Faced with Inabi’s roar, Lu Ming did not get angry.
He looked at this high-ranking member of the Police Force who was trying to maintain the status quo.
The veins on the back of the hand Inabi used to grip his ninja blade bulged, but the sharp edge of the Kunai at his neck kept him from making any reckless moves.
“Fabricating lies? Intending to usurp the position?”
Lu Ming’s voice echoed in the basement.
“Inabi, your vision is just like your strength—so narrow it’s pathetic.”
Lu Ming ignored Inabi and turned around, looking at the hundreds of Uchiha Clan members present.
“Many of you, including our high-and-mighty Clan Leader, have always had an unsolvable knot in your hearts.”
Lu Ming’s voice, amplified by Chakra, spread throughout the hall.
“You are always wondering, why does the Konoha High Command target us so much?”
“Why is it that no matter how much we back down or compromise, they refuse to let the Uchiha go? Is it really because we did something wrong?”
The entire hall was silent; everyone held their breath.
This was the boulder weighing on the heart of every Uchiha Clan member, pressing down until they could hardly breathe.
Lu Ming paced in the open space and threw out the answer.
“Today, I will tell you the truth. Konoha’s continuous suppression of us…”
“…is not because we did anything wrong, and it’s certainly not without reason.”
“First, it’s a legacy of history. Back then, Uchiha Madara defected from Konoha and fought a decisive battle against the First Hokage at the Valley of the End.”
“From that moment on, a seed of suspicion was planted in the hearts of the Konoha High Command that could never be uprooted.”
“In their eyes, the Uchiha Clan is born evil, with the blood of betrayal flowing in our veins!”
“Second, it’s a practical threat!”
“Have you all forgotten what was reflected in the eyes of that beast during the Nine-Tails Rebellion a few years ago?”
“It was the pattern of the Mangekyō Sharingan! Regardless of who was actually controlling the Nine-Tails, in the eyes of the Konoha High Command, this blood debt has already been pinned on our Uchiha heads, and it can’t be washed away.”
“Third, and the most core, most fundamental point!”
Lu Ming stopped walking.
“It is the inherent strength of our clan. We possess the strongest Bloodline Limit in the Ninja World, and we have terrifying combat power that can easily influence the outcome of a war.”
“This kind of power, which is completely beyond their control, is the deepest fear in the hearts of the high command!”
Hiss—
The sound of people drawing in sharp breaths came from the crowd.
A large number of young clan members looked at each other in shock.
They had always thought they were disliked because their law enforcement was too strict, but they had never considered the issue from such a grand political perspective.
Lu Ming spread his hands, his voice echoing in the basement.
“To be perfectly honest, if I were the Hokage today…”
“…faced with a clan that has the power to control Tailed Beasts, has produced peerless experts who defected from the Village, and whose overall strength is enough to subvert the Village’s regime, I would be just as wary.”
“I would also suppress them without hesitation. This is the most basic instinct of any ruler.”
As soon as these words were spoken, the entire hall broke into an uproar.
“Lord Lu Ming, you… how can you speak for the high command?”
A young clan member found it unacceptable.
Lu Ming looked up, and violent Chakra erupted from his body, the pressure making the air in the basement hum.
“Speak for them? No!”
Lu Ming raised his voice.
“I am telling you a cruel fact. Konoha fears us because we are too strong.”
“But are we wrong? No!”
Lu Ming opened his arms and roared to the heavens.
These words exploded in the minds of all the Uchiha Clan members, setting off a monstrous wave!
If strength is a crime, the Uchiha are beyond redemption!
This sentence pierced through to the long-hidden pride deep within the Uchiha Clan’s bones!
The young clan members present felt the blood rush to their heads, making their scalps tingle.
Their eyes turned red, and the Three-Tomoe Sharingan in their eyes spun uncontrollably, bursting with red light.
The forty-three elites personally trained by Lu Ming reached a peak of fanaticism.
“That’s right! We Uchiha are the strongest!”
“Why should we feel sorry for our own strength!”
Even the conservative elders, who were usually submissive and always talked about peace…
…couldn’t help but clench their fists, the fire of Uchiha pride reigniting in their cloudy eyes.
With just one sentence, Lu Ming…
…had completely swept away the frustration and humiliation that had been suppressed within the entire clan for years!
Just as the atmosphere reached its climax, Lu Ming changed the subject.
He turned around, his arm extending straight out, his finger pointing directly at Uchiha Fugaku sitting in the main seat.
“Konoha fears our strength; that is instinct. But—”
Lu Ming’s voice turned cold.
“The culprit who allowed them to turn that wariness into unscrupulous bullying, who let them brazenly put a butcher’s knife to our necks, is you—our Clan Leader, Uchiha Fugaku!”
The entire hall fell silent.
Immediately following that, an even more violent uproar than before erupted.
“What?!”
“The Clan Leader is the culprit?”
The conservative clan members spoke up in angry rebuttal.
“Lu Ming, you’ve gone too far! The Clan Leader has exhausted himself for the clan, enduring and yielding. How can you slander him like this!”
Meanwhile, Yashiro and the others from the radical faction frowned, falling into confusion and deep thought.
They were dissatisfied with Fugaku’s weakness…
…but to say Fugaku was the culprit who led the clan into a dead end, they couldn’t understand the logic behind it for the moment.
In the main seat, Uchiha Fugaku could no longer maintain his usual composure.
He stood up, his chest heaving violently due to extreme anger.
He stared at Lu Ming, the grievances accumulated over the years exploding as he questioned sharply,
“Lu Ming, stop your baseless accusations.”
“Since I succeeded as Clan Leader, I have yielded at every turn and walked on thin ice to preserve the clan.”
“I will never admit that I led the clan into a dead end. You must speak clearly today—exactly where did I go wrong?!”
Fugaku’s voice was filled with extreme indignation.
He had suffered so much, bearing the reputation of being weak for the sake of the clan…
…and now he was being labeled the culprit.
This was something he simply could not accept.
“Where did you go wrong? Fine, today I’ll strip away your fig leaf and let you understand exactly why you’re finished!”
Lu Ming strode forward, pressing in step by step, his powerful aura bearing down on Fugaku.
“Your decision-making errors are too numerous to record.”
“Let’s start from the source of all tragedies—the night of the Nine-Tails Rebellion!”
Lu Ming stared into Fugaku’s eyes, questioning him word by word,
“I ask you, on the night of the Nine-Tails Rebellion, when the entire Konoha Village was facing a catastrophe, when countless civilians and ninjas were bleeding and dying, everyone was desperately supporting the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.”
“And our Uchiha, the entire Uchiha Clan who possesses the Village’s strongest combat power—why did we stay idle?! Why did not a single person appear on the battlefield?!” The source of this chapter is g.com.
Faced with this soul-piercing questioning, Fugaku defended himself loudly,
“Do you think I didn’t want to go support them?! At that time, members of the Anbu and Root had our clan grounds surrounded so tightly that not even water could leak through.”
“Furthermore, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, personally issued a direct order, requiring the Police Force to stay in the clan grounds to evacuate civilians and strictly forbidding us from approaching the Nine-Tails!”
Fugaku became more excited as he spoke, wanting to vent all the frustration in his heart.
“Moreover, the Nine-Tails’ eyes had the Sharingan pattern.”
“Our entire clan bore the suspicion of controlling the Nine-Tails. If we had appeared on the battlefield rashly, it would have only made the high command more certain that we did it.”
“I ordered us to stay behind to protect the clan from being labeled as rebels!”
“Utterly stupid!”
After hearing Fugaku’s defense, Lu Ming burst into laughter, which was filled with extreme mockery and disdain.
“Anbu surrounding us? The Third Hokage’s order? Fugaku, has your brain been eaten by a dog?!”
Lu Ming countered sharply, his voice echoing in the hall,
“At that time, sitting in the Hokage Building, the one who truly held supreme command was the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.”
“He was the legitimate Hokage of Konoha. You ignored the legitimate Hokage and didn’t support him, choosing instead to listen to the orders of an old man who had already abdicated? To whom were you showing your loyalty?!”
Fugaku was shaken, left speechless by these words.
Lu Ming didn’t give him any chance to breathe, his logic relentlessly crushing him,
“And the suspicion you mentioned is absolutely laughable.”
“It is precisely because we bore the suspicion of controlling the Nine-Tails that that night was our best opportunity—and our only opportunity—to clear our names!”
Lu Ming waved his hand, pointing at the dumbfounded clan members,
“If you had even a shred of courage back then, you should have led all the clan members who had awakened the Sharingan to forcibly break through the Anbu’s encirclement and rush to the front lines.”
“Even if we had to use our ocular power to suppress the Nine-Tails, even if half of our elites died that night…”
“As long as we bled, as long as we fought for the Village with our lives, who would have dared to suspect the Uchiha afterward?! Who would have had the face to suspect the Uchiha?!”
The entire hall was silent, with only Lu Ming’s deafening roar echoing.
“But what did you do? You chose to shrink back into your tortoise shell!”
“Your decision to stay behind not only missed the only chance to clear our names, but it also made the Uchiha a cold bystander on that night when the entire Village was bleeding and dying.”
“You let the Ino–Shika–Chō, the Hyūga, and those civilian ninjas who lost loved ones and comrades see that while the whole Village was in mourning, only our Uchiha remained unscathed!”
“Because of your stupid decision, the Uchiha were completely disconnected from the Village.”
“You directly brought about the hostility of all the clans and civilians toward us.”
“You turned the Uchiha into an isolated island, abandoned by everyone. If you aren’t the culprit, who is?!”
This logically tight accusation completely tore Fugaku’s disguises and excuses to shreds.
In the entire Naka Shrine basement, all the clan members were breaking into a cold sweat.
As if waking from a dream, they recalled the hateful eyes of the villagers over the past few years…
…recalled the deliberate alienation from other ninja clans, and finally understood where the root of all this lay.
“So… so that’s how it was…”
Yashiro and the other radicals looked ashen, the fanaticism in their eyes turning into deep regret.
They finally understood that the one who led the clan into its current state was indeed the Clan Leader they had always followed.
Fugaku stumbled back three steps, his legs giving way as he collapsed into his chair.
His face was as pale as paper, and cold sweat rolled down his forehead, soaking his back.
His lips trembled violently, but he couldn’t utter a single word in rebuttal.
Lu Ming’s words had completely shattered the last line of defense in his heart.
Seeing that Fugaku was about to collapse and the ignited anger of the entire clan was about to consume him…
…at this critical moment, the Second Elder sitting on the high platform stood up.
Leaning on his cane, he pointed at Lu Ming and shouted,
“Lu Ming, shut up! The decision on the night of the Nine-Tails Rebellion was not the Clan Leader’s alone; it was the result of the collective deliberation of our Council of Elders!”