The hall was frozen. The laughter that had filled the room moments ago had evaporated, replaced by a suffocating tension. The Elders looked at Hiko not as a rising star, but as a predator that had finally bared its teeth.
Fugaku was the first to move. He blurred to the Sixth Elder's side, his own Three-Tomoe Sharingan spinning as he forcibly broke the Genjutsu.
"Hiko! Enough!" Fugaku roared, his chest heaving with fury. "Are you trying to challenge the very authority of this Council? To strike an Elder in the Patriarch's presence is an act of rebellion!"
The Sixth Elder slumped against Fugaku, gasping for air, his fine silk robes drenched in cold sweat. He looked at Hiko with a raw, primal terror.
Hiko didn't stand. He didn't even stop leaning back. He simply spread his hands with a casual, mocking elegance.
"Authority is a reflection of contribution, Patriarch," Hiko said. "The clan and the people gave him the status of an Elder, but that doesn't give him the right to bark at me like a stray dog. I respect strength. I respect wisdom. I respect those who bleed for the Uchiha."
Hiko leaned forward, his eyes locking onto the trembling Sixth Elder. "But you? You bring nothing but compromise. You bring nothing but concessions. You ask our kin to walk with their tails between their legs so you can feel safe in your meetings. An old dog that can't protect its pack doesn't deserve respect—it deserves a quiet corner to die in."
The "Old Dog" comment hit like a physical blow. The Sixth Elder's face turned from pale to a sickly, mottled purple.
Fugaku's face was a mask of stone. He looked at the other Elders. He saw the Great Elder's eyes—they weren't angry. They were glowing with approval. The hardliners had found their champion.
"Uchiha Hiko..." the Sixth Elder wheezed, finally finding his voice. "Do you wish to bring the entire family to ruin with your arrogance? If we do not bend, the village will break us!"
Hiko burst into a genuine, dark laugh. "If Uchiha was going to perish because we refused to be cowards, we would have gone extinct eight hundred years ago. We are the Uchiha! We don't survive by bending; we survive by being the flame that burns the hand trying to touch it!"
The Great Elder let out a loud, appreciative cackle. He looked at Hiko as if he were looking at the reincarnation of the Warring States period.
"Enough!" Fugaku slammed his hand on the table. He knew he couldn't punish Hiko—not today. Not when Hiko had the hearts of the youth and the momentum of the police force. "Sixth Elder, I will not have you blaming the clan for your own lack of composure. Hiko... do not let this happen again."
It was a classic "Eighty Boards" punishment—a slap on the wrist for both sides that effectively left Hiko the victor. The Sixth Elder realized he no longer had the right to even scold a junior officer. The realization was too much; the old man's eyes rolled back, and he slumped into a faint.
No one moved to help him. The Doves were a dying breed, and in the Uchiha clan, no one wept for the weak.
"Patriarch," the Sixth Elder (having been revived by a splash of tea) cried out desperately, "everything we do is for the family! The rift with the village is a chasm! Only by changing our image, by obtaining the Hokage's forgiveness, can we truly integrate into Konoha!"
Hiko didn't just laugh this time. He doubled over. He clutched his stomach as if the Elder had told the funniest joke in the history of the Land of Fire.
"Uchiha Hiko! What is so amusing?!" the Elder screamed, sounding like a wounded beast.
Hiko stopped. His face went instantly blank, his expression so cold it seemed to drop the temperature in the room.
"I'm laughing because you're a fool," Hiko said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "You talk about 'integrating' into Konoha as if we are refugees. Let me remind you: The Uchiha are the foundation of Konoha. We are one of the two pillars that built this wall. Where is there left to integrate?"
He stood up, pacing the small room like a caged panther.
"Look at the other clans. The Hyuga? They live behind their own walls, protecting their secrets. The Aburame? They are ghosts in the shadows. The Nara, the Yamanaka? They maintain their traditions and their compounds."
Hiko turned to the Elder, his eyes burning. "The only clan that 'integrated' the way you want was the Senju. And look at them now. Dispersed. Diluted. Gone. They 'integrated' themselves out of existence."
He looked at Fugaku and the other Elders. "We are a part of Konoha by right of blood and brick. We don't need 'forgiveness' from the Hokage to exist. We need to remind the village that without the pillar of the Uchiha, the roof of Konoha will collapse on their heads."