Jin narrowed his eyes, his mind working rapidly.
With the Elders' defection, his political consolidation was complete. He had absorbed the Radicals, the Moderates, and the Neutrals. Fugaku and Shisui were entirely isolated, their ideologies fundamentally incompatible with Jin's reality. Now, he needed his new unified army to function with absolute strategic clarity. He lacked an active system or an 'Eternal' Mangekyo Sharingan to fight the entire village single-handedly; he had to rely on these commanders. They needed to stop fighting like blind berserkers and start thinking like politicians.
"Elder Amano is right," Jin began, his voice cutting through the heavy atmosphere. "The Uchiha respect strength above all else. If I had presented these theories as a weak, unproven genin, you would have ignored me. I had to secure my own power first. But now, it is time for a history lesson. You need to understand the true nature of the village leadership."
The commanders leaned in, their previous arrogance replaced by desperate attention. They wanted to know how Jin had deduced the village's plot to exterminate them years before it became obvious.
"Let us start with a simple question," Jin said, pacing slowly. "Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage, built this village with absolute, god-like physical power. Tobirama Senju, the Second, maintained it with elite combat strength and supreme political intellect. But what about Hiruzen Sarutobi? The village propaganda hails him as the 'God of Shinobi'. Do you truly believe that?"
The crowd blinked, utterly baffled.
It was a brilliant psychological strike. The Uchiha understood combat. They respected the Tsuchikage's devastating Particle Style, and the Raikage's unmatched physical speed. But when they actually thought about Hiruzen... they drew a blank. Hiruzen rarely fought on the front lines. He spent his days sitting in his office, smoking his pipe, and lecturing about philosophy.
"It makes no sense," a Jonin muttered. "They call him a master of all jutsu, but I've never seen him display the overwhelming dominance of a Kage."
"Exactly," Jin confirmed, a cold smile forming on his lips. "Hiruzen's 'strength' is an illusion built on propaganda. When he first took office, he was weak. He inherited the position through Tobirama's dying breath and the political backing of Mito Uzumaki, the First Hokage's wife. But the major founding clans—the Senju and the Uchiha—ignored his authority. To us, he was merely a puppet."
Jin stopped pacing and looked directly at them. "So, how did a puppet gain absolute control over the military? He couldn't force the adults to obey, so he targeted the children. He utilized the Ninja Academy to preach his 'Will of Fire'—an ideological brainwashing program designed to make children loyal to the Hokage above their own bloodlines."
"But propaganda takes decades to work," Elder Amano interjected, his tactical mind catching up. "How did he deal with the immediate threats to his power?"
"By systematically assassinating them," Jin stated flatly. "Let us examine the Senju Clan. During the Second Great Ninja War, Nawaki Senju—the clan's prime heir and a future Hokage candidate—died from stepping on a basic explosive tag. Think about the biological absurdity of that."
Jin explained the genetic reality. "The Senju possess monstrous chakra reserves and regenerative vitality. An explosive tag might sever a limb, but it should never instantly kill a Senju elite. Even Tsunade, the world's greatest medical ninja, could not save him. It was a targeted assassination."
The courtyard was dead silent.
"Following Nawaki's death, Hiruzen authorized the 'Wood Release' experiments, attempting to recreate the First Hokage's power," Jin continued. "Countless Senju elites were forced onto the operating tables, where they died gruesome deaths. The remaining Senju realized they were being systematically culled. To survive, they abandoned their surname and vanished into the civilian population. Hiruzen erased the founding clan of Konoha from the inside."
Jin began listing the fallen, his voice a rhythmic, terrifying hammer of logic.
"Next was Dan Kato. He gained the backing of the Senju remnants to become the Fourth Hokage. He mysteriously died in combat shortly after."
"Then, consider the Uzumaki Clan—distant relatives of the Senju and masters of Fuinjutsu, the art of sealing. When their allied village was besieged by enemy nations, Konoha possessed elite strike teams, including the Sannin and the White Fang. Yet, our reinforcements somehow 'arrived too late' to save the population. Miraculously, however, they arrived just in time to salvage all the Uzumaki's priceless sealing scrolls and one royal survivor, Kushina. Hiruzen let an entire allied clan die just to steal their jutsu."
The Uchiha commanders shuddered. The ruthless pragmatism was terrifying.
"What about Sakumo Hatake, the White Fang?" Jin asked. "He was a war hero whose reputation eclipsed the Hokage himself. He was the people's choice for the Fourth Hokage. Then, he failed an S-Rank mission. S-Rank means absolute, top-level state secrecy. Yet, by the next morning, the exact details of his 'cowardly' failure were known by every civilian merchant in the village. That is impossible without a deliberate, high-level intelligence leak orchestrated by the administration. They destroyed his reputation, drove him to suicide, and conveniently, never investigated the leak."
Jin didn't stop. "Orochimaru was next. He conducted illegal human experiments. But such research requires astronomical funding and state-of-the-art subterranean facilities. A commoner like Orochimaru couldn't afford that alone. The administration funded him. However, when Orochimaru proved too ambitious and ruthless to be controlled, his lab was suddenly 'discovered,' and he was forced to flee the village."
Jin delivered the final piece of the puzzle. "Finally, Minato Namikaze. Hiruzen chose him as the Fourth Hokage because Minato was a commoner with no clan backing. He was supposed to be the perfect, obedient puppet. But Minato had a spine. He tried to consolidate his own power by placing his loyalist, Kakashi, into the Anbu black ops, slowly taking control of the military away from Hiruzen."
Jin's eyes flared crimson, his Sharingan spinning as he delivered the punchline.
"And then, the Nine-Tails attacked. Minato fought for his life and died, while Hiruzen and his massive Anbu forces were suspiciously slow to provide backup. Once Minato was dead, Hiruzen immediately took back the Hokage hat."
Jin surveyed the horrified faces of his clan.
"Do you see the pattern now?" Jin asked, his voice echoing in the quiet courtyard. "Anyone who threatens the absolute authority of Hiruzen and his council—the F4—is neutralized. It doesn't matter if you are a war hero, an allied clan, or the Hokage himself. Now, look at the Uchiha. We are the last powerful, independent military force in the village. We refuse to be fully assimilated, and the village is bankrupt. Exterminating us is not a sudden tragedy; it is simply the next logical step in Hiruzen's fifty-year playbook."