As night transitioned into morning in Konoha, the dawn brought with it a palpable shift in the village's atmosphere. The usual tranquility was tinged with a sense of urgency and anxiety.
By now, word had spread throughout the village that Konoha was embarking on a large-scale mobilization in response to the looming threat of global war.
The streets, once bustling with the daily routines of its inhabitants, now echoed with the sounds of military preparations.
It wasn't until the afternoon began to wane that the Hyuga clan's delegation prominently left their compound, setting a course towards the crucial pre-war council.
This assembly was designated for Konoha's elite decision-makers to deliberate and define the village's involvement and strategy in the impending war.
The delegation was led by Patriarch Hirayoshi himself, his successor Hiashi, Takumi, the Fifth Elder, and Hikari, as the three of them would lead the Hyuga clan forces on the battlefield.
They were also walking closest to the center of the group, protected from all sides, and talking quietly about various matters regarding the upcoming meeting as they walked.
Their entourage comprised dozens of Hyuga clan Jonin and Elite Jonin. Accompanying them were also selected highest intelligence assistants tasked with providing analytical support to navigate the upcoming discussions and the intricate landscape of the village shinobi politics and warfare.
As the Hyuga delegation continued its march toward the council meeting, its ranks swelled with the addition of its closest allies first.
The Inuzuka and Aburame clans, led by their respective heads—Tsume Inuzuka and Shibi Aburame—converged with the Hyuga group from the other side, bringing with them the combined strength and strategies of their clans, although they led considerably fewer groups.
After brief yet meaningful exchanges between the three clan heads, the two groups seamlessly merged with the Hyuga at the helm. Everyone was a little uneasy and wanted to arrive at the destination as soon as possible.
As the combined forces of the Hyuga, Inuzuka, and Aburame clans made their way across the Naka River towards the village center, there, on the opposite side of the bridge, stood the delegation from the Uchiha clan.
Fugaku Uchiha, the clan's current young patriarch, led the Uchiha delegation. He is known for his leadership of the Military Police Force within the village and his great strength.
Beside him stood Great Elder Setsuna, a figure of similar old age as the Hyuga clan Patriarch, representing the more radical faction within the clan, and his 15-year-old granddaughter Kiyomi Uchiha, marking the presence of both the clan's established authority and its future.
The Uchiha's numbers present there were on par with the Hyuga's. As the groups from both sides of the Naka River merged, the anticipated tension between the Hyuga and Uchiha clans was noticeably absent. Instead, elite members from both clans exchanged looks of curiosity and mutual recognition.
The old rivalry and animosity that might have clouded their interactions even two years ago seemed to have dissipated. Now, in the face of a greater common challenge and the pressing need for unity against the external pressures of the impending war and the internal dynamics opposing the Hokage's Faction both clans found themselves realigned as true informal allies.
As the two groups approached each other on the other end of the bridge, the leading figures of both clans here—Fugaku and Setsuna from the Uchiha, alongside Kiyomi, and Hirayoshi, Takumi, Hikari, and Hiashi from the Hyuga positioned themselves at the front of the groups.
Setsuna had short but slightly spiky gray hair and wore a dark, traditional Uchiha-like clan kimono with the giant clan symbol woven into the back.
Meanwhile, Fugaku had short, brown hair that reached to his shoulders and onyx-colored eyes with visible pronounced creases below them.
He wore a simple traditional Uchiha-like kimono with grey pants; however, for some reason, he still wore his Police Force uniform on top of that for the occasion today, with its symbol at the back, as if to signal that he was both from the Uchiha and Konoha's executive branch.
Fugaku, with his calm and authoritative presence, first nodded with Hirayoshi, whose stature and demeanor mirrored the significance of the occasion, and then with everyone else, just like Setsuna. Kiyomi, meanwhile, also did the same, although in a more respectful manner, but she secretly made some kind of a casual expression at Hikari.
Meanwhile, Hikari also observed Fugaku Uchiha; at this time, he couldn't help but mentally assess the Uchiha patriarch's capabilities and history. At 28, Fugaku was indeed at the peak of his strength as a shinobi, radiating the confidence and power that came with his prime.
Hikari considered Fugaku's present skill level, placing him in the realm of an above-average Elite Jonin, similar to Kiyomi Uchiha. This makes them the two strongest people in the clan now. It was just that Kiyomi generally focused more on the Fire Release and Fugaku on genjutsu.
The similarity in their power, alongside the obvious differences in their ages, often sparked comparisons and, at times, competitive tension within the Uchiha clan, as it seemed that Kiyomi, the radical faction successor, had truly better talent than the Patriarch.
However, external pressures, on many levels, prevented this topic from causing any more significant rifts within their clans.
But, Hikari knew that if he hadn't been secretly assisting Kiyomi through various indirect means in her shinobi journey, especially regarding her 'eyes', during the last two years, then it would've been probably completely different.
Yet, what intrigued Hikari the most was precisely the status of Fugaku's own Sharingan. Despite his relatively formidable abilities, there were no signs of Fugaku having activated the Mangekyo Sharingan as of today in terms of his chakra potency or the reservoir in general.
Thanks to his intense exercise of it and talent, alongside chakra control and quick processing speed, Hikari's Byakugan could now be activated and deactivated almost instantly. This allowed him to gauge many things about anyone he was in contact with without them realizing it at all. His analytical ability and processing speed also made it possible to gauge many different things in milliseconds.
Additionally, that power necessitated profound emotional distress or a significant personal loss to unlock at this point in time. Given Fugaku's steady leadership roles—overseeing the clan and the Konoha Military Police Force—it seemed he hadn't been subjected to the kind of traumatic experiences that typically precipitated the awakening of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Hikari speculated about the potential of the impending war to change this. The conflict might provide the conditions for Fugaku to unlock this deeper power should he face extreme emotional turmoil. However, the uncertainty surrounding Fugaku's Sharingan and the exact circumstances that might lead to the Mangekyo's awakening remained a complex puzzle.
Hikari's thoughts drifted to Fugaku's sons, particularly Itachi, who had been born the previous year. He also remembered how Shisui Uchiha should have been born three years earlier.
He recalled how, during the later stages of this very war, Fugaku took a young Itachi to witness its horrors firsthand.
Hikari considered this experience pivotal in shaping Itachi into the figure he became—a staunch 'pacifist' and a betrayer, driven to make extreme decisions for what he was led to believe was the 'greater good'.
So, Hikari pondered whether Itachi's 'extraordinary' eventual path could be attributed to Fugaku's parenting, which he regarded clearly as a horrible failure, as seen from that example, or if Itachi's brain was simply inherently different and programmed with some kind of a 'mistake', from the beginning, due to the exceptional talent he possessed with the Sharingan, which was said to be able to influence one's personality in significant ways.
As for Fugaku himself, Hikari simply considered him indecisive and not competent enough. He neglected his sons for the so-called clan and village responsibilities, which were used as excuses, yet he failed in those areas as well, so what was the point?
And he also let his older son, one of the biggest talents in Uchiha history, betray their clan to Hokage's faction 'in front of his eyes'. He may or may not had the Mangekyo Sharingan, but he should've at least done something instead of always going with the flow, in the end, even peacefully allowing his elder son to slay him and his wife like animals. In Hikari's mind, in his limited exposure, Fugaku didn't seem like a very capable individual.
However, despite Hikari's bad opinion of him, he still had to cooperate with him as the leader of the Uchiha clan in the future. Hikari could just hope that his 'Butterfly Effect' makes him more competent this time around in this timeline, as he didn't need any substandard allies.