Nanga Shrine, Uchiha district—underground chamber.
The air was heavy. A dozen torches burned along the stone walls.
Fugaku sat in the chief's stone chair, fingers interlaced before him, face dark.
His gaze swept over every clansman present—core members of the Uchiha, senior officers of the Police Force, and the clan elders.
"Fugaku! What are you still hesitating for!"
The speaker was Yatsushiro, the hawks' leading voice. He slapped a palm on the stone table with a dull thud.
"That brat from the Namikaze has openly meddled in our Uchiha's internal affairs! He sought out that girl Izumi and preached 'goodwill' and 'integration'—that's a warning, a threat!"
Another elder, Inaho, picked up: "Exactly! The Hyuga have become lapdogs of the Namikaze. Now they want to use the same trick on us! They're trying to dissolve our resolve and grind down our pride!"
Fugaku looked at them and spoke low. "It wasn't a threat. I checked. Namikaze Shinju only gave Izumi pointers on training and expressed the wish that our two families coexist in peace. Isn't that a good sign?"
"A good sign?" Yatsushiro barked a laugh. "Fugaku! Don't be naïve! The Namikaze are using us! They killed Danzo—looks like they avenged us, but in truth it was to purge dissent and cement their rule! Who in Konoha dares oppose them now? Only us Uchiha!"
His voice echoed in the chamber, hot with incitement.
"Only by holding power in our own hands can the Uchiha truly stand up!"
"That's right! Take back our honor!"
"Turn on Konoha! Now's the time! If it goes well, we might even seize the reins!"
The room grew fevered. One radical slogan after another crashed over Fugaku's reason like waves.
Itachi stood behind his father, wearing standard ANBU gear with a mask. He listened in silence to the clan's rhetoric, fists clenched beneath the mask.
Pain.
A tearing, immense pain raked his heart. He knew better than anyone present that the village leadership's wariness of the Uchiha had never faded.
And he knew just as well that this frenzy—fueled by hate and arrogance—would only drive the clan into an abyss from which there was no return.
He remembered what Shinju had told him days ago.
"Why must there be a choice?"
"True strength is being strong enough to forge a brand-new ending where no one has to be sacrificed."
But where was that ending? He couldn't see it. All he saw was the clan madly accelerating down a road to ruin.
Fugaku drew a deep breath, trying one last time.
"Everyone, calm down. Today's Konoha isn't the Konoha of the past. You know Minato's strength. And beyond that is Shinju, whose depths we can't fathom. We have no chance."
"Chances aren't waited for—they're made!" Yatsushiro rose to his feet, the three tomoe of his Sharingan (Copy Wheel Eye) spinning with agitation.
"We Uchiha are founders of Konoha! Why should we be pressed down by the heirs of the Senju line? Now even the Namikaze dare point fingers at us!"
His words lit fires in every hawk in the room.
"That's right! The Uchiha are the strongest!"
"Fugaku! If you stay this soft, you don't deserve to be our clan head!"
A palace coup.
A naked, blatant palace coup.
Fugaku's face went iron blue. Looking at clansmen drunk on the lust for power, he felt a deep, crushing helplessness.
He knew he could no longer sway them with words.
Just then, hurried footsteps sounded beyond the heavy stone door.
"Bad news! Clan head! Elders!" A young Police Force member rushed in, flustered.
Yatsushiro snapped, displeased, "What's the panic! Can't you see we're in council!"
"I—It's Izumi! Uchiha Izumi!" the ninja panted, urgent. "She… she brought a dozen young clansmen and is kneeling at the shrine gate!"
"What?!"
Everyone in the room froze.
Outside Nanga Shrine.
Izumi knelt on the cold stone steps. Behind her, a dozen young ninja—like her, worried about the clan's future—knelt as well.
They said nothing, only knelt in silence—using the humblest posture to wage a wordless protest.
Terror flooded Izumi's heart.
She didn't know if this would work, or if it would only infuriate the elders. But she had to do something. She couldn't watch the clan rush toward the ruin Shinju had foreseen.
Inside, the atmosphere turned stranger with the sudden news.
A snarl twisted Yatsushiro's face.
"Outrageous! Shaking morale at a time like this! That girl Izumi must have been brainwashed by the Namikaze brat!"
He turned to Fugaku, voice hard as iron.
"Fugaku! No more waiting! Decide now! Lock up Izumi and the waverers and execute our plan at once!"
"That's right! Execute the plan!"
"Don't hesitate!"
All the pressure, in that instant, pressed onto Fugaku alone. He looked at the riled clansmen, then thought of those kneeling outside—the youth who represented the clan's future.
His heart bled.
Behind him, Itachi felt his father's body go rigid. He knew his father was close to breaking. If Father yielded now, nothing could be salvaged.
His hand drifted, without thinking, to the short blade at his waist.
If—
If it came to that, to guard the village, to guard Sasuke…
Just as despair was about to swallow Itachi—
A calm voice—belonging to no one present—cut in from the chamber's entrance.
"Seems I've come at the wrong time."
"Sorry to interrupt your elegant discussion on how to destroy your own clan."
The voice wasn't loud, but it cracked like thunder, dropping the room into instant silence.
Everyone snapped their heads toward the sound.
At the door—supposed to be tightly guarded—stood someone none knew when had entered.
A black-haired, black-eyed boy.
He wore simple civilian clothes, a faintly amused smile on his face, and leaned against the icy stone wall, watching the many-faced Uchiha high-ups as if enjoying a farce.
"Namikaze… Shinju!"
Yatsushiro spat the name through his teeth. His face was a storm of disbelief and barely checked killing intent.
How was he here?!
The underground chamber of Nanga Shrine was the Uchiha's highest forbidden ground, ringed with sensory barriers and genjutsu traps passed down the generations.
How had this brat slipped in without a sound?!
At the sight of Shinju, Itachi's pupils shrank. He instantly recalled Shinju's words.
A brand-new ending.
Could it be…
He had come.
Was he the one to forge that ending?
Ignoring the shocked stares, Shinju pushed off the wall and walked, step by step, into the forbidden ground where no outsider should tread.
He stopped at the stone table at last, letting his calm gaze pass over everyone present.
"Good evening, all."
"I'm here to show you something."
(End of Chapter)
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