find a void. There wasn't a single trace of this girl in the annals of the clan's recent history.
Mikoto stood frozen. She stared at the girl who exuded such an overbearing aura while wearing the Uchiha crest. The Mangekyo pattern in the girl's eyes was hauntingly beautiful, yet lethal.
A tempest raged in Mikoto's heart. As the Patriarch's wife and a former Jonin, she knew all too well the unimaginable agony required to awaken those eyes.
Nearby, young Sasuke watched the "big sister's" eyes with pure curiosity, thinking only that they looked very pretty.
Menma glanced down at Sasuke. At four years old, the boy was already showing signs of the handsome youth he would become, but his gaze was still innocent—completely devoid of the "cold genius" persona he would adopt in the future.
Hikari's Mangekyo fixed on Fugaku again. Looking down on him like an elder addressing a wayward child, she said, "Fugaku, isn't it? The Patriarch of this generation."
Menma chimed in, his voice haughty as he offered his own critique: "Your Mangekyo's ocular power is decent, but your character is weak. You lack resolve. You cling to this decaying compound, willingly playing the puppet for the Konoha higher-ups, hallucinating that compromise will buy you peace. You don't realize that you are simply accelerating the Uchiha's extinction."
Shura's voice wasn't loud, but every word was a blade driven straight into Fugaku's heart.
"The Uchiha were once the strongest clan in the shinobi world. Now, you've fallen to the point of being suspected by the village and torn apart by internal strife. This is the result of incompetent leaders like you—men with no vision and no backbone." Shura's words were heavy with disdain, as if he were merely stating an indisputable fact.
Fugaku's face turned ashen.
The previous genjutsu had proven Hikari's overwhelming strength. Now, Shura's words were stripping away his layers of defense, exposing his deepest fears and feelings of powerlessness to the cold air.
Menma, hidden behind his three-eyed fox mask, continued to hold his teacup as if he were a casual guest. Yet every sentence he uttered struck a nerve. Since the Nine-Tails Incident, the Uchiha clan had become nothing more than a pool of stagnant water.
Menma had accompanied Hikari on this visit to the "Last Patriarch" because he sensed she still harbored a lingering trace of sentiment for her kin.
His voice echoed in the silent room. "Our visit today is to tell you one thing: the current Konoha does not deserve the Uchiha."
"The friction between your clan and the village elders is intensifying. If you stay, you will only walk toward total annihilation."
Hikari added, "When the time is right, we will take the remaining Uchiha and leave this rotten village to find a future that truly belongs to us."
Her eyes flashed with a resolute light—a determination that brooked no argument. It was a sentence passed upon Fugaku, and upon Konoha itself.
Fugaku struggled to maintain his Mangekyo. His eyes throbbed with the lingering sting of the mental shock, but his pride as the Uchiha Patriarch wouldn't allow him to simply collapse.
He snapped his head up to face them. Despite his pale face and the cold sweat dripping down his brow, a defiant fire burned in his eyes.
"Absurd! No one can take the Uchiha from Konoha! Not even Uchiha Madara could do it!"
"One of you claims to be an ancestor yet stood by while the clan suffered, only to appear now out of thin air! The other doesn't even dare show his face, yet stands here sowing discord between us and the village! What is your true goal?!"
He panted, his chest heaving as he forced the words out through his teeth. "For generations, the Uchiha have bled for Konoha! My people were the village's sharpest blade! In three Great Ninja Wars, our clan spilled more blood than any other!"
"As Patriarch, I have exhausted my mind and soul, enduring humiliation for the sake of the clan's survival! How dare you call me 'incompetent'? Do you think I am solely responsible for our plight? Do you know why the elders suspect us? It is because of the stain of the Nine-Tails Incident that we can never wash away!"
Fugaku's tone became sharp and accusatory. He leaned in toward Hikari, venting years of suppressed rage. "You call me weak... you say I'm leading us to ruin... but what about you?! With ocular power like that, you never showed yourself. I have never heard of a rogue Uchiha bloodline like yours! Or perhaps... was the Nine-Tails Incident your handiwork?!"
Mikoto stood to the side, clutching a frightened Sasuke. Her eyes were red, and she bit her lip hard. She looked at Fugaku with worry, then at the intruders with suspicion. Fugaku's questions were bold and hit the mark; they spoke of the clan's long-standing pain. She knew these words might provoke the two monsters before them, but she understood his desperation.
Seeing the enraged Fugaku actually find the courage to glare at them, a faint ripple of emotion passed through Hikari's cold eyes.
Beneath the white mask, the corners of Menma's mouth curled into a meaningful arc.
"Tsk. You're quite the tough guy when facing us. Why don't you dare glare at the Third Hokage like that?"
The smile was mocking, dismissive, and filled with a hidden understanding. Fugaku's face turned a deep crimson, still trying to grasp at his loyalty to the village.
"Heh... the Nine-Tails Incident?" Shura's voice grew chillingly cold. "Your pathetic suspicion only proves how narrow your vision is. You truly understand nothing of this world."
Menma chuckled inwardly. He enjoyed watching the water get muddier. The more chaotic the Uchiha became, the higher the internal pressure would rise, bringing them closer to the fated night of the massacre.
"I have no interest in the petty schemes of rats hiding in the shadows," Menma continued with utter contempt. "We know exactly who the 'mastermind' behind the Nine-Tails Incident was. However... even if I told you, what could you do? With your 'incompetence,' what could you change? It would likely only speed up the Uchiha's march toward their predetermined end."
He didn't name the culprit, but the implication that they knew everything was far more terrifying than a direct answer. It created a sense of overwhelming dread.
Menma's tone turned casual again. "I've said it before: the 'peace' you believe in is nothing but a slow-acting poison. You protect the village unilaterally, but you are never given the respect or trust you deserve. When the village's suspicion reaches its peak and the internal pressure explodes, what will you use to resist?"
Fugaku stared blankly at the fox mask. He felt as if those eye holes could see every ounce of fear and despair in his soul.
"Think about it," Menma added. "How much have the Uchiha sacrificed? How many died in the wars? And yet, because of one incident, you are treated like this."
Hikari spoke up at the perfect moment. "The Uchiha never need to explain themselves to anyone—because we don't care what they think!"
Coming from the Warring States Period, Hikari looked at the modern Uchiha and saw something that resembled a tamed dog.
Fugaku's body trembled with a mixture of rage and shock. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Hikari's words were a phantom blade that had sliced open his deepest scars. The feeling of powerlessness over his clan's fate flooded him like a tide.
Do they really know? The real culprit of the Nine-Tails Incident? Is there another Uchiha bloodline out there? Someone coveting the power of the Nine-Tails? Fugaku's thoughts were a chaotic mess. He kept seeing those crimson eyes from the night the beast ran wild.
Could it be... that my clan is being used as a scapegoat? The thought made him shudder.
Seeing that Fugaku was no longer capable of arguing, Hikari felt a faint trace of disappointment.
Menma nodded to her. "It's late. We've said enough. Let's go."
Menma withdrew his playful smile and gave Fugaku one last look—the look of a superior being observing a trapped animal.
As the two rose to leave, Fugaku's heart skipped a beat. His brief clash with Hikari's Mangekyo had shown him the staggering gap in their power. And then there was Shura, who had single-handedly humiliated the Hyuga elders just days prior.
Even though his chest burned with indignity, his body remained frozen. He couldn't move to stop them. He knew that in his current state, trying to fight would be suicide—and it might bring destruction to the entire compound. If they chose to kill, he wouldn't be able to protect Mikoto or Sasuke.
As they reached the veranda, ready to leap into the night, Fugaku suddenly called out in a hoarse voice:
"Wait! You! What is your name?!"
Hikari's silhouette paused for a brief moment in the air. She didn't look back. Her cold voice drifted back on the wind, dissolving into the darkness.
"Uchiha Hikari."