Chapter 278: Failed Politics

Chapter 278: Failed Politics

Hearing that Tsunade wanted to personally visit the Uchiha clan, Hiruzen and the other three were all shocked. For Tsunade to do this was almost equivalent to the Senju lineage yielding to the Uchiha, almost like admitting defeat to Madara Uchiha on behalf of Hashirama Senju, who had never lost.

Setting aside Danzō, even Hiruzen found it somewhat unacceptable. Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado exclaimed aloud in shock. Danzō stood up immediately and shouted, "Tsunade, you are trampling on the glory of your two grandfathers!"

"Hiruzen, Koharu, Homura, have you all forgotten Lord Tobirama's teachings?"

Hiruzen was originally wavering, but after being prompted by Danzō, he hesitated again because the policy of targeting the Uchiha was set by Tobirama Senju back then.

"Hiruzen, I believe Tsunade is not suitable to be the Fifth Hokage," Danzō directly threw out his trump card.

"Danzō, the Fifth was chosen by all of us and all the ninjas of the village together. Watch your words," Hiruzen sternly rebuked Danzō.

"Hmph." Danzō snorted lightly, sat back down, and said no more.

Danzō's proposal to replace the Fifth Hokage naturally couldn't pass, and he hadn't thought he could unseat a Hokage so easily. But Tsunade's plan to visit the Uchiha clan was also naturally unable to pass due to Danzō's disruption.

Tsunade glared resentfully at Danzō and said to Hiruzen, "The Anbu has another piece of intelligence. Among the ninjutsu scrolls lost this time, there was also a Flying Thunder God training scroll that the Fourth gave to his guard, Iwashi Tatami. In addition, the Flying Thunder God kunai that should have been stored in the Fourth's home were also looted."

"What?" Hiruzen and the others, who had just sat down, were immediately shocked to their feet again.

"Iwagakure is coveting space-time ninjutsu?" Hiruzen said in a trembling voice.

At this moment, Hiruzen finally wavered. Iwagakure was developing too quickly; they could not let them continue to develop like this. But to resist Iwagakure, they had to integrate all the forces within Konoha. Konoha was no longer the Konoha that could dominate the other four nations while engaged in internal strife.

Therefore, dealing with the Uchiha problem was now extremely urgent.

But just then, Danzō interjected again, "Hiruzen, Koharu, Homura, have you forgotten the goal we have been striving for all these years?"

The three of them were first stunned, but they quickly understood. They had been suppressing the ninja clans and supporting civilian ninjas all these years. If they bowed their heads to the Uchiha clan now, all their previous efforts would be wasted.

Hiruzen sighed deeply, then said to Tsunade, "Tsunade, let's take a long-term view of visiting the Uchiha."

After saying this, Hiruzen seemed to have aged a dozen years in an instant, and his originally upright body seemed to collapse all at once.

And Tsunade also felt a deep sense of powerlessness. Although she had become the Fifth Hokage and Hiruzen had handed over the leadership of institutions like the Anbu to her, in terms of control over the village, she was still far from being a match for Hiruzen.

Without Hiruzen's support, her ideas would inevitably not be implemented.

But Tsunade was unwilling to give up. The village was clearly on the brink of desperation, so why were the higher-ups still unwilling to make a change?

After the meeting was dismissed, Tsunade, without greeting anyone, took Shizune and went to the Uchiha clan's territory.

Fugaku was welcoming of Tsunade's arrival, but when Tsunade cryptically proposed accepting the Uchiha clan, Fugaku suddenly asked Tsunade who really called the shots in Konoha.

Tsunade said a great deal but was stumped by this single question from Fugaku.

After returning to the Hokage building, Tsunade was lectured by Hiruzen and the other three, who had received the news. This time, Koharu and Homura did not spare Tsunade's status as Hokage because her actions were equivalent to sidelining them as advisors, which harmed their vital interests.

The intervention of the advisory council angered Tsunade so much that she threw down a large pile of documents that needed to be processed and went directly to an izakaya.

The Fifth Hokage Tsunade of this timeline was subject to more restrictions on her power than in the original story because among the advisory council this time, one was her teacher, the former Hokage who had been in charge of Konoha for decades.

Whether considering their master-disciple relationship or seniority, she could not ignore the voice of the advisory council.

After Tsunade returned, Fugaku Uchiha was still expecting that she could persuade Hiruzen and the others.

However, this wait was destined to be the same as the night of the Nine-Tails Rampage; Fugaku ultimately did not get the result he had hoped for.

"Jōichi, make a trip to the Second Elder's place. Ask the Second Elder to come over. Tell him I have something to discuss," Fugaku said to one of his guards.

"Yes, Lord Clan Head," Jōichi Uchiha acknowledged and left directly.

That afternoon, Fugaku met with the Second Elder of the Uchiha clan at his home. The First Elder of the Uchiha clan was a hawk, the Third Elder was a dove, and the Second Elder was a neutralist.

In Fugaku's view, the neutral faction was calmer and could be reasoned with.

At the same time, the neutral faction was also the one with the most contact with ninjas from other hidden villages.

"Uncle Yūhei, which hidden villages' ninjas have been in contact with your side recently?" Fugaku asked, getting straight to the point.

The Second Elder, Yūhei Uchiha, hesitated after hearing Fugaku's words. After a while, he finally said, "All the villages except Kirigakure. Even small hidden villages like Kusagakure and Takigakure have sent people."

Fugaku thought for a moment and said, "Uncle Yūhei, tell me your thoughts on these hidden villages."

This time, the Second Elder did not hesitate and directly said, "Among the small villages, Takigakure is the most suitable. They still have a Tailed Beast. With our Sharingan's ability, the Tailed Beast can be used more effectively."

"Among the great villages, Sunagakure and Iwagakure are two good choices. The Sand's offer is very high. As for Iwa," the Second Elder said, pausing for a moment when mentioning Iwagakure, then took out a letter.

Fugaku took the letter from the Second Elder, glanced at it, and said, "A letter from Sakai?"

That's right. This letter was the one Ōnoki had Uchiha Sakai write to Fugaku. The content of the letter was entirely Uchiha Sakai's true thoughts; even the letter was written by Sakai himself. There was not a single sentence in the entire letter persuading Fugaku to defect to Iwagakure.

But after reading the letter, Fugaku sighed and said, "Then let it be Iwagakure. You make contact with them and see what they want."

The Second Elder nodded upon hearing this and said, "Clan Head, the Hokage building's side..."

"I will not defect, nor will I lead the clan into danger. I only have one request: to leave a way out for the Uchiha clan," Fugaku said as if muttering to himself.

The Second Elder nodded. Just as he was about to get up and leave, he was stopped by Fugaku.

"Wait a moment. Let's send something to Sakai." As he spoke, Fugaku got up, went to his study to retrieve a scroll, unfolded it, wrote a few sentences at the beginning, and then handed it to the Second Elder.

The Second Elder hesitated for a long time, then sighed, took the scroll, said nothing, turned, and left Fugaku's home.

After the Second Elder left, Fugaku sat quietly alone in the reception hall. At some unknown point, Fugaku's eyes had become a field of crimson red. Three black tomoe spun rapidly, then formed a special pattern—it was Fugaku Uchiha's Mangekyō Sharingan.

Then, a large amount of blood suddenly flowed from one of Fugaku's Mangekyō Sharingan eyes. Then, scene after scene flashed before his eyes. Finally, everything returned to calm. Fugaku also closed his eyes.

After a while, a child walked into the reception hall. He looked at Fugaku and said, "Father, it's time to eat."

Fugaku slowly opened his eyes. At this time, his eyes were black and white, no different from an ordinary person's. It was just that if one looked closely, one would find that Fugaku's eyes seemed to be filled with a deathly stillness.

Fugaku looked at the small Itachi Uchiha, ignored what he had just said, and instead asked, "Itachi, what has Shisui been up to recently?"

Itachi was stunned for a moment and said, "Big Brother Shisui? Big Brother Shisui said he wants to join Root."

"Join Root? That's fine too," Fugaku said faintly, then got up as if nothing had happened and led Itachi towards the dining room.

If Ishiro had seen what had just happened to Fugaku, he might have been able to guess one of the abilities of Fugaku's eyes: to see the future.

Fugaku had awakened his Mangekyō during the Third Great Ninja War. At that time, he couldn't see a clear path for the Uchiha clan. He desperately wanted to know where the future of the Uchiha clan lay.

Thus, he awakened the Mangekyō. His Mangekyō's ability was related to time; his Mangekyō Sharingan could see a certain possibility within a period of the future.

However, judging from Fugaku's lifeless eyes just now, one could tell that the future he saw was not what he wanted.

Hiruzen probably didn't know that because of their stubbornness, the Uchiha clan had lost its last hope of integrating into Konoha. No, perhaps Hiruzen did know.

But Hiruzen certainly did not know that he had, unintentionally, given Iwagakure another assist.

A few days later, a high-level meeting was also held in Iwagakure. The content of the meeting was specifically about the Uchiha clan.

Saka placed the scroll that Fugaku had given to Uchiha Sakai on the conference room table and said, "The Uchiha clan hopes that we can take in some Uchiha children. As for their condition, it's very simple: do not make this matter public until the time is ripe."

"The Second Elder of the Uchiha clan, Yūhei Uchiha, said it himself. He asked us to prepare some ordinary children to be used to replace the Uchiha bloodline."

"Besides this, the Uchiha clan will not provide us with any ninjutsu, supplies, or intelligence. If we encounter Iwagakure on the battlefield, the Uchiha clan will also strike without mercy."

Ishiro nodded and said, "Fugaku Uchiha is preparing for the worst."

Mei was somewhat shocked and asked, "Ishiro, the worst you're talking about, it couldn't be..."

Ishiro nodded and said, "Fugaku is preparing for the possibility of his entire clan being annihilated."

"Hiss~~" Everyone gasped in cold air.

Ikura asked with some disbelief, "That can't be right? Even if the Konoha higher-ups and the Uchiha clan have conflicts, the Uchiha are, after all, the strongest clan in the ninja world. They shouldn't be foolish enough to cut off their own arm, right?"

Ishiro shook his head and said, "The stubbornness of Konoha's higher-ups probably exceeds our imagination. And these hidden villages that don't lack Kekkei Genkai have a very different attitude towards bloodlines than we do."

"Take Kirigakure for example. The Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, has recently been suppressing the Kekkei Genkai clans in his village. The Minazuki, Kaguya, and other clans are not having an easy time."

Everyone was silent, all feeling a sense of emotion at the changing times. Decades after the end of the Warring States period, was the era of hidden villages no longer suitable for the survival of the powerful ninja clans of that period?

Ōnoki suddenly asked, "Ishiro, what do you plan to do?"

Ishiro scratched his head in some embarrassment and said, "I want to meet with Fugaku Uchiha personally."

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