"Patriarch, just ahead."
Under the fading light of the day, Uchiha Fugaku stood at the edge of a wooded area near the Konoha Military Police headquarters, his gaze fixed on the devastated grove before him. The sun dipped low, casting long shadows across broken branches and scorched earth. Silence hung heavy in the air.
Earlier that day, Fugaku had been informed of signs of Fire Release usage near the guard station. At first, he hadn't paid much attention—after all, Uchiha clan members frequently trained in the surrounding forest. But this time felt different. The lingering chakra signature was… unsettling. And the damage done to the forest far exceeded what even rigorous training should cause.
More importantly, Fugaku sensed foreign chakra—faint but distinct. It didn't belong to any of the usual clan members, and that disturbed him.
To be cautious, he dispatched a squad from the Police Force to investigate. If it turned out to be nothing, so be it. But if something had gone wrong, they'd be ready to act.
Though Uchiha Yu was a highly capable shinobi, Fugaku knew better than to gauge strength solely by chakra levels or a clan name. Even those with awakened Sharingan were not invincible—he had seen too many comrades fall in the last war to believe otherwise.
The search party returned shaken. What they had found left no room for doubt—signs of a violent skirmish: shattered kunai, splintered trees, gouged earth, and the unmistakable imprint of high-level jutsu. Blood stains dotted the forest floor, but there was no sign of Uchiha Yu.
Only fragments remained. A snapped kunai with deep grooves, blackened craters from Fire Release jutsu, and a chilling absence of chakra where Yu should've been.
Fugaku had listened without expression, but inwardly, his alarm had deepened. For someone like Uchiha Yu to disappear without a trace inside Konoha… it suggested a level of precision and stealth that only a handful of shinobi possessed.
He couldn't shake the possibility that this wasn't an accident or a rogue incident. Someone had silenced Yu—and likely meant for it to remain hidden. But if this was the work of Konoha's higher-ups…
No. Fugaku clenched his fists at his sides. A direct assault on a Police Force member would be madness. The war had only recently ended—Konoha was still recovering. No sane leader would risk civil conflict now. The village couldn't afford a rebellion from the Uchiha clan.
Still, Fugaku didn't trust easily. The tension between the Uchiha and the village's leadership was no secret, and recent events had only worsened his suspicions. Kai's confrontation with him weeks ago had forced him to reflect more deeply on the Uchiha's fragile position.
Even if Konoha wasn't behind this, he had to remain wary. The clan could not afford to be caught off guard again.
"You're dismissed," he told the gathered Uchiha around him. "I'll investigate alone."
The other clansmen hesitated, but none dared defy the clan head. They nodded and disappeared into the trees, leaving Fugaku alone with the battlefield.
Though tracking was usually a specialty of the Hyuga, the Uchiha were far from unskilled in reading combat traces. Activating his Sharingan, Fugaku walked deeper into the grove, studying every mark.
At a glance, the damage seemed random—scattered kunai, sword cuts in bark, scorch marks. But something bothered him.
There were too few marks.
If Yu had fought another shinobi in an extended duel, there would be more signs of back-and-forth combat. But if he had been ambushed… or fought someone of equal skill using the Sharingan…
Then, the lack of extensive damage made sense. Uchiha battles were often precise. With both sides predicting each other's movements through dojutsu, fights became clean, brutal, and short-lived.
Fugaku crouched near a particularly damaged kunai embedded in the trunk of a tree. It was cracked, the handle splintered. The blade itself was warped and dulled from repeated impacts.
He narrowed his eyes.
Too many deflections. Too many close-range exchanges.
This wasn't the weapon of someone being overwhelmed. This was a clash between equals—or near equals. The sheer wear on the kunai told him it had parried blows again and again before shattering.
Fugaku's thoughts darkened.
Was the attacker also an Uchiha?
It made disturbing sense. A non-Uchiha wouldn't be able to fight Yu on even footing, not without leaving more chaotic destruction in their wake.
Most of the other clan members hadn't realized this. They saw only the damage and assumed Yu had been overpowered. But Fugaku had seen two wars. He could read the language of a battlefield—and this one whispered betrayal.
"Was it one of our own?" he muttered. "Or… an Uchiha aligned with Danzo?"
The name filled him with disgust. Root had always operated in the shadows, and Danzo had made no secret of his distrust for the Uchiha. Could he have recruited a disillusioned clan member? Or worse, engineered this entire event to stir internal chaos?
Fugaku didn't have all the answers, but he made one thing clear to himself:
He would find the truth.
Whoever had done this, whatever their purpose, he wouldn't let it stand. The Uchiha might be cornered politically, but he still had the Sharingan—and the will to protect his clan.
His eyes bled red as his tomoe spun with silent fury.
"If it was you… you'll pay for this."
Pocketing the broken kunai, Fugaku turned back toward the village, leaving the ruined forest behind. The evidence could not be left unattended—too dangerous to the clan, too valuable to their enemies.
But somewhere, deep in another part of the woods, Uchiha Kai watched from the shadows, a crooked smile playing across his lips.