Naruto: The Birth Of Fenrir and his Keeper

As soon as they had left the room, Hizashi turned to his brother with furrowed brows and asked a question that had been eluding him for quite some time now.

“Why were you so insistent on Neji accompanying that child? Even the boy himself didn’t seem happy about it but you insisted anyway. Why?”

Haishi glanced at his brother as he tapped his finger rhythmically on the table for a moment. 

Ever since the episode where Hizashi had shown killing intent towards Hinata during a training session, the two brothers had been on edge around each other, and while they still shared a close bond, the trust and comradery that they had for each other had been irrevocably broken. 

Still they were brothers and Hiashi had no problem with letting his brother understand the method to his madness.

“Times are changing brother and the reality is that we have to adapt to these changes if we want to survive. The situation with the Uchiha was a wake up call for most of the clans within the village and it became increasingly clear that the Hokage faction intends to suppress us clans extensively.”

“That's quite the leap of logic to take over the Uchiha incident brother. Sure they were relocated to an outer section of the village, but their new residence has more space than before doesn’t it? You can hardly call that suppressing the clan.” 

“Besides, what does that have to do with Neji and that Inuzuka boy hanging around each other?” Hizashi said as he continued to express discontent towards his brother. Hiashi merely scoffed at his brother's words before pinning him with a serious glare. 

 “It is obvious to everyone paying attention to the situation that the Uchiha weren’t responsible for the attack a few years ago. Not only did they not attack anyone during the confusion, but had instead fully cooperated with the village leaders when they were asked to stay out of the way.

Even if they were only pretending to be innocent, at the very least if they were the masterminds behind the entire then they they would definitely have targeted the high profile members of the village whose deaths would have benefited them greatly, and paved the path for them to rise to power.

Yet the only important people who died were Minato and Kushina, and they died mainly as a direct result of trying to contain and reseal the beast into a new vessel. In the end the Uchiha didn’t really gain anything from the attack. In actual fact they instead lost quite a lot more. ”

Hiashi turned to one of the elders who begrudgingly handed over a scroll that had been hidden in his sleeve. Unrolling the scroll revealed a lot of information about the businesses owned and run by the Uchiha Clan. 

As Hizashi looked over the numbers that compared the Uchiha’s apparent earnings before and after their move, he couldn’t help but to gasp in surprise. 

“This…is this information verified?”

“Do you think we would waste our time worrying about things if it wasn’t!” yelled one of the elders who were sitting off to the side. 

Hizashi  reflexively flinched at being scolded so harshly by one of the elders and very quickly apologized for questioning the authenticity of the Elder's information. Haishi couldn’t help but feel a pang of discomfort as he watched his brother's extremely serventile behavior, but quickly pushed that aside. 

“The Uchiha being forced to relocate to the edge of the village could be seen as a way for the leaders of the village to force them to ‘answer’ for their crimes. Even if they weren’t the root  cause of the nine tails release, it was still a fact that the beast had a sharingan in its eyes as it rampaged across the village.”

“It may have looked like the village leaders were just being cautious and taking preventative measures for the safety of the village, but to us clan leaders it was a blatant probe to see how far they could push the Uchiha down.”

Haishi tapped on the scroll that was still unrolled on the desk as he spoke, the information displayed only serving to validate his concerns.

“Right now the Uchiha are effectively isolated from all the other clans and even the civilian villagers are keeping their distance from them as well. Now while some of this is due to the way that the Uchiha tend to behave at times, it is also because the village leaders have effectively labeled them as untrustworthy in the eyes of everyone.

It might not be blatantly obvious at first, but as time continues to pass, the effects of this move will continue to show in more obvious ways. Not only will the Uchiha be affected economically, but they’ll soon find themselves losing more and more of their political power with time as well.”

Hizashi couldn’t believe what he was hearing, yet the more he thought about it the more sense it made. 

Why were the Hokage and the elders of the village so quick to move the Uchiha after the attack? He’d thought it was so that they would have an easier time keeping an eye on them and to show to the village that they were on top of everything. 

But who said that there couldn’t be more to the move than just that?

It would be more than reasonable to believe that the movers and shakers of the village had decided to take out two birds with one stone. 

Not only would they manage to quell the unrest within the village, but they would also put a noose around the neck of the Uchiha, slowly tightening it until the Uchiha had no other choice but to submit to them.

“But if that's the case, why didn’t any of the other clans step up to object to the Uchihas suppression?” questioned Hizashi.

“Because at the time no one was happy with the Uchiha.” Hiashi stated as he splayed his hands. 

“Most of the other clans had been hit hard by the nine-tails attack and had lost a lot of talented shinobi, while the Uchiha came out of it pretty much unscathed. In a way we all saw the Uchiha being sidelined as a good thing, since it would allow everyone a chance to lick their wounds, recover  and come back stronger than ever.”

Hiashi shook his head dejectedly as he thought about the way that Fugaku had looked at him when it had first been announced that the Uchiha were going to be relocated at the Jonin meeting after the attack. 

If he could have turned back time, he would have been the first to oppose the change, but sadly there was no remedy for regret no matter how much he wanted there to be.

“None of us could have predicted what would have happened nor had we predicted that the village would have flourished so much in only two years' time.”

The economic boon that the village had undergone in the years after the attack had been a surprise to just about everyone and while it was greatly appreciated by all, it only further highlighted just how much Uchiha were being stifled. 

With them being relocated, they lost a lot of their main storefronts and sold a lot of their prime real estate to facilitate the sudden need for building materials needed to build their new homes. 

The new stores that they managed to buy and open were no longer in the economic center of the village and while they still made a profit, it paled in comparison to the type of cash that they used to be able to reel in. 

The Uchiha who by now were quickly realizing just how much they were losing out on, began to view the order for them to relocate as a slight to their prestige and honor. What made it worse though was that the decision was something that all of the other clans had seemingly been a part of.

Afterall no one had spoken out against the relocation, no one had stood on their side and tried to understand things from their point of view. They had been herded into some forsaken corner of the village, simply pushed aside like some sort of plague that no one wanted to deal with but had no other choice but to since they couldn’t get rid of them.

Haishi looked his brother in the eye, watching as the revelation of just how bad things were becoming had begun to dawn on him. The weight of this knowledge had been weighing heavily on Haishi’s shoulders for months now and he was glad to finally be able to vent to someone about it.

“To the Uchiha it must have felt like they were being cornered by everyone around them, and with their ridiculous pride they decided not to reach out to any of the other clans for clarification or for an explanation, and instead chose to endure the pressure on their own.

That of course only served to put them in an even sticker position since even if any of the other clans reached out to them for cooperation, they began to reject them outright. They began to treat everyone as a potential enemy, and while it was understandable given the circumstances, not many are willing to put up with their attitudes.

So in the end, the village leaders effectively castrated and isolated one of the most powerful clans in the village, all without shedding a single drop of blood. With the Uchiha being suppressed and the other clans starting to become weary of each other, the elders of the village effectively chipped away a lot of political power from the hands of the clans. 

We clans have always had too much power in the eyes of the village leaders and with the successful weakening of the Uchiha’s voice in matters of the village,  it's only a matter of time before they turn their eyes to us Hyuga next.”

Hizashi’s eyes opened in horror and quickly refuted his brother's words. 

“That's impossible! There ‘s no reason for the village to want to come into conflict with the Hyuga, we’ve never caused problems nor have we infringed on the village in any way. We’ve never even tried to claim the position of Hokage!”

Hiashi merely chuckled at his brother's naive world view and sneered as he asked him a very simple question.

“Just because we’ve never been an issue for the village before, does that mean that we can’t become one in the future? Can you be certain that we won’t ever cause problems if an opportunity presents itself?”

Hizashi opened his mouth to refute, but couldn’t manage to get the words out. No matter how much he wanted to say that there was never the chance of the Hyuga and the village being at odds, was he really able to guarantee such a thing?

“You asked why I insisted on Neji mingling with the Inuzuka child?” Hiashi asked as he stood to his feet.

He continued to look down at his brother, the one who was always there for him through thick and thin, the one person that he wished he could protect but knew that fate had had other plans for. 

The one person that he wished would have never been cursed with that damn seal of shame and disgrace. 

“The answer to that is simple. I want other people to see that we Hyuga are different from the Uchiha. We have some of the most prominent members of the village in attendance today, and what do you think would cross their minds when they see Neji and the Inuzuka child mingling so openly at such an important event?

Neji, who may well be a side branch member, but who is still rather important given that he is your son and the cousin of the future leader of the Hygua clan.

Neji who was presented to everyone as Hinata's cousin and protector, and one of the most promising youths of our clan who is acknowledged as one the most talented Hyuga in recent years.

They’ll see that we and the Inuzuka have a friendly relationship. So friendly in fact, that we have no problems with letting one of our more important members befriending and mingling with some no-name kid from a weak middling clan like the Inuzuka. That we the Hyuga, a clan exalted as one of the most powerful clans in all of Konha have no problem with mingling with our lesser and viewing them as equals.

They’ll see that and think that if even the Inuzuka are able to have such friendly relations with us, then why can’t they? We’ll use this as a chance to make more friends and strengthen the ties we already have with the other clans as well.”

Hizashi looked at his brother and couldn’t help but wonder if his ears were deceiving him. Hadn’t his brother and Tsume just had such a lengthy and cordial conversation about cooperation?

If so, then why did he refer to the Inuzaka as a weak, middling clan? 

Was everything that he did today just an act to further his own agenda, no, the agenda of the clan?

Hizashi  felt as if the image he had of his brother, the stalwart, upright, committed brother that he had always respected, was slowly being broken. When had his brother become like this and why had he never noticed?

Hiashi headed for the door, the other elders of the clan getting to their feet and following behind him. Right as he was about to exit the room though, he turned back to look at his stunned brother and gave a final bit of advice for him.

“The Uchiha’s biggest mistake was sticking to their useless pride and pushing others away. They over estimated their importance and the prestige that their clan still held in the hearts of others.  They assumed that just because they were one of the founding clans of Konoha that nothing could stand in their way. They are still quite powerful, but even with all of that power they are still helpless in the face of a collective. 

We cannot afford to follow in their footsteps. 

We will still uphold our pride and prestige as one of the noble clans, but we will use it to gather strength and connections to better serve the clan’s growth and prosperity, not deluding ourselves with our past grandeur like the Uchiha have.

We will rise, no matter what methods we have to use to do so.”

With that Hiashi left the room, the elders trailing along behind him. They left Hizashi behind as he struggled to come to grips with the current state of the village and the steps that his clan was taking to ensure that they benefited from them.