At the restroom of Akira's house.
"What are your thoughts on it?", after everyone finished giving their thoughts, Kirugi asked to Akira
"This is not a small matter, the conflict between our Clan and Konoha runs way deeper than one could think"
Akira complemented, "Both sides are unwilling to compromise first, creating the situation that we're in right now, either the village compromise, or we give up on our arrogance and step down first"
"Makes sense, but what could we do to break the status quo?", Aiko asked with a troubled expression
After years of friendship, Akira's family got closer and closer to Aiko's family, so they found themselves in each other houses often, considering the Clan situation right now Aiko decided to stay at Akira's home for now due to safety concerns.
"We could give up on the Police Department, but there's a huge chance that the higher-ups of our clan will be unwilling to do so, another possibility would be trying to be more gentle to outsiders, but our arrogance makes difficult to do so", Akira answered after pondering
"Why is it so difficult to stop a conflict, it's as if we were being targeted by someone", Keiko blurted out of frustration
Keiko's intuition is spot-on, after all, the Uchiha Clan is indeed being targeted by Danzo, while Hiruzen isn't fond of the Uchiha, he doesn't exacerbate conflict as openly as him.
"Our clan won't last long at this rate, signs of unrest are starting to appear everywhere even in the neighborhood, if they really plan to execute a rebellion the village won't stay still", Kirugi deduced
The atmosphere was heavy, their expressions were dark and even though there was alot of food in the table, nobody was in the mood for eating right now.
Akira was the worst of them all, although he was trying to maintain his calm facade, he naturally has his own trauma, he died in the same way in the last simulation.
'I feel overwhelmed, they are worried with the uncertain future, but i am despairing at the certain carnificine'
"I'll leave to take some air", Akira stood up and headed out
"Then I'll accompany you", Keiko also followed behind
Akira started walking towards Aiko's house, looked at the rooftop with a nostalgic look in his face and asked, "Do you remember when we used to be kids and play at the roof?"
"Of course, you always made sure we had fun, even resorting to use those silly provocations that i used to fall to", Keiko started chuckling
Then they walked towards the tree that they used to climb, Keiko sat with the back touching the tree and signaled for Akira to lie down with the head in her thighs.
While stroking Akira's hair, Keiko said, "I wish we could live forever in those times when we didn't have to worry about conflicts...", she said with a sad look in her face
"Dear, how would you react if everything you lived was a simulation?", Akira asked
"Hahaha, you sure know how to be random sometimes", Keiko chuckled lightly
She thought Akira was being funny to light up the atmosphere, but only Akira knew how terribly wrong she was.
He feels despair at everything, despair at the manslaughter that would happen next, despair at the fact that his most cherished love would crumble and disappear just like a sandcastle when the wave comes and engulf everything he built.
Tears started to flow out of Akira's eyes, his heart felt like giving up in this moment, his mind blank, the only thing that comforted him in this moment was the warm sensation of his lover's hand.
'I feel like dying right now, initially i thought i had the most overpowered cheat, how terribly wrong i was, this is a curse that negates everything i built in my life, even death is not an option'
"What's wrong!?", Keiko asked and frowned, seemingly worried
Akira stood up slowly and knelt to adjust his height to Keiko's, embraced her with his arms and suddenly gave her a kiss.
Feeling the feel of his lips and the warm sensation of his arms surrounding her, she didn't even think of resisting, she just freezed out of shock.
Upon realizing what happened, she reacted and returned the favor with actions.
The touch, smell, taste, image and sound of this scene was deep engraved in their hearts, neither of them wanted this to end so they kept at it for more than five minutes.
"Haah", Keiko was out of breath, her eyes unfocused and face blushed.
'I feel a bit better now'
Akira's situation was not much different, although his body had the endurance of a Jonin or two, the burden was physchologic rather than physical.
"I love you so much...", Keiko said while relaxing her head on his shoulder
"I love you more though", Akira retorted making a silly expression
...
Uchiha Clan's Shrine
"Then let's start today's meeting", an Uchiha Clan Elder declared
One must know that there are two factions in the Uchiha Clan, the conservatives and the revolutionaries, one wants to preserve the Uchiha's current stance, and other wants to rebel against the village's current higher-ups.
While the conservatives may look better than the revolutionaries at first impression, they aren't that good either, maintaining the current stance means that the relationship with the village will continue worsening over time, just delaying the problem and opening the possibility of the village attacking first.
"We should start by discussing..."
After a lot of repetitive and manipulative arguments were implemented in the debate between the two factions, one of the elders asked Uchiha Fugaku about his position about the conflict.
"What's your opinion about this matter, Patriarch?"
After a moment of silence, Uchiha Fugaku answered, "Even if we attack, we are likely to be suppressed without much effort, now that we lost Shisui things became even more difficult, we can't do much"
"But then are we going to continue being targeted unjustly by the village without doing anything?", someone replied
After a few more opinions were given, a consensus still wasn't achieved, in that moment, Uchiha Fugaku looked at Akira and asked, "How do you think we could solve this?, Young Akira"
"None of these are the answer", Akira replied indifferently
"Hm?", Fugaku inquired further
This reply gained the attention of the clansmen that were discussing previously, they looked at Akira curiously, which answer was the one he was talking about that they didn't come to know?
"Simple, the village don't like the Uchiha, so we just need to become something that doesn't look like Uchiha", Akira answered
"See, our arrogance places us in a higher place than common people, but that also creates distance from them, not to mention our Police Department, which only gathers hate towards us", he continued
"Absurd!, how could we become something other than the Uchiha?, do we need to forget who we are just for the sake of the village!?", one of the elders shouted
"It's that or be annihilated, that includes the elderly, the children, the women and the civilians, do you really believe that the village's higher-ups would let this chance pass? after they supress us they will take the chance to kill everyone to make sure that there aren't any chances of revenge against them in the future", for the last time, Akira spoke
The atmosphere of the entire Shrine became somber, what Akira said clearly hit an sore spot, remembering them of the pain that they wanted to forget.
"But even so, we can't let go of the Police Department, if we give up on that what will be left of our clan?", the oldest elder spoke
"We don't need to give up on our rights, we just need to allow outsiders, so that people can slowly realize that our clan isn't the only one that does hateful things", Akira replied
...
"Alright, it's getting late so let's finish the meeting here for now", Uchiha Fugaku said
They didn't agree to his proposal outright, but sure enough his words penetrated in the heart of the matter, so his words were bound to be remembered.