"I have my own considerations."
He did not explain what vantage point he thought from.
Amane only knew this: Uchiha blood ran in him, and he refused to see the clan erased from Konoha's history like in the tale, leaving only the Second Pillar behind.
Stopping the tragedy from repeating was only the first step.
It was a small piece of the Uchiha revival plan.
There was much to do. He was young, but his ambition was no longer bound to one clan or one village.
Fugaku had to admit the logic was sound.
The Itachi who had always had his own ideas would never change because of a few fatherly words.
"What do you want me to do?"
As a father he did not want to see himself stand opposite his son one day.
As Amane had said, death is the weakest choice.
Living takes greater courage.
"Everyone will act in Itachi's play."
"This play must convince Itachi, and it must convince Konoha."
"Let them see with their eyes that the Uchiha are gone."
Amane nudged his glasses, calm as ever.
"In truth, before that, Father, you must prepare enough bodies, and secretly open a safe route to evacuate the clan's noncombatants."
"The old and the children come first."
"As for the fighters..."
He turned, hands clasped behind his back, voice low.
"You said you cannot control the clan's frenzy. I know what you cannot control are the ones who reject your authority and are mad to the bone."
"They are already lost."
"The clan's revival does not need madmen who will not obey the clan head. They will die naturally on the night of the massacre."
"The plan must be absolutely secret. Father, a clan head sometimes needs to show a hard edge."
"Some things must be cut away, like excess mercy."
He glanced back. The sharp gleam in his eyes made Fugaku swallow.
These words came from his son.
A boy of six.
Why did the Uchiha face annihilation?
Beyond pressure from Konoha, the clan itself held a great flaw.
Its voices were chaotic. Some lunatics wanted war now, with anyone at all.
Even without pressure from the village, they would find reasons to butt heads with other houses.
In short, a nerve-sick trait.
Uchiha were born wild.
After the Sharingan opened, there were times even they could not rein themselves in.
That was the clan's own problem.
Yet they revered strength, and in some ways they were united. In madness, their power spiked without limit and could create vast possibilities.
How to wield Uchiha strength required care. Amane had already thought it through.
"The loyal will hide for now. How to bring them back later, leave that to me."
"In short, the leadership's purge will be the clan's rebirth. Only after dying does one learn how precious life is."
"Disloyal trash is not worth keeping. The loyal can stand behind me and wait for the moment to restore the Uchiha name."
"The measure of loyalty falls to you, Father."
"Whether to give chances is yours as well."
He paused, then stepped to face Shisui.
"Next is Itachi."
"A man's scope defines how he thinks."
"Itachi believes he has surpassed the scale of the Uchiha and of the village. He believes his questions are the true questions, and casts himself as the one who carries everything."
"He knows Konoha cannot stomach the Uchiha."
"He also knows that even if he stood with the clan, even if they succeeded and took the village, the other families would never accept the Uchiha, and would leave one by one, tearing Konoha apart."
"He chose to shoulder guilt and hatred, then die someday to bury the clan's history and truth."
"He is wrong. My scope far exceeds his. While you and he pondered clan versus village, I was already thinking how to conquer the shinobi world."
Amane lifted his frames, eyes full of certainty.
"So for someone like Itachi, he must fail once first."
"Only then can he truly achieve self-salvation."
"As for teaching my foolish brother that lesson, Father, you need to die once."
He hopped up to pat Fugaku's shoulder and spoke evenly.
"Handle the details on the fly. When his path reaches a dead end, that is when you return."
Two strands of the plan.
Make Konoha believe the Uchiha are wiped out, and have everyone act a play for Itachi, to give him a proper lesson.
An Uchiha moving in the dark would fare far better than one openly targeted by Konoha.
Amane already had steps laid out. It would not be long.
As for Itachi, he simply refused to watch him play the fool.
"Er, I have a question."
At the side, Shisui, lost in the fog, finally spoke.
"Maybe I am too slow to grasp it, but from what you say, you think Itachi will definitely help Konoha wipe out the clan?"
Not only him.
Even Fugaku harbored that same doubt.
Scale.
Amane shook his head.
That was the point.
Itachi's scope differed entirely from Fugaku's and from Shisui's.
His thinking would naturally run that way. Besides, the iron fact of the tale lay before them.
"Clan Head!"
"Itachi Uchiha is confronting our people!"
As if to prove Amane right, rushing footsteps and a retainer's shout rang from outside.
They had begun to face off already.
Fugaku was silent for a long moment, then raised his eyes to Amane.
"As a father, I may have failed."
"No matter what, I believe in you both. I believe in my sons."
"If that day really comes, I will give my life for my child. Yet as you said, death is a weakling's choice. I will cling to life in the way you described until the day the light returns."
He stood and left the study, leaving only his back to Amane and Shisui.
"Brother Mizuko, watch with your own eyes how the Uchiha break, then rise."
The first step had begun.
Amane smiled in quiet satisfaction and glanced at Shisui.
"Sorry. I am blind."
...