Having delivered his brutal assessment of the village's reality, Keita Akimichi spoke his final words with casual indifference. Not wanting their naive ideology to pollute his own mind, he quickly found an excuse to leave, disappearing into the bustling crowds of the Uchiha compound.
Left alone in the shadowed alleyway, Shisui and Itachi stood frozen. They wanted desperately to refute his words, to defend the honor of the village they loved, but they couldn't.
While Itachi had only briefly seen the battlefield as a very young child, Shisui had fought through the entirety of the Third Great Ninja War. He knew Keita was right. He had seen countless graduating classes—and sometimes desperate children who hadn't even graduated—thrown into the meat grinder of the front lines. The survival rate for those kids had been less than ten percent.
Meanwhile, the village elders who commanded them sat safely in their offices, entirely untouched by the bloodshed.
If a radical Uchiha had pointed this out, Shisui would have instantly dismissed it as clan bias. But hearing it from the mouth of an Akimichi—a famously loyal clan—forced Shisui to genuinely examine his past.
'Was I... really wrong?'
Suddenly, Shisui inhaled sharply, his face draining of all color.
Seeing the sheer horror in his friend's eyes, Itachi stepped forward. "Shisui? What is it?"
"I just remembered something," Shisui whispered, his voice trembling violently.
Itachi frowned in confusion, but as Shisui continued, a cold chill crept up his spine.
"During the Third War..." Shisui gasped, his eyes wide and unfocused. "I never saw the clans of the high administration on the front lines."
He looked at Itachi, panic setting in. "I never thought about it carefully back then, but Keita's words just triggered the memory. It wasn't just the Hokage and the elders who stayed off the battlefield. I never saw the Sarutobi, the Utatane, or the Mitokado clans fighting in the vanguard. Those three clans are massive, yet the only time I ever encountered their shinobi was in the rear camps, handling logistics or administrative duties."
Shisui grabbed his own hair, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "The village was besieged by four other nations! The front lines were collapsing. It was so critical that the village forced children to graduate early just to use them as cannon fodder. If the situation was truly that desperate... where were the Sarutobi? Why were their shinobi completely absent from the slaughter?"
The 'Will of Fire'—the ideology Shisui had built his entire life and morality upon—was disintegrating before his eyes. He had always believed his clan was inherently flawed and the village administration was entirely righteous. He had ignored the complaints of his own people. But if this was true...
"That... that's impossible," Itachi whispered, shaking his head in denial.
But looking at Shisui's shattered expression, Itachi felt his own mind begin to fracture. Shisui wouldn't lie about something like this. And if it was true, it meant Keita Akimichi was completely right.
And if Keita was right... it meant Jin Uchiha was right.
For months, Itachi and Shisui had justified their actions against their own family. Even after Fugaku sealed their chakra and confiscated Shisui's Mangekyou Sharingan, they had stubbornly believed they were noble martyrs suffering for the greater good of Konoha. They believed the benevolent Third Hokage would eventually fix everything.
But if the administration was just a corrupt syndicate sacrificing children to protect their own families... then their "noble sacrifice" was nothing more than betraying their own flesh and blood for a tyrant.
They weren't heroes. They were traitors.
As the sheer weight of their actions crashed down upon them, their deeply held convictions shattered into dust.
---
The Next Morning - 9:00 AM
The atmosphere inside Jin Uchiha's sprawling estate was heavy with anticipation.
Because of the massive influx of defecting clans, Jin's standard indoor reception rooms were laughably small. Adapting quickly to his new status as the head of a massive coalition, Jin had converted the central courtyard—previously a large martial arts training ground—into a grand open-air conference hall.
Unlike his early days leading a small radical faction, Jin had spared no expense in preparing for this summit. He had arranged dozens of high-quality woven cushions and low wooden tables in neat rows across the courtyard. Each table was meticulously set with a pot of hot tea and fine cups.
It was a calculated display of profound respect. The people attending were elite shinobi and clan leaders. Jin refused to insult them by forcing them to stand or treating them as mere subordinates.
As the representatives of the various clans filed into the courtyard, they naturally organized themselves based on the size and strength of their respective factions.
"The Uchiha are certainly hospitable," one minor clan head murmured in surprise, looking at the setup.
"Providing a cushion is standard courtesy, but personal tables and tea? That's a level of respect the administration rarely shows us," another shinobi agreed with a warm smile. "Whenever we have an upper-level Jonin meeting with the Hokage, only the elders get tables. The rest of us are expected to sit on the floor."
Laughter and relaxed conversation rippled through the crowd. The anxiety of their recent defections had completely vanished. With the raw military might of the Uchiha combined with the unique tactical abilities of the allied clans, they had more than enough power to stand against the Hokage's faction. Survival was practically guaranteed.
At one of the tables positioned near the front, Shikaichi Nara casually poured himself a cup of tea. He glanced at his two companions: Hayato Yamanaka and Gomaru Akimichi.
Because Shikaku Nara, Inoichi Yamanaka, and Choza Akimichi had chosen to remain in the village's core administration to play double agents, these three men had been sent to lead the defector faction.
"It seems we made the right choice," Shikaichi said, his tone relaxed and analytical. "Looking at how Jin Uchiha operates and commands respect, Hiruzen Sarutobi doesn't stand a chance against him."
Shikaichi took a slow sip. "Tying our fate to the Uchiha might limit our chances of entering the village's absolute highest core leadership in the future, but it's an acceptable trade-off for security. The Ino-Shika-Cho never had grand ambitions to rule anyway."
Hayato Yamanaka nodded in agreement, exhaling a soft sigh. "It's too early to predict the endgame, but their respect for us is genuine. The Uchiha are deeply emotional people. As long as you are considered a friend, you never have to worry about them stabbing you in the back on the battlefield."
Gomaru Akimichi shrugged his massive shoulders, entirely unbothered. "I have a good impression of them too. Besides, the Hokage's seat is a cursed position. Getting too close to it usually ends with your entire clan being ground into dust."
Gomaru popped a snack into his mouth and looked at his two companions. "Since Shikaku and the others are staying behind the scenes to avoid drawing the Hokage's direct fury, it looks like the three of us will be officially managing our clans within this new alliance from now on."