"What is it?"
Uchiha Setsuna's voice was calm as he turned to the kneeling shinobi.
He had once been a ninja during the time of Uchiha Madara himself. In his youth, he'd followed the legendary Uchiha Izuna, and was one of the few retainers of Madara who had stayed with the clan after his departure.
Now, he was one of the last remaining hardliners of the Uchiha—an elder with true authority. Even the current clan head, Uchiha Fugaku, had to show him respect.
But during the Second Hokage's era, Setsuna had participated in a failed uprising to claim the Hokage title. After being suppressed by the Third Hokage, he was pushed to the margins of the village's politics.
Now, aged and frail, he was a relic of a past era.
Yet to the hawkish members of the clan, Setsuna was a hero. A symbol of resistance against Konoha's quiet oppression.
Typically, he was excluded from clan meetings.
The sudden summons from Fugaku caught him off guard.
"I don't know," the shinobi answered simply. "The Clan Head didn't give a reason."
He was just a low-ranking member. A dove-faction groomed courier, with no access to internal strategies. Even if he did know, he wouldn't dare speak.
"I understand. I'll head there shortly," Setsuna said.
He turned toward Izumi.
"Izumi, go on home."
"Yes, Grandfather. I'll leave you to it."
Once the girl had departed, Setsuna's gaze sharpened.
He stared at a spot near the base of a tree.
"You dare return?"
"Your name's already on the village's wanted list. Why betray the Leaf?"
His eyes spun into the full three-tomoe Sharingan, scarlet and cold.
There, half-hidden in the shade, was Rin.
Just a child of the neighborhood, once.
"I got lucky," Rin said. "The explosion didn't kill me. The others covered my escape."
"A wanted notice?" He scoffed. "Elder Setsuna, do you really believe that garbage?"
"Konoha's warrant is just toilet paper, reeking of shit."
Setsuna's lips twitched.
"What do you want from me? I'm just an old man. I can't help you."
That was a phrase he hadn't spoken in decades—last uttered when Madara had been declared a rogue. A strange irony.
But Rin... Rin stirred something.
In that boy, Setsuna saw the faint shadow of the man he once idolized: Uchiha Madara.
"Uchiha is finished, Elder Setsuna."
"This last deployment? Only Shisui and I came back alive."
Rin's tone was emotionless, but his words carried weight.
Setsuna's brow furrowed.
"Uchiha was finished the moment Lord Madara died," he muttered bitterly. "We lost our spine that day."
The rest of the clan had grown soft. Weak.
"I'm not talking about decline. I'm talking extinction," Rin said. "We are being erased. From the inside."
"Extinction… explain."
Setsuna's tone stayed neutral, but his fingers tensed behind his robes.
Rin recounted everything—the mission, the ambush, the ANBU's betrayal.
Setsuna listened silently.
When Rin finished, the old man growled.
"Fools. No vigilance at all. If Uchiha Mei was in charge, your unit wouldn't have been slaughtered."
Uchiha Mei, one of the elders in Fugaku's faction, had been the field commander for the mission.
Though only in his thirties, he possessed elite jonin prowess, backed by a fully matured three-tomoe Sharingan and decades of combat experience.
Killing him would've required at least three elite squads working in tandem.
Which meant it wasn't a battlefield accident. It was assassination.
And someone had leaked their route.
"But just this intel alone can't bring down Fugaku," Setsuna muttered. "War is too chaotic. Unless you have proof of who leaked the intel, he's untouchable."
"And sacrificing one elder means little when the Police Force is still under his control."
"With the other elders behind him, he's rooted too deep."
Setsuna shook his head.
He had spent years watching Sarutobi Hiruzen and had once crossed blades with Uchiha Kagami.
He knew the Third Hokage's heart—soft on the surface, iron underneath.
He would never allow instability among the Uchiha.
"Then what if the Hokage dies?"
Rin's voice was calm as he gestured to his eyes.
Setsuna stared.
Such words, from a child?
Madness.
But Rin's eyes had turned—full three-tomoe Sharingan.
And in his hand, he unfurled a scroll.
Setsuna took it.
He scanned its contents.
And went still.
Long moments passed before he whispered:
"…Is this true?"
Rin said nothing.
His silence screamed louder than confirmation.
"If this is real," Setsuna said slowly, "we have to move before Danzo does."
"That snake will strike fast. We won't get a second chance."
The scroll contained damning evidence—Shimura Danzo had stolen Sharingan eyes and implanted them into his own body.
A crime deserving death.
"But you—" Setsuna turned to Rin. "You're a medic-nin. Even with three tomoe, can you threaten Danzo? Or the Hokage?"
Rin didn't answer.
Instead, he held up a vial.
A glass tube filled with a glowing emerald fluid.
Setsuna stepped forward, examining it.
"…What is this?"
"A path to our resurgence," Rin said. "I call it the Awakening Serum. A secret compound to trigger the Sharingan."
Words were meaningless in this war.
He needed leverage. Proof. A way to make allies understand what was at stake—
—and what they stood to gain.
This, made from Ephedra alkaloids, was that proof.
Setsuna's eyes sharpened.
"My brother's third grandson hasn't awakened his eyes yet… good temperament."
"Use him."
"I'll delay the clan meeting by a day. Before tomorrow night, I want that child's eyes open."
"In that time… no one will pursue your treason."