
"Shisui, I'm glad you made the choice you did tonight. I get that you're uneasy, so let me be clear in front of Ranzan and the others: I'm dead-set against an armed coup. In-fighting? It's bad for the village, bad for the clan. I want to *save* the Uchiha, not destroy it."
"No need to worry I'll go back on my word or start a violent rebellion. Sure, that's a last resort, but as long as there are other options, I'm not walking that path."
Ranzan and the others trailing behind looked unfazed, clearly having heard this spiel before.
Shisui relaxed a bit. Though he'd chosen to back Sogen, that didn't mean he'd fully swung to the clan's side. He was the kind of guy who'd die trying to stop the village and clan from clashing. Supporting Sogen was more like clutching at straws, hoping against hope that Sogen's plans might actually work.
Instead of sinking into inaction, why not back Sogen and fight for a chance?
His goal never wavered: he wanted the village and the clan to truly become one, no divisions.
"Sogen, that plan you guys mentioned… when's it happening?"
Barely a few seconds later, Shisui was already fixating on the "plan" Uchiha Chihaya had accidentally let slip. Before he'd made up his mind, he'd been torn. Now that he'd decided, he was itching to move. After trudging through hopeless darkness for so long, he craved even a sliver of light.
"We'll talk about it at my place later," Sogen said, picking up his pace.
The clan's entrance came into view, packed with fully armed Uchiha. At the front stood three white-haired elders, including Sogen's grandfather, Uchiha Genshi. These were the clan's elders.
"Grandpa, Elder Ryūji, Elder Homaru."
Sogen stopped on the stone path.
"Sogen, what happened?"
Uchiha Genshi, his nearly seventy-year-old grandfather, fixed his gaze on his grandson. Gone was the laid-back vibe from home. He was decked out in a black-and-purple combat outfit, layered with light purple armor, a katana at his waist, radiating a killing intent that screamed he was ready for a fight.
And it wasn't just him. The other two elders and the twenty-some clansmen behind them were dressed similarly, geared up for battle.
Sogen sighed inwardly.
The tension between the village and the clan had gotten so bad that the Uchiha were constantly on war footing. Dreaming of reconciliation at this point was pure fantasy. The resentment and anger bottled up in so many hearts? Unless you had Six Paths-level talk-no-jutsu, there was no talking it away.
He glanced back at Shisui, whose face had gone pale. Clearly, he'd picked up on the same vibe from the clan's reaction.
"No big deal. Mist ninja wanted revenge on me and sent spies to ambush me on the road. It's handled. Grandpa, elders, you can tell everyone to stand down and rest. No surprises tonight. Things… haven't reached *that* point yet. We're not ready."
Sogen's voice was loud, clear enough for not just the elders but everyone else to hear.
Genshi subtly exchanged glances with the other two elders.
Soon, Elder Ryūji stepped forward, leading a group back into the compound to spread Sogen's news, calming the jittery clan and dulling the sharp edge of their killing intent.
The Uchiha weren't called Konoha's top clan for nothing.
Any Uchiha who awakened the Sharingan and didn't die on the battlefield would eventually reach the three-tomoe stage. That's why the Uchiha had more jonin than any other clan in Konoha—a key reason they even dared to consider a coup.
"Alright, kid, time for the truth. What's really going on?"
Uchiha Homaru, barely over five feet tall, looked up at Sogen, who towered over him at five-eight at just fifteen. Homaru might've been short, but no one underestimated the elder once known as [Blaze]. Among the clan's six elders, Homaru was hands-down the strongest—even Genshi couldn't take him.
The short elder craned his neck, his scarlet eyes brimming with killing intent.
"Do I need to spell it out? If the Mist had the skill to plant that many jonin-level spies in the village, they wouldn't have been chased back to their fish-filled islands during the war." Sogen smirked mockingly. "It was that old bastard Danzo. The Third's turning a blind eye, but I don't have enough proof to call him out."
"What proof do we need? Just find a chance to gut that dog and be done with it," Homaru growled, his fists cracking. "I knew Danzo was rotten back in the day. After the Second Hokage died, I wanted to take a team and end that jerk, but Mirror stopped me."
He shot a glance at Shisui, the grandson of Uchiha Mirror.
Shisui opened his mouth but swallowed his words, letting out a helpless, bitter smile.
"Let's drop that, Elder Homaru. Danzo's always been our enemy—no need to get worked up over him. More importantly… where's our dear clan head right now? Holding down the fort?" Sogen changed the subject. Even if they were planning to take out Danzo, they couldn't plot it so openly.
At the mention of the clan head, Homaru's face soured.
"Fugaku's on duty at the Police Force. He's got to maintain the village's order, make sure the village has no excuse to come down on us. We old-timers are handling clan matters for now," Genshi said calmly.
The Uchiha compound had been relocated twice.
The first time was under the Second Hokage, who tied the Uchiha to the Police Force, turning the already unpopular clan into full-on villains in the village's eyes. The second was four years ago, after the Nine-Tails incident, when the Third moved the Uchiha to an even more remote corner in the village's northeast.
This split the Uchiha compound and the Police Force across town. Back in the day, the clan head could've managed clan affairs even while stationed at the Police Force.
"Genshi, stop polishing Fugaku's image. I didn't see it before, but that guy's got no spine. As clan head, he doesn't protect the clan—all he talks about is the village, the village, the village. Does *he* need to worry about the village? Doesn't he know what the Police Force is like now? With the Anbu around, when does he ever get to do anything?" Homaru grumbled, fuming. "Tch, I don't even know what to say… We were blind to back him as clan head."
Mid-rant, he suddenly turned his gaze back to Sogen. "Hey, kid. You told me before you want to replace Fugaku as clan head. You serious about that?"
"Dead serious."
Sogen nodded solemnly.
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(End of Chapter)