"Why do you hold such deep resentment toward Kagami and Shisui, young man? From my perspective, their very existence served as the bridge connecting the Uchiha and the Hokage lineage. Without them, I fear…"
If someone else had said that, Rokuro might have believed it—at least a little.
But coming from Uchiha Setsuna, the Hawk Faction elder? Not a single word of it was worth trusting.
"Elder, there's no need for such hollow diplomacy. Do you think I'm some mole planted by the Hokage? You're overthinking."
Uchiha Setsuna gave no reply. Rokuro waved dismissively.
"That so-called 'bridge' between the Uchiha and the Hokage? To me, it's utterly pointless. The Uchiha are shinobi—Konoha's strongest clan. We can train our own. Even ninjutsu—we learn it within our clan. Why should we beg outsiders for anything?"
"In the end, the Uchiha and Konoha merely cooperate. When we work together, both benefit; when divided, both suffer. If this were twenty years ago, the Uchiha could've easily founded their own hidden village. So whatever Uchiha Kagami did back then was unnecessary from the start."
Rokuro emptied his teacup in one go.
"As for that idiot Shisui, who inherited Kagami's so-called will—he's even worse than his ancestors. A fool. And yet that fool is now considered the Uchiha's top fighter. Truly pathetic."
Hearing that, the image of a certain taboo figure flashed through Setsuna's mind.
"You said twenty years ago we could've stood on our own. Why twenty years? Why not now?"
Rokuro gave a cold laugh.
"Three Uchiha attacked me just now—one directly, two indirectly."
"The one who attacked directly—no need to elaborate. Useless. Aside from having jōnin-level chakra and a three-tomoe Sharingan, he's worthless."
"The other two? Probably the clan head's guards. As the clan head's bodyguards, even if they're not elite jōnin, they should have solid experience and keen judgment. But what did they do?"
Setsuna was beginning to understand.
"Even if they don't have the Elder's vast knowledge, even if they can't recognize that the seal used was the Adamantine Sealing Chains of the Uzumaki clan—they should at least realize it's a powerful sealing technique, right? So how should one respond to a sealing jutsu? Even academy students know that! But what did they do?"
Rokuro threw his arms wide in exaggerated disbelief.
"One tried to cut the chakra chains with a kunai, and the other—get this—even reached out to grab them bare-handed! How stupid can you get? And these are the clan head's guards? I'm speechless."
To Rokuro, those two guards were the reincarnations of sheer idiocy—rivaling Danzō's legendary "kunai stab against Susanoo" move.
"If even the clan head's bodyguards are that useless, imagine the rest. If the Uchiha tried to leave Konoha now and form their own village, it wouldn't last six months before being wiped out by the major shinobi villages. The survivors would end up divided, used as breeding stock for other clans."
His words were cruel, but Setsuna couldn't deny the truth in them.
"So that's why you refused to join the Konoha Police Force?"
Rokuro nodded slightly.
"Exactly. To me, the Konoha Police Force is nothing more than a pig farm built by the Hokage—for fattening up the Uchiha. The longer you stay there, the duller your combat edge becomes. It's not about chakra or ninjutsu proficiency—it's your battle instinct and awareness that rot away."
"The result? You get people like those two guards—full of chakra like a jōnin, but fighting like fresh genin straight out of the academy."
That wasn't exaggeration. In the original timeline, Itachi and Obito wiped out the entire Uchiha clan. Sure, both possessed Mangekyō Sharingan, but the power gap shouldn't have been that absurd.
And that nonsense about Sharingan "mental suppression"? Ridiculous. A three-tomoe Sharingan user should still vastly outclass an ordinary shinobi.
Even if Itachi and Obito faced hundreds of regular ninja, they couldn't have done a clean, bloodless massacre. Yet that's exactly what happened during the clan's annihilation—not a single scratch on them.
It was a cruel joke.
In Rokuro's eyes, the only reason such an enormous gap existed was because the Uchiha had been domesticated—turned soft by years in the Police Force.
The so-called "Konoha Police Force" was basically city patrolmen.
They spent their days dealing with drunks, noisy villagers, and illegal street vendors—rarely ever fighting actual shinobi. Even when they did, it was usually just some rowdy genin or chūnin. True jōnin—men of rank and discipline—almost never caused trouble.
By theory, a three-tomoe Sharingan wielder should be of jōnin caliber. Yet Konoha had those same elites playing glorified traffic cops. And the Uchiha actually accepted it.
To Rokuro, Konoha's higher-ups were deviously brilliant, and the Uchiha's political IQ was pitifully low.
Setsuna, though not a political genius himself, had seen enough in his life to grasp the weight of Rokuro's words.
After that blunt assessment, silence lingered for a moment.
"Well," Rokuro finally said, standing up, "I've had my tea, and we've had our talk. My mom's waiting for me to come home for dinner. I'll be going now, Elder."
As he turned to leave, Setsuna finally revealed his true purpose.
"Rokuro… You've been taking village missions to build combat experience, haven't you?"
Rokuro nodded.
"In that case, I may have something better for you—a task that'll keep you fighting regularly, and pays far more than standard village commissions."
"Oh? Sounds interesting. Let's hear it."
Setsuna signaled to his guard, Uchiha Meika. The man bit his finger and performed a summoning technique.
With a puff of smoke, a scroll-bearing cat appeared.
"Rokuro, you know that the Uchiha clan's summoning beasts are the Ninja Cats, yes?"
"I've heard of them. So what about it?"
Setsuna smiled faintly.
"Did you also know that besides being our contracted summons, the Ninja Cat Clan is also one of the largest weapon merchants in the entire shinobi world?"
Rokuro recalled the scene from the original story—Sasuke buying weapons from Granny Cat.
"The mission I'm offering you," Setsuna said, "is to protect their trade operations."
"Protect their business? So someone's competing against them?"
Before Setsuna could answer, the cat itself spoke up.
"Setsuna, you old crow—are you seriously sending a child to deal with our problem? You think he can handle those rogue ninja?"
Setsuna's raspy, crow-like voice cut through the room.
"He just killed Kakuzu, the rogue shinobi of Takigakure. Is that not enough?"
END OF CHAPTER
35 CHAPTERS AHEAD!!
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