The Uchiha clan lands, located southwest of the main city of Konoha, bordered by the Senju clan lands, the central district, and the lower district, are vast, covering almost one-third of the entire main city of Konoha.
Within them, there is a fully functional town where most of the Uchiha clan members live.
Outside the town are numerous farms and ranches, mainly inhabited and worked by tenant farmers affiliated with the Uchiha.
Compared to the Uchiha residence in the upper district, the Uchiha clan lands are truly a village within a village, a kingdom within a kingdom.
Everything here is outside the jurisdiction of Konoha, and outsiders cannot enter or leave at will without permission, otherwise they will be arrested by the patrolling guard force.
The vast territory, along with the relatively peaceful environment, has ultimately led to an explosive growth in the Uchiha population.
To this day, according to statistics, the Uchiha clan population has approached 4000, with nearly 500 households. Compared to the less than 1000 clan members when Konoha was first established, the population has increased fourfold in forty years.
Among them, there are 500 ninjas with mature combat abilities, equivalent to the strength of Chunin, which accounts for almost one-twentieth of the registered ninjas in Konoha.
If mobilized to the limit, this number could even double.
However, the vast territory has produced a large amount of resources, which has the conditions to support the Uchiha clan members to have many children and cultivate a large number of ninjas. But how can we say that the environment is relatively peaceful?
Haven't there been two shinobi world wars in the past forty years?
Speaking of which, this is thanks to the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju.
The Second Hokage established the Konoha Guard Department and placed it under the control of the Uchiha clan, primarily responsible for maintaining the security of the various districts of Konoha.
What his real purpose was is unknown, but the end result is that, although the Uchiha sent some ninjas to the battlefield during the two shinobi world wars, most of their combat power was tied up in the Guard Department, avoiding the most brutal battles.
It is not that the Uchiha clan did not want to go to the front lines, but the Konoha high command prohibited the Guard Department from moving, on the grounds of protecting Konoha, only to be used in the most critical moments.
Such an arrangement resulted in the Uchiha, although they lost two clan head candidates and some important figures in the two shinobi world wars, their overall losses were very small.
Compared to the Senju clan, which suffered heavy losses in the two shinobi world wars and eventually perished, the Uchiha clan is the complete opposite.
Not only did they not suffer any major losses, but their clan population even increased significantly.
However, the Uchiha's combat power being tied up in the police force isn't entirely a good thing either.
Aside from the fact that the Guard Department itself is prone to offending people, according to Uchiha Hikaru's explanation to Tatsuki: compared to the Warring States period, the ratio of Uchiha who can activate their Sharingan to those who cannot has changed from one to two to less than one to four today.
Of the 500 ninjas, only less than 100 can activate their Sharingan, and the number of people who eventually can activate the three-tomoe Sharingan is even fewer.
It seems that after Tobirama Senju roughly figured out the reason for the Sharingan's activation, he intended to use the Konoha Guard Department to trap the Uchiha clan, allowing them to sink in a peaceful environment and reduce the number of clan members who can awaken the kekkei genkai.
Although Uchiha Hikaru is unsure if the Second Hokage was intentional or just a coincidence, Tatsuki can confirm that Tobirama Senju should have been intentional.
However, he doesn't know if Tobirama Senju simply wanted to reduce the number of 'madmen' born from the Uchiha, or if he was trying to weaken the Uchiha's combat power, maybe both.
In addition, not being able to participate in the war on the front lines also deprived the Uchiha of the opportunity to establish merit.
Without merit, the Uchiha clan would have no right to compete for the position of Hokage.
This is probably why, after Sarutobi Hiruzen became Hokage, he still insisted on preventing the Uchiha's strength from participating in the front line war in large numbers.
Furthermore, while everyone else in the village was fighting on the front lines, a large number of the Uchiha were hiding in the rear, which would undoubtedly make more people in the village dissatisfied with the Uchiha.
The high-ranking Uchiha clan actually realized these shortcomings, but under the high-sounding reasons given by the Konoha high command, they could not refuse.
However, the Uchiha's growth rate in strength should still have exceeded the expectations of Tobirama Senju and Hiruzen Sarutobi, or they overestimated the impact of restricting the Uchiha to the rear.
Although the activation of the Sharingan has become more difficult, the number of clan members who can activate the Sharingan is still quite a few, considering the overall increase in the number of ninjas.
Moreover, even Uchiha who cannot activate their Sharingan have overall combat strength that far surpasses ordinary civilian ninjas. In this case, does restricting the Uchiha to the rear really work in weakening the Uchiha's combat strength?
Also, the dissatisfaction of the other people in the village towards the Uchiha seems to have little effect in reality.
After all, it was the Konoha high command's decision not to allow the police force to go to the front lines, and some Uchiha members did go to the front lines.
The only thing they really achieved was making it difficult for the Uchiha to gain merit.
Compared to Sarutobi Hiruzen, who became Hokage after the First Shinobi World War, and the legendary Sannin of Konoha, who rose to fame after the Second Shinobi World War, the Uchiha clan, the first family of Konoha, has nothing worth praising.
However, the rapid growth of the Uchiha's strength has still alarmed the Konoha high command. They are no longer planning to let most of the Uchiha's combat power stay in the rear during the next shinobi world war.
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PS: The first volume is coming to an end!