CHAPTER 118

The bait had been taken. If the hook was set, there was no escaping now.

Uchiha Kai moved like a shadowy puppeteer, steadily guiding others toward his design. Bit by bit, Namikaze Minato found himself falling into step with Kai's rhythm—whether he wanted to or not.

What mattered most was that Minato already understood Kai's intentions. He saw through them—but still couldn't bring himself to resist completely. That hesitation gave Uchiha Kai his opening.

Minato loved Konoha deeply. He had always followed Jiraiya's teachings about peace, about mutual understanding. He bore no grudge against the Uchiha—on the contrary, he saw them as an essential part of the village's strength and legacy.

But he had his own dream too—becoming Hokage. Not just for himself, but for Kushina, for their future child, and for the village they both loved. When Kai's vision aligned with that dream—when it promised a better Konoha—Minato found the offer hard to ignore.

And then came Kai's proposal.

Two names.

Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Kai.

Fugaku, Minato knew well. He was a former squadmate during their youth in the Police Force reserves, older and respected. His wife, Mikoto, was one of Minato's peers from the Academy—and Mikoto was close friends with Kushina. Their households had remained in contact over the years, even if sporadically.

Uchiha Kai, though... was different.

Minato found the younger Uchiha hard to read. Intelligent, yes. Gifted. According to Kakashi, Kai had been instrumental in some of his recent breakthroughs. Minato had noticed Kakashi's evolution, his sharpened focus, his rekindled drive—and now he understood why.

Kai had been like a mentor, in his own quiet way. And it wasn't just Kakashi—he'd earned the trust of others too. During a recent mission, Kai had risked everything to save captured comrades. Only Yamanaka Masato had survived, but the testimony he gave about Kai's leadership was powerful.

Even those in the front lines had begun to look at the Uchiha differently because of Kai's actions.

"To be honest," Kai said quietly, "my view and the clan head's are essentially aligned. We can't accept a Hokage candidate molded entirely by the Second Hokage's ideology."

He took a slow breath.

"You are the best choice we have, Minato-san. And to support you, we've… taken certain measures—taking advantage of the controversy surrounding Orochimaru."

"You should use honorifics, Kai-kun," Minato said with a sigh. "What have you done? And… Orochimaru… Did you really manipulate that situation?"

"Perhaps," Kai answered calmly. "Perhaps not. Does it matter? If you pursue it, I'll admit there might have been manipulation."

Minato's brows furrowed. He wasn't naive. Orochimaru's candidacy for Hokage had suddenly crumbled amid a swirl of dark rumors—human experimentation, missing persons, forbidden jutsu. And now Kei implied... that wasn't entirely coincidence.

Minato had assumed the rumors were natural fallout from Orochimaru's own ambitions and his increasingly erratic behavior. But now?

It sounded too perfect. Too convenient.

There had to be someone pulling the strings.

"We couldn't let things continue as they were," Kai said. "So I spoke with Fugaku-san. We agreed—some elements within our clan needed to be removed. Elements that refused to integrate into the village. That were dragging us down."

Minato's eyes sharpened. "You mean… Uchiha Isamu? That hardliner who disappeared last month? That was you?"

Kai nodded. "He was damaging the clan's image. Pretending to fight for our future, but only driving us further from the village. I eliminated him. During a time of chaos. A place near the Security HQ. A context that… suggested another culprit."

Minato suddenly understood. Orochimaru had become the perfect scapegoat. Powerful. Unstable. With the right rumors, the village had drawn its own conclusions.

And now... Kai had left no trace.

Minato stared at the young Uchiha in silence. This was no simple boy.

This was a tactician. A whisper in the dark. A storm clothed in stillness.

"Minato-san," Kai said, his voice softer, "don't look at me like that. I'm not proud of what I've done. But survival sometimes requires dirty hands. We can't afford to lose to the village—or be consumed by our own kin."

Minato looked away, conflicted.

In Kai's words, he could feel a cold logic, a burdened clarity.

He thought about the Uchiha's future. About the village. About the possibility of holding them together—not through suppression, but through cooperation. Through understanding.

Maybe this—this terrifying pragmatism—was exactly what Konoha needed to survive the times ahead.

And in that moment, Minato realized…

The Uchiha weren't backing him because of idealism. They were backing him because he was the only path left that didn't end in blood.