Setsuna stared, openly stunned.
He couldn't reconcile Jhin's caution with the man he'd seen—someone who dared to stare down Konoha's upper ranks without blinking.
Across from him, Uchiha Jhin frowned slightly. After a moment's thought, he let out a quiet sigh.
"Setsuna-dono… Konoha runs deeper than you think."
"There's a technique in the forbidden scrolls. Dead Demon Consuming Seal—one of the Uzumaki clan's old foundations."
"It trades your life to summon the Reaper. It ignores ninjutsu and barrier ninjutsu. As long as it can seize you, your soul gets ripped away—taken outright."
"Minato used it to split the Nine-Tails into yin and yang, then sealed it into himself… and into his child, Naruto."
Jhin's voice stayed steady, but the weight behind it pressed down like stone.
"If we push Konoha's upper ranks into a corner, they can unseal that technique and make every jōnin learn it."
"What then?"
"Even if it's hard to master, Konoha has plenty of jōnin. If even twenty of them pull it off… do you think the clan can withstand it?"
"Even with the Mangekyō… I wouldn't dare test that."
Setsuna sucked in a breath, face paling with sudden fear.
Konoha had something like that?
Before he could even digest it, Jhin continued.
"And the Nine-Tails."
"If we truly drive them to desperation… what if they release it?"
"Jiraiya will stand with Konoha. Tsunade may fear blood, but if the Uchiha rebel—"
"For the Konoha her grandfathers built… she might force herself to overcome it."
"Two Kage-level fighters. Who stops them?"
Jhin's gaze sharpened, and his tone grew colder.
"ANBU and Root are the Hokage's most loyal blades."
"The Uchiha might manage one against three, but with that many enemies… even if we hold, how many do we lose?"
"And Danzō has collected plenty of three-tomoe Sharingan. That bastard can use Izanagi, too. How many lives does it cost to grind him down?"
"Hiruzen is the weakest Hokage, sure—but he's still not someone ordinary clansmen can survive against."
Jhin set his teacup down with deliberate calm.
"I've scouted the Sarutobi clan personally. They've skimmed Konoha's coffers for years, and they rarely take frontline war missions."
"Even so, the Sarutobi clan has at least fifteen hundred shinobi—three hundred jōnin at minimum."
"Those jōnin are weak. They're far behind the Uchiha."
"But numbers like that still crush people to death."
"And that's assuming the other clans don't join in."
He paused just long enough for the truth to sink in.
"With the Uchiha's stench of a reputation, do you really think the clans and civilians would accept an Uchiha regime?"
"And if they do join the war—then what?"
Sweat broke across Setsuna's brow. He couldn't speak.
His earlier thoughts suddenly felt childish. Konoha's foundation really was terrifying. The half-crippled Uchiha of today had no right to talk about rebellion.
Even with the Mangekyō, Konoha could bleed Jhin dry.
Setsuna exhaled, heavy and bitter. "Jhin-kun… you're right."
"We really don't have the right to rebel."
He meant it.
Everything Jhin laid out—those were angles he'd never even considered.
And the Uchiha, no matter how fierce, couldn't simply chew through all of that.
"Yeah." Jhin nodded once. "It's hard."
"Konoha runs too deep."
"Even after losing so many strong fighters, even in a weakened period, it's not something the Uchiha can 'pick a fight' with."
"And that's not even counting the softliners and moderates inside the clan dragging us down."
"Even if we take ten thousand steps back and say we could kill Konoha's upper ranks and seize power… what then?"
"A shattered Konoha can't hold off the other great villages."
"Setsuna-dono—do you think the other great villages would spare a weakened, broken Konoha?"
Jhin took a sip of tea. His eyes looked bottomless.
"So be realistic."
"My goal right now is to stabilize Konoha's upper ranks—and unify the Uchiha."
"Everything else comes later."
What kept Konoha cautious was simple:
Jhin was willing to die.
And he was willing to pay for it with a clan's extinction—dragging Konoha's upper ranks into the grave with him.
But Konoha's upper ranks wanted a stable Konoha. Even if they could wipe out the Uchiha cleanly, they still had to calculate what came afterward—how to deter the other villages.
Setsuna drew a deep breath. When he looked at Jhin again, there was warmth there—genuine satisfaction. A faint smile tugged at his mouth.
"Looks like I've been lucky."
"To find a successor like you at the end of my life… even if I died now, it would be worth it."
"With you holding the radicals, I can finally rest easy."
And he truly meant it.
The radicals used to be strong, loud, and useless—nothing but barking.
Under Jhin, they had become a blade.
They dared to fight, dared to risk everything—and more importantly, they had a leader with a brain.
Setsuna didn't believe in mercy from heaven.
But he did believe in timing.
In the Uchiha's darkest era, they'd been given a genius.
After a short silence, Setsuna asked, voice strained despite himself.
"What about the clansmen who keep disappearing? And the village's rumors that are getting worse by the day—are we really doing nothing?"
"Does it affect your plan?"
He already knew Jhin's intent: let the clan bleed, break illusions, force people to wake up.
But knowing it didn't make it hurt less.
Uchiha had been a great clan for a thousand years—yet compared to Konoha's upper ranks, they still felt painfully small.
And with deaths piling up like this… Setsuna feared Jhin would push too far and snap the whole board.
Jhin shook his head.
"In my view, it's not even close to enough. Not nearly enough people have died."
"Not until the softliners and moderates start trembling will their fantasies about the village finally crack."
"As for the village's rumors—that's not our problem."
"The Clan Head is Fugaku."
He smiled faintly, the expression cold at its edges.
"Nothing is free. If they want me to step in and solve it, they can come begging."
"It's not me putting on airs."
"If I'm too proactive, those idiots will start suspecting me. And while I'm working, they'll interfere—trip me up—pull nonsense behind my back."
"Do you think controlling the village's rumors is easy?"
"I'm not going to plan for the Uchiha while also babysitting the softliners and moderates."
Setsuna sighed.
The more he thought about it, the more he had to admit Jhin was right. With Fugaku and Shisui's kind of stupidity, that outcome was guaranteed.
Right then, Uchiha Tekka entered.
"Elder Jhin. Elder Setsuna."
"Word from Fugaku—there's an emergency clan gathering. The radicals are required to attend."