Chapter 172: Resolving The Conflict Between The Uchiha And Konoha Is Actually Simple
Shisui’s heart sank heavily.
This Land of Stars had actually become a sanctuary for these bloodline orphans abandoned by the mainstream of the Ninja World?
He suppressed his churning thoughts, his gaze falling on Kimimaro: “So, these Byakugan are for…”
“Balancing the excessively violent Bloodline Disease of the Kaguya Clan.” Uzumaki Kushina stated frankly.
“Yang Release in excess needs Yin Release to harmonize it. The Hyuga Clan’s Byakugan is the perfect medium.” Her words were casual, yet they stirred up a storm in Shisui’s heart.
Seizing the Byakugan from the Hyuga Main Family!
This shocking event was spoken of by her as casually as mixing a potion.
The actions of the Land of Stars had long exceeded the scope of “deviating from the norm,” amounting to a declaration of war against the entire order of the Ninja World!
“Lord Shura took us all in.” Kimimaro spoke for the first time, his voice cold yet carrying an unquestionable firmness.
“He gave us power, and also gave us the meaning of our existence.”
Uzumaki Kushina looked at the complex expression on Shisui’s face that he couldn’t hide, and sighed softly: “Shisui, I know what you’re thinking. Konoha’s Uchiha, and Konoha’s Hyuga. But please think about it,”
Her gaze became profound and sharp.
“In Konoha, has your Uchiha Clan truly found a place to belong? Or, like our Uzumaki Clan back then, are you merely regarded as a ‘useful power,’ wrapped in the name of ally, yet always separated by an invisible barrier?”
These words were like an ice-cold awl, precisely piercing the deepest hidden pain in Shisui’s heart that even he himself was unwilling to delve into.
The isolation of the Konoha Military Police Force, the suspicion of the high-level officials, the increasingly intense resentment within the clan…
The past events flashed chaotically in his mind like shattered lenses.
He subconsciously took the teacup Kushina handed him, the scalding tea water burning his palm through the cup wall, yet he was completely unaware.
“Konoha… was established together by the First Hokage and the Uchiha ancestors,” Shisui’s voice was somewhat hoarse, more like he was convincing himself.
“It should be the best home for all ninja clans.”
“Heh, home?” Uzumaki Kushina’s lips curved into an arc, her smile devoid of mockery, only carrying a world-weary pity and desolation, like faded ink on ancient scrolls.
“Back then, our Uzumaki Clan also firmly believed that. The Land of Whirlpools and Konoha, allies for generations, unbreakable? But when disaster truly struck, when the Land of Whirlpools was besieged by various nations and faced extermination, where was Konoha’s reinforcements?”
Her voice remained steady, but every word was like a heavy stone thrown into Shisui’s heart lake, stirring cold echoes.
“The promises of allies crumble fragilely before the interests and scheming of reality. The downfall of the Uzumaki Clan is the bloodiest real-life example of this cruel rule. Uchiha, the suspicion and exclusion you are experiencing now is merely another version of the Uzumaki predicament back then.”
Shisui’s fingers gripping the teacup suddenly tightened, a faint but clear “crack” coming from the cup wall, a thin crack silently spreading.
Scalding tea water seeped out along the fissure, burning his skin, yet he felt nothing.
Kushina’s words were layer by layer peeling away the bloody reality he tried to wrap with “Will of Fire” and “family responsibility.”
Konoha’s hesitation, delay, scheming…
The cold choices before the crisis of extermination.
Would the Uchiha be the next Uzumaki?
This thought was like a venomous snake, gnawing at his sanity.
“No… it won’t!” Shisui suddenly looked up, his newly awakened Three-Tomoe Sharingan trembling slightly.
“The Third Hokage promised that as long as we communicate, as long as we find a way…”
“A way?” Uzumaki Kushina interrupted him, her tone carrying a nearly cruel calm.
“It’s actually very simple, Shisui. Your ancestor, the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju, already gave the answer long ago.”
The Second Hokage?
Shisui Uchiha was puzzled; how did this involve the Second Hokage?
“Lately, I’ve been researching the pros and cons of the ninja village system, particularly the history of Konoha’s founding, and I have some understanding of the First Hokage and Second Hokage, as well as Konoha’s fifty-plus years of history.” Uzumaki Kushina looked at Shisui’s bewildered eyes and said slowly.
“Although the Second Hokage was the most wary of the Uchiha, he was also the outsider who understood the Uchiha Clan the most; facing the restlessness of the Uchiha Clan, he founded the Konoha Military Police Force, giving the Uchiha dignity and honor; the ninja academy he established not only admitted children from various ninja clans but also civilian ninja, giving the Uchiha youth a chance to integrate into the village.”
“To the extent that the power of the Konoha Military Police Force grew too great, even threatening the Third Hokage’s authority during peacetime.”
“But the Second Hokage’s greatest effort was taking in a Uchiha disciple, your ancestor Uchiha Kagami. Master-disciple inheritance; bloodlines may differ, but wills and paths can connect. This was originally a bright path to resolve estrangement.”
She paused, her gaze as if piercing through time and space, falling into the shadows of Konoha’s power center: “Then let me ask, after the Second Hokage, has the Third Hokage ever taken a Uchiha disciple?”
“Or, the genius Uchiha Itachi whom your Uchiha Clan places high hopes on, which Konoha high-level official has truly regarded him as a successor to impart everything?” A series of rhetorical questions, like cold iron hammers, shattered the remaining fluke in Shisui’s heart.
“They would rather watch the cracks of suspicion widen, watch the Uchiha sink deeper into isolation, watch the fire of resentment burn fiercely within your clan…” Kushina’s voice lowered, carrying an insightful clarity.
“Than truly extend a hand, like the Second Hokage accepting Uchiha Kagami, to include a Uchiha boy into the ‘Hokage’ inheritance system.”
“Why?”
“Because the power of the ‘Sharingan’ is coveted, and even more feared. What they need has never been Uchiha ‘integrated’ into Konoha, but Uchiha ‘controlled’ and ‘utilized.’ Just like…”
Her gaze swept over Kimimaro, over Yukimi, and finally back to Shisui, meaningful.
“Just like treating a powerful and dangerous ninja tool.”
Boom!
It was as if thunder exploded in Shisui’s mind!
The teacup finally couldn’t bear the weight and shattered completely in his palm!
Scalding tea water mixed with porcelain shards pierced into his flesh, blood instantly surging out, staining the shattered white porcelain and scalding tea water red, dripping onto the clean sand and stone ground of the courtyard, blooming a few glaring dark red plum blossoms.
Yet he felt no pain at all, only a bone-chilling cold spreading from his spine to his limbs.
The pillar of belief that had always supported him—changing the family’s situation through effort and communication, maintaining village peace.
Collapsed in this moment.
Kushina’s words ruthlessly unveiled the cold scheming beneath the warm mask of Konoha’s high-level officials.
The solitary case of ancestor Uchiha Kagami was not the beginning of a path to resolution, but instead its final note!
An answer deliberately ignored and shelved!
The alienation behind the Third Hokage’s gentle smile, Danzō’s Root’s relentless pressure, the radical faction’s angry roars at the clan meeting, Itachi’s increasingly heavy struggles between Anbu and the family…
All the clues were strung into a cold, clear chain by Kushina’s words in this moment!
So, the so-called “capacity,” the so-called “Will of Fire,” were so pale and powerless before deep-rooted wariness and power balance!
The Uchiha, on Konoha’s chessboard, from beginning to end, was merely a pawn to be wary of, utilized, and sacrificed when necessary!
Never truly regarded as “one of their own” to entrust with inheritance!
Cold sweat instantly soaked Shisui’s back, his newly awakened Three-Tomoe Sharingan spinning madly, trying to comprehend this subversive impact, yet only feeling a blank cold bewilderment and bone-deep despair.
“Imagine, if the Third Hokage took Uchiha Itachi or you, Shisui Uchiha, as a disciple of the ‘Hokage line,’ then the rebellious voices in the Uchiha Clan would dissolve effortlessly, even becoming a driving force, with the entire Uchiha family’s resources and expectations bet on you, striving for the Fifth Hokage position.”
“Even if not the Fifth, you could aim for the Sixth, because both you and Uchiha Itachi are very young, much younger than those in Konoha qualified to compete for Hokage.”
“As long as you live, you are ‘Hokage direct lineage,’ which could at least stabilize the Uchiha Clan for thirty to fifty years.”
“But why didn’t the Third Hokage do this?”
“Shisui!” Uzumaki Kushina’s brows furrowed slightly, stepping forward, pale green medical chakra instantly enveloping his bleeding palm.
Gentle life energy seeped into the wound, quickly stopping the bleeding and repairing the damage. The shattered porcelain shards were gently pushed out by the chakra, the wound healing at a visible speed.
“Sorry… I… lost composure,” Shisui’s voice was extremely hoarse, carrying the weakness of a shattered heart and immense mental exhaustion.
Kushina shook her head, withdrawing the chakra, her gaze calm as water: “Pain can make one awake, but more importantly, see the path ahead clearly. The Land of Stars may not be paradise, but here, power won’t be suspected, bloodlines won’t be coveted, choices won’t be preset.”
“What Lord Shura seeks is to completely end this thousand-year-old order built on fear and greed.”
Her gaze swept over the boys in the courtyard.
“We people, Uzumaki Clan, Kaguya Clan, Yukigakure Clan… were all victims of the old order. Now, we choose to take up weapons, for ourselves, and for all those like us who are rejected and oppressed, to fight for a different future.”
She looked at Shisui’s eyes, her tone carrying a strange weight: “Shisui, you lost the eyes you were proud of, but destiny gave you a new pair of eyes, and also a chance to see the world anew. Konoha’s shackles, the Uchiha’s destined vortex… do you really want to go back and jump into that predetermined ending?”
“Why not consider having the entire Uchiha Clan migrate to the Land of Stars?”
Migrate?
The entire Uchiha Clan?
Leave Konoha?
These words combined carried an impact even greater than the subversive speech just now!
Shisui suddenly looked up, his new Three-Tomoe Sharingan staring fixedly at Uzumaki Kushina, trying to find a trace of joke or probe on her gentle and calm face.
None.
Her eyes held only frank seriousness and some profound expectation.
This idea alone would shock any Uchiha clan member to the core!
Leave Konoha?
Leave the village established together by Uchiha Madara and Hashirama Senju?
Leave the ancestors’ burial ground?
This was simply… betrayal!
“This… impossible!” Shisui blurted out, his voice distorted by extreme shock.
“The Uchiha is a founding clan of Konoha! Our roots…”
“The roots have rotted, Shisui.” Kushina’s voice was calm, yet carried the power to sever everything.
“Forcing to stay will only make the whole big tree wither and collapse together. Look at your current situation; doesn’t it resemble the Land of Whirlpools heavily besieged back then? The fences of suspicion are higher than city walls, the internal cracks more fatal than enemy blades.”
“Danzō taking your eyes is just the beginning, a clear signal; among Konoha’s high-level officials, someone is already impatient, they are about to act.”
“You should know yourself that even if you return to Konoha and tell the Third Hokage you were ambushed by Danzō, can you make Danzō pay the cost?”
Danzō!
Shisui’s eyes seemed to throb with phantom pain again.
Kushina’s words were like an ice-cold scalpel, precisely dissecting the naked malice behind that attack.
Danzō’s ambushing eye theft was not the end, but the prelude to the purge plan!
“Here.” Kushina pointed to the ground beneath her feet, then to Kimimaro, Yukimi, and finally to the distant faintly visible Star Ninja Academy.
“Power is the cornerstone of survival, a tool to forge the future, not an original sin to be feared and plundered. Bloodline Limits are not curses, but talents. Lord Shura needs all powers daring to break the old cage; Uchiha power, especially the Sharingan’s power to discern truth and control minds, is crucial.”
She leaned forward slightly, her voice lowering further, carrying the solemnity of sharing core secrets: “No harm in telling you, Shisui. The enemies we face are far more than the Five Great Shinobi Villages and those decayed daimyo.”
Her words paused slightly, a trace of gravity toward the unknown flashing in her eyes.
“There are even more distant, more terrifying threats lurking over the Ninja World; the old era’s ninja village structure is but a fragile fortress on the beach before this all-encompassing mega-wave.”
Not even regarding the Five Great Shinobi Villages?
Threats more powerful than the Five Great Shinobi Villages?
One shocking piece of information after another hammered like heavy blows on Shisui’s already crumbling mental defenses.
He felt like a small boat adrift in raging waves, the familiar world map under his feet thoroughly subverted, shattered, and reassembled by Kushina’s words!
“The Land of Stars is the ark Lord Shura forged to confront all this, and also the sword.” Kushina’s voice carried unwavering conviction.
“We need like-minded partners. The Uchiha Clan, with the wisdom and power of the Sharingan, if able to break free from Konoha’s fetters and join us, would be like adding wings to a tiger.”
“Shisui, you have eyes that see truth clearly, and a heart yearning for peace. Your choice may change the destinies of countless people, including your beloved clansmen.”
She said no more, simply watching Shisui quietly, giving him time to digest this massive flood of information.
The last ray of sunset sank into the distant mountains, dusk enveloping everything, dyeing the Star Capital in a serene blue-purple hue.
The courtyard fell into a heavy silence, only the faint rustle of wind through maple leaves.
Kimimaro had long stopped practicing, retreating to the corridor with Yukimi, yet all their gazes fell on the distraught Uchiha in the center of the courtyard.
Shisui stood there, like a petrified statue.
In his new eyes, the three tomoe spun slowly, each rotation bearing a thousand-jun weight.
Uzumaki Kushina’s words echoed and collided repeatedly in his mind.
Konoha’s suspicion and cold scheming… the naked purge intent behind Danzō’s eye theft… and the mysterious mastermind of that Night of the Nine-Tails… unknown threats more powerful than the Five Great Shinobi Villages…
And, “Shura” Menma’s audacious ambition to use the Land of Stars as cornerstone, shatter the Ninja World’s millennium pattern, even confront world-ending calamity!
Each realization was enough to overturn his past worldview.
And when these realizations crashed like a tsunami, Shisui felt everything he had believed in, protected, and strived for over the past twenty years.
Will of Fire, village bonds, family honor…
All became fragile in this towering wave, crumbling like sandcastles.
Immense confusion and tearing sensation nearly swallowed him.
Unknowing how much time passed, a cool night breeze swept through the courtyard, bringing the faint clock toll from the distant Star Ninja Academy.
Shisui finally struggled out from that out-of-body state.
He extremely slowly raised his head, his new Three-Tomoe Sharingan flickering with complex, indefinable light in the dusk: exhaustion, shock, shaken faith, and a sharp inquiry glimpsing a new path in desperation.
“I need… time.” His voice was dry and hoarse, as if he hadn’t spoken in a long time.
“A lot of… time…” He didn’t directly respond to Kushina’s proposal, but this was no longer outright refusal.
Uzumaki Kushina nodded understandingly, her face showing no disappointment, instead a calm as if anticipated: “Of course, Shisui. Seeing the world’s truth takes time. The Land of Stars is here, the Star Capital’s lights—”
She raised her hand pointing outside the window, the myriad lights of the distant town like fallen stars, lighting up one by one in the deepening night, outlining the vigorous silhouette of this newborn nation.
“Will always be lit. When you have an answer, you can come find me anytime, or Lord Shura.”
She said no more, turning to gesture to the boys and girl on the corridor.
Kimimaro, Yukimi silently retreated inside the house, leaving Shisui alone in the center of the courtyard.
The night wind grew cooler, carrying the unique free and wild aura of the Land of Stars.
Shisui slowly raised that hand just healed by Kushina, the new skin smooth, no scars remaining.
He clenched his fist tightly, then slowly released it, feeling power flowing through his bloodline.
He raised his new Sharingan, gazing toward the vast night sky.
At the horizon, a full moon hung bright and eternal, unchanging since ancient times.
And beneath it, the Star Capital’s flickering lights dared to ignite the entire Ninja World!
