Chapter 163: The Uchiha Clan’s Informant
In the autumn night of Konoha 56, there was a hint of chill.
The Naka Shrine was deeply hidden in the dense maple forest, the vermilion torii gate like a blood-soaked wound under the dim moonlight.
Inside the shrine’s main hall, the air was stagnant like a lump of lead.
Candlelight flickered unsteadily in the enclosed space, casting the huge Uchiha Fan Crest on the wall in alternating light and shadow, the red-and-white pattern seeming ready to drip blood from the shadows at any moment.
Even the heavy incense could not mask the anxiety and anger permeating the crowd.
Almost all the core Jonin of the Uchiha Clan were present.
They wore dark clan robes, sitting neatly in front of Fugaku, their faces filled with irrepressible indignation.
Candlelight danced, illuminating pairs of restless eyes.
“Fugaku Clan Head!” Uchiha Tekka suddenly slammed the table and stood up, his voice like thunder in the suppressed hall.
“Has Konoha ever treated us Uchiha fairly?! Konoha Military Police Force? Hmph! It’s nothing but a cage confining us to the village corner! Look at our clan territory’s location, look at the hypocritical faces of the high-level officials! They dread our power, guarding against us like thieves!”
“Exactly!” Uchiha Inabi immediately chimed in, with deep resentment.
“During the Nine-Tails Attack, they pinned the blame on us without distinguishing right from wrong! These years, task assignments, resource allocation—which one wasn’t deliberate suppression? The Third Hokage’s so-called ‘peace’ and ‘tolerance’ are just boiling the frog in warm water, gradually wearing down the Uchiha’s edge until we completely vanish!”
“We’re not lambs waiting to be slaughtered!” Another voice roared, carrying incendiary fervor.
“Fugaku Lord! You are the Uchiha Clan Head, a strong practitioner with the Mangekyo Sharingan! Look at the clansmen’s hearts! Konoha has long decayed and needs new power to cleanse it!”
“As long as you raise your arm, the Uchiha Clan will follow you, overthrow Hiruzen Sarutobi’s rule! Support you as the Fifth Hokage! Let the Uchiha’s prestige resound through the Ninja World once more!”
“Support Fugaku Lord! Fifth Hokage!”
“Rebel! Clan Head!”
“We can’t endure it anymore!”
The fervent voices surged like long-accumulated volcanic magma, raging in the shrine’s main hall.
Pairs of scarlet eyes stared fixedly at Uchiha Fugaku in the main seat, expectation, coercion, and fervor intertwined, nearly igniting the air.
Uchiha Fugaku sat steadily, like a silent stone statue.
His face was resolute, lines cold and hard, his figure upright under the Jonin vest.
Candlelight cast deep shadows on his face, his Mangekyo Sharingan hidden in the shadows calmly scanning the faces below distorted by anger.
He felt the clansmen’s pain and humiliation deeply.
He knew the high-level officials’ suspicion and suppression better than anyone.
However, as clan head, he saw far more than that.
He saw war.
He saw that once the Uchiha raised the flag of rebellion, Konoha would plunge into unprecedented bloody civil war.
Not to mention the Sarutobi Clan, and the Ino-Shika-Cho Clans…
Hyuga, Aburame, Inuzuka, Kurama, Shimura, and other ninja clans.
They would never sit idly by.
There were also Anbu and Root…
Let alone one of the Sannin at the height of his power, Jiraiya, and Tsunade, who was traveling outside with an unclear stance.
No matter how strong the Uchiha, no matter how deep their foundation, they could never oppose the entire Konohagakure’s power.
This path of coup was a path to clan extermination!
What’s more…
That Land of Stars rising in the west of the Ninja Continent, that “Uchiha Hikari” with the Mangekyo Sharingan, was like a sword hanging over their heads, making the Uchiha’s situation even more delicate and dangerous.
How many years had it been since the Kaguya Clan launched a rebellion and was suppressed and exterminated by Kirigakure?
They had already forgotten!
“Enough!”
Fugaku’s voice was not loud, yet it swept through the frenzied hall like an icy cold current.
The clan head’s authority contained in that voice and the intangible pressure from the Mangekyo Sharingan silenced all the clamor instantly.
Pairs of scarlet eyes looked at him in shock and doubt.
Fugaku slowly stood up, his gaze sweeping over every face like substance, carrying an unquestionable resolve: “Rebellion? Fifth Hokage?”
A cold, almost mocking arc hooked at the corner of his mouth.
“Do you think Konoha is what? A toy for the Uchiha to take at will? Or do you think that with just hot blood and these eyes, you can oppose the entire village’s foundation?”
His voice suddenly rose, carrying a soul-piercing heaviness: “That’s war! A foolish act that would erase the Uchiha completely from the Ninja World map! The Uchiha’s glory is not obtained by inciting civil war and letting clansmen’s blood flow into rivers!”
“I, Uchiha Fugaku, as clan head, will never lead the clansmen down this dead end!”
“Don’t forget Uchiha Madara!”
The resounding words were like ice water, pouring ruthlessly over everyone’s hearts.
The fervent atmosphere cooled instantly, replaced by stunned bewilderment from the blow and a deathly suppressed silence.
Fugaku’s gaze finally fell on two silent figures at the back of the crowd.
Shisui Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha.
Both had their heads slightly lowered, expressions unclear, but Fugaku could sense the heavy worry on them, starkly different from most clansmen in the hall.
“Meeting adjourned!” Fugaku said no more, flicked his sleeve and turned, his figure vanishing into the shadows leading to the inner chamber.
The hall was left in dead silence, only the candlelight leaping unwillingly, illuminating the disappointment, unwillingness, anger, and a trace of forcibly suppressed fear on the Uchiha clansmen’s faces.
——————
Hokage’s Office.
The huge floor-to-ceiling window was open, night wind carrying Konohagakure’s myriad lights surging in, yet unable to dispel the heaviness in the room.
Hiruzen Sarutobi stood by the window, his back somewhat hunched.
The pipe in his hand had long gone out, its lingering smoke dissipating in the moonlight.
Behind him, Itachi Uchiha, kneeling on one knee, had just finished his report, recounting word-for-word the gunpowder-scented clan meeting at the Naka Shrine.
“Father… refused.” Itachi’s voice was low, carrying a heaviness unbearable for a boy.
“But the emotions of the clan’s Jonin… are on the verge of losing control. Father… is under great pressure.”
He raised his head, his black eyes inheriting the Uchiha bloodline filled with deep worry for the village’s future and a trace of imperceptible pain.
Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly turned around.
Moonlight illuminated his wrinkled face, his white beard trembling slightly.
His gaze toward Itachi was complex, with relief at Itachi’s loyalty and deep fatigue toward the Uchiha situation.
“I understand, Itachi. You did well, go back first.” His voice was hoarse, carrying lingering weariness.
Itachi respectfully saluted, his figure like a leaf merging into the shadows, silently exiting the office.
The light sound of the door closing had just fallen when the shadows in the office corner writhed like living things.
A figure slowly stepped out from it, leaning on a cane, right eye and right arm wrapped in layers of bandages—it was Shimura Danzō.
His single eye gleamed with sinister coldness in the dim light, like a venomous snake poised to strike.
“On the verge of losing control?” Danzō’s voice was dry and hoarse, carrying undisguised sarcasm.
“Hmph hmph.”
“Hiruzen, are you still deceiving yourself? The Uchiha Clan’s rebellion is no longer ‘on the verge’—the arrow is already on the string!”
“Fugaku’s refusal is just the last fig leaf for his inability to suppress the surging anger in the clan! Look at those scarlet eyes! Look at the hatred burning in their hearts! Your so-called ‘time’ and ‘dialogue’ are just raising a tiger that will bring destruction to Konoha!”
Hiruzen Sarutobi’s brows furrowed deeply, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the pipe: “Danzō, the Uchiha’s foundation… is no small matter. Once conflict erupts, it will be a war engulfing all of Konoha! We need to concentrate the village’s full power, need a more stable…”
“More stable what? Wait until they really raise the rebel flag and collude inside and out with that Uchiha Hikari of the Land of Stars?!” Danzō interrupted him sharply, his cane thudding heavily on the floor with a dull sound, his single eye fixed on Hiruzen Sarutobi.
“What are you worried about? The Uchiha’s foundation, or… that legendary Mangekyo Sharingan? Especially that Uchiha Hikari, confirmed to possess the Mangekyo and serving ‘Shura’?”
“Her existence is the blade hanging over Konoha’s head! One Uchiha Hikari is already so troublesome—if Fugaku, or other Uchiha… even Itachi, awakens the Mangekyo, what will Konoha use to resist?!”
Hiruzen Sarutobi fell silent, his gaze toward the lit-up Konohagakure outside the window, deep worry unmelting in his eyes.
Danzō’s words had pierced his deepest hidden worry.
The Uchiha’s Sharingan, especially the Mangekyo, its power sufficient to change a battle’s outcome.
And that mysterious Uchiha Hikari, according to Shisui’s report, her strength might rival Uchiha Madara’s back then!
But Konoha now had no ninja as powerful as the First Hokage Hashirama Senju.
“We can’t wait any longer, Hiruzen.” Danzō’s voice lowered further, carrying icy resolve.
“Must strike while their wings are not yet full, internal unity not complete, weaken them first! Cut off their sharpest claws!”
“Enough! Danzō! I am the Hokage!” Hiruzen Sarutobi’s fingers gripping the pipe turned slightly white at the knuckles.
“You will regret this! Hiruzen!”
Danzō gritted his teeth and stormed out.
Door: Bang!
The office was left only with Hiruzen Sarutobi’s worried puffing on his pipe and the distant city sounds outside the window.
——————
Konoha Root Base.
This place was even deeper and colder than the Naka Shrine.
The air was filled with a bone-deep dead silence.
Dim light barely illuminated the crisscrossing metal passages, cold water droplets condensing on the walls.
Danzō’s figure appeared in the base’s core command room.
The sinister and killing intent in his single eye were undisguised, like tangible ice.
“Pass the order.” His voice was dry, like a rusty blade scraping metal.
“Assemble all members.”
“Yes, Lord!” Yuruma Aburame immediately relayed the command.
In the darkness, silent ripples spread out.
One by one, Root Ninja wearing animal masks, auras like dead things, silently emerged from their hidden corners, appearing like ghosts before Shimura Danzō to assemble.
The eyes under the masks were hollow and numb, only absolute obedience.
Danzō looked at the dozen or so Root members under him and nodded in satisfaction.
“Shisui the Teleporter…” Danzō murmured, his single eye flashing with near-greedy desire for power.
“Absolutely cannot let this power become the backbone of the Uchiha rebellion!”
Ever since learning that Shisui Uchiha’s Sharingan was the Mangekyo Sharingan, and the power of its Kotoamatsukami dojutsu, Danzō had coveted Shisui’s Sharingan.
But due to various reasons, he had not yet acted.
Now, he could wait no longer!
