Uchiha Shōmei ’s words caused the advancing Uchiha formation to pause for the slightest moment.
But it was only for a moment.
The former rogue shinobi who had been granted Uchiha identities continued advancing with firm, unwavering steps.
After all, they were still human.
And these newly transformed red-eyed "Uchiha" had already developed a deep sense of belonging to the clan.
A powerful sense of belonging.
To them, the honor of the Uchiha was more important than their own lives.
They would not tolerate anyone slandering or defiling it.
In the past, they had wandered.
They had walked alone.
They had been rootless weeds drifting wherever the wind carried them.
They weren’t necessarily good people.
In fact, most of them were bad people.
After all, their former identities had been missing-nin or exiled rogue shinobi.
Missing-nin?
How could someone become a missing-nin without doing things like killing, looting, extortion, and robbery?
Perhaps some of them had committed their crimes out of desperation.
But they couldn’t exactly explain their circumstances to everyone else.
Because wrong was wrong.
If you hadn’t turned your life around, no one would listen to your excuses.
Everyone understood that only those who had made something of themselves possessed the right to speak.
The shinobi world was fond of saying that realizing one’s mistakes and correcting them was the greatest virtue.
But that was nothing more than a slogan.
No one truly forgave those who had made mistakes.
Even when they verbally forgave someone, there was always an air of condescension, as though they were graciously bestowing mercy from above.
No one truly gave those who had gone astray a chance to start over.
Ah, such was the helplessness of life.
For most people, life began with that first mistake, and from there they simply slid farther and farther downward.
It wasn’t that they didn’t want to change.
It was that the price of changing was simply too high.
The rogue shinobi had long since prepared themselves for the possibility that one day they might die alone in some street, or have their heads cut off in their sleep so someone could collect the bounty.
That was their fate.
They had never imagined that there could be a place in this world that would give them an opportunity to start over.
Nor had they imagined that the things they had once killed and robbed people for, merely to obtain resources that would make them stronger, would be so worthless here.
Not only were those things worthless...
They could actually receive systematic training here.
They would be taught everything from start to finish.
And they were even guaranteed employment afterward.
That made them regret their past even more.
If only this place had existed sooner.
Perhaps I wouldn’t have been forced to bear such a miserable life.
Perhaps I wouldn’t have had to face the judgment of my own conscience during those silent late nights.
Sadness was merely empathy with the unfair circumstances of one’s life.
Guilt, however, was the backlash of one’s own moral values—the condemnation of one’s conscience.
The first could deceive others.
The second could not deceive oneself.
While studying in the Iga Forty-Nine Halls, they had gradually picked up their old sense of right and wrong again.
Because the Iga Forty-Nine Halls accepted students regardless of their background, they had even organized themselves voluntarily to test outsiders on their loyalty to the Uchiha.
Anyone could come to the Forty-Nine Halls to study.
But once they had learned, they were expected to carry a heart of gratitude and repay the Naka Uchiha.
Why should people who arrived later than us, people whose lives were still spotless, be allowed to learn everything and then simply walk away without being loyal to the Uchiha?
You can come to the Forty-Nine Halls to study.
But leave without repaying the debt you owe?
Dream on!
And so, they began their new lives in Naka.
Patrolling the streets of Naka was the most exhausting daily duty of the Uchiha Clan.
Yet it was also the assignment these newcomers looked forward to the most.
Because when they walked through the streets of Naka, there were no looks of hatred, disgust, or contempt.
Instead, there were only the respectful, admiring, and yearning gazes of ordinary civilians.
Those gazes made them proud to be Uchiha.
They had finally been given lives in which they could look up toward the sunlight.
They didn’t want to lose that.
In fact, they cared about the legitimacy and orthodoxy of being Uchiha even more than the genuine Uchiha did.
And that naturally-born Uchiha who kept shouting that they were fakes?
They hated him.
As an Uchiha, he refused to stand on Lord Kei’s side.
Not only that, he constantly made things difficult for Lord Kei—and for all of them, the newly accepted members of the Uchiha Clan.
He clearly didn’t want to live anymore!
Uchiha Shōmei had completely earned their hatred.
Why should such an irritating bastard be allowed to become Lord Kei’s clansman?
And not just any clansman—one born with Uchiha blood.
He was even a member of the Main House they all looked up to and served.
The world truly was unfair.
The red-eyed Uchiha advanced with even greater determination.
They would firmly defend the fairness Lord Kei had brought them.
Faced with these Uchiha, Jiraiya and Tsunade were forced to retreat step by step while covering the withdrawal of some of the shinobi clans.
Some timid shinobi had already abandoned their weapons and surrendered under the overwhelming pressure.
There was no denying that Jūbei ’s earlier display had been terrifying enough to leave a lasting impression on Konoha.
The scales of victory were drifting farther and farther away from Hiruzen Sarutobi.
The Third Hokage had Jūbei as a hostage.
Uchiha Kei had Hiruzen’s own son.
Hiruzen also had captured members of the Uchiha Clan.
That had originally been his greatest trump card.
He had assumed that these people represented the vast majority of Kei’s forces.
Who could have imagined that they amounted to less than one-twentieth of Kei’s actual strength?
Furthermore, the advancing Uchiha had captured nearly a thousand Konoha shinobi.
That trump card had become useless as well.
Now, Hiruzen could only try to appeal to morality.
At precisely that moment, the Uchiha of Konoha finally arrived as well.
Everyone came except Fugaku, who was too ashamed to show his face.
The clan leader’s sense of shame had simply become too severe.
Uchiha Sanqiandai approached with nearly a thousand Uchiha.
Then he saw the densely packed sea of red eyes throughout Konoha.
Every one of them possessed tomoe.
Sanqiandai was so overwhelmed with excitement that he failed to examine the newcomers carefully.
The old man was practically bursting with excitement.
"Sugoi desu ne!"
"I’ve never witnessed such a magnificent sight in all my years!"
"Ah! If things continue like this, we’ll probably witness an Uchiha Clan even more powerful than the one during the Warring States Period!"
The old man completely forgot that they were standing in the middle of a battlefield.
He danced around excitedly, shouting at the top of his lungs.
This old man had a deep-seated obsession.
Could the Uchiha Clan really have no dream of becoming a great clan again?
Of course they did.
Especially since the Uchiha had once enjoyed glory for more than a thousand years.
Yet in just a few decades, they had fallen from being the most powerful clan in the shinobi world to having that title stripped from them.
Then they became Konoha’s most powerful clan.
And eventually, they couldn’t even retain that title.
Who could understand the bitterness of that?
Who could understand what an old man like Sanqiandai had experienced throughout his life?
Konoha had grown weaker with every generation.
And the Uchiha had grown weaker alongside it.
It was all Konoha’s fault!
"The Uchiha Clan will rise to greatness once more!"
The old man shouted the slogan again.
Itachi awkwardly tugged at the old man’s sleeve.
"Grandpa Sanqiandai, there’s something strange about these Uchiha. They’re the rogue shinobi whom Kei-nii took in. Their eyes are fake. They aren’t related to us by blood!"
The old man froze.
His blood pressure nearly shot through the roof.
Such emotional ups and downs were terrible for an elderly man’s health.
Sanqiandai looked at Itachi in disbelief.
Then he looked at Kei.
He hoped Kei would give him an explanation.
Even if Kei lied to him, he could accept that.
But Sanqiandai had experienced enough in life to understand that this wasn’t the time to speak.
There was an external enemy before them.
Internal problems could wait.
First, they had to deal with Konoha.
The Third Hokage had also heard Uchiha Shōmei ’s accusation.
Conveniently, the genuine Uchiha had arrived as well.
Hiruzen thought that, after seeing so many impostors, Kei would have to give his own family an explanation.
This was an opportunity.
"Uchiha Kei, you’ve colluded with outsiders and corrupted the bloodline of your own clan. You launched an unjustified surprise attack against Konoha and slaughtered unarmed villagers without the slightest mercy."
"Someone as evil as you still dreams of ruling Konoha?"
"I fear that even the Uchiha Clan itself will no longer tolerate you!"
Hiruzen’s words caused some of the newly arrived Uchiha to hesitate.
As a great clan, they placed enormous importance on reputation.
They also placed enormous importance on bloodline.
An impure bloodline was indeed a taboo.
Uchiha Kei looked up at the sky.
"Hiruzen..."
"Is the shinobi world really beyond saving?"
"How did someone like you end up holding such a high position?"
"When disaster arrives, you’re still obsessing over this meaningless nonsense."
"Do you think talking about this stuff is going to help you win?"
Kei couldn’t understand it.
At this point, did it really matter who was good and who was evil?
But Hiruzen apparently didn’t think so.
"There must always be a clear distinction between good and evil, between right and wrong!"
"Uchiha Kei, brute force cannot win you the support of righteousness."
"If you recklessly corrupt your clan’s bloodline, even your own family will eventually reject you."
Hiruzen was still trying to divide the Uchiha and seize the moral high ground.
Looking at the solemn Third Hokage, Kei muttered to himself,
"You’re like this."
"The Kazekage is like this."
"The Raikage and Tsuchikage are like this."
"Even the Mizukage is like this."
"How did these people even manage to survive until now?"
"Is it a competition to see who’s the most incompetent?"
"Or does everyone in every village, just like me, secretly hope that their boss is a complete idiot?"
Kei didn’t bother responding to Hiruzen directly.
Talking past each other was exhausting.
But Hiruzen believed that waving the banner of justice could win his side more support.
So he continued pressing him.
"Uchiha Kei, do you refuse to acknowledge your crimes?"
Kei stood up.
He wanted Hiruzen to understand everything before he died.
At this point, Hiruzen was still holding onto something.
Perhaps he was waiting for what he believed to be his final trump card.
Kei was going to shatter that illusion.
"’The Strongest Hokage.’ At this point, how can you still be so naive?"
"I’m not here to compete with you over who is the virtuous gentleman and who is the despicable villain."
"I’m here to carry out an operation to bring about Konoha’s destruction."
Kei openly admitted it.
I’m the villain.
You’re the gentleman.
So what?
Hiruzen became somewhat uncertain.
It seemed that Kei simply didn’t care about such things.
Even so, Hiruzen still needed to fight for the appearance of righteousness.
"So what?"
"Justice will inevitably triumph over evil."
Kei shook his head.
"Who told you that?"
"Third Hokage, does that claim have any historical basis?"
"Don’t you understand it yourself?"
"Isn’t that just something you’ve been telling other people to deceive them?"
"Or did you repeat it so many times that you eventually started believing it yourself?"
"Did you manage to fool even yourself?"
Looking across the history Kei had experienced in two different worlds, there had been far more examples of evil triumphing over justice than justice triumphing over evil.
He simply didn’t believe in such a fairy tale.
For some reason, however, Hiruzen genuinely seemed to believe it.
"The shinobi world will never tolerate the arrogance of evil!"
"Kei, stop this. You still have a chance to become a good person!"
Hiruzen believed that everyone wanted to be a good person.
Self-sacrifice for the sake of others had been the political ideal he had upheld throughout his life.
Besides, he still had a powerful trump card behind him.
Kei saw exactly what Hiruzen’s confidence rested upon.
"The shinobi world?"
"Third Hokage, don’t tell me you’re counting on the Four-Nation Allied Forces?"
The moment he heard that, Hiruzen’s heart skipped a beat.
Could it be that Uchiha Kei launched this chaotic attack so hurriedly because he already knew?
It made sense.
Kei clearly possessed enough power to fight head-on.
Yet he had still sent a group of people forward to die.
He had personally arrived alone first to buy time, while his main force arrived later.
He knows.
I’ve underestimated him.
But Kei’s next words plunged Hiruzen into even greater despair.
"Third Hokage, let me give you another piece of bad news."
"It’s not that the shinobi world can’t tolerate me."
"It’s that the daimyō can’t tolerate me anymore!"
Kei lowered his voice mysteriously.
"You’re still regretting it, aren’t you?"
"You think you launched your purge against me too hastily."
"You probably think you should have waited."
"Waited until all Five Kage had gathered, then held a formal trial under the authority of the Five Kage Summit before taking me down."
Hiruzen truly despaired.
Uchiha Kei really does know.
But how is he planning to deal with it?
The Five-Nation Allied Forces wouldn’t be easy to deal with.
Then Kei told Hiruzen an absolute joke.
"Hahahaha! Third Hokage, do you know why I say all five Kage are useless?"
"Because your teammates are even more ridiculous than you!"
Kei became slightly more serious.
"The daimyō support you because I’ve encroached upon their authority."
"That is something they cannot tolerate."
"The daimyō really did issue orders to the shinobi villages under their respective nations."
"But the orders were too vague."
"The Five Kage only knew that they were supposed to come and negotiate with you."
"They didn’t know that the others were coming as well."
"They didn’t even know they were supposed to be allies."
At this point, Kei was laughing so hard he could barely catch his breath.
"The Tsuchikage received his orders and set out with a large army."
"Unfortunately, they encountered the Raikage, who had brought only a small force and was merely going through the motions."
"The Tsuchikage didn’t know the Raikage was an ally."
"Seeing that the Raikage had fewer men, he surrounded him with his army."
"To cover the retreat of his own forces, the Raikage fought the Land of Earth’s ten-thousand-man army alone."
"So the forces of the Land of Earth were crippled as well."
"And the Raikage died in battle!"
At this point, Uchiha Kei slapped his thigh in delight.
"Speaking of that, I have to ask you something!"
"Third Hokage, ever since you became a Kage, have you actually stopped going to the battlefield?"
"I—"
Hiruzen didn’t know why Kei was asking.
But it was true.
He hadn’t fought on the battlefield in a very long time.
Kei waved his hand.
"Forget it. I don’t care about the explanation, and I don’t want to hear it."
"There are even more entertaining things!"
Kei took a piece of watermelon from Oboro and ate it, moistening his throat before continuing.
"Let me continue."
"The Mizukage of the Land of Water didn’t come."
"But the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist they raised all came."
"Unfortunately, the Mist shinobi had been poor for too long."
"Once they entered the Land of Fire, they realized that robbing the Land of Fire was far more profitable than coming here to support you."
"The Land of Bears, the Land of Waves, and the southeastern regions of the Land of Fire are all having a very bad time!"
Hiruzen’s eyes widened at the news.
"How could this happen?!"
"Uchiha Kei, if you knew this would happen, why did you still launch a civil war?"
"Do you have no sense of morality whatsoever?"
So the war wasn’t confined to Konoha.
The Land of Fire itself was already engulfed in flames.
But why would Uchiha Kei do something like this?
For his own selfish interests, he had thrown countless civilians into the flames of war.
Did he truly have no sense of justice?
Looking at the devastated Hiruzen, Kei felt that the final battle could finally begin.
"Third Hokage, how do you still not understand?"
"You’re always teaching other people to be good."
"But you’ve forgotten that morality is something that restrains yourself."
"Rules are what restrain everyone."
"You always use morality to demand that the people of Konoha become self-sacrificing good people."
"But my existence is here to tell you something."
"This world doesn’t need more good people."
"It needs someone to establish rules for it."
With that, Uchiha Kei raised his blade.
The Mitsuike Blade pointed directly at the Third Hokage.
"Uchiha! Whoever fights alongside me in blood today is my brother!"
"Kill!"
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