Chapter 263: The Aftermath
After finalizing the details of their cooperation for the next few years, Kyosuke used the Flying Thunder God to return to the village. He couldn't help but chuckle every time he remembered the look of shock on Orochimaru's face when he had told him his plan to seize power.
The Uchiha, a clan constantly under suspicion, had only two paths to true "freedom."
The first was to leave the village and establish their own kingdom. The risks were relatively low. With his Flying Thunder God, he could easily evacuate the entire clan from Konoha. And with two Mangekyo users in their ranks, Kyosuke and Fugaku, they would be a force to be reckoned with. But to start from scratch, to build a new nation from the ground up... it was a path fraught with hardship, and one Kyosuke had no desire to take.
The second path was to seize control of Konoha. It was a far more difficult path, but with careful planning, it had a high chance of success. If his and Saori's plans came to fruition, both the Uchiha and the Hyuga would be at his back. With the support of a few other smaller clans, their influence would be nearly equal to that of the Hokage.
Of course, a direct confrontation was out of the question. Even with the other villages weakened by the war, Konoha could still mobilize over ten thousand shinobi. The Uchiha, even at their strongest, could not stand against such an army. That was why he needed Orochimaru.
The key was timing. And the perfect time would be during the "Konoha Crush," the invasion that Orochimaru and the Sand would one day launch against the village. Only then would the chances of a successful coup be high enough to risk it.
In the days that followed, the repercussions of Orochimaru's defection began to spread.
Many of his former subordinates, especially those who had served under him on the southwestern front, refused to believe the news. Some even went to the Hokage's office to demand an explanation from Minato himself. They suspected that Orochimaru had been framed, a victim of the high council's political machinations.
Orochimaru's charisma is no joke, Kyosuke thought when he heard the news. His second thought was: This is bad.
And it was. The most loyal of Orochimaru's followers were soon "invited" to the Anbu for "questioning." Even those who were released were placed under constant surveillance, their careers in Konoha effectively over.
But even so, some of them continued to spread rumors, to whisper of a conspiracy. They refused to see the evidence, the victims of Orochimaru's experiments. They only believed what they wanted to believe.
It wasn't just the village that was in an uproar. The other great nations were also on the hunt for Orochimaru, eager to get their hands on the wealth of Konoha's secrets he possessed. For the next few years, he would be a fugitive, constantly on the run. It was one of the main reasons he had agreed to an alliance with Kyosuke. With the Uchiha's secret support, he would have the resources to continue his research and pursue his own goals.
The fallout from Orochimaru's defection also affected Kyosuke. The high council's suspicion of him, and of the Uchiha clan as a whole, had been rekindled. But he didn't care. The Uchiha had always been ostracized. This was nothing new. And with Saori's plan in motion, they would have been under suspicion anyway.
In the end, it all came down to strength. When Madara Uchiha was alive, no one had dared to challenge the Uchiha. Not even Tobirama Senju. Kyosuke did not yet possess that kind of influence, but he knew that one day, he would.
In addition to the high council, his relationship with Danzo and Root had also changed. With Orochimaru gone, Kyosuke's usefulness to Danzo was at an end. More importantly, Danzo would soon be making his own move, transplanting the Hashirama cells and setting his sights on the Uchiha's Sharingan. Kyosuke was now an obstacle.
With enemies on all sides, the Uchiha's position was more precarious than ever.
While strictly enforcing discipline within the clan, Kyosuke once again threw himself into his missions, taking on any and all assignments, no matter how difficult.
The days passed, and he finally managed to raise his Sage Body to level 10, the threshold of the third stage.
And then, something happened.
Kushina Uzumaki, the wife of the Fourth Hokage and the current Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tails, was pregnant.
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