A broad passageway yawned open before the assembled clansmen.
Keeping close to the Grand Elder, Uchiha Gen walked near the front as the crowd moved slowly into the tunnel. The further they went, the cooler the air became, and by the time they reached the end, the underground chamber ahead was already steeped in a solemn, hidden weight.
This was the secret hall where the Uchiha clan held its true gatherings.
The chamber was large enough to accommodate every awakened member of the clan with room to spare, though it still lacked the overwhelming scale of the Naka Shrine's main hall above. Yet now that everyone was gathered in one place instead of scattered outside the shrine grounds, the scale of the Uchiha became far more apparent.
At a glance alone, the pressure was enough to make most people short of breath.
Across the entire Uchiha clan, there were roughly two hundred members who had awakened the Sharingan. Of those, more than thirty were jonin who possessed the three-tomoe Sharingan.
The whole of Konoha likely did not even have more than two hundred jonin at present, which was enough to show just how terrifying that number really was. In the entire ninja world, the only clan that could contend with the Uchiha in terms of jonin count was the Hyuga, another top-tier clan whose name carried weight across every battlefield.
And that was only in terms of numbers.
An Uchiha with the Sharingan was generally stronger than an ordinary ninja of the same level. A three-tomoe Uchiha only needed enough time to polish their eye power and master the abilities that came with it. Not every one of them would become an elite jonin, but all of them would surpass the average jonin by a clear margin.
That was the true foundation of the clan's arrogance.
At the head of the chamber sat Uchiha Hisasu, the clan head. His features were sharp, stern, and weathered by age and authority, and his gaze was as cold and bright as a honed blade.
Below him, seated in the first row, was the Grand Elder. To one side sat Uchiha Yu, the Second Elder. On the other sat the Third Elder, Uchiha Hai.
The structure of power within the clan was obvious at a glance.
The three elders were second only to the clan head himself.
The Grand Elder held the highest position among them. He oversaw the clan's education, inheritance, resource allocation, and internal discipline. He had the authority to enforce clan law and, in many ways, functioned as the clan head's deputy in managing the clan's internal affairs.
The Second Elder served as the clan head's counterpart within the Police Force.
The Third Elder handled everything else - the clan's trade, its internal industries, its business interests, and the intelligence channels that lay beyond public view.
It was a structure built for war, survival, and power.
Once everyone had taken their places, Uchiha Hisasu looked over the chamber and spoke in a deep, steady voice.
"This month, the clan welcomes one newly awakened Sharingan user: Uchiha Gen."
At the very back of the final row, Gen rose without hesitation.
He opened his eyes and let the single tomoe in each eye spin into view, displaying them to every clansman present.
A low murmur rippled through the chamber.
Some gazes were approving. Some were curious. Others were sharp and appraising. But none of them were indifferent.
"I hope you will live up to the clan's expectations," Uchiha Hisasu said, "and use those eyes to safeguard the glory of the Uchiha."
"Yes, Clan Head."
Gen bowed slightly.
"Sit."
The matter passed just like that.
For Gen, this gathering was little more than a formal introduction. It was a chance to put his face before the clan and let every awakened member know that another pair of Sharingan had appeared among the younger generation.
But formalities had value.
After tonight's meeting, he would begin receiving the clan's monthly subsidy for Sharingan users. The Uchiha had never been stingy toward clansmen who awakened their bloodline. That gap between clan-born ninjas and ordinary ninjas was never just a matter of secret techniques and inherited blood.
It was also wealth, support, access, and the invisible hand that lifted one person while leaving another to crawl.
The meeting continued.
"This month, two clansmen's eyes have advanced in rank. Jonin Uchiha Yama's Sharingan has evolved to three tomoe, and an application for his promotion to elite jonin has already been submitted to the Third Hokage. Chunin Uchiha Yo's Sharingan evolved to two tomoe during a mission two days ago."
A young man and a girl slightly older than Mikoto stood in turn, revealed their newly evolved eyes, then sat once more.
After that came the routine matters.
Reports on the monthly profits from clan assets.
Personnel adjustments within the Police Force.
Allocations of duties.
Appointments, transfers, internal requests, commercial figures.
Gen listened for a while, then slowly drifted off into quiet thought.
At his current level, most of it had nothing to do with him.
But then the topic shifted.
War.
At once, the atmosphere in the chamber sharpened.
"Since the outbreak of this Shinobi World War," Uchiha Hisasu said, "the Third Hokage has prioritized the safety and stability of Konoha. On multiple occasions, he has refused the Police Force's petitions to deploy to the battlefield. Likewise, only a small number of clansmen outside the Police Force have received direct war orders."
A faint tension spread through the room.
The Uchiha were not a clan that feared war.
If anything, they had been forged by it.
"However, due to the Hidden Cloud delegation's attempted abduction of important figures in the village, all members of that delegation are now under detention. The village leadership expects the conflict with Kumogakure to intensify, and manpower pressure will only increase from here. Under those circumstances, the village has finally agreed to the Police Force's request to participate in the war."
The chamber erupted.
Voices rose all at once. Excitement, approval, fierce anticipation - it flooded the room in an instant.
No one understood war better than the Uchiha.
No one adapted to it more naturally.
No one hungered for it more openly.
With the Sharingan in their blood and battle in their history, they had always been the clan most suited to war, the clan most eager to prove itself in it, the clan that most enjoyed the clash of steel, chakra, and death.
Their enthusiasm was so intense it was almost suffocating.
Uchiha Hisasu's expression darkened slightly. He looked toward the Grand Elder.
The old man understood at once.
He struck the floor once with his cane.
"Silence!"
His voice was aged, but it rang through the chamber like a blow.
The noise dropped almost immediately.
As the highest-ranking elder of the clan - and one of the most senior surviving Uchiha of the Warring States era - the Grand Elder possessed a prestige that even the clan head struggled to match. Coupled with his authority over clan law and punishment, his words carried a force that few dared ignore.
"Let the Clan Head finish speaking," he said coldly. "Do not embarrass yourselves."
From the back, Gen watched everything with lowered eyes.
So that was how it was.
Uchiha Hisasu clearly did not possess enough personal authority to completely suppress the temper of the clan on his own. He needed the Grand Elder's support to barely keep the assembly in order.
That made sense.
The Uchiha worshipped strength.
Hisasu possessed three tomoe, yes, but he had neither awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan nor reached the level of a kage-class powerhouse. Without overwhelming strength, how could he truly compel all those proud men and women seated before him to submit from the heart?
The position of clan head looked lofty, but in truth it rested on unstable footing.
At the very least, he could not fully command the entire clan.
Once silence returned, Uchiha Hisasu continued.
"However, the number of participants must be limited. The clan cannot send every member to the battlefield. The normal operation of the Police Force must continue. That is the prerequisite under which the clan may participate in the war."
That statement cooled some of the heat in the room, but only slightly.
Then he said, "Now, those clansmen who are not part of the Police Force and who have already received war orders - stand."
A dozen or so people rose.
Gen was among them.
Although most awakened Uchiha entered the Police Force, not all did. The red-and-white fan might dominate Konoha's internal law enforcement, but it was not restricted to it. A portion of the clan still served in ordinary ninja assignments, external teams, or special positions outside the Police Force structure.
Gen, naturally, belonged to that group.
Orochimaru had already informed them that morning. Their squad had been assigned to the Strategic Support Force heading toward the Land of Rain - a second-line formation rather than a direct frontline combat unit.
That did not mean safety.
It only meant they would die in a different place if things went wrong.
"Next," Uchiha Hisasu said, "the Second Elder will read the list of frontline combat personnel approved by the Council of Elders."
"Yes, Clan Head."
Uchiha Yu rose, took out a document, and unfolded it with crisp precision.
"The following clansmen are hereby released temporarily from Police Force duties and reassigned as frontline combat personnel…"
As the names began to be read aloud, the underground chamber seemed to grow even colder.
One name after another fell into the silence like stones dropping into deep water.
The easy formalities of the earlier meeting were gone.
This was the part that mattered.
This was where power became obligation.
This was where a clan that boasted of its strength was called upon to bleed for it.
Gen stood quietly among the others, listening as the war finally ceased to be a distant current and became, instead, something immediate - something with names, roles, and the sound of his own breath inside it.
Five days.
That was all the time they had left before departure.
The village was moving. The clan was moving. The war was widening.
And tonight, beneath the shrine of the Uchiha ancestor, with the elders seated above and the names of warriors being read into the dim underground air, Gen felt it with sudden clarity.
The peaceful buffer between graduation and battle was over.
The real world of ninja had finally opened its jaws.