The humidity in the Hidden Leaf Village was oppressive, a heavy, suffocating blanket that pressed down on the roofs and slicked the cobblestones with moisture. It was the kind of weather that made scars ache and tempers fray. To the average citizen, it was just a humid Tuesday in mid-summer. To Ren Yamanaka, it felt like the static electricity before a lightning strike.
He sat in the Hokage's chair, his single exposed teal eye tracing the grain of the wood on his desk. The room was dark, the blinds drawn against the glaring white sky.
Inside the Vault—the Memory Palace that housed his stolen legion—the Council was in a state of high alert.
Tactician (Logistics): Social heat maps indicate a critical density of anger in Sector 8 (Uchiha District). Conversations are hushed. Patrol patterns have deviated from the standard grid by 14%. They are clustering.
Isamu (Surveillance): We have lost audio feeds in the Naka Shrine. They have erected a Barrier of Privacy. High-level sealing.
Ryuichi (The Dead Uchiha): It is tonight. I know the rhythm of my clan. When we stop shouting, we start killing.
Ren tapped his finger on the desk. Tap. Tap. Tap.
The Uchiha Problem. It was the one variable in his equation that refused to balance. He had integrated the Hyuga through logic and border security roles. He had pacified the Aburame and Inuzuka. But the Uchiha… they were a clan governed by emotion. Their eyes, the source of their power, fed on trauma and love. To Ren, who had surgically removed his own capacity for love to make room for power, they were biological paradoxes.
"Enter," Ren said, stopping his finger mid-tap.
The window latch clicked. A figure materialized from a swirl of leaves—a body flicker so fast it was almost instantaneous.
Shisui Uchiha knelt on the floor. He was eighteen now, a prodigy whose talent rivaled Itachi's. He wore the standard Jonin flak jacket, but his face was drawn, his eyes weary.
"Lord Fifth," Shisui whispered.
"Shisui," Ren acknowledged, leaning back. "You look like a man who has swallowed a stone."
"I…" Shisui hesitated, looking up. His Mangekyo Sharingan pattern was dormant, but the stress lines around his eyes were visible. "I tried to talk to them, Lord Ren. I tried to to subtly shift the Clan Head's perspective… but the radical faction is too loud. Kaito… Kaito has mobilized them."
Ren's expression didn't change behind his mask. "Mobilized? To protest?"
"To strike," Shisui said, his voice breaking. "Tonight. They plan to ambush you during your inspection of the Quarter 4 training grounds. They believe if they kill the 'False Kage,' the village will rally behind Fugaku."
Ren stood up. He walked around the desk to stand before the kneeling prodigy.
"And you came to me," Ren said softly. "Why? They are your blood. Kaito is your cousin."
Shisui looked at the floor, fists clenching on his knees. "Because the coup will fail. Or it will succeed and destroy the village. Either way, thousands die. The Uchiha's path is self-destruction. You… you are the only one who can stop it without burning the whole forest down."
Ren looked down at the boy. He activated his stolen Byakugan beneath the patch. He saw the turmoil in Shisui's chakra—it was a violent storm of guilt and duty.
He is a patriot, the Diplomat in Ren's mind observed. A rare asset.He is a traitor to his blood, Ryuichi spat. Just like us.
"You have done well, Shisui," Ren said. "Go home. Lock your doors. Do not engage."
"What will you do?" Shisui asked, fear in his eyes. "You won't… exterminate them? Like the rumors say?"
"I am a gardener, Shisui," Ren said coldly. "I don't burn the garden. I prune the rot."
Shisui bowed and vanished, leaving a gust of wind that smelled of ozone.
Ren adjusted his gloves. He checked the seal on his wrist.
"Kaito," Ren whispered the name of his former friend. The name tasted like ash. "You want your war. I'll give you a lesson."
—————
The Trap in Quarter 4
The old Quarter 4 training grounds were a relic of the Third War—a cratered landscape of mud and broken stone pillars, overgrown with vines. It was far from the civilian sectors, secluded by heavy forest. It was where Unit 44 used to train. It was where Ren, Kaito, and Sora used to dream of being heroes.
Kaito had chosen the location for its symbolism. Ren chose to honor it for its convenience; no one would hear the screams.
Ren walked into the center of the clearing. He was alone. He wore his black Hokage robes, the white haori discarded back at the office. He looked small amidst the towering ruins.
He stopped.
"You can come out," Ren said. His voice wasn't loud, but he projected it using a Wind release technique that carried the sound to every hidden corner of the clearing. "I count twenty chakra signatures. Seven Jonin. Thirteen Chunin. A bit excessive for one 'imposter,' isn't it?"
Silence stretched for a heartbeat. Then, the shadows moved.
Uchiha warriors emerged from the trees, from behind rocks, from the ground itself. They formed a perfect circle around Ren. Twenty pairs of red eyes stared at him, Tomoe spinning in unison.
Kaito Uchiha stepped forward from the main path.
He had aged poorly. The resentment had eaten him from the inside out. His hair was unkempt, his Police Force uniform stripped of official insignia, replaced by the Uchiha fan painted in blood.
"Excessive?" Kaito sneered. "We aren't taking chances with a thief. We know you steal techniques, Ren. We know you are a chimera."
"Kaito," Ren nodded, as if greeting a client. "You look tired."
"I am awake!" Kaito shouted, drawing his katana. The blade ignited with fire chakra. "For five years, I have watched you turn this village into a prison! You spy on us. You regulate us. You steal our missions. You put the Hyuga on our borders!"
"I put the village to work," Ren corrected. "Efficiency is not oppression, Kaito. It is survival."
"It is soulless!" Kaito roared. "A village without heart is just a barracks! The Uchiha… we feel! We love! That is why we are strong! And you… you erased yourself to become… that."
Kaito pointed his sword at Ren's masked face.
"Tonight, we take back the eyes you stole. Tonight, the Uchiha restore the honor of Konoha!"
"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!" Kaito screamed.
Simultaneously, the other nineteen Uchiha exhaled.
It was an ocean of fire. A wall of flames thirty meters high converged on Ren from all sides. The heat was instantaneous; the ground glassed over, and the air was sucked out of the clearing.
Ren didn't move.
Inside the Vault: Goro (Defense): Thermal output critical. Omni-directional threat. Isamu (Water): Counter with Mist? No, too much heat. Ren: No. We don't block. We smother.
Ren stomped his foot.
"Earth Style: Mausoleum of the Ancients."
It was a technique derived from the stolen knowledge of the Iwa Commander but amplified by Ren's massive Kage-level reserves.
Four massive slabs of bedrock, reinforced with iron sand (Magnet Release), slammed up from the ground around Ren, forming a pyramid.
The fire crashed against the stone. The rock glowed cherry-red, molten slag dripping down the sides, but the seal held.
Inside the pyramid, Ren stood in the dark.
"Is that all?" he whispered.
He clasped his hands.
"Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World."
He didn't have the Onoki bloodline, but he had eaten a lesser Stone-nin who possessed a crude version of particle manipulation. Ren couldn't disintegrate molecular matter perfectly, but he could create a localized vacuum of crushing pressure.
The pyramid exploded outward. Not rock, but a shockwave of chakra.
The blast cleared the fire instantly. The twenty Uchiha were knocked back, skidding through the mud.
Ren walked out of the smoke. His eyepatch was burned off, revealing the Byakugan. His left eye, the Sharingan, spun wildly.
"You speak of heart, Kaito," Ren said, walking toward them. "You speak of emotion. But emotion makes you sloppy. You all exhaled at the same time. You left no reserve for a follow-up. You fought like an angry mob, not a squad."
Ren raised his right hand.
"Puppet Secret Technique: The Iron Maiden."
From the ground, invisible threads of magnetic chakra shot up. But instead of attaching to weapons, they attached to the iron deposits in the soil, pulling up millions of jagged iron shards.
The shards swirled around the Uchiha warriors like a blizzard of razors.
"Argh!" One Chunin screamed as the iron sliced through his leg armor.
"Don't panic!" Kaito yelled.
He flashed—Body Flicker.
He appeared behind the first Jonin.
"Gentle Fist: Heart Shutdown."
A precise strike to the dorsal chakra point. The Jonin collapsed, heart stopped instantly.
Ren grabbed the falling body and threw it at the second Jonin, distracting him. Ren followed the projectile, his tantō drawn.
Slash.
A clean decapitation.
"Two down," Ren counted. "Eighteen to go."
The massacre that followed was clinically efficient.
Ren didn't fight with rage. He fought like a machine designed to dismantle human bodies. He used Water Style: Water Pistol (Hydrification technique stolen from Hozuki clan) to shoot high-pressure bullets through skulls. He used Wind Style: Vacuum Blade to extend his tantō's reach, cutting through kunai and flesh alike.
The Uchiha panicked. Their Sharingan could predict movement, but Ren changed styles every second.
Earth stance.Wind stance.Puppet stance.
Their eyes couldn't keep up with the shifting logic of his muscular system.
"He's… he's a monster!" a Chunin screamed, backing away.
"Don't run!" Kaito shouted, slicing at Ren with desperation. "Die! Just die!"
Ren parried Kaito's blade with his bare hand—hardened by Earth Spear—and kicked Kaito in the chest, sending him flying into a ruined pillar.
Five minutes later, silence returned to Quarter 4.
Nineteen bodies lay in the mud. Some drowned. Some crushed. Some cut.
Only Kaito remained.
He was slumped against the pillar, his chest crushed, blood bubbling from his mouth. His sword lay broken beside him.
Ren walked over to him. He didn't gloat. He didn't smile.
"You…" Kaito wheezed, looking up at Ren with hate-filled eyes. "You empty… husk."
"I warned you," Ren said. "The Uchiha that is too emotional is a burden to the village. You let your hate blind your strategy."
"At least… I have hate," Kaito coughed, blood splattering his chin. "At least I felt… something."
Ren stood over him. He felt the impulse in the Vault. The hunger.
A powerful Uchiha. A clan leader's cousin. The chakra was potent.
But Ren looked at Kaito's face. The face of the boy who had shared rice balls with him in the rain. The face of the boy who wanted to awaken his eyes so badly.
"Ren…" Kaito's voice faded to a whisper. "Do you… remember Sora?"
"I remember her file," Ren said automatically.
Kaito let out a choked laugh. "You really are dead."
Ren knelt down.
"Goodbye, Kaito."
He placed his hand on Kaito's forehead.
But the Council voted. Vote: Acquire.Reason: Waste of assets.
Ren opened the Gate.
He ripped Kaito's soul from his dying body. He absorbed the fire mastery. He absorbed the resentment. And he absorbed the final, dying memory of Kaito Uchiha—a memory of Ren and Sora and Kaito sitting on a roof, laughing at a bad joke.
Ren swallowed it.
Kaito went limp.
Ren stood up. He felt the new tenant in the Vault. Kaito wasn't sitting at the table. He was in a cage, screaming, pounding on the bars.
Ren rubbed his temple. "Quiet down."
Shadows moved at the edge of the clearing.
Danzo Shimura emerged, followed by twenty Root operatives. They had been the perimeter. The hammer to Ren's anvil. If any Uchiha had escaped Ren, Root would have finished them.
"None survived?" Danzo asked, looking at the bodies.
"No," Ren said. "The insurrection is quelled."
"Efficient," Danzo noted. "But messy politically. Fugaku will demand answers."
"Clean up the bodies," Ren ordered. "Incinerate them. Leave no trace. As far as the village knows, these men went on a covert mission and disappeared."
"And the coup?"
"The coup never happened," Ren said. "Because I am going to end it before the sun rises."
—————
The Ultimatum at Naka Shrine
An hour later, Fugaku Uchiha sat in the sacred meeting hall of the Naka Shrine. He was waiting for Kaito's report.
The doors slammed open.
Ren walked in. He was still wearing his blood-spattered robes. He didn't wipe them. He wanted them to smell the copper.
He walked past the stunned guards, his killing intent so heavy that two of them fainted on the spot.
Fugaku stood up, his hand going to a kunai. "Lord Fifth? What is the meaning of this intrusion?"
Ren didn't speak. He threw something on the floor at Fugaku's feet.
It was Kaito's broken headband. The one with the scratch through the Leaf symbol that Kaito had made himself in defiance.
Fugaku stared at it. His face went pale.
"Where is he?" Fugaku whispered.
"He is with his ancestors," Ren said. "Along with nineteen others."
Ren looked around the room. The Uchiha elders were gathered. They looked at Ren with terror. They realized what had happened. Their elite strike force… gone. erased in an hour.
"I could kill you all," Ren said comfortably. It wasn't a threat; it was an observation. "I have Root surrounding the district. I have the Anbu on standby. And I have enough power in my right hand to level this shrine."
He stepped closer to Fugaku.
"But I don't want to. It would be… a waste of inventory."
Ren activated his Sharingan. He caught Fugaku's gaze. He cast a Genjutsu—not a torture, but a projection.
He showed Fugaku a vision: The civil war. The Uchiha attacking. The village weakening. Kumo and Iwa invading. The slaughter of every Uchiha child, including Sasuke and Itachi. The total extinction of the clan.
Then, the vision shifted.
It showed the Uchiha integrated. Teaching in the Academy. Working in Medical Corps. Serving in Anbu. A prosperous, living clan.
Ren released the Genjutsu.
Fugaku staggered back, sweating.
"I offer you a choice," Ren said. "Option A: Integration. The Police Force is dismantled as a monopoly. Uchiha are assigned to all branches of the military. You surrender your isolation. You stop the meetings. You become Konoha shinobi first, Uchiha second."
"And Option B?" Fugaku rasped.
"Annihilation," Ren said. "Tonight. Quietly. No survivors."
The silence in the shrine was absolute.
Fugaku looked at his elders. He looked at Kaito's headband. He looked at Ren's cold, dead eye.
He realized Ren wasn't bluffing. Ren had no political hesitations. He was a force of nature.
Fugaku fell to his knees. He bowed his head to the floor.
"We… we choose Integration."
"Wise," Ren said.
He turned to the door.
"Effective immediately, the Police Force is restructured. Shisui Uchiha is promoted to Anbu Captain to oversee the transition. Any Uchiha who objects answers to me."
Ren walked out of the shrine.
—————
The Aftermath of Victory
The sun rose over Konoha.
To the villagers, nothing had changed. The birds sang. The shops opened.
But in the corridors of power, the earth had shifted.
The Uchiha Coup was suffocated in the crib. The Police Force, once a symbol of oppression, was opened to Hyuga, Nara, and civilian shinobi. The resentment began to dissipate, replaced by the friction of forced cooperation.
Ren sat in his office. He had cleaned up. He wore fresh robes.
Shisui Uchiha stood before him, wearing the Anbu mask.
"It is done," Shisui said. "The clan is… quiet. Scared. But quiet."
"Fear is a good teacher," Ren said.
"They will hate you forever," Shisui noted.
"I know."
Shisui hesitated. "And Kaito? Did he… say anything?"
Ren looked at his hand. He could still feel the phantom warmth of Kaito's soul in his palm.
"He asked if I remembered him and Sora," Ren said.
"And do you?"
Ren looked at the empty space on his desk where a picture should be.
"I remember the data," Ren said.
Shisui nodded, dismissed himself, and left.
Ren leaned back in his chair. He had won. The village was more stable than it had ever been. The threats were neutralized.
Inside the Vault, the table was full.
Goro: A flawless victory. Tactician: Efficiency rating 100%. Ryuichi: My clan survives. That is acceptable. Kaito: (Screaming from the dungeon below) You traitor! You murderer!
Ren closed his eyes.
He imagined the scream was just the wind.
He was the Fifth Hokage. He had everything.
And he sat in the highest tower, perfectly, completely alone.
End of Chapter 20.