"Lord Hokage, I have no ti to listen to your lectures on the Will of Fire." Hyuga Hiashi cut him off instantly. It could only be said that he was currently too young and aggressive, and without his father's restraining presence, he spoke his mind without a shred of filter.
"You claim there will still be a place for our noble clans in the future, yet isn't what you are doing right now precisely aid at weakening our power?"
"I am no longer a child; I am now the Clan Head. These eyes of mine see perfectly clear what you are orchestrating. The future belongs to the civilian ninjas, and aren't you the very one driving that shift? I understand it completely. The Hyuga do not wish to be cast aside. We want real power—actual, tangible authority."
Sarutobi Hiruzen stared at him for a long ti, ultimately letting out a heavy sigh. "Alas! It is not that this old man is unwilling... fine. I will restructure the Council of Elders and establish six permanent seats. The Hyuga will be granted one... but whether you can sit firmly in it depends entirely on yourselves."
With that, Hiruzen chose not to linger any longer, turning around to depart the parlor. Uchiha Fugaku, who had remained entirely silent throughout the exchange, followed closely behind him.
Inside the Hokage's office, after Hiruzen dismissed all guards and attendants from the room, Fugaku began detailing every circumstance they had encountered during the campaign.
This marked his very first post-war briefing to the Hokage since crawling back to Konoha.
The delay was primarily because the mont Fugaku returned to the village, he had been sequestered deep within the clan's ancestral grounds to nurse his wounds.
For reasons unspoken, both the Uchiha's moderate dove faction and the militant hawk faction had maintained an absolute, unspoken understanding on this matter.
They had strictly forbidden him from making any contact with the Hokage until his injuries were fully healed.
Even if Fugaku himself believed that while inside the walls of Konoha, the rats hiding in the dark gutters wouldn't dare step into the light to harm the Uchiha clan—let alone flagrantly assassinate him—he completely failed to realize his shifting status within the clan.
Because of those eyes, he had beco the collective crown jewel of the entire Uchiha lineage. Every single potential risk had to be ruthlessly eliminated, especially considering how the last pair of Mangekyo owners had died under incredibly suspicious circumstances.
Fugaku began recounting the events of those weeks in a asured, slow cadence:
"The Grass ninjas we initially encountered displayed minor physical modifications, but their equipnt was utterly primitive.
They initially deployed a vanguard of a hundred n to set traps and launch an interception, but we easily saw through their maneuvers and wiped them out almost entirely... It was precisely from that mont onward that the psychological balance of our shinobi began to warp..."
Fugaku spoke slowly and ticulously, detailing not just the enemy's tactical maneuvers, but going so far as to describe the evolving psychological states of every Konoha ninja involved—including himself.
In his assessnt, this was the true, foundational cause of their catastrophic defeat: Konoha's shinobi were simply too arrogant.
The world always branded the Uchiha clan as arrogant, but how was the rest of Konoha any different in the eyes of outsiders?
As for the ambush by the Seven-Tails, the flying Dragonfly Users, and the coordinated beacon-fire elental arrays—all of those elents were rely tools and external factors.
Even without those specific variables, if they had been replaced by equivalent tactical threats, Konoha would have still suffered a crushing defeat, given the baseline mindset of their forces. The outco simply wouldn't have been quite as blood-drenched.
Listening intently from across the desk, Hiruzen tapped his fingers rhythmically against the wood. "I never anticipated that the Land of Grass and the Land of Waterfall would forge such a tight alliance. This is indeed a massive blind spot in our intelligence network.
To think they would go as far as to share custody of the Seven-Tails."
"Furthermore, there is this sudden ergence of a Dragonfly Sacred Land, and that military advisor nad Shiraki.
Based on your report, that individual's strategic foresight is profoundly terrifying. Are you absolutely certain his raw strength is rely at the Jonin level?"
Fugaku hesitated for a brief fraction of a second before ultimately nodding. "The chakra fluctuations radiating from his body gave that exact impression.
Moreover, he strictly avoided close-quarters combat, and judging by his movents, he likely only specializes in Wind Style and sensory jutsu. Of course, if you factor in his ability to command the Seven-Tails, his actual combat threat is an entirely separate matter."
"Mm, I understand." Hiruzen nodded once more. "I will have his intelligence profile recompiled and circulated across our networks; he will be designated as a top-priority target moving forward."
Saying this, his gaze locked tightly onto Fugaku's eyes. His lips twitched slightly as he hesitated, but in the end, he swallowed the burning question he truly wanted to ask.
"That will be all for now. If there is nothing else, return to your quarters and focus on your recovery. Furthermore, what I stated regarding the Council of Elders stands.
The Uchiha perford exceptionally well during this deploynt and suffered imnse sacrifices; I will reserve a permanent seat for your clan."
"Thank you, Lord Hokage. If there is nothing else, Fugaku takes his leave."
Hearing the massive political concession, Fugaku felt not a shred of excitent, his features maintaining the exact sa expressionless, stony facade.
Yet, the exact mont he turned to exit the Hokage's office, a chilling, dark figure brushed past him in the doorway. As their eyes locked for a brief instant, Fugaku confird the identity of the newcor—it was Shimura Danzo.
Danzo stared intensely at Fugaku's eyes, his gaze dripping with scrutiny, beneath which danced a faint, tightly veiled shred of pure avarice.
"Authorize the strike, Hiruzen. The Land of Grass is currently occupied with mass civilian migrations; its territorial defenses are completely hollowed out. This is the absolute golden window to launch our offensive."
However, Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head firmly. "Danzo, the Grass Village has the Seven-Tails in its possession."
"A Jinchuriki?" Danzo knit his brows, letting out a cold snort. "Since when has Takigakure been so incredibly generous as to lease out their Tailed Beast? No matter, we have our own Jinchuriki to counter them."
Hiruzen let out a long, heavy sigh. "It isn't a lease; it is a full cooperation. Furthermore, their thod of deploynt doesn't rely on a traditional Jinchuriki host. Fugaku just confird that Takigakure's Seven-Tails behaves as though it has been thoroughly tad."
The more Danzo listened, the tighter his brow furrowed.
A Tailed Beast could be directly tad and commanded? This completely subverted the established laws of the shinobi world. If this information hadn't co directly from the mouth of his lifelong comrade, he would have dismissed it as a flagrant rumor.
As universal common sense dictated, Tailed Beasts were wild monsters, walking natural disasters—utterly uncontainable and completely untamable.
Even the absolute God of Shinobi, the First Hokage Senju Hashirama, had rely suppressed them through overwhelming raw power; he had never housebroken them into showing absolute obedience.
Naturally, what Danzo found even more intolerable was the fact that he was learning about this critical developnt after Sarutobi Hiruzen.
He felt as though his personal web of spies had been systematically purged, his intelligence infrastructure shattered, leaving him with the distinct, infuriating sensation that the shinobi world was rapidly slipping entirely out of his grasp.
"Enough. You are not to interfere in this matter; I will handle all developnts personally. Furthermore, the combined shinobi forces of those two nations are currently executing civilian migrations.
Launching a reckless assault at this juncture would inevitably slaughter innocent bystanders. That is not a righteous act."
"Hiruzen, I see this precisely as our absolute advantage. It is because they are occupied with escorting commoners that..."
Hiruzen's voice abruptly pitched higher, snapping sharply: "Danzo! As shinobi, we must maintain an absolute baseline! And above all, the Hokage must embody that standard!"
Hearing the definitive shut-down, Danzo clamped his jaw shut, forcing the argunt down before pivoting the narrative smoothly.
He spoke coldly: "Fine. I will not ddle in matters outside the village walls. But what exactly is the situation regarding the Uchiha clan? Word has reached that Uchiha Fugaku has successfully awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan..."
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