In the tea room, the atmosphere that had loosened up froze again due to the return of Uchiha Itachi.
Seeing the subtle look of being persuaded on his father Uchiha Fugaku’s face, Uchiha Itachi’s heart tightened violently.
A surge of extreme panic and anger engulfed him like a tide, making his breathing somewhat erratic.
Damn Uchiha Akahiro.
Uchiha Itachi raged powerlessly in his heart, staring fixedly at the calm and composed man before him.
In his view, it was precisely this arrogant guy who was pushing the entire Uchiha Clan into an abyss of no return with his unrealistic ambitions.
The Uchiha Clan really is a group of hopeless people controlled by emotions.
As long as they are slightly incited, they expose the narrow-mindedness and arrogance in their bones, completely unable to see the terrifying consequences of opposing the Village.
At this moment, Uchiha Itachi began to crazily miss Uchiha Shisui.
If Uchiha Shisui were still alive, if the clansmen could be like Uchiha Shisui and ‘consider the big picture,’ the current crisis would surely be solved perfectly.
Uchiha Shisui’s death did not awaken this group of ignorant clansmen; instead, it gave opportunists like Uchiha Akahiro a chance.
Uchiha Itachi’s fists, hidden in his wide sleeves, were clenched tightly, his nails digging deep into his palms.
In his originally pitch-black eyes, crimson light flickered madly, and the complex tomoe of his Mangekyo Sharingan were faintly visible in his eye sockets.
Cold sweat slid down his temples, and he calculated crazily in his heart whether he should immediately find Lord Third Hokage and execute the destruction plan to completely wipe out the Uchiha in advance.
“Uchiha Akahiro, you claim to be doing this for the Uchiha Clan, but in reality, you are just satisfying your own personal political ambitions.”
“Your so-called election will only completely intensify the conflict between the Uchiha Clan and the Village, leading everyone into a vortex of destruction!”
Uchiha Itachi could no longer suppress the murderous intent in his heart, his voice as cold as eternal frost.
Facing Uchiha Itachi’s murderous aura and questioning, which were almost solid, Uchiha Akahiro was not only unafraid, but instead chuckled as if he had heard some huge joke.
He slowly stood up, looking down at Uchiha Itachi from a high position, standing directly on the moral high ground.
“Ambition? Destruction?”
“Uchiha Itachi, these words of yours are too heartbreaking for the clansmen, and they waste all my painstaking efforts.”
Uchiha Akahiro curled his lips into a playful arc and put his hands behind his back.
“I proposed that the Clan Leader run for Fifth Hokage entirely out of righteousness; it was for the sake of Lord Third Hokage’s health.”
Hearing this, Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Itachi were both stunned.
Uchiha Akahiro coughed lightly, his tone becoming extremely sincere, even carrying a hint of compassion.
“Think about it, Third Hokage should have retired when the Fourth Hokage took office; by now, he has been effectively retired for almost ten years.”
“The poor old man is at such an age, at the age when he should be enjoying time with his grandchildren and living a life of leisure, yet because of the Fourth Hokage’s unfortunate sacrifice, he has to drag his frail body back to the front lines to work for the Village.” New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
Speaking of this, Uchiha Akahiro turned his head abruptly, his gaze piercing Uchiha Itachi like a sharp blade, and sneered as he pressed him.
“Uchiha Itachi, you are so vehemently opposed to the change of Hokage, insisting on letting a seventy-something-year-old man continue to suffer and toil for Konoha; what exactly are your intentions?”
“In your eyes, does the Hokage-sama have to work himself to death for Konoha, without even the right to enjoy his later years?”
“Is this the magnanimity you keep talking about? Is this your filial piety towards the Hokage-sama?”
This argument of “showing consideration for the Hokage” was powerful, directly twisting the act of seizing power into an act of respecting the elderly.
Uchiha Itachi’s usually calm face instantly flushed Red.
He could even hear his teeth grinding together.
He never expected that Uchiha Akahiro could package an act of treason so magnificently.
In the silence that lasted for several seconds, Uchiha Itachi was Red-faced and completely speechless.
Just as Uchiha Itachi’s mind was in chaos and the atmosphere in the tea room was stifling to the extreme, Uchiha Akahiro suddenly raised an eyebrow.
His gaze, like lightning, suddenly shot towards the dark, moonlit open space outside the tea room.
“Anbu outside, we’ve reached this point, why are you still hiding?”
Uchiha Akahiro’s voice rose sharply, filled with undisguised mockery.
“What a ‘deeply trusted’ Uchiha this is.”
“Third Hokage just promised on his chest today that he would absolutely not monitor the Uchiha compound.”
“And yet, before dawn has even broken, he treats his promise like a fart; did he regret it so soon?”
Although he was mocking ruthlessly, a trace of imperceptible confusion flashed in Uchiha Akahiro’s eyes.
As a transmigrator who knows the plot, he couldn’t help but feel a little strange.
Logically, with the political skills of that old fox Hiruzen Sarutobi, who has played politics his whole life, how could he commit such a low-level error as sending Anbu to follow into the Uchiha compound and even get caught in the act?
“Bastard!”
The secret was suddenly exposed, and Uchiha Fugaku rose to his feet from the main seat.
The suppressed rage was completely ignited at this moment.
Uchiha Fugaku’s Three-Tomoe Sharingan spun wildly, his Chakra surging violently like a volcanic eruption, the intense pressure making the wooden tea table tremble.
His rigid face was full of iron-blooded murderous intent, and he had already assumed a combat stance, ready to kill the intruder at any moment.
Seeing that it was no longer possible to hide, the space in the shadows of the courtyard twisted slightly.
An Anbu Ninja with short silver hair and a fox mask emerged helplessly from the darkness.
He reached out and took off his mask, revealing that iconic dead fish eye.
It was Kakashi Hatake.
Facing Uchiha Fugaku’s gaze, which almost wanted to tear him apart, Kakashi Hatake explained in his usual flat, emotionless voice. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
“Please don’t misunderstand, Uchiha Fugaku, things are not as you think.”
“Hokage-sama just asked me to follow Uchiha Itachi back to check on the situation.”
It would have been better if Kakashi Hatake hadn’t explained; this explanation actually caused the temperature in the tea room to drop to freezing point.
Hearing Kakashi Hatake’s defense, Uchiha Akahiro, who had been somewhat confused, suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
He understood instantly.
It wasn’t that the old fox Hiruzen Sarutobi had become stupid.
But that the old man sitting in the Hokage Office not only did not trust the Uchiha, but he had even started to distrust Uchiha Itachi, the double agent who had been sending him intelligence!
The reason why Third Hokage sent Kakashi Hatake to follow was not at all to assist Uchiha Itachi, but to send a “supervisor” to verify whether Uchiha Itachi’s intelligence was true.
Understanding this logic, Uchiha Akahiro almost laughed out loud in his heart.
This was truly an unexpected joy.
He curled his lips into a devious smile of certainty, his eyes flashing with a fox-like light.
Since this scheme to sow discord was delivered to his door, he might as well use it.
Uchiha Akahiro did not attack Kakashi Hatake on the spot, nor did he continue to press.
He just turned around gracefully, bowed slightly to Uchiha Fugaku, whose face had turned completely black like the bottom of a pot, and made a gesture of taking his leave.
“Clan Leader, since you have a ‘distinguished guest’ from Hokage-sama to receive personally tonight, I won’t be an eyesore here; I will take my leave first.”
Uchiha Akahiro specifically emphasized the words “distinguished guest.”
Subsequently, without even looking at Kakashi Hatake or Uchiha Itachi, he strode out of the tea room and left along the moonlit garden path.
The night wind blew, leaving behind a strange Shura field of three-way confrontation in the tea room.
Uchiha Fugaku’s face was terrifyingly green, his body trembling slightly from extreme humiliation and anger.
Kakashi Hatake’s dead fish eyes were full of suspicion; he began to realize that his appearance tonight seemed to have fallen into a trap, which might even bring a devastating political disaster to Hokage-sama.
And Uchiha Itachi, standing in the very center, was pale.
The high-level officials sending Kakashi Hatake to follow was like a heavy hammer smashing his last illusions about the Hokage Building.
He discovered with horror that in this political vortex, not only was the clan that craved rebellion not on his side, but even the Hokage-sama he swore to protect with his life, and for whom he was willing to bear infamy, had never truly trusted him.
This predicament of pleasing neither side and being guarded against by both was completely destroying his psychological defense line, which he had been struggling to maintain, accelerating his steps towards the extreme.
And outside the courtyard, Uchiha Fugaku looked at Kakashi Hatake, and his last warm illusions about Hiruzen Sarutobi were completely shattered.
This slap was too loud, completely confirming that what Uchiha Akahiro said was not false.
Since the high-level officials had never trusted the Uchiha, then they could only wholeheartedly follow Uchiha Akahiro and use iron-fisted means to seize the position of “Fifth Hokage” that should have belonged to the Uchiha.