A cold silence settled over the room. Every face was etched with grim severity, the air so thick with tension it was difficult to breathe. The Uchiha were a proud, even arrogant clan, prone to emotional displays, but they were not fools. A clan-wide meeting summoned in the dead of night, just after two o'clock in the morning? The purpose was transparently obvious.
This was about them. About the night's bloody work.
"Fugaku goes too far!" a Radical Faction member spat, his voice a low growl. "The ink on the Root agents' death warrants isn't even dry. Sarutobi and Danzō haven't issued a statement, yet our own clan head is the first to call us to the chopping block?"
"If one didn't know better," another added, his tone dripping with venom, "they'd think Fugaku was Sarutobi's loyal hound, so quick to heel at his master's silent command."
Indignation, hot and bitter, surged through the group. The memory of having once voted for Fugaku, of placing their hopes in him, now tasted like ash and betrayal in their mouths.
Uchiha Jin, his interrupted declaration hanging in the air, merely frowned slightly. He showed no anger at the disruption. Instead, he raised a hand, and the muttered curses ceased instantly.
"Composure," he stated, his voice a calm, steady counterpoint to the room's fury. "Until we possess the power to reshape the shinobi world as Madara-sama once did, we may act with pride, but we must still play within the established confines of the game. For now. Let's go."
He led the way out, his faction falling into step behind him with disciplined silence. While many might not fully grasp the strategic patience implied in his words, they understood the results he delivered. He was a proven leader and a bearer of the Mangekyo. In the language of the shinobi world, Uchiha Jin had demonstrated his 'capacity'. That was enough to command their unwavering, if sometimes single-minded, loyalty.
Ten minutes later, the Naka Shrine was steeped in a different kind of hostility.
The Neutral and Compromise Factions had arrived first. Their members sat in stiff clusters, faces pale with a potent mix of fear and fury. To them, the clan's position was already perched on a precipice. Uchiha Jin, this suddenly-awakened Mangekyo prodigy, was not the stabilizing pillar they desperately needed. He was a lit fuse attached to a barrel of gunpowder. His actions tonight—another brazen assault on Root—were sheer madness. They believed the previous Radical excursions had only been smoothed over by the Hokage's 'magnanimous' forbearance. This new provocation was a step too far.
For once, the typically squabbling Compromise and Neutral Factions found common cause: they intended to use this emergency meeting to censure Uchiha Jin and his faction severely.
The arrival of the Radicals cut through the tense atmosphere like a blade. Led by Jin, they entered the shrine hall, utterly ignoring the glares that felt like physical blows from the other factions, and took their appointed seats with deliberate calm.
"Let the clan meeting begin," Fugaku announced, his brow deeply furrowed, dispensing with any preamble. "Tonight, three Root squads and one Anbu detachment were eliminated. Elder Setsuna, do you have anything to say regarding this matter?"
His bluntness spoke volumes; the formalities were useless among those who knew each other's positions all too well.
Shisui, standing beside Fugaku, spoke next, his voice earnest, pleading. "The Hokage-sama is struggling to restrain Danzō-sama's anger. Yet, in his boundless benevolence, he is willing to give the Uchiha one final chance." He turned his gaze to Setsuna, his eyes imploring. "Elder Setsuna, the clan stands at the brink. I beg you, hand over those responsible. Otherwise, even if the Hokage wishes to shield us, he will lack the justification."
A chorus of agreement rose from the Compromise and Neutral sides, a unified front of accusation and blame leveled at the Radicals. These clansmen yearned for a quiet life, their identities as 'Konoha shinobi' having long since overwritten their identity as 'Uchiha'. Their famously single-minded psychology—the 'Uchiha Mindset'—meant that once they placed their faith in an ideal, like the Will of Fire as preached by Hiruzen, it became an unshakable truth. They could not, or would not, perceive the deeper layers of manipulation and distrust.
This was precisely why Jin, despite his early transmigration, had never entertained the idea of recruiting seemingly 'moderate' figures like Shisui or Itachi. Living among the Uchiha had taught him a harsh lesson: their gentleness was often a facade for a different kind of extremism. The very intensity required to awaken the Mangekyo resided in them as surely as it did in him. Shisui's 'peace' was a peace enforced by his own supreme power and conviction, a tyranny of good intentions. Jin, with the perspective of two lives and a different cultural bedrock, was also an extremist—but his was a calculated, focused extremism, born of personal loss and a broader understanding of the game being played. That was why, even now, he had not publicly revealed Root's kidnapping of his parents. Some wounds were to be avenged, not pleaded.
As these thoughts flowed through Jin's mind, Uchiha Setsuna responded with a dry, almost amused chuckle.
"My apologies, Clan Head," Setsuna said, waving a dismissive hand. "This old man has retired. All matters concerning the Radical Faction should now be discussed with Jin. By our internal consensus, Lord Jin is now the leader of the Radical Faction and succeeds me in the role of clan elder."
He leaned back, looking utterly at ease.
His words landed like a explosive tag in the quiet shrine. Fugaku stared, nonplussed. "Retired? Elder Setsuna, this is…"
"Is there a problem?" Setsuna interrupted, his tone mild but final.
Fugaku could only swallow his words.
Shisui's composure cracked, his face darkening. "With all respect, Lord Jin is powerful, but he is young. Moreover, the position of clan elder requires nomination and election. It cannot be privately transferred!"
Setsuna's playful smile didn't waver. "Every member of the Radical Faction supports Lord Jin. Would you like to call for a vote here and now?"
Shisui clenched his jaw, knowing it was futile. While he privately disdained Jin as a reckless agitator, he could not deny the man's iron grip on his faction's loyalty. Even if the other two factions united against it, the Radicals alone had more than enough numbers to force the elder appointment through—this wasn't a clan head election, after all.
Taking a steadying breath, Shisui turned his full, solemn attention to Uchiha Jin, who had been sitting in serene silence beside Setsuna.
"Elder Jin," Shisui began, layering the new title with heavy significance. "Let us return to the urgent matter. The fate of the clan hangs in the balance. I must ask for your answer immediately. Hand over the perpetrators. Do not make the Hokage-sama's difficult position any harder."
All eyes in the shrine swiveled to Uchiha Jin. This was his first true test as the new faction leader. It was a trap: refusal would brand him a clan-endangering radical; compliance would shatter his credibility with his own people and reveal weakness.
Uchiha Jin finally stirred. He looked up, meeting Shisui's intense gaze with an expression of pure, unfeigned bewilderment.
"Hand over the perpetrators?" Jin repeated, his voice laced with innocent confusion. "Shisui, what are you talking about? I'm completely at a loss. Root and Anbu members were killed, and you are demanding I hand over the so-called 'culprits'? It seems you have already tried and convicted my Radical Faction without a shred of evidence."
He leaned forward slightly, his calm demeanor giving way to a sharp, rhetorical precision. "If you can pin blame on us without evidence today, then tomorrow, whenever anyone in the village is killed, you can simply point at the Radical Faction. Is that not the pinnacle of unreasonableness?"
His eyes swept across the assembled clansmen, finally settling back on Shisui with a look of profound disappointment. "Are you, perhaps, preparing to execute us based on 'suspicion alone'? I am aware of the… philosophical disagreements between my faction and your Compromise Faction. But to shamelessly fabricate charges in a naked grab for political influence? Even for you, Shisui, this is low."
The silence that followed was deafening. Jin had not defended, nor had he attacked. He had simply refused to acknowledge the premise of the accusation, turning Shisui's moral appeal into a cynical political maneuver.