The moon hung high in the night sky.
At the Uchiha clan grounds, Naka Shrine was utterly silent.
This shrine, which enshrined the ancestors of the Uchiha clan, had never gathered so many of its members at night.
On the open ground in front of the shrine, a dense crowd of Uchiha stood—hundreds of people silent under the moonlight, like a tide of darkness.
The Sky Screen had stopped playing, but the information it left behind was seared into everyone's hearts.
Clan Massacre!
That word still lingered in the night wind.
Everyone had patiently waited through the Sky Screen's entire evaluation of the Third Hokage, and then, as one, they turned their gaze toward Uchiha Fugaku.
At the center of those hundreds of focused stares—Fugaku stood at the highest point of the shrine's stone steps, his back to the faintly visible ancestral statues inside the shrine hall.
Moonlight spilled through the gaps in the eaves, casting intersecting lines of light and shadow across his face.
Fugaku had never felt pressure like this—not even on the day he had first become clan head.
Still, he knew: it was time for him to step up.
Fugaku took a deep breath and stepped forward, his shadow stretching long under the moonlight.
"You've all seen what the Sky Screen showed."
"I don't need to repeat that word."
It was as if the Uchiha's emotions finally caught up with them at this moment. Among the crowd, some clenched their fists, some lowered their heads to wipe away tears, others bit their lips hard.
"But you also saw… the one who acted was not the Third Hokage."
Ignoring the surprised looks of his clansmen, Fugaku continued.
"The Sky Screen evaluated him as indecisive, as someone who indulged the darkness, as someone who was bright at first but dark later… but nowhere did it say he ordered the massacre of the Uchiha."
Fugaku paused.
Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Several Hawk faction elders exchanged glances. Uchiha Yashiro clenched his fists tightly but did not argue.
"But!"
Uchiha Tetsuka couldn't help but speak out.
"Lord Fugaku, even if the Third Hokage didn't do it personally, he tacitly allowed it! The Sky Screen said he deliberately turned a blind eye to the Uchiha clan's plight, merely using segregation and surveillance to address the rift. As Hokage, doing nothing is the same as tacit approval! How is that any different from being the killer himself?"
"The difference is…"
Fugaku looked at him, his gaze unruffled.
"Someone who does nothing can still be persuaded. But someone who has marked the Uchiha for elimination will not."
Tetsuka was stunned.
The night wind swept through the shrine, rustling the robes of the Uchiha gathered.
Fugaku turned to face everyone, raising his voice slightly.
"The Sky Screen placed the Third Hokage's tacit approval of Danzō's actions and the Uchiha massacre in the same segment of the evaluation. That is most likely not a coincidence!"
"And it also said that the Third Hokage's compromises ultimately came at a terrible cost!"
"What does that mean?"
Silence.
Dead silence.
Yashiro suddenly looked up, the Sharingan involuntarily activating in his eyes, the three tomoe trembling within his sockets.
"Danzō... that old bastard. It was him?!"
The Uchiha began to stir, the anger that had been suppressed all night was about to erupt.
Someone shouted, "Let's go settle the score with that old thing!"
Someone else started checking the kunai pouch at their waist, while Yashiro and the others had already turned to rush out of the shrine.
"Stop."
Fugaku's voice was not loud, but the Mangekyō Sharingan etched into the hearts of Yashiro and the others instantly cut through all the agitation.
He walked down the stone steps, step by step, passing through the crowd that automatically parted, until he stood before Yashiro and the others.
Under the moonlight, his shadow loomed over them.
"What are you trying to do?"
Fugaku asked sternly.
"Storm the Hokage Building, hold a Kunai to Danzo's neck, and demand to know if he'll exterminate the entire Uchiha clan in the future?"
Yashiro opened his mouth, but no words came out.
"And then what?"
Fugaku continued, his expression grim.
"If he denies it, what will you do? If he admits it, what will you do?"
"Kill him on the spot? Then how will Konoha deal with the Uchiha who attacked the Hokage's Advisor?"
The barrage of questions directly weighed down on Yashiro and the others, making them unable to lift their heads.
"The Sky Screen has shown us a cruel truth."
Fugaku's voice dropped—no longer a reprimand, but almost a frank statement.
"Our combat strength is far inferior to Konoha's overall power."
No one refuted it. This was a truth every Uchiha knew deep down but was unwilling to voice.
"We have the Sharingan, we have Fire Release."
"But Konoha has the Hyūga's Byakugan, the Nara's shadows, the Akimichi's expansion, the Yamanaka, Aburame, Inuzuka… hundreds of clans and tens of thousands of shinobi. If we truly walk the path of rebellion, there is only one outcome."
Fugaku paused for a long moment. Seeing the fear in his clansmen's eyes, he still spoke the cruel reality.
"That outcome is the one the Sky Screen revealed."
From deep within the crowd came the sound of stifled sobs.
"However!" Fugaku suddenly raised his voice to its peak.
"That does not mean we will simply sit back and wait to be slaughtered!"
Yashiro, Tetsuka, and the other hawks felt a surge of excitement, feeling that this was how the Uchiha should be.
Fugaku turned around and walked back to the top of the stone steps.
"Put away your weapons."
"The shinobi will protect the elderly and children in the center. Shisui and I will walk at the very front."
A sharp intake of breath rippled through the crowd.
"Fugaku-sama!"
Shisui stepped forward, his voice trembling.
"You intend to—"
"To go to the Hokage Building."
Fugaku looked at him.
"The entire clan. Together."