Just as Konoha’s Third Hokage was about to punish the isolated Uchiha in the name of peace, an unexpected piece of news reached him.
The war had broken out much earlier than Sarutobi Hiruzen had imagined.
The Uchiha had actually made the first move.
He did not know the details, nor did he want to know them.
All he knew was that Sarutobi Yasukuni, his arms broken, had run toward him in tears and, in front of everyone in Konoha, announced news that no one was prepared to accept.
"Lord Third! The Uchiha have rebelled!"
The frenzied crowd immediately fell silent.
One second later, an uproar erupted.
"The Uchiha have rebelled?"
"Damn those Uchiha! They’re nothing but warmongers who don’t care about peace! A clan like that doesn’t deserve to exist!"
"Lord Third, give the order! Let’s wipe out these evil bastards!"
"Kill them all!"
"I knew those bastards were evil!"
It was clear that Sarutobi’s speeches over the past few days had been remarkably effective.
Everyone had already accepted the idea that peace should be the main theme of the shinobi world—and that anyone who disrupted that peace deserved to die.
"Kill the Uchiha who started the war!"
The slogan quickly spread throughout Konoha, and within less than fifteen minutes, it had become the consensus of the entire village.
The loudest voices belonged to the villagers.
They completely disregarded the fact that among the people joining in their frenzy were Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Hōkaku—people they were now shouting should be killed.
Indeed, foolish people feared nothing, yet claimed to know everything.
Shisui, who had brought more than two hundred Uchiha to participate in today’s ceremony, felt extremely awkward.
"Lord Hokage, could there be some misunderstanding?"
In truth, Shisui also felt that those inexplicable people who had appeared out of nowhere might really have rebelled.
No.
They were definitely going to rebel.
Those strange Uchiha who had suddenly appeared were regarded as fellow clan members only by Clan Head Fugaku.
But where exactly had they come from?
Why had they appeared now?
And why had their appearance been so strange?
What kind of scheme were they hiding?
Shisui remained deeply suspicious.
He did not believe that these people were Uchiha who had been scattered outside the village. He had always remained wary of them.
Their appearance had only made the already tense relationship between the Uchiha and Konoha even worse.
Shisui even wished that, although the clan might be weaker, things would be better without these outsiders causing trouble.
The Uchiha were discriminated against in Konoha, but they had ultimately enjoyed a relatively peaceful life.
Ever since these Uchiha, whose origins were unknown, had appeared, the clan’s hopes of integrating into Konoha had become increasingly difficult.
They were nothing but dead weight!
But after hearing that the Uchiha had rebelled, Shisui still wanted to step forward and verify the situation.
An incident like this could easily implicate the Uchiha living in Konoha, and that was the last thing Shisui wanted to see.
Ah... I knew these outsiders couldn’t be trusted.
Shisui approached Sarutobi Hiruzen and voiced his doubts.
But would Sarutobi Yasukuni give Shisui the opportunity to explain?
Of course not.
He immediately shook his broken arms and cried out in agony.
"Lord Third! Sarutobi Tsukiji Hongan has already been killed in battle, while Yasu, Aoyama, and Zashikiya have all lost their arms! Isn’t that proof that the Uchiha have rebelled?"
Sarutobi Yasukuni presented this as ironclad evidence before Sarutobi Hiruzen.
As for what had actually happened, he said nothing.
It didn’t matter.
Yasukuni had already seen that a single sentence from him had successfully inflamed the emotions of the people of Konoha.
Whether he explained more or less was irrelevant.
Such evidence could obviously not be considered conclusive proof.
But when it came to evidence, all that mattered was having the courage to present it and having people willing to believe it.
Whether it was true or false was often secondary.
Apart from the Uchiha living in Konoha, most of the village’s population had gathered in the square.
They had just been indoctrinated with the idea of loving peace, and now they had personally witnessed someone supposedly destroying that peace.
Wasn’t this justice being delivered right to their doorstep?
And with the powerful Third Hokage backing them, with so many people gathered together, who could possibly oppose them?
Everyone could participate in such effortless justice.
The people firmly believed in the evil of the Uchiha.
Seeing this scene, Shisui wanted to speak but hesitated.
The more than two hundred Uchiha behind him also seemed unwilling to step forward and speak on behalf of their clan.
They hoped Sarutobi would make a rational judgment.
But after more than ten days of ceremonies, the power of the Sarutobi Clan had become deeply ingrained in everyone’s minds.
It seemed as though every clan in Konoha stood on Sarutobi’s side.
At this moment, Sarutobi Hiruzen looked around.
Everywhere he looked, people were shouting for the destruction of the Uchiha.
The people’s support can be put to good use.
Hiruzen knew that an actual war with the Uchiha was impossible.
No matter what happened, if a war broke out on Konoha’s own soil, it would be Konoha that suffered.
But if all the people of Konoha united against the Uchiha, then Sarutobi Hiruzen would have sufficient justification to drive them out.
The overwhelming majority of shinobi living here no longer welcomed the Uchiha.
Whether the Uchiha had once been one of Konoha’s founding clans no longer mattered.
Leaving with dignity was now the last choice available to a great clan like theirs.
Sarutobi Hiruzen raised his hand.
The authority he had accumulated over decades caused the shouting crowd to fall silent instantly.
This ability to command absolute obedience only strengthened Hiruzen’s belief that the Uchiha could be driven out today.
"People of Konoha, once upon a time, we Uchiha and the rest of Konoha worshipped the same ideals. We lived on the same land and breathed the same air. Yet they have become completely incompatible with us. We love peace, while they yearn for war."
As he spoke, the Third Hokage tore off his ceremonial Hokage robes, revealing the armor underneath.
"These people, who have no reverence for death, do not deserve to share everything that Konoha has with us. Follow me and drive them out! Drive these warmongers from Konoha!"
The moment he finished speaking, Sarutobi Hiruzen used the Body Flicker Technique to appear at the front of the crowd, displaying the bearing of a man leading the charge himself.
Nearly every shinobi in Konoha had gathered in the square.
Seeing the Third Hokage take action personally, they erupted into cheers.
"Yeah! Follow Lord Third!"
"Drive the evil Uchiha out!"
"Kill those criminals!"
Across Konoha, the Sarutobi Clan’s eight thousand shinobi, the civilian shinobi of Konoha, and the shinobi of various Konoha clans who had been swept up in the movement brought the total number of shinobi to nearly thirty thousand.
And that did not even include the Konoha villagers who were eager to watch the chaos unfold.
The total crowd approached one hundred thousand people.
The endless mass surged forward like a breached floodgate, desperate to vent its violent emotions.
And the target of that fury was the Uchiha outside the village.
The two hundred Uchiha standing within the crowd suddenly seemed completely out of place.
They were like fallen leaves caught in a raging current.
Whether they wanted to resist or not, they could only be swept along with it.
Seeing this scene, Uchiha Shisui felt utterly hopeless.
He decided to make one final attempt.
"Lord Third, please give the Uchiha a chance. Let me go and meet Uchiha Kei."
Shisui had already begun considering using Kotoamatsukami to control Uchiha Kei.
Sarutobi Hiruzen understood exactly what Shisui meant.
The proposal made him hesitate.
If Uchiha Kei could truly be controlled, that would be almost too good to be true.
But the mastermind behind this entire incident, Sarutobi Yasukuni, had no idea what Shisui was implying.
He assumed Shisui was still pleading for the Uchiha.
That was something he absolutely could not allow.
Once peace was restored, the two sides would communicate.
And communication would mean that today’s actions—everything they had done to incite the crowd—would merely expose their previous actions as an attempt to cover up their own misconduct.
How could that be allowed?
Sarutobi Yasukuni immediately began shouting loudly, ensuring that everyone around them could hear him.
"Uchiha Shisui! At this point, the Uchiha Clan must be punished! They have already used force against Konoha! That is rebellion! As for you, Uchiha Shisui, you must either sever your ties with them, or we will have no choice but to treat you as one of them!"
The world was not truly divided into black and white.
But simple-minded sentiments were always so naive—and so easy to manipulate.
At that moment, no one cared what Uchiha Shisui was actually thinking.
So many weak individuals had gathered together that they began to believe they possessed an unstoppable power.
And power that one could not properly comprehend brought nothing but uncontrolled ambition.
"That’s right! They’re Uchiha too!"
Someone in the crowd immediately shouted at Shisui.
That person wasn’t even a shinobi.
"Exactly! There are a bunch of damned Uchiha right here!"
The emotions of the surrounding crowd were immediately stirred up.
The Uchiha within the crowd turned pale, then red with embarrassment and anger.
This was completely different from what they had imagined.
Hadn’t everything been arranged so that they would replace the original Uchiha and become the honorable Uchiha of Konoha—the village’s new elite?
How had things developed to this point?
Damn that Uchiha Kei!
He always found a way to turn their lives into a complete mess!
Sarutobi Hiruzen watched the increasingly frenzied crowd and swallowed the words he had been about to say.
Seeing this, Sarutobi Yasukuni finally experienced the intoxicating sensation his old man must have felt when using the overwhelming power of public opinion to suppress others.
"Uchiha Shisui, make your choice. At this moment, are you an Uchiha, or are you a citizen of Konoha?"
The surrounding crowd began shouting along with him.
Helpless, Uchiha Shisui closed his eyes.
There was nothing he could do anymore.
He could only retreat to the Uchiha behind him.
When the crowd saw Shisui back down, they erupted into victorious cheers.
It seemed that this was the first battle between Konoha and the Uchiha.
And they had already achieved a decisive victory in the first stage.
In this battle, Konoha must win.
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