"Why?"
Uchiha Kazuto looked at the gathered clan members with a puzzled expression.
His hands folded neatly behind his back as he turned to gaze through the window, eyes sweeping over the distant rooftops of the village.
'This is supposed to be my village…Uchiha Kazuto's village.'
Damn that old fool, Sarutobi Hiruzen.
The others exchanged uncertain looks, confused by the sudden question.
"Do you know," Kazuto's voice grew heavy, "why the relationship between our clan and the village has become so strained? If not for the Uchiha, Konoha wouldn't even exist. Yet look at our standing now, our so-called reputation within this 'village family'. "
"No one respects us anymore. We don't even look like Konoha's founding clan. Outsiders probably think the Senju alone built this village."
He turned his head slightly, his crimson eyes glinting with restrained fury as he looked at everyone.
"Our family has declined. In truth, if it weren't for luck, the Uchiha would have been wiped out years ago. Imagine that the founding clan of Konoha, exterminated in the very village they created. Ridiculous, isn't it?"
He gave a bitter chuckle. "If I'd known it would turn out this way, I would have let Madara and Hashirama form Konoha and then cut Madara down myself. At least then, with our clan's strength, we might have endured. We wouldn't have ended up as history's fools."
Sometimes, Kazuto even wondered whether Uchiha Fugaku and Mikoto had been too closely related.
How else could they have produced such an extreme child as Uchiha Itachi? After all, that's what happens when close bloodlines intertwine.
The room fell silent. The clan members clenched their fists, lowering their heads.
Every one of them knew the Uchiha's past glory and the miserable state of their present. Especially the hawks among them. It was because of this humiliation that they wanted a coup.
Their clan helped found this village, yet they were treated like foreigners within it; watched, doubted, despised.
How could they not feel rage?
The Senju clan, their equals in Konoha's founding, had produced two generations of Hokage.
The current Hokage was a disciple of that accursed Senju ghost, Tobirama. His bloodline still poisoned the village's leadership.
"Why?" Kazuto's tone turned mocking. "Why is it that the Senju lineage keeps producing Hokage, while the Uchiha have never had one? Why have we been crushed under their feet since the beginning?"
He laughed darkly. "Remember Uchiha Kagami? The great hope of our clan! A teammate of Hiruzen Sarutobi himself! Tell me…why did only Kagami die on their missions, while the others survived? Strange, isn't it? Very strange."
Uchiha Tetsuka raised his head slowly, his voice bitter. "Because of the village's suppression... and Shimura Danzo's schemes."
Kazuto nodded. "Exactly. It's all because of that devil, Danzo Shimura, and the inherently vile Tobirama Senju. They twisted the First Hokage's Will of Fire into something grotesque, using it to justify the persecution of our clan. The creation of the Police Force was their conspiracy, designed to isolate us. Tobirama exploited our sense of justice, knowing we would never turn a blind eye to crime."
"Because we enforce the law strictly, without corruption or bribes, the people began to fear us. The Senju used that fear to widen the gap between us and the village. With that, they stripped us of influence, leaving us with no allies, no political footing. They could suppress us as they pleased while winning the villagers' admiration for 'protecting them' from us."
He sighed, voice dropping. "Law enforcement wasn't the problem. The problem was that the Uchiha had no other foothold in Konoha. Apart from the Guard Department, we had nothing. We were founders treated as outcasts."
Kazuto's eyes narrowed. "If Tobirama hadn't died early, he would have wiped us out himself. And that man Kagami… he might have been Tobirama's pawn all along, a spy meant to destroy us from within. But like his master, he died too soon."
He chuckled grimly. "Uchiha Shisui inherited Kagami's will. Then Itachi inherited Shisui's. And in the end, Kagami's legacy destroyed our clan. If Tobirama knew that, he'd be smiling in the Pure Land right now."
"Damn it!" Uchiha Tetsuka's fists trembled as anger rippled through the room. Even the dove faction, usually calm and rational, looked furious.
None of them had ever imagined that the very existence of the Guard Department was part of a plot to chain and suppress them.
"So, Lord Kazuto," Tetsuka said breathlessly, "your plan to recruit outsiders into the Guard Department, it's meant to destroy this conspiracy?"
Kazuto nodded. "Exactly. The Guard Department has created a deep rift between us and the villagers. The only way to bridge that gap is to invite the common people in to make the department part of the village again. Once the villagers serve beside us, the mystery and distance surrounding us will fade. Then..."
He lifted his baton lightly, a dangerous gleam flashing in his eyes. "Then it will be time for Sarutobi Hiruzen to step down."
That was the surface reason, of course. The real one was far deeper.
Uchiha Kazuto's true goal was to gather strength, to build an army loyal only to him. An army that would one day suppress Konoha, maintain order... and seize control.
He had already activated his pupil technique.
He could now use his ocular power to form a special law enforcement unit, designed with precise rules and abilities of his choosing.
First Force.
Duties:
Unquestioning obedience to superior orders. Law enforcement must be carried out with both warmth and precision, swing the baton with strength, kick with accuracy, punish violators without hesitation, and crush any uprising.
Abilities:
Members of the First Force possess durability far beyond that of ordinary shinobi, immense chakra reserves, rapid chakra extraction, and enhanced learning of ninjutsu.
They can strike criminals with devastating force, and, when required, unite their powers to manifest a far stronger Law Enforcer Form.
As Uchiha Kazuto watched the faint reflection of his glowing eyes in the window, a faint smirk curled on his lips. This was the perfect fusion of his two dōjutsu.
The era of Uchiha subservience was about to end.