The Elders exchanged glances, cold smiles playing on their lips.
'They want us back in the Police Force to absorb the village's daily friction,' the collective thought ran through the council. 'The administration's strategy is obvious: drain our manpower and ruin our public image by forcing us to police an angry civilian population.'
The trap was set, but how they navigated it depended entirely on Jin. All eyes turned to him.
Jin did not hesitate. "Elder Yashiro, you will assume command of the Military Police Force."
"Me?" Yashiro blinked, genuinely surprised.
Jin nodded slowly, a faint, calculating smile appearing. "You were one of the leaders of the Moderate faction. The village administration views you as reasonable and compliant. Your appointment will lower their guard and buy us time."
Jin laid out his operational directive. "Take twenty Genin squads. Establish a skeletal framework for the Police Force—just enough to physically occupy the building and answer the doors. Your primary objective when handling any dispute or crime is simple: Stall."
"Stall?" Yashiro repeated, trying to understand the strategy.
"Exactly," Jin confirmed. "If the Hokage demands to know why crime is rising or cases are unresolved, tell him the truth: we just underwent a massive clan-wide relocation, our logistics are in chaos, and we lack the manpower to effectively police the village."
Jin's smile sharpened into something dangerous. "And if the administration pushes you further, tell them the Uchiha are officially willing to surrender control of the Police Force to any other clan willing to take the burden."
Jin's Internal Monologue: The Police Force is a political poison pill. It breeds resentment among the villagers and consumes vast amounts of Uchiha manpower. Previously, finding someone to manage this disaster while I focused on clan restructuring and recovering my ocular chakra was a problem. Now that the Moderates have submitted to my command, Yashiro is the perfect scapegoat. Let him drown in the bureaucracy while I consolidate power.
Yashiro lacked confidence in this strategy of aggressive incompetence, but under Jin's absolute command, he had no choice. He bowed. "Understood. I will follow your directives and stall the operations."
***
Days passed.
The Uchiha Clan settled back into their ancestral compound with surprising ease. Having lived there for generations before their brief exile, the infrastructure felt familiar.
Jin immediately entered semi-seclusion.
Aside from a strict two-hour daily physical conditioning routine, he remained inside the Madara Estate. His singular focus was regenerating his Mangekyo chakra. During his confrontation with Danzo in the Hokage's office, Jin had expended roughly three percent of his ocular power to establish dominance. To maintain his status as an overwhelming deterrent, he needed his chakra reserves at absolute maximum capacity.
He managed the clan through broad strategic directives, completely delegating the day-to-day administration to the Elders.
In any other shinobi clan, such delegation would be welcomed by ambitious subordinates eager for power. The Uchiha, however, were biologically and culturally wired for direct conflict. Regardless of their political faction, they were blunt instruments—exceptional on a battlefield, but disastrous behind a desk.
Without Jin micromanging them, the sheer volume of administrative work nearly broke their minds.
Nowhere was this more evident than the Police Force. Fugaku, for all his flaws, had possessed the patience to manage the endless stream of paperwork. Yashiro, despite his Moderate leanings, was quickly realizing that managing a precinct was a fate worse than torture.
***
'8:00 AM, Konoha Military Police Force Headquarters'
Yashiro had barely sat down at the commander's desk when a timid knock sounded at the door. His eye twitched. A deep, agonizing headache was already forming behind his temples.
He sighed, his voice devoid of energy. "Enter."
A young Uchiha Genin stepped inside and immediately dropped to one knee, looking desperate. "Commander Yashiro! The civilians are swarming the front desk again demanding a resolution to the restaurant theft case. Can we please just arrest the suspect and be done with it?"
The Genin looked like he was about to cry. "The case is simple! The suspect is a known local thug who ate and refused to pay. Everyone knows he did it! Why are we stalling?"
The source of the Genin's misery was Jin's new, excruciatingly strict procedural mandates. In the past, the Uchiha would simply drag the thug to a cell based on common knowledge. Now, Jin demanded an airtight legal process, a concept entirely alien to a clan of frontline combatants.
Yashiro stared blankly at the ceiling. "Do you have physical evidence?"
"Well, no..." the Genin admitted, throwing his hands up in frustration. "But half the restaurant saw him do it!"
Yashiro rolled his eyes. "Then acquire signed, sworn witness statements from those civilians. That is the required procedure."
"They refuse to testify!" the Genin wailed.
Yashiro maintained his deadpan expression. "Then utilize your communication skills and persuade them."
"I can't!" The Genin was practically pulling his hair out. "Refusing to pay a bill is a minor misdemeanor. The thug will be in jail for a month, max. The civilians know that if they sign a formal statement, the thug will just beat them up when he gets released. No one will go on the record! The case is completely deadlocked!"
The Genin prepared to launch into another tirade of complaints, but Yashiro had heard the same story twenty times in the last three days. He raised a hand, silencing the boy.
"Enough. I do not care," Yashiro stated flatly. "These are Elder Jin's regulations. If you cannot secure witness testimony, you continue attempting to secure witness testimony until you succeed. Have I issued a deadline for this case?"
"No, Commander."
"Then you will continue processing it slowly. Dismissed."
The Genin stared at Yashiro, his expression a mix of sheer disbelief and profound anger. He opened his mouth to argue—to point out that the angry mob in the lobby was currently his problem, not Yashiro's—but the look in the Commander's eyes promised violence.
"Get out," Yashiro ordered.
The Genin slumped his shoulders and trudged out of the room.
Yashiro sank back into his chair, savoring the silence. 'This bureaucratic stalling is agony,' he thought, rubbing his temples. 'But Jin ordered us to drag our feet, so drag our feet we shall.'
His moment of peace lasted exactly ten minutes.
'Knock. Knock.'
A vein bulged prominently on Yashiro's forehead. "Enter."
Another exhausted Genin rushed in. "Commander Yashiro, I..."
"Do you have sworn witness testimonies? Do you have legally obtained physical evidence? Is the procedural paperwork completed flawlessly in triplicate?" Yashiro rapid-fired, his voice rising in volume.
The Genin flinched. "Uh... no, sir, but—"
"Then get out and follow protocol!"
"But Commander, the victim is—"
"I don't care if the victim is the Fire Daimyo! Out!"
The Genin scrambled backward out the door, terrified.
Ten minutes later.
'Knock. Knock.'
Something inside Yashiro snapped. The Moderate leader, known for his calm demeanor, completely abandoned his rationality. He kicked his desk chair aside, marched to the door, and ripped it open before the officer could even knock a third time.
"Listen to me!" Yashiro roared at the terrified patrolman standing in the hallway, his Sharingan blazing bright red in pure, unadulterated fury. "Witnesses! Evidence! Paperwork! Do not step foot near my office until you have all three! Get out! Get out! If any of you incompetent brats bother me again without proper documentation, I will personally incinerate you with a Fireball Jutsu!"