Chapter 220: Liberation

Chapter 220: Chapter 220: Liberation

Uchiha Clan District, Shisui’s home.

Itachi brought over a pot of hot tea. As he poured a cup for both himself and Shisui, he asked, "Brother Shisui, what kind of person is the leader of Kamigami?"

Shisui lifted his teacup and took a sip before answering, "In my eyes, he’s the only person who can save the Uchiha."

Itachi was visibly taken aback.

"Why?"

Shisui’s expression darkened as he said quietly, "Even if we temporarily deal with the radicals within the clan, given the atmosphere inside the clan right now, new radicals will quickly emerge to take their place. There’s no avoiding that."

Itachi nodded in agreement.

At the jōnin level, the Uchiha Clan possessed an extremely obvious advantage. Almost any Uchiha who awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan would naturally possess strength surpassing that of an ordinary jōnin.

And as their ocular power continued to grow year after year, the vast majority of veteran Uchiha who possessed the three-tomoe Sharingan would eventually step into the ranks of elite jōnin.

This was precisely why the Uchiha Clan possessed more elite jōnin than any other clan in Konoha. Among the Uchiha, virtually anyone who could awaken the Sharingan and survive the brutality of war possessed the potential to advance to the level of an elite jōnin.

Possessing great strength, they would naturally seek a corresponding level of political power.

When they were suppressed by the mighty Senju Clan, the proud Uchiha could still reluctantly accept it. But as the Senju Clan dwindled and the Hyuga Clan declined, the Uchiha could no longer bring themselves to bow their heads.

In present-day Konoha, if each shinobi clan were considered individually, there was not a single clan capable of matching the Uchiha.

And yet, despite possessing strength that stood above every other shinobi clan, the Uchiha did not have so much as a single seat among the village’s decision-makers.

Never mind the position of Hokage—even the Council of Elders, which participated in the village’s decision-making, had no place for an Uchiha.

This had undoubtedly caused the Uchiha to despair of ever obtaining political power through legitimate means.

And this was precisely what was driving the Uchiha toward rebellion!

There were only two ways to fundamentally resolve this problem.

Either the village gave the Uchiha a Hokage—or, at the very least, granted them a position as a Hokage candidate or an elder advisor.

Or the village exterminated the Uchiha.

Anyone with eyes could see that, with the current strength of the Hokage faction, it was already incapable of suppressing the Uchiha Clan.

Back during the First Hokage’s era, the village might still have been able to grant the Uchiha a seat among the elder advisors. But the current Hokage faction possessed neither the strength nor the magnanimity to share power with the Uchiha.

As a result, a vicious cycle had inevitably formed.

The more the Hokage faction guarded against the Uchiha, the more it fueled the Uchiha’s desire to rebel.

And the stronger the Uchiha’s desire for rebellion became, the more the Hokage faction would reject and ostracize them.

Previously, Shisui had been unable to find any way to break this vicious cycle. All he could do was watch helplessly as the clan and the village gradually became irreconcilable enemies.

But things were different now.

Shisui raised his cup and took another sip of hot tea, a faint smile appearing on his face.

"If that person were to become Hokage, I believe he would definitely be able to break these shackles and truly accept us Uchiha!"

......

After leaving the Uchiha Clan District, Hyuga Kagami made his way toward the village gates.

Although Shisui had taken leave due to his ’illness,’ the Third Hokage had not suspended Team 11’s mission. Thus, the remaining three members of Team 11 still had to continue carrying out their assignment.

Not long after Kagami left the village, a black crow descended and landed on his shoulder.

Kagami played with it for a moment before removing a small message tube from its leg.

Unlike ordinary members of the Uchiha Clan, Shisui had not chosen one of the ninja cats from the Land of Cats as his summons. Instead, he had chosen crows as his summoning animals.

Influenced by Shisui, Itachi would later choose ninja crows rather than ninja cats as his summons as well. In that sense, Shisui and Itachi could be considered the two foremost representatives of the Uchiha’s ninja-crow style.

Opening the message tube, Kagami learned everything that had happened to Shisui within the Uchiha Clan District and breathed a small sigh of relief.

For now, the situation had not yet deteriorated to the worst possible point.

But no one could predict what Danzo would do next.

Because of that, Kagami knew he had to accelerate his stimulation experiments.

In the blink of an eye, half a month passed.

The village’s purge of the various illegal forces operating throughout the Land of Fire was still ongoing.

Although they had gathered precious little information about Kamigami, the continuous raids had unexpectedly allowed the village to seize enormous amounts of illicit money from the hideouts of various criminal organizations!

As a result, although the operation to eliminate Kamigami had made absolutely no progress, the number of Konoha shinobi participating in the operation increased with each passing day.

Putting everyone else aside, the Hyuga Clan alone had more than a dozen jōnin and chūnin taking part.

......

Inside the secret prison.

Hyuga Kagami frowned slightly as he looked at the battered and bloodied Uchiha Hideki.

Kagami had no peculiar hobbies, so he had no interest whatsoever in torturing people. In fact, he found it somewhat distasteful.

Unfortunately, when conducting stimulation experiments, inflicting pain upon the test subject was difficult to avoid.

"Hmph..."

At that moment, Uchiha Hideki slowly regained consciousness. He barely managed to open his eyes and gave Kagami an indifferent glance before letting out a low, contemptuous snort.

Kagami sighed softly.

"It’s all over."

Hideki grinned.

"So you’re finally going to do it? Hurry up. This uncle’s been getting tired of waiting!"

Clap, clap...

Kagami did not answer. Instead, he lightly clapped his hands.

Before long, a puppet dragged another battered and bloodied man over and brought him before Kagami.

The moment Uchiha Hideki clearly saw the injured man being dragged along by the puppet, his previously indifferent expression finally changed.

"Ryota!?"

Kagami said, "That’s right. It’s him."

Hideki roared furiously, "You actually dared to hurt him this badly!"

This was the first time in all these days that Uchiha Hideki had seen his younger brother, Uchiha Ryota.

The anger he had nearly forgotten instantly erupted from deep within his chest!

At that moment, Kagami grabbed Uchiha Ryota by the hair and hauled him in front of Hideki.

"I’m tired of dealing with you two brothers as well. Today, I’ll finally grant both of you liberation."

Hideki, who had long since ceased caring about his own life or death, suddenly began to stammer.

"W-What... what are you planning to do?"

Kagami took out a kunai, its edge gleaming with a cold light, and pressed it against Uchiha Ryota’s throat.

"Why ask when you already know the answer? Haven’t you known all along what I intended to do?"

Hideki stared blankly at him.

"Don’t... Don’t kill him..."

Kagami ignored Hideki’s plea.

The hand gripping the kunai thrust forward.

Splurt...

A jet of blood sprayed from Uchiha Ryota’s throat, splattering across Uchiha Hideki’s face.

Almost instantly, Hideki’s eyes transformed into a pair of scarlet Sharingan.

Together with the fresh blood covering his face, those crimson eyes made his already twisted expression appear like that of a bloodthirsty demon...