Chapter 6: The Konoha Situation
Sitting inside her room, Lalika, who had just seen all the new quests available, decided to focus on completing [Plot Weaver] one of those quests, due to its rewards, and to that effect, she decided that using the Anbu she already had in a genjutsu was a pretty good start to understanding the situation and current climate of the hidden leaf, enough so that she can change things enough to complete the quest.
"From my knowledge, there is still some tension between the hidden leaf and the hidden cloud, due to their kidnapping attempt against the Hyuga princess, about two years or so ago. Aside from that, there have been some sightings of unusual Uchiha movement around the village, and that's as much as I know of the current situation... Well, there's also the case of Orochimaru going rogue, but that was a few more years ago, and not much information about the case is divulged." The Anbu woman revealed without getting into detail as she did not seem to know much besides the surface-level information of each situation.
After cycling through all the Anbu present at her location, not much new information about each of these situations was discovered, but a basic picture could be built out of the little that was known. The Hyuga and Orochimaru cases were outside of Lalika's reach as of now, since according to what she could gather, Orochimaru which was a name that felt familiar in some way, was a Legendary Sannin of the Hidden leaf, so getting involved in that was not a good idea, and the Hyuga situation was more so a conflict between two villages, something that was a bit early for Lalika to get involved in, or at least she believed so.
All this left her with a situation that could still be changed and was in her current range of action, the Uchiha clan seemed to be moving out of the usual, well at least that's as much as these Anbu know.
(If I want to know more about the situation, I'll have to genjutsu an Uchiha, and then I should be able to get a broader understanding of the situation. From what I know, Uchihas are more resistant to genjutsu than normal due to their Sharingan, but that shouldn't be a problem with my current strength, as long as they are in the Jonin range of strength, even their biological eye lens won't help them.) Lalika concluded with all the information she was given.
After sending the Anbu back to their positions, she decided to act now rather than later. She could try to capture one of the Uchihas at the ninja Academy tomorrow, but it's more than likely they aren't involved at all, due to being too young, so it was an overall safer bet to go for an older member of the clan, in between the range of young adult to Adult, for higher chances of them being aware of the situation. It's not really a problem since Jonin rank ninjas were a very low percentage of the ninja population in general, especially actual Jonins, and not just special Jonins, much fewer individuals at high Jonin level or even Low Elite Jonin.
Having that knowledge into consideration, she moved stealthily into the Uchiha clan area, something she had to be especially careful about due to the possibility of being spotted due to their ocular ability. Treading the infiltration with extra care, Lalika would wait until any Uchiha she saw in a group would just go by, to avoid any problems, cause even if she was confident in her genjutsu, on the off chance it did not work, it would be safer to just go against someone alone, and that way, she could just knock them out before they caused a commotion either way. While things could get messy if her genjutsu didn't work and there were multiple individuals or even just two, after all, they are in their clan area, there's no knowing what kind of protocols or special preparations they have against infiltration.
Continuing to move along, Lalika eventually found a young man, who seemed to be in his twenties or so moving alone, and immediately acted on the opportunity, sneaking on the young man, before putting him in a genjutsu. That was followed by her leading the young man out of the Uchiha clan area slowly, to avoid being overheard or found eventually by overstaying her welcome.
Once both were outside and far enough in an empty area, she began questing the young man about the situation.
"We have grown fed up with the clear disregard the leaf has toward us as a clan, and despite all the years of service and sacrifice for the village, we are now all treated like criminals because of an incident completely outside of our control. The Hyugas are now over-glorified to distract others from our existence, while any relevance or power we had gets slowly stripped away as we are made into a joke... At least in name, the clan has lost its honor, and something like that cannot stand!
We will take back what should be ours... Even if it has to be by force... It's not like we want things to go this way, but what choice do we have? Eventually, someone at the top of the village will fully restrict us, and who knows what else more could happen?" The young man seemed frustrated at the village and the fall of his clan into their current position, after all, they were always considered to be one of the main forces of the village before the incident, now, they are reduced to a tolerated faction of traitors, at least in the public eye that is.
Hearing what the young man said, Lalika began to think. (So, that's it?... Their preparing a rebellion... Maybe I could stop this... Is it possible for me to put the whole clan under a genjutsu? Since killing them all would probably be a sacrifice the village isn't willing to make, after all, they are one of their main forces, and all things considered, it's unlikely all Uchihas feel this way about the situation.
The fact, an Anbu knew about the basics that something was going on, leads me to believe the higher-ups are aware of everything, and probably have spies within the clan. Which leaves them with three options, one appease the Uchiha, which wouldn't be that easy. Two take full control of the clan, which I don't see happening without a drastic plan like mine. Three give up, so not really a viable option. Maybe reaching a middle ground would have been possible at some point, but they already have built up frustration and hate, so I don't they would be willing to lose anymore, even if it meant they gained a bit.)
Her conclusion was reached, since dealing with people, especially if they are mad was not an easy order. When individuals believe they have been robbed of something that is rightfully theirs, they won't listen to anything that doesn't at least meet their basic idea of what they deserve. An example would be someone believing fully, that they are owed 6 apples, and then the other person says, that they could instead only give 3 apples cause they themselves need the other 3. If the first person believes the 6 apples are theirs by right, no matter the argument used to try and dissuade them, unless at least 6 apples worth of something isn't given to them, they will not be satisfied. Of course, to someone unrelated, it might look stupid to care that much about apples, but that's what people do when they believe they deserve something, they care about getting it.
(My next move, should be to find out if there really are spies in the Uchiha clan, and that way, I can get the full picture before acting out. If there are spies, I'll extract as much as I can from them, and then act, and if there aren't I'll just use the knowledge I just got to my advantage when it comes to the village in general. So, I'll use this young man, but I'll have to make sure my genjutsu is at its strongest before letting him go, or maybe I could infiltrate myself... But I don't know if it's worth putting myself in that position...) Lalika continued to reflect on the situation.