The clan meeting ended.
Almost every Uchiha clansman who had come to attend the meeting returned to their own residence with different emotions—shock, satisfaction, relief, and more.
The Mangekyo Sharingan.
And not just one pair. As long as they waited a little longer, they would be able to possess three pairs of Mangekyo Sharingan at the same time.
With such confidence as their foundation, why would they need to worry that Konoha's targeting would force the clan into a dead end?
Why would they need to worry that Konoha would never have a Hokage from the Uchiha clan in the future?
Even Uchiha Nanto, who represented the more radical faction within the clan, no longer had any intention of continuing to oppose the idea that the Uchiha clan should outwardly show weakness to a certain extent in the Shisui incident.
"I truly did not expect that you would quietly obtain your own Mangekyo Sharingan, Fugaku. And it is even a type with such a powerful ocular technique…"
Uchiha Kaito looked at Fugaku Uchiha, who had consumed too much chakra from showing too much content from Self-Only Consciousness to the clansmen all at once and had no choice but to rest inside the council hall.
With heartfelt emotion, he sighed.
"If your Mangekyo Sharingan had not brought everyone confidence, Yo and Nanto might really have started fighting today."
"It would not have reached that point. At a time like this, when the clan's reputation is on the brink, no matter how intensely they oppose each other, they would not do something foolish that damages the clan."
Fugaku Uchiha shook his head. His eye sockets had darkened slightly.
"Besides, this storm has not yet become serious enough for us to confront Konoha by force. If we had started fighting internally before even facing Konoha, wouldn't that be far too ridiculous?"
"That is true."
Uchiha Kaito sighed.
Looking at Fugaku Uchiha, who tried to stand up under his own power but failed again, he reached out to him while asking curiously, "But Fugaku, does your Mangekyo Sharingan consume that much?
"You have never lacked chakra, yet after using this ocular technique called Self-Only Consciousness, you are actually weakened to this extent…"
"If I want to weave the illusion convincingly enough, this is what happens."
Fugaku Uchiha shook his head.
He reached out and grabbed the hand of Uchiha Kaito, the elder who had supported him in becoming the head of the Uchiha clan back then and almost trusted him in every way.
Using that strength, he stood.
"Weave?"
Uchiha Kaito frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"Self-Only Consciousness is not an ocular technique that sees a future objectively developed from known conditions. It is an ocular technique that sees the future I wish for. It is an ocular technique used for battle."
Fugaku Uchiha looked around the council hall, where only the two of them had yet to leave, and slowly exhaled.
"The one that can truly glimpse a few scales and claws of the future is my left eye's Empty-Only Consciousness."
"You deceived the clansmen?"
Uchiha Kaito's expression immediately grew tense.
"Even if you needed to temporarily deceive them so they would not do anything foolish, there was no need to fabricate something as exaggerated as three pairs of Mangekyo Sharingan, right!?
"If this matter is exposed in the future, you will no longer be able to sit in the clan head's seat!"
Clearly, Uchiha Kaito had taken everything Fugaku Uchiha had shown in the illusory world of Self-Only Consciousness as a method he had used to persuade the clansmen not to adopt an excessively hardline attitude and confront Konoha.
Seeing this, Fugaku Uchiha only shook his head helplessly.
Lowering his voice, he spoke to the easygoing old man.
"Sorry, Elder Kaito… However, although some of the things in Self-Only Consciousness were fabricated by me, only these three pairs of Mangekyo Sharingan are things that will inevitably appear whether in Empty-Only Consciousness or Self-Only Consciousness.
"In fact, in the future glimpsed by Empty-Only Consciousness, the Uchiha clan even has a fourth and fifth pair of Mangekyo Sharingan."
"You are not joking, are you!?"
Uchiha Kaito was startled by Fugaku Uchiha's revelation.
"There is still a fourth and fifth pair!? Then… then why did you not place them into your Self-Only Consciousness world earlier?"
"Because the owner of the fourth pair of Mangekyo Sharingan is Shisui. And in the fragments of the future I saw, the fifth face carved on the cliff wall was faintly recognizable as Shisui after he grew up."
Fugaku Uchiha's very simple answer directly made Uchiha Kaito fall silent for a long time.
Only after that did he barely manage to speak again.
"Shisui? The Fifth Hokage? What… what exactly is this… Sigh. I do not understand. I truly do not understand."
"Neither do I."
Fugaku Uchiha also sighed and shook his head.
"However, compared to that fifth pair of Mangekyo Sharingan, Shisui's side can still be considered slightly logical…
"In the future seen by Empty-Only Consciousness, the owner of the fifth pair of Mangekyo Sharingan became the catalyst for the destruction of the Uchiha clan. But I do not even know who this clansman who awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan is."
"Can you not see his face?"
"I still do not know which piece of information I know became the trigger that allowed Empty-Only Consciousness to glimpse this clansman's existence. How could I find him?"
Fugaku Uchiha helplessly opened and closed his eyes, easing the not especially intense but definitely ominous blurriness in them.
"Empty-Only Consciousness's ability to glimpse fragments of the future is uncertain. Otherwise, I would not have let Shisui attend that battle with me."
"You are still blaming yourself, Fugaku…"
Uchiha Kaito shook his head, reached out, and patted Fugaku Uchiha on the shoulder.
He sighed and said, "But matters have already reached this point. There is no room left for regret or change. Try to look toward the future and continue leading everyone forward…
"We have already discussed a basically unified stance. Do not let the situation outside intensify and worsen any further."
"Yes, Elder Kaito."
…
Early the next morning, the people of Konoha saw Fugaku Uchiha, the head of the Uchiha clan, enter the Hokage Building together with several Uchiha jonin from the Konoha Military Police Force.
He took the initiative to request a discussion with the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, regarding the follow-up handling plan for the "defection of Shisui Uchiha."
And before the shinobi in the village could fully spread this news, Fugaku Uchiha and the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze jointly issued an announcement filled with sincerity and compromise, without the slightest trace of the Uchiha clan's usual arrogance.
The Uchiha clan would sever all ties with the missing-nin Shisui Uchiha.
Shisui Uchiha's name would be removed from the clan registry.
Furthermore, the Uchiha clan would provide funds to issue a bounty of fifty million ryo on Shisui Uchiha throughout the shinobi world, dead or alive.
At the same time, because of the defection of Shisui Uchiha, the head of the Uchiha clan, Fugaku Uchiha, deeply felt that the clan's ideological education was insufficient.
In order to better ensure that such a thing would not happen again, the Uchiha clan would recall a portion of its shinobi serving in the Konoha Military Police Force for internal reassessment.
At the same time, one-third of the positions in the Konoha Military Police Force would be opened and publicly recruited from among all shinobi in Konoha Village.
Anyone with eyes could see that in this joint statement released by the Uchiha clan and the Fourth Hokage, the proud Uchiha clan had lowered its posture to an astonishing degree.
At the same time, they had made concessions that left others with no way to continue criticizing them.
Aside from the time before Konoha's founding, when the Uchiha clan surrendered to the Senju clan, this was the first time they had shown such a humble attitude in public view.
"Hm. The Uchiha clan's reaction was much faster and much more decisive than we expected… How strange. This does not seem like something they would do."
"Whether it seems like them or not is not for us to decide. Send the news back to Obito and see what his opinion is… After all, without the Uchiha clan acting as a shield to draw attention, our operation will no longer be so easy to conceal."
Inside a remote alley, the conversation between Black Zetsu and a White Zetsu clone disappeared into the darkness unseen by anyone, along with their figures.
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