Panic. Pure, undeniable panic.
Shikaku Nara was sweating profusely. He shut his mouth entirely. The deep-seated resentment between the Ino-Shika-Cho clans and the current Hokage administration was an open secret among the elite, but it was a strictly forbidden topic. Saying it aloud was political suicide.
'Who is this kid?' Shikaku thought, his mind racing. 'Is he truly an Uchiha? Their clan doesn't breed political monsters like this.'
With Shikaku silenced, the Konoha Council—the "F4"—plunged into a deafening quiet.
Two minutes passed. Hiruzen Sarutobi finally lowered his pipe. His voice was dead flat. "Shikaku. You are dismissed."
"Understood!" Shikaku practically bolted for the door, eager to escape the radioactive atmosphere of the room.
The moment the door clicked shut, the heavy political masks of the Konoha leadership vanished. Hiruzen's expression darkened into a scowl. Danzo's visible eye radiated cold murder. Koharu and Homura glared with open contempt.
They finally realized the truth: Uchiha Jin could not be reasoned with, bribed, or manipulated. He was a pure, unyielding Radical.
"Since there are no outsiders left, we will speak plainly," Hiruzen said, his voice dropping to a gravelly threat. "What is your ultimate goal, Uchiha Jin?"
Jin didn't blink. "An eye for an eye. Blood for blood."
Koharu gasped, slamming her hand on the desk again. "Treason! You intend to launch a rebellion!"
"I would love to, but unfortunately, I currently lack the military capacity to succeed," Jin replied, shrugging off the accusation. He looked at the four elders with clinical detachment. "I must admit, your long-term strategy was highly effective. You have successfully alienated the Uchiha from the village populace. Our reputation is toxic, and internally, you've fractured us into useless factions. Your political influence, while waning, still vastly eclipses ours."
The calm, objective tone confused the Elders.
Homura frowned deeply. "If you comprehend the geopolitical reality of the village so clearly, why are you escalating the conflict? Why adopt this suicidal posture with the Radical faction?"
To them, a rational person who understood they were outmatched would surrender.
Jin laughed softly, a dry, cynical sound. "Precisely 'because' I see the board clearly, Elder Homura. I know surrender equals death."
"Oh? Fascinating," Hiruzen said, a fake, hollow smile touching his lips. "Do elaborate."
"Your administration's end goal is the complete eradication of the Uchiha clan," Jin stated factually. "Your current 'tolerance' is merely a stalling tactic to trim our combat assets before the final purge. Hashirama Senju possessed the absolute power to ignore the Uchiha. Tobirama Senju possessed the intellect to manage us. You four possess neither. You are mediocre rulers desperate to maintain permanent control over Konoha. Your only logical solution to a powerful clan you cannot control is extermination, perhaps leaving one or two survivors to preserve the Sharingan bloodline for your own use."
Hiruzen let out a long, heavy sigh. The truth stung. "You really do not act like an Uchiha."
"Hiruzen, he cannot leave this room alive," Danzo interrupted, his voice dripping with venom. "We execute him now. We will draft a report stating Uchiha Jin suffered a psychotic break and attempted to assassinate the Hokage. Given his Mangekyou awakening and Radical status, the village will accept the narrative without question."
Hiruzen fell silent. He lowered the brim of his Hokage hat, obscuring his eyes, and resumed puffing on his pipe.
'Silence is consent,' Danzo noted with savage glee.
Danzo immediately began unsealing the bandages on his right arm. "I will admit, Jin, you have a sharp political mind. But in this world, politics bows to absolute power. You are arrogant. Did you truly believe that awakening the Mangekyou Sharingan made you invincible?"
'Clang!' The heavy metal seals locking Danzo's right arm fell to the floor. Simultaneously, Danzo tore off his eye patch, revealing a stolen, crimson Mangekyou Sharingan.
"Tsukuyomi!" Instantly, Jin's vision warped. The Hokage's office vanished.
He found himself standing in a vibrant, sunlit paradise. Rolling green hills stretched to the horizon, dotted with blooming flowers. Around him stood several familiar figures—friends and comrades he recognized from his early years in the academy. They smiled warmly, reaching out to pull him further into the idyllic landscape.
'Interesting. So this is Uchiha Kagami's ocular power,' Jin analyzed internally, his mind remaining perfectly sharp despite the illusion.
He understood the mechanics of the Mangekyou. It was an 'eye that reflects the heart'. Uchiha Itachi, traumatized and living in a state of constant mental torture, cast a Tsukuyomi that replicated a crimson hell. Uchiha Kagami, however, had been Tobirama Senju's favored disciple, living a fulfilling life surrounded by trusted friends like Hiruzen and Danzo. His Tsukuyomi reflected his idealized reality—a paradise.
"What a shame," Jin murmured to the phantom figures. "It's a beautiful simulation. But it is fundamentally false."
Jin's black eyes instantly bled into the crimson, six-pointed star pattern of his Mangekyou Sharingan.
"Susanoo-no-Mikoto!"
The paradise illusion shattered like fragile glass, ripping Jin back to the reality of the Hokage's office.
"Wood Release: Great Forest Technique!" Danzo roared the moment Jin broke free.
Having anticipated Jin's resistance, Danzo hadn't hesitated. He immediately chained his strongest illusion into his most lethal physical attack. Danzo's right arm—grafted with Senju DNA—mutated into a massive, jagged tree trunk, surging forward to impale Jin at point-blank range.
Jin did not dodge. He met the attack head-on with absolute destruction.
"Susanoo-no-Mikoto!"
Blood streamed from Jin's left eye as he channeled pure, annihilating ocular chakra. The effect was instantaneous and absolute.
Danzo's surging wood jutsu disintegrated mid-air. The destructive wave continued, overriding all physical defense. It hit Danzo's Senju-grafted arm, turning the flesh and embedded Sharingan to dust, before ripping through Danzo's torso.
"ARGH!" Danzo screamed as his body literally erased itself from existence.
Hiruzen, Koharu, and Homura leapt back in sheer terror. They stared at the empty space where Danzo had stood seconds before. The Hokage's shadow leader had been instantly obliterated.
However, Jin did not relax. He immediately shifted his stance, his combat senses heightened.
'Izanagi,' Jin thought. 'The ultimate Uchiha illusion that rewrites reality itself.' He knew Danzo possessed multiple stolen Sharingan precisely for this technique.
'Whoosh!' Danzo materialized directly behind Jin. With a vicious thrust, Danzo drove a kunai straight through Jin's heart.
"Die, arrogant brat!" Danzo spat, his eye wide with manic triumph.
But there was no blood.
With a soft 'poof', Jin's body dissolved into white smoke.
"A Shadow Clone?!" Danzo gasped, his triumph turning to horror. "Impossible! When did he cast it?"
Before Danzo could turn around, the real Jin stepped out from the Hokage's blind spot. Without a word, Jin drove his own kunai cleanly through Danzo's heart.