In a fraction of a second, Hiruzen Sarutobi cursed Fugaku's entire bloodline in his mind.
'Did I make a fatal miscalculation?' Hiruzen questioned himself, his gaze shifting briefly to the apathetic Clan Head standing nearby. 'Can I truly rely on this fool to keep Jin in check?'
With Jin's sudden rise to power, Hiruzen had strategically positioned himself as Fugaku's political ally. His plan was to use the authority of the Hokage to artificially inflate Fugaku's influence and spark a prolonged Uchiha civil war. But Fugaku's sheer cowardice defied all logic. How could Hiruzen engineer a factional conflict when one side refused to fight?
'Is there any other pawn I can use?' Hiruzen's mind raced through the Uchiha roster.
'Shisui? No.' Shisui was an exceptionally powerful tool, but he was disastrously naive. Furthermore, as the descendant of Kagami Uchiha—a famously village-aligned shinobi—Shisui was inherently distrusted by the core clan members. The Uchiha viewed him as the Hokage's lapdog. Shisui could serve as a blunt weapon, but he lacked the political capital to command his own faction.
'Danzo? Useless for this.' Danzo's Root operated in the shadows. Danzo only cared about harvesting the Sharingan from easy targets; he would never risk a direct, costly siege against Jin's heavily fortified Radical compound.
The grim reality settled over the Hokage. He had no other choice. If he wanted to fracture the Uchiha, he had to prop up Fugaku, no matter how pathetic the man had become.
Swallowing his disgust, Hiruzen turned his attention back to the true threat. He locked eyes with Jin.
"Jin," Hiruzen began, his voice heavy with implied accusation. "Are you aware that the village is descending into chaos?"
"No," Jin replied evenly, his tone completely flat. "Nor do I care. I am merely an unassigned ninja. Without active orders, I confine myself to my clan district. I have paid no attention to the outside world."
A vein throbbed on Hiruzen's forehead.
'An unassigned ninja?' Hiruzen screamed internally. 'You have practically overthrown your Clan Head, militarized your district, and crippled the Konoha Police Force by ordering a mass resignation, and you have the audacity to call yourself a simple 'unassigned ninja'?!'
Hiruzen took a deep, stabilizing breath. "Do not play games with me, Jin. You are the leader of the Radical Faction. If a man of your authority claims ignorance, what does that say about the rest of Konoha's shinobi?"
Jin did not flinch. He merely shrugged.
"I have no idea what you are talking about, Lord Hokage," Jin stated smoothly. "What 'Radical Faction'? That is not an officially registered organization within Konoha's administrative records. I hold no official administrative power. I am not even an officer in the Military Police Force."
Hiruzen's face darkened instantly. Jin was refusing to engage, and worse, his defense was legally impenetrable.
If examined strictly by Konoha's bureaucratic records, Jin was telling the absolute truth. The 'Radical Faction' was a private, internal clan dispute, entirely unrecognized by village law. Officially, Jin was nothing more than an ordinary Chunin.
After the Third Great Ninja War, the village elders had implemented a covert policy to suppress the Uchiha. Recognizing that the trauma of war caused the Sharingan to awaken and mature, the administration restricted the Uchiha to policing duties and systematically denied them promotions to Jonin. 'Jonin possessed political voting rights.' Giving the Uchiha too many Jonin meant giving them a voice in village governance. Therefore, despite Jin's battlefield contributions, his rank had been permanently frozen at Chunin. Furthermore, since his original squad died in the war, he had never been reassigned to a new one.
Because Hiruzen had deliberately marginalized Jin to strip him of political power, he now possessed absolutely zero administrative leverage to hold Jin accountable. How could the Hokage publicly blame a solitary, unassigned Chunin for the collapse of village security? It would make the Konoha Administration look entirely incompetent.
'Snap.'
Hiruzen unknowingly crushed his wooden smoking pipe in his grip. "Jin. Uchiha," he growled, his voice dropping to a freezing temperature.
Jin maintained his perfectly composed expression, though a flicker of profound contempt danced in his eyes.
'In this world, every shortcut has a hidden price,' Jin analyzed silently, drawing on the imperial statecraft of his past life. 'Authority and responsibility are inextricably linked. It is the iron law of governance.' Hiruzen had wanted the benefit of suppressing the Uchiha without paying the political cost. By denying Jin the rank of Jonin and excluding him from the official chain of command, Hiruzen had stripped him of all legal obligations. Jin didn't care about the rank because true power came from strength, not a title. Instead, he weaponized his low status.
'Since you denied me the authority, do not expect me to shoulder the responsibility,' Jin thought coldly. It did not matter that he secretly ruled the Uchiha. It did not matter that he orchestrated the Police Force strike. On paper, he was just a Chunin. And Hiruzen was choking on his own bureaucratic trap.
"Please, Lord Hokage, do not agitate yourself," Jin smiled faintly, his tone dripping with polite mockery. "Anger is bad for your health. Do you have a mission for me?"
Jin tilted his head, pretending to consider his options. "Though, it is quite unfortunate. As an officially registered Chunin without an assigned four-man squad, Konoha regulations strictly prohibit me from accepting anything above a C-rank mission. Has someone lost a cat? Does a civilian need a babysitter? Or perhaps the village moat requires dredging?"
Jin offered a crisp, formal bow. "I stand ready to serve the village. Please, Lord Hokage, issue my assignment."
Hiruzen's body trembled with suppressed rage.
The Hokage stared at the young Uchiha, a chilling realization washing over him. Jin was incredibly slippery. He had never petitioned for a Jonin promotion. He had never complained about not having a squad. He had never fought for a captaincy in the Police Force.
'He planned this from the very beginning,' Hiruzen realized, the cold truth settling in his bones. 'He remained entirely off the grid so I could never use the village's rules against him.'