"Shut up!! Itachi! What exactly are you trying to do?!"
"This is you pushing the Uchiha to the edge of a cliff!"
It was yet another meeting that had devolved into a shouting match.
An elder of the clan—one of the most senior among them—slammed his palm down on the tatami, his face livid.
The second elder immediately echoed him, loudly denouncing how the younger generation didn't understand anything and only knew how to fight for power and profit.
"You say I'm fighting for power and profit? Fine!"
Itachi stepped forward, with a group of young hardliners behind him, all wearing the same furious, "us against them" expression.
Itachi was strong. The younger Uchiha respected him for it.
He raised his right fist high, his voice ringing through the room like a thunderclap.
"Then I'm done playing your games! We'll do it ourselves!"
Do what?
Build what?
"A new… Uchiha!!"
…
The moment those words landed, the entire hall went dead silent.
But Shisui wasn't about to stop there. He stepped out as well.
"Me too. I'm doing it. A founding… Uchiha!!"
In an instant, several elders were so angry their faces flushed hot.
"Bastards! You absolute bastards!!"
"Do you even hear what you're saying?!"
"You're talking about splitting the clan!!"
Even some of the young Uchiha who'd been backing Itachi and Shisui a second ago suddenly looked like they couldn't process what they'd just heard.
Th-This…
That's not right, is it?
Sure, they wanted power. They wanted to hitch their wagon to the winning side.
But splitting the clan was…
Yashiro—one of the young faction's representative figures—quietly pulled back the foot he'd just stepped forward with.
This was too much.
More than a few young Uchiha in the back started mentally tapping out.
The roar of support from moments ago steadily died down.
But Itachi acted as if he hadn't noticed the shift at all. He simply kept speaking at full volume.
"I have already made contact with Kangetsu-san!"
One sentence.
That was all it took to make Yashiro step forward again, face solemn, posture instantly loyal as if he'd never hesitated for even a second.
"Do it! I think Itachi's right! If we're doing it, then we're doing a New Uchiha!"
"That's right! I'm with Itachi! He's the one the Uchiha should follow!"
"And Shisui too! Shisui's no worse!"
The young Uchiha lit back up.
Their eyes were practically burning—one step away from turning into literal money signs.
Kangetsu.
Who in Konoha didn't know that name?
A walking cash god.
With a cash god backing them, how could a New Uchiha possibly be short on funds?
At the very least, it had to beat staying in the "Old Uchiha" and living on scraps.
Yashiro shouted the loudest.
"Either Itachi takes control, or we do it ourselves!!"
"Yeah! You old fossils already made the Uchiha sell off ancestral property—what else do you want from us?!"
"Old fossils! Step down!!"
The elders' faces turned a sick shade of green.
There was no way around it.
The instant Itachi said he'd connected with Kangetsu, the young Uchiha locked in.
With money, anything was negotiable.
Without money?
I've been a ninja all these years. I've swallowed my pride in this clan all these years.
For what?
Wasn't it all for the day the Uchiha could turn things around—live well, eat well, hold our heads high?
Now Itachi and Shisui were offering that chance.
So what were they waiting for?
Hit them.
Fugaku's hands were trembling.
An unfilial son… an unfilial son…
Itachi was his son, and now he was actually talking about splitting the clan.
And the worst part was, Fugaku couldn't even find a clean argument to shut him down.
Because as clan head, that disastrous business decision last time—he couldn't escape responsibility for it.
"Enough!"
As clan head, Fugaku still carried weight.
Once he spoke, the room gradually quieted, waiting to hear what he would say.
Fugaku looked at his unfilial son first, then seemed exhausted down to his bones.
Things had moved too fast.
By the time he'd realized the Uchiha were being carved up from the inside, it was already too late to stop it.
There was something off about all of this.
And faintly—faintly—he could almost see the shadow of Konoha's upper leadership behind it.
"Itachi. Shisui. Stop talking about splitting the Uchiha. What do you actually want?"
Shisui wanted to answer for Itachi.
This was Itachi's father. For Itachi to confront him head-on like this… it wasn't ideal.
But Itachi didn't care in the slightest.
This was for the Uchiha.
And also for Konoha.
"Father, I'm not asking you to step down. Let's do it this way."
He took a breath, then continued without flinching.
"Shisui and I will be your deputies from now on. Vice clan heads."
"From this day forward, the Uchiha will operate under a three-clan-head system. If you want to do anything, you need approval from both me and Shisui."
"…Fine."
"Clan head! You—"
"Clan head!"
Fugaku raised a hand, silencing the elders before they could explode again.
If he refused any further, he genuinely feared this unfilial son of his would go through with forming a "New Uchiha."
"And one more thing."
Itachi's voice sharpened.
"The people behind me answer to me. Same for Shisui. You don't have command authority over us."
"…Fine."
"And lastly—since I've already connected with Kangetsu-san—anyone interested can come to me and Shisui."
Itachi finished by slipping in a shameless little ad.
He was riding the high now.
Finally.
Finally, he'd forced the Uchiha off their dead-end path.
He'd already believed the Uchiha were bound to fall into chaos.
If it couldn't be prevented—
Fine. Then make it happen early.
Better that the Uchiha tore themselves up first than waited to tear up Konoha.
If chaos was inevitable, then pull it inward.
Turn it into internal conflict.
Brilliant.
Truly brilliant.
...
Hokage Tower, the office.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA… HAHAHAHA!!"
The Third Hokage threw his head back and laughed with unrestrained satisfaction.
That thorn in his side—the Uchiha—was finally, finally resolved.
Itachi and Shisui were his people.
If he told them to move, that portion of the Uchiha would move.
Compared to the old days of smiling obedience and quiet resistance, this was infinitely better.
Homura and Koharu were just as excited, practically vibrating with it.
Danzo, meanwhile, wore the expression of a man watching amateurs celebrate something obvious.
He even shot Homura and Koharu a faintly disdainful look.
As expected—councilors' sense of the bigger picture was still too small.
Not like him.
If he was going to be the future Deputy Hokage, then the big-picture mindset had to be there.
And once he truly became Deputy Hokage, he'd have to keep a close watch on Hiruzen too.
This was ridiculous.
It was just the Uchiha. And they were already losing composure?
That said…
Kangetsu really was a lucky charm of a kid…
The Third Hokage was in an exceptionally good mood.
The Hyuga situation had come back under control, and now the Uchiha headache was solved too.
Sure enough, his eye for people was as sharp as ever.
If he hadn't personally chosen Kangetsu, that kid would still be out there scraping by on missions.
Of course, there was nothing wrong with mission work—but becoming the Third's trusted man? That opened an entirely different sky.
He'd record the merit for now.
Kangetsu had only just been promoted—if he pushed another promotion immediately, the councilors would start making noise.
"Summon Kangetsu."
The Third Hokage decided to smooth things over.
He couldn't let a contributor feel slighted.
Especially not when that contributor was his loyal man.
Kangetsu… it wasn't that I won't reward you.
It's just that those councilors are rotten, and they're the ones holding you down.
(End of Chapter)
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