If not for the strong sense of responsibility driving him forward, Minato Namikaze would have thrown in the towel and quit long ago.
The moment Danzō Shimura entered the Hokage’s office, he pointed straight at Hiruzen Sarutobi and began berating him.
“Hiruzen!
I heard everything!”
“You’ve completely disgraced our teacher!”
“You actually allowed a mere Uchiha to act that arrogantly in front of you!”
Hiruzen frowned.
“Where did you hear about it?”
What had happened outside the Military Police headquarters should have been known only to the three people who were there.
There shouldn’t have been any way for the details to spread.
Danzō’s hand trembled with anger.
“The Uchiha already released an official announcement!”
“That civilian they arrested in the street has now been formally convicted of rebellion!”
“And according to the announcement, you—the Hokage—personally confirmed the matter!”
“You still think this isn’t your fault?!”
Hearing that, Hiruzen’s vision nearly went black.
That damned Uchiha!
How can someone be this shameless?!
He had barely left the Military Police headquarters before they immediately published an announcement.
To outsiders, what difference was there between that and Hiruzen himself ordering the Uchiha to slap a treason charge onto an innocent civilian?
Danzō saw Hiruzen’s expression and sneered.
“All of this happened because you’ve been too weak!”
“Your endless indulgence is exactly why the Uchiha have become this arrogant!”
“Today they dare grab an ordinary civilian off the street and accuse her of rebellion.”
“Tomorrow they’ll dare surround the Hokage Building itself!”
“Hiruzen, we cannot continue tolerating this!”
“The Uchiha must pay for what they’ve done!”
Hiruzen was already in a terrible mood.
Being pressed by Danzō immediately brought back the memory of Shinya mocking him to his face at the Military Police headquarters.
Maybe I can’t control the Uchiha…
But I can certainly control you, Danzō Shimura.
Hiruzen immediately redirected all his anger onto him.
“Enough, Danzō!”
“I am the Hokage!”
A certain blond man hiding behind the desk fell silent.
“…”
Am I not supposed to be the Hokage right now?
Minato thought about it for a moment.
Forget it.
Whoever wants this position can have it.
This is way too damn suffocating.
Danzō gave a heavy snort and immediately stormed toward the door.
“Hiruzen, you’ll regret this!”
“You will absolutely regret this!”
Perhaps because Hiruzen had actually lost his temper with him this time, Danzō repeated the warning twice before violently slamming the door shut.
…
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long before Fugaku received a summons from the Hokage.
The ANBU messenger’s wording was extremely severe.
Every sentence carried the unmistakable implication that Fugaku was being called in to answer for the Uchiha’s recent actions.
Shinya went along with him.
Although he had already explained to Fugaku how to handle this kind of pressure, Shinya was still worried the man might lose his nerve at the critical moment.
Inside the Hokage’s office, Minato was nowhere to be seen.
Only Hiruzen Sarutobi and the bandaged Danzō Shimura were waiting.
Perhaps even the Little Sun had found the atmosphere too oppressive and gone home to spend time with his pregnant wife.
The moment Shinya saw those two old men sitting there together, he knew today’s meeting probably wouldn’t end peacefully.
Sure enough— the instant Fugaku entered the office, Danzō stood up and pointed straight at him.
“Fugaku Uchiha!”
“What exactly are you trying to do?!”
“The Uchiha have been unusually active lately!”
“Are you wicked Uchiha planning to betray the village?!”
Danzō opened the conversation by slapping an enormous accusation onto the entire clan.
In the past, Fugaku would immediately have begun explaining himself.
Then, after Danzō finished playing the villain, Hiruzen would step forward as the reasonable one and use the opportunity to pressure the Uchiha into accepting another series of unequal concessions.
But this time—
Fugaku didn’t respond at all.
His expression didn’t change.
It was as though he hadn’t even heard Danzō.
He didn’t so much as glance in Danzō’s direction.
He simply stared coldly at Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Exactly like yesterday.
Shinya was even less interested in participating.
He casually found a sofa, sat down, and began watching the performance unfold.
That was exactly what this looked like to him.
A performance.
And one he had already seen far too many times.
Everyone knew that if you told the same joke over and over again, eventually no one would laugh anymore.
Hiruzen and Danzō probably thought their methods were sophisticated.
But to Shinya, who had gone through nine years of compulsory education in his previous life, the entire routine was almost embarrassingly childish.
Of course, this was a world where chakra existed.
A single shinobi could become a weapon capable of slaughtering hundreds.
And monsters like Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha had once existed—beings ordinary manpower couldn’t hope to resist.
With that kind of power structure, it wasn’t surprising that the shinobi world’s political struggles sometimes seemed laughably crude.
Shinya had always been able to see through these tactics.
He simply hadn’t bothered doing anything before.
Back then, he believed the Uchiha had no hope of winning.
And no one in the clan would have cared about the words of an ordinary chūnin who hadn’t even awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan.
Now, however, everything was different.
Shinya had awakened the system.
He possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan.
He now had the qualifications to negotiate as an equal— or simply overturn the entire table if necessary.
Naturally, it was time to show these natives what a real political struggle looked like.
Danzō shouted for quite a while before finally realizing that no one was responding to him.
For a moment, even he seemed confused.
Hiruzen also noticed that Fugaku was behaving unusually today.
Still, he didn’t think much of it.
In his mind, Fugaku would eventually compromise just as he always had.
On that point, Hiruzen remained extremely confident.
Fugaku’s personality had always been far too easy to manipulate.
Once he felt Danzō had played the bad cop long enough, Hiruzen finally stepped forward to smooth things over.
“That’s enough, Danzō.”
“Say a little less.”
“The Uchiha are still part of Konoha, after all.”
Then he turned toward Fugaku.
“However, Fugaku, I do need to criticize you over what happened recently.”
“That incident caused considerable outrage among the villagers.”
“For the sake of Konoha, I’m asking the Uchiha to make a small sacrifice.”
“The Uchiha clan district…”
“For the time being, relocate it to the outskirts of the village.”
“After all, I’m sure you don’t want the entire population of Konoha rejecting your clan, do you?”
It was the same classic routine.
Both sides were supposedly being reprimanded.
Except Danzō received nothing more than a verbal scolding— while the Uchiha were expected to make an actual, substantial concession.
Relocating the Uchiha district to the edge of the village was no longer simple suppression.
It was an attempt to remove the Uchiha entirely from Konoha’s political center.
And from beginning to end, Hiruzen said nothing about how the relocation would happen.
He offered no compensation either.
It was almost as though moving nearly a thousand Uchiha civilians and shinobi could be accomplished with a few words and a wave of his hand.
Even the enormous expense of relocating the entire clan was apparently expected to come out of the Uchiha’s own pockets.
Fugaku still said nothing.
His expression remained completely unchanged.
But inside— his thoughts were already surging like a storm.
More than anger, what he felt was shock.
Because Shinya hadn’t merely predicted the exact sequence Hiruzen and Danzō would use to pressure him today.
He had even predicted Hiruzen’s eventual demand.
Precisely.
If the situation had been even slightly more appropriate, Fugaku would have turned around and asked Shinya whether the ability of his Mangekyō Sharingan was actually future sight.