Lu Ming turned his head, looking at the Second Elder on the high platform with a look of mockery.
“The result of a joint discussion?”
Lu Ming strode forward, pressing toward the high platform.
“Second Elder, are you so old that your brain isn’t even clear anymore?”
“Presumptuous!” The Second Elder’s eyes widened in anger.
“The presumptuous ones are you old bones who occupy positions without doing anything!”
Lu Ming’s voice echoed in the spacious basement.
“Since Fugaku sits in the position of the highest leader of the Uchiha Clan, enjoying the loyalty and awe of the entire clan, then while he enjoys the power, he should also bear the ultimate responsibility.”
“No matter how many suggestions the Council of Elders gave, wasn’t he the one who made the final decision and gave the order?”
“When a mistake is made and a great disaster is caused, you use the Council of Elders as a shield. Is this the responsibility a clan head should have!”
The Second Elder’s face turned red, his mouth agape as he gasped for air, unable to refute a single word.
He turned to look at the other elders, only to find that those usually high-and-mighty elders were all avoiding his gaze, each lowering their heads in silence.
Lu Ming didn’t give them a chance to breathe.
He turned around and pointed his spearhead at the pale-faced Uchiha Fugaku.
“Since the Council of Elders’ decisions were mentioned, let’s settle the score for your second major mistake!”
Lu Ming held up two fingers.
“The clan relocation!”
As soon as those words came out, the expressions of all the Uchiha Clan members present changed.
Clan relocation—this was the most painful scar in the heart of every Uchiha Clan member.
“After the Nine-Tails Rebellion, the Konoha High Command used the excuse of rebuilding the Village to forcibly demand our Uchiha Clan relocate to a dead-end area on the edge of the Village.”
Lu Ming pressed closer, his voice unable to suppress his anger.
“At that time, the entire clan was filled with indignation. How many people knelt before your residence, begging you to reject this unreasonable demand?”
“But what about you? You ignored the strong opposition of the clan members and obediently complied with the Village’s orders!”
Lu Ming waved his arm, pointing directly at the tip of Fugaku’s nose.
“With this move, you completely excluded the Uchiha from the core area of Konoha. You personally turned us into a group of prisoners isolated on the edge of the Village.”
Fugaku clenched his fists so hard that blood dripped from the gaps between his fingers.
He looked up and roared with bloodshot eyes.
“What do you know? At that time, the Village had just been heavily damaged by the Nine-Tails, and the high command’s suspicion of us had reached its peak.”
“The blades of the Anbu and the Root were already drawn and held against our necks.”
“If I hadn’t agreed to the relocation and had directly torn off the mask to go to war with the high command, the Uchiha would only have faced total destruction.”
“I did that to preserve the family. At that time, our strength was insufficient, and we could only endure humiliation to plan for the future.”
“Endure humiliation? Plan for the future?”
Hearing Fugaku’s defense, Lu Ming laughed out loud.
His laughter was filled with sorrow and mockery.
“Fugaku, you are simply beyond help!”
Lu Ming stopped laughing and retorted sharply.
“Do you think your concessions could earn the mercy of the high command? Do you think your compromise could prove the Uchiha’s innocence?”
“You are wrong! Completely wrong!”
“This kind of bottomless, weak concession will only make Danzo and those in the high command believe that the Uchiha are just a bunch of easy-to-bully cowards!”
Lu Ming looked around the room, his voice deafening.
“After you relocated, did the suppression stop? No! Instead, they intensified it!”
“They cut the Police Force budget, restricted our mission permissions, and even allowed the villagers to insult us at will.” This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
“This is the result of your so-called ‘enduring humiliation.’ You trampled the family’s dignity underfoot, and in exchange, you got even more frantic weakening and trampling from the enemy.”
In the crowd, those clan members who had once supported Fugaku all showed looks of realization.
They recalled their experiences over the past few years as if waking from a dream.
The facts were exactly as Lu Ming said.
Since relocating to the edge, the Village’s suppression of them had not only not lessened but had become more intense.
“Lord Lu Ming is right…”
An older clan member said, his eyes turning red.
“Since moving to the edge, our status in the Village has plummeted. Even when we go to buy vegetables, those civilian merchants roll their eyes at us!”
“We are the proud Uchiha, the founding clan of Konoha. Why should we be treated like weak, easily bullied dogs?”
The proud Uchiha Clan members were completely ignited.
Proud blood flowed in their veins, and they simply could not accept being seen as weak playthings by the Village high command.
Even Uchiha Yashiro and Uchiha Inabi, who were once Fugaku’s most staunch supporters, were completely shaken.
They looked at Fugaku, their gaze shifting from past respect and following to disappointment.
“Clan Head… you have truly disappointed us too much.”
Yashiro gritted his teeth and closed his eyes in pain.
He finally understood that the clan head he had always been loyal to was actually the one pushing the family step by step into the abyss.
The crowd’s dissatisfaction with Fugaku completely exploded and could no longer be stopped.
The entire Naka Shrine basement was filled with accusations and insults toward Fugaku.
The momentum of the clan meeting’s impeachment of Fugaku had completely formed and was irreversible.
Fugaku slumped in his chair, his face looking extremely embarrassed.
He looked at the pairs of angry eyes below.
He believed he was compromising for the peace of the family and the Village, and believed he bore all the infamy, yet no one understood his helplessness.
“Why… why do none of you understand my painstaking efforts…”
Fugaku murmured in pain.
Lu Ming looked at Fugaku’s despondent appearance and didn’t give him any room to breathe, directly throwing out the most fatal core of today’s clan meeting.
“Past mistakes have created today’s desperate situation. Now, let’s talk about the present.”
Lu Ming turned around, scanned the room, and finally fixed his gaze on Fugaku.
“Fugaku, since you are still sitting in the position of Clan Head, I will ask you the most central question of the clan today.”
Lu Ming’s voice was low.
“What is your attitude toward the Armed Coup that the clan members are secretly planning?”
As soon as this question was asked, the entire basement fell silent.
All eyes in the room focused on Fugaku.
Over a hundred pairs of crimson Sharingan stared at him, waiting for his final decision.
Within the Uchiha Clan, the influence of the Radical Faction had reached an unprecedented high.
More than two-thirds of the clan members were inclined to use force to seize power and completely overthrow the rule of the Konoha High Command.
Fugaku was drenched in sweat, cold sweat sliding down his cheeks.
He knew the current situation all too well.
If he dared to say “no” now, this group of thoroughly enraged clan members would tear him to pieces.
He would completely lose all support and become a leader in name only.
To save his final face.
“I… I support the coup!”
Fugaku announced loudly, his voice echoing in the basement.
As soon as he finished speaking, the members of the Radical Faction erupted in deafening cheers.
“Great, the Clan Head has finally made up his mind.”
“Kill all the Konoha High Command and take back the glory that belongs to us.”
“Long live the Uchiha!”
The members of the Radical Faction were ecstatic, waving their fists with frantic killing intent.
However, in a corner of the crowd, Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Itachi both lowered their heads at the same time, showing extreme disappointment.
They knew Konoha’s foundation well and knew that a coup was a path of no return with certain death.
Fugaku’s stance was equivalent to personally pushing the family into the abyss of destruction.
Just as the Radical Faction was celebrating, Lu Ming suddenly let out a cold laugh.
“You support the coup?”
Lu Ming looked at Fugaku and said something shocking.
“But I resolutely oppose the coup!”
Whoosh—!
The entire place was in an uproar.
All the cheering stopped abruptly.
The members of the Radical Faction widened their eyes and looked at Lu Ming in shock.
“Lu Ming! What do you mean?!”
Inabi angrily pulled out his ninja blade and pointed it at Lu Ming, scolding him sharply.
“You just scolded the high command to no end and criticized the clan head as worthless, and now you actually say you oppose the coup? Do you also want to learn to be as cowardly and submissive as the Clan Head!”
“That’s right! What right do you have to oppose it!”
“We’ve been oppressed for so long, are we supposed to keep enduring it!”
Faced with everyone’s angry rebukes, Lu Ming didn’t back down an inch; instead, he took a step forward.
Violent and matchless Chakra erupted from his body, and the substantial pressure made the air in the entire basement hum.
The forty-three Three-Tomoe Sharingan elites standing behind him also took a step forward at the same time, their forty-three pairs of crimson eyes erupting with terrifying killing intent, suppressing the commotion of the entire room.
“Everyone shut up!” Lu Ming shouted sharply.
He pointed at the shouting members of the Radical Faction and mocked.
“Just with you bunch of rotten fish and stinking shrimp, you want to launch a coup? Do you think the Konoha High Command is made of paper?”
“With the Uchiha’s current pitiful strength, you won’t even get past the Anbu and the Root, not to mention the Ino–Shika–Chō and the Hyūga Clan in the Village.”
“You aren’t staging a coup; you are leading the entire clan to its death!”
This mockery enraged everyone present.
“Who are you calling rotten fish and stinking shrimp!”
“Lu Ming, you are too arrogant!”
Lu Ming ignored the angrily shouting clan members.
He turned his head, his gaze piercing through the crowd and landing on the figure who had been silent in the corner.
“Shisui.”
Lu Ming looked at Uchiha Shisui.
“What about your attitude?”