Chapter 56: The Council of War
After the comforting meal of dumplings, Uchiha Raizen retreated to his room, the exhaustion of the last few months—from his grueling Sage training to the brutal, abrupt warfare—finally crashing down on him. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, he slept deeply, the simple comfort of his own bed a profound luxury.
Two days later, a summons arrived. A dark guard materialized at his door with a terse message. "Elder Raizen. The Patriarch requires your presence in the council chamber immediately."
"I understand," Uchiha Raizen replied. As the guard vanished, he dressed in his formal elder's robes. Before leaving, he found his mother. "I must attend the council. Stay safe." He formed a quick hand seal. "Shadow Clone Technique!" A perfect copy of himself appeared beside her. The immediate threat was over, but his paranoia, forged in the fires of recent betrayal, was a habit he couldn't break.
When he entered the council chamber, the atmosphere was thick with a grim, heavy silence. Every elder present wore a face like a thundercloud.
"Elder Raizen. Take your seat," Uchiha Tajima's voice was flat, devoid of its usual fire.
Uchiha Raizen bowed slightly and moved to his designated place. Soon, the room filled with the clan's elite Jonin, hundreds of them crowding the space. It was a display of the Uchiha's formidable might, a stark contrast to the future of near-extinction he knew awaited them. The irony was a bitter taste in his mouth.
"Now that we are all assembled," Uchiha Tajima began, his voice echoing in the quiet hall, "this incident has been a lesson for us. We have grown... complacent."
A ripple of discomfort went through the room. For the proud Uchiha, an admission of fault was a bitter pill to swallow.
"Patriarch, we—" an elder started.
"Silence!" Uchiha Tajima cut him off. "You will listen. The Hyūga have ceded the eastern mine as compensation. I have accepted their terms of surrender..."
"Father!" Uchiha Madara's voice rang out, raw with pain and fury. "My brothers' lives are only worth a single mine? I—"
"You will address me as Patriarch!" Uchiha Tajima roared, his composure shattering. "And you are here as an observer, Madara, not a speaker! You will hold your tongue!"
Humiliated and enraged, Uchiha Madara turned on his heel and stormed out of the chamber. Uchiha Raizen watched him go, seeing the seeds of a profound hatred being sown. The boy who once dreamed of peace with Hashirama was being twisted into the vengeful weapon history demanded.
"Do not mind him," Uchiha Tajima said, forcibly calming himself. "If Hyūga Tōgen's account is true, then both our clans were pawns in a Senju gambit. I have spoken with him. The Hyūga will withdraw from the world's conflicts. They are closing their borders. Whoever emerges victorious, they will submit. The Senju, however, have offered no explanation. The question before this council is this: do we march on the Senju Clan and declare all-out war?"
A profound silence fell. Even the most hawkish elders, the ones who always cried for blood, remained quiet. After tasting the fragility of peace, even the warlike Uchiha were reluctant to let it go so soon.
Uchiha Raizen rose to his feet, all eyes turning to him. "I advise against immediate action. Our clan's vitality has been wounded. To fight now would leave us vulnerable, caught between exhaustion and ambition. What we must do now is rest, recover, and rebuild."
He sat back down. His words were not born of cowardice, but of a fierce, newfound priority. The battlefield offered him power, but his home, his family, offered him a reason to live. He would choose the latter every time.