According to the history of the Uchiha, the ones who had led the clan to greatness and earned it fame were all wielders of the Mangekyō Sharingan. After all, without at least a little madness, how could anyone have the nerve to become a leader of the Uchiha?
At this moment, Elder Uchiha Setsuna looked almost insane. There was not even a trace of the elegance he had displayed earlier in the elegant courtyard. Instead, he looked exactly like what everyone imagined a qualified Uchiha leader should look like.
That was, until Itachi, standing beside Fugaku, spoke.
"Have you become so afraid that you no longer even dare to face Uchiha Kei on your own?"
His father had frozen up again.
Itachi sighed and decided to resolve the problem in front of him.
The Uchiha in this family really were impossible to like.
No wonder Konoha’s villagers had never truly accepted the Uchiha.
Who could possibly like a bunch of people who took pride in becoming lunatics?
"Bullying a child will not make Kei hold you in any higher regard. I hope that when you meet Kei, you will have the courage to face his condemnation."
Itachi possessed the mindset of someone who believed in the Hokage’s ideals. With an almost condescending attitude, he condemned Setsuna’s actions while simultaneously striking at the heart of the matter.
Setsuna was merely pretending to be crazy. He was not actually insane.
He merely yearned to become a great Uchiha, rather than simply being a typical Uchiha.
Hearing Itachi’s words, Setsuna released his grip. Nevertheless, he remained stubborn. Shaking his lion-like mane of hair, he roared at Itachi.
"Do you really think I’m afraid of that brat?!"
That kind of empty bravado might have been enough to intimidate other children.
But among the elders, everyone knew everyone else far too well.
At least in the eyes of Uchiha Senzan, Setsuna’s behavior was nothing more than a manifestation of his guilty conscience.
Senzan was a very un-Uchiha-like Uchiha.
Ever since Uchiha Kei had begun protecting every member of the clan without reservation, this elder—who had sacrificed countless clansmen for the sake of the Uchiha—had begun supporting Kei unconditionally.
He did not take pride in being a madman.
He took pride in ensuring the survival of his people.
Although Kei rarely paid him any attention, the old man admired that boy tremendously—the boy who always seemed capable of producing more clansmen out of nowhere.
The false sense of justice Kei displayed, the iron-blooded resolve he demonstrated through his actions, and the strict discipline he maintained in everything he did were precisely what Senzan considered the ideal Uchiha.
Senzan could pretend not to see someone bullying a child.
But if anyone dared to say a single bad word about Kei during a clan meeting, Senzan would tear that person’s entire family apart before Kei even had to say a word.
"Heh. The last person who spoke to Kei like that already has three feet of grass growing over his grave."
Senzan grinned.
"Setsuna, have you written your last words yet?"
His mockery was almost impossible to overlook.
"Old Senzan, are you trying to scare me?" Setsuna, being the hawkish sort that he was, naturally could not tolerate this.
"Setsuna, have you forgotten why Kei is sitting in the foremost position among the elders instead of the seat at the back that we originally assigned to him?"
Senzan did not care whether Setsuna could tolerate it or not.
His branch had more clansmen than Setsuna’s, and his family had more promising children as well.
Was there really anything for him to fear from Setsuna?
"Does Kei really dare to kill me?"
Whenever Kei was absent, Setsuna became particularly bold.
Unfortunately for him, Senzan was not buying any of it.
They were all adults who had grown up together in the same compound. Who did not know exactly what the others were like?
"Setsuna, don’t just say you’re not afraid. Look around you. Kei isn’t even here today, yet no one dares to sit in his seat."
Senzan pointed toward the empty seat.
"If you refuse to accept his position, then go ahead and sit there."
As long as Kei was not involved, Senzan was willing to give all the elders some face.
But the moment Kei was involved, it became a matter of slandering the future of the Uchiha Clan.
And anyone who did that deserved to be condemned by everyone.
"Hmph!"
Setsuna turned his head away, clearly indicating that he had no intention of listening to the old man.
Senzan, however, had no intention of letting him off so easily.
"Setsuna, you need to understand something. Being stubborn will not help you live any longer. Think about the former clan elder who refused to give Kei his seat. His corpse was left to the crows, and did anyone ever speak up for him?"
Back then, Kei had desperately needed to establish his authority, so his actions had been particularly ruthless.
In order to demonstrate that he was the kind of man who would do whatever he wanted, Kei had not cared in the slightest about the clan’s attempt to appease him by giving him an elder’s seat at the very back, despite the fact that he was not even qualified to be an elder.
When Kei first entered the clan council, he had immediately played a hand of coercion.
Ignoring the seat at the back near the entrance that had been prepared for him, he walked straight to the seat on Fugaku’s left and simply said:
"Move."
When he did not receive the answer he wanted, he ordered his subordinates to cut down the former Grand Elder, who had failed to react in time.
It was both a demonstration of authority and an expression of Kei’s dissatisfaction with the clan’s willingness to allow Root operatives to infiltrate their residential compound.
The Uchiha compound was protected by sealing barriers. How could outsiders possibly infiltrate it without at least some degree of tacit approval from the clan?
At the time, Kei had intended to make a grand statement.
He had already prepared himself for retaliation from the Grand Elder’s family.
Who could have imagined that the Grand Elder’s son—who had spent forty years waiting to become a reserve elder—would happily take up his father’s position the very next day?
When power was involved, family bonds were worthless.
"That’s right. Lord Kei isn’t killing someone for the first time, either."
Zhaoming also joined in, borrowing Senzan’s authority to intimidate Setsuna.
Only now did he finally remember the advantages of having Kei around.
Although he had once been deeply dissatisfied with Kei’s unwillingness to truly integrate into Konoha, he was beginning to understand just how useful Kei could be.
Senzan looked down on the young man.
He was someone with ideals but no ambition, aspirations but no clear goal.
No wonder Kei wanted to abandon them.
Uchiha who could not keep up with his footsteps deserved nothing more than to remain in the clan compound and rot away.
Once Senzan finished educating the younger generation of the clan, he would send them to follow Kei.
The decaying Uchiha would eventually be buried alongside the filthy Konoha.
Setsuna pretended not to hear him and continued turning his head away, chatting idly with Yakumi.
Senzan rose to his feet and decided not to argue with Setsuna any further.
Since their clan head had once again fallen into an indecisive dilemma, someone had to say something.
At the very least, he needed to give everyone a direction.
"Elders, I know the Hokage has approached you. He has approached me as well. But this is the Uchiha Clan. Nothing like this can remain hidden here."
"I don’t know what that old bastard promised you, but I understand what you’re planning today. You’re prepared to sacrifice someone else in order to secure your own interests."
Senzan swept his gaze across the courtyard.
The clansmen had gradually gathered around them.
The elders stood in the center of the courtyard while the surrounding clansmen quietly listened in from the edges.
"But you also need to understand something. The moment you decided to sacrifice someone else, did you ever stop to consider whether you actually possessed the strength to trade someone else’s life for your own interests?"
Hearing this, Uchiha Kakazu’s expression darkened with anger.
"Why should Uchiha Kei not sacrifice himself for the sake of the Uchiha?"
That statement made Senzan burst into laughter.
"Looks like Kei’s care for the clan’s elderly and his preferential treatment of his fellow clansmen have given you lofty elders a completely undeserved illusion."
"You don’t actually believe that Uchiha Kei cares all that much about the Uchiha, do you?"
"Isn’t that obvious?"
"Hahaha! That’s merely the compassion of the strong toward the weak."
"We have never done Kei any favors, and Kei has never expected the clan to help him. Yet you actually fantasize about using the interests of the clan to force Uchiha Kei into sacrificing himself."
"Are you trying to provoke a second civil war within the Uchiha?"
Senzan’s tone gradually became more severe.
He genuinely had not expected these elders, who had never experienced the hardships faced by those at the bottom of the clan, to be so naïve.
Kakazu remained unconvinced.
"He is an Uchiha, yet he refuses to sacrifice himself for the Uchiha. Someone like that deserves to die. Do you really think we’re afraid of fighting a civil war against him?"
How stubborn.
Senzan had nothing left to say.
He flicked his sleeve and walked away.
His final warning was filled with helplessness.
"Everyone, no one is born obligated to accommodate you."
"If you are preparing to start a civil war, first ask yourselves this—are you even worthy of surviving it?"
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