Inside Konoha, the change in public opinion came even faster than expected.
The ruling faction's attempt to manipulate history had been openly questioned by the younger generation. That alone was a powerful signal.
Many people who had remained neutral, and even some villagers who had once been suspicious of the Uchiha Clan, began to look at everything again.
"What those kids said makes sense... Madara is Madara. Besides, he was a rogue ninja. That was so many years ago."
"Yeah. The last time my child got lost, it was the Uchiha Police Force that patiently escorted him home. They were very polite."
"It's a fact that Lord Chiya ended the war. They can't stop the Uchiha from doing well just because one of their people became a rogue ninja."
"Exactly. If we're going by that logic, then when Orochimaru defected, the Third Hokage should also have been affected since he was Orochimaru's teacher."
"The Third Hokage... really was a little too impatient this time..."
"..."
Conversations like these gradually replaced the dark rumors and slowly became the mainstream opinion.
The Uchiha Clan could clearly feel the change.
The humiliation and anger in their hearts had not disappeared, but they were now mixed with relief and an even stronger conviction.
The Clan Head had been right!
Their silent efforts and changes would eventually be seen by everyone.
Fugaku finally let out a sigh of relief, but his admiration for Chiya deepened once again.
Everything seemed to have unfolded exactly as the Clan Head had expected.
That evening, Chiya rarely left his residence. Without bringing any attendants, he casually walked through the Uchiha Clan district.
Every clansman he met respectfully bowed to him, their eyes filled with fanatical admiration and trust.
Chiya simply nodded in return, his expression as calm as ever.
When he reached the training ground near the edge of the clan district, he saw several Uchiha children diligently practicing their shuriken throwing. Beside them stood a slightly older Uchiha girl, patiently instructing them.
The girl had a delicate and adorable face with a gentle appearance.
She had beautiful long black hair, a beauty mark beneath the corner of her right eye, and wore the Uchiha Clan's signature purple outfit.
She was Uchiha Izumi.
When Izumi saw Chiya, she immediately stood up straight with the children and bowed respectfully.
"Clan Head!"
Chiya walked over, glanced at the targets, and asked warmly, "How is your training going?"
One of the bolder children excitedly answered, "Reporting to Clan Head! We're learning from Sister Izumi! We'll definitely become as strong as you!"
Chiya smiled and gently patted the child's head.
"Very good. Becoming stronger is to protect what is important to you. Remember that."
"Yes!"
The children answered in perfect unison, their little faces flushed with excitement.
Izumi looked at Chiya with shining eyes.
"Clan Head... thank you for everything you've done."
Izumi's father had not been a member of the Uchiha Clan. After he passed away, she and her mother moved back to the Uchiha household.
They adopted the Uchiha surname.
The Uchiha Clan accepted both mother and daughter.
Since there were only the two of them, the clan also gave them special support.
Their daily lives were fully taken care of.
It was Chiya who had personally instructed Mikoto to approve the arrangement.
However, to prevent the young girl from developing the habit of taking things for granted without working for them, a condition had been set.
Once Izumi grew older and mastered the basic ninja skills, she would teach simple lessons to the younger children of the clan.
By now, she had already been doing that for one or two years.
Looking at Uchiha Chiya, Izumi's large eyes sparkled with admiration.
She knew that if not for the Clan Head's constant help, her family could never have lived such a peaceful and stable life.
Chiya looked at her.
He reached out and gently ruffled her soft hair, his gaze profound.
"Izumi."
"You're still young. Don't push yourself too hard with your training. The body has its limits. Once you go beyond them, the results will only become worse."
"Yes, Clan Head!"
Looking at Izumi and the children standing beside her, Chiya smiled calmly.
"You've probably heard some of the voices from outside recently."
"What I want to say is this. The Uchiha's path must be walked by ourselves, one step at a time. We will prove ourselves through our actions."
"As for what people outside say, whether good or bad, just listen to it. Don't take it too seriously."
"As long as you stay true to yourselves, that is enough."
Izumi looked at Chiya seriously and nodded firmly.
"Yes!"
As Chiya prepared to leave, he walked out of the training ground and slowly made his way toward the area where the clan district met the village.
He saw several members of the Uchiha Police Force on patrol. Whenever they encountered villagers, they would politely nod in greeting, and one of them even helped an elderly man carry a heavy load.
Although the villagers still seemed a little reserved, the obvious rejection from a few days ago had already disappeared.
Everything was moving in a better direction.
Standing beneath a large tree, Chiya looked toward the Hokage Rock in the distance. His gaze eventually settled on the statue of the Third Hokage.
His eyes remained calm, as though he were looking at an object that had nothing to do with him.
"Hiruzen Sarutobi, what you lost wasn't strategy. It was the era itself."
"The ship of the old era is destined to never sail the seas of the new era. And you..."
"You are simply the most stubborn, and the most pitiful... captain aboard that ship."
He turned around and slowly disappeared into the growing dusk that covered the Uchiha Clan district, as steady as a mountain.
...
The air inside the Hokage's office seemed to have solidified into heavy amber. The sunlight filtering through the windows failed to disperse the gloom. Instead, it illuminated the floating dust like restless ghosts.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat motionless behind his large desk. The pipe between his fingers had long gone cold.
Several newly delivered reports lay spread out before him, and every line on the pages pierced into his eyes like poisoned senbon.
The first was a public opinion report.
The negative rumors surrounding Uchiha Madara were still spreading, but they were no longer creating simple fear.
The report repeatedly mentioned phrases such as "young ninjas questioning the rumors," "believing only what they saw with their own eyes," and "the Uchiha Clan has changed in recent years."
It even included the sharp question, "Why did the Third Hokage suddenly bring up old history at a time like this?"
The second was an ANBU surveillance summary.
Hatake Kakashi, Might Guy, Yūhi Kurenai, and even the younger generation of the Ino, Shika, Cho families had all openly or semi openly expressed support for the Uchiha Clan or questioned the current public opinion.
Their words were spreading rapidly among people their own age.
The final report was a brief intelligence update regarding the Uchiha Clan.
Although the people within the clan were furious, their emotions had been restrained, and no extreme actions had occurred.
"Puh!"
A mouthful of stagnant air burst from Hiruzen's chest.
He began coughing violently, his aged face turning bright red.
The ANBU guard beside him instinctively stepped forward, only to be roughly waved away.
Supporting himself on the desk with trembling hands, his knuckles turned pale from the force.
How had things turned out like this?
Where was the panic he had expected?
Where was the rejection?
Where was the united condemnation of the Uchiha Clan?
The carefully prepared historical accusations he had thrown at them had failed to become the massive stone that would crush the Uchiha.
Instead, it had become like a rock thrown into muddy water. After splashing up a little dirt, it had been quickly washed clean by the current below, even lifted upward.
Those young people...
Those children he had watched grow up...
What did they know?
They only cared about the small benefits before their eyes and their so called friendship with companions.
They understood nothing about the complexity of politics.
They knew nothing of the danger hidden within the Uchiha bloodline.
And Hatake Sakumo!
His son had actually taken the lead...
What exactly was he trying to do?!
After the endless anger came an even deeper coldness and anxiety.
He felt as though he were standing alone on a sheet of ice that was constantly collapsing beneath his feet, surrounded by raging waves he could neither understand nor control.
The political methods he had relied upon for so many years, the balance of power he had firmly believed in, now seemed so clumsy and laughable before the tide of the new era.
Even worse, they had completely backfired.
An overwhelming sense of helplessness washed over him.
At that moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi felt as though he alone was fighting against the entire village.
'Aren't I the Hokage of this village?'
'Am I not the heart of this village?'
Uchiha Chiya's prestige had not suffered in the slightest.
Instead, because of this incident, he appeared even calmer, more generous, and had even gained the sympathy of many people.
Meanwhile, he, the Hokage, had quietly been pushed into the embarrassing position of being narrow minded, manipulative, and someone who suppressed the village's heroes.
'Did... did I make a mistake?'
A faint voice echoed within his heart, but it was immediately crushed beneath an even stronger obsession.
He suddenly raised his head, his bloodshot eyes sweeping across the office.
Finally, they rested on the portraits of the First Hokage and the Second Hokage hanging on the wall.
"Teacher Tobirama... if you were here, what would you have done?"
He muttered to himself, seeking an answer that would never come.
The portrait of Senju Tobirama stared forward with its usual cold gaze, offering no reply.
A deep sense of helplessness, along with the terror of being abandoned by the times, completely engulfed the old man who had ruled Konoha for so many years.
For a brief moment, he wondered...
Had he truly...
Grown old?
...
At the same time, deep beneath the earth in a dark cave thousands of miles underground...
The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path stood silently like a withered god supporting the underworld.
Countless twisted white tubes, like parasitic vines, continuously delivered pure life force into the decaying figure seated upon the giant war fan.
White Zetsu had just finished dancing about while gleefully reporting the recent "interesting events" that had taken place in Konoha.
Hiruzen Sarutobi spreading rumors.
The younger generation of ninjas collectively refuting them.
The Uchiha Clan's reputation rising instead of falling.
Every detail had been reported thoroughly.
The cave fell into an even deeper silence than before.
After a long time...
A barely audible snort escaped from deep within Uchiha Madara's throat, cold enough to freeze the air itself.
"Hmph... Hiruzen Sarutobi. That fool taught by Tobirama really has nothing left except these laughable little tricks."
His voice was dry and hoarse, like rusty iron scraping against itself, yet it carried the absolute indifference of one looking down upon all living things.
"Trying to use my name to frighten later generations? Truly... pathetic enough to make me sick."
He slowly raised his head. Beneath his closed eyelids, faint crimson light seemed to flow.
Among White Zetsu's report, the words spoken by those young ninjas defending the Uchiha, especially phrases like "I only believe what I see with my own eyes" and "the Uchiha have changed," fell like tiny grains of dust into the ancient still waters of his heart.
For the first time in ages, they created an almost imperceptible ripple.
But it was not satisfaction.
It was...
Killing intent.
Pure, icy killing intent born from someone standing at the highest level, directed toward insignificant insects who dared struggle against the course of destiny.
"Do you see this, Hashirama?"
Madara's low voice echoed through the empty cave.
"These are the descendants you hoped for? This is the future you placed your faith in?"
"Just a tiny and insignificant change is enough to make them forget history, forget pain, and forget the curse buried deep within the Uchiha bloodline, along with the inevitable ending brought by that power?"
"Naive. Foolish."
His tone remained calm, but the contempt and disgust hidden within it caused even the smiling White Zetsu to unconsciously stop grinning.
"Konoha... from the moment it was founded, it has been filled with hypocrisy and compromise."
"Hashirama, your dream has long been stained by these incompetent descendants and twisted into something utterly ridiculous."
"Internal conflict, shortsighted political schemes, fear and rejection of true power..."
"Everything proves that this world has already rotted from its very foundation."
Madara's eyes suddenly opened.
His crimson Sharingan glowed eerily in the darkness.
Within that light there was no longer only mockery.
There was now a tangible, freezing killing intent capable of burning everything to ashes.
This killing intent was not aimed at any single person.
It was aimed at Konoha itself.
At those who dared to change.
At those who dared to break free from fate.
At every possible variable that might become an obstacle to the Eye of the Moon Plan.
"Uchiha Chiya..."
Madara softly spoke the name as his Sharingan slowly rotated.
"He may have ended the war and won the hearts of some people in Konoha. Perhaps he does have some ability."
"But trying to create change within the old system? Trying to make the Uchiha truly become part of that rotten village?"
"Ridiculous."
"True peace does not require understanding. It does not require acceptance. It does not require that fragile warmth that can be shattered with a single touch."
"It requires only absolute power."
"And an eternal dream."
"..."
Feeling the terrifying aura radiating from Madara, White Zetsu's body trembled slightly, but he still forced out a twisted smile.
"Madara-sama, then... then what should we..."
Madara slowly closed his eyes again, sealing that overwhelming killing intent back inside his decaying body.
His voice returned to the stillness of dead water as he gave the coldest order imaginable.
"Begin preparing the plan."
"Konoha's struggle is nothing more than a praying mantis trying to stop a chariot."
"When the time comes, everything unnecessary, everything out of harmony, every voice that dares resist fate..."
"Will be completely cleansed along with that hypocritical village."
"As for now..."
The corner of Madara's mouth seemed to lift ever so slightly.
"Let them continue performing for a while longer."
"Hope before despair will make the final destruction taste all the more... delicious."
The cave once again fell into absolute silence. Only the faint humming of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path's energy transfer could still be heard.
Uchiha Madara's heart was as cold as eternal ice.
His killing intent toward Konoha and the entire ninja world had grown even deeper and heavier.
Konoha's evening remained as lively as ever.
But beneath that liveliness, the undercurrents of the old era and the new era continued to collide with increasing intensity...
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