After speaking, Hiashi brushed past Hizashi as he walked by.
◎
Inside one of Root's buildings.
Danzo held a scroll in his hand, one that had been passed up to him through his subordinates.
After reading it, his brows furrowed, as if he were seriously weighing the gains and losses involved.
His adjutant beside him, Aburame Ryuma, naturally also saw the scroll, along with its contents and signature.
After a brief moment of surprise, Aburame Ryuma opened his mouth and asked, "Lord Danzo, how do you intend to handle this? Are we going to get involved?"
Danzo did not answer directly. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and lightly tapped his fingers on the tabletop beside him.
Only after a long while did Danzo speak slowly: "If you want to become Hokage, you must step into the sunlight on the surface."
That single sentence made Danzo's will clear.
"So in other words, we're going to intervene in this Hidden Cloud incident? To be honest, it'll be very difficult. The conservative faction led by the Third Hokage is hoping to resolve this peacefully."
Aburame Ryuma said.
Much as he hated to admit it, the conservative faction headed by the Third Hokage was still the largest bloc in Konoha.
Extremist radicals like those in Root were, in the end, only a minority.
Because of that, many civilian ninja and Ninja Clan ninja were not very willing to interact with Root.
"If war can be settled in a peaceful way, then how are we supposed to answer to all the Konoha Ninja who died in the past great wars of the Ninja Realm? Wouldn't their blood all have been spilled for nothing?"
In every war, Root had always been at the very front, active on the most forward lines of the battlefield, gathering intelligence for the front-line troops and carrying out assassinations and decapitation operations.
So, Danzo, stationed in the rear as Hokage's and the Advisors' backline, understood the brutality of the front lines even more clearly, and just how heavy the blood and sacrifices of countless Konoha Ninja were.
It was just that, with the conservatives still dominant for the time being, Root's missions still centered on operating in the shadows.
In the darkness, they would continuously expand their own power, then stand against the conservatives led by the Third Hokage.
For the moment, the result was excellent; several times now they had thrown the conservative Third Hokage into a fluster.
If Root truly intended to intervene in this incident between Hidden Cloud and the Hyuga, it would mean that, afterward, they would be subjected to an extremely fierce counterattack from the Third Hokage, and might even end up placing incriminating leverage in his hands.
"I stopped caring about short-term gain and loss a long time ago. Securing final victory is what matters. As for the Hyuga… it depends on whether they can seize this opportunity."
"What are we going to do?"
If Danzo, as Root Leader, had already decided to aid the Hyuga and move against Hidden Cloud's plot, then as his subordinates, they would naturally go all out as well, fighting Hidden Cloud to the bitter end.
They were different from the conservatives; the very meaning of Root's existence was to protect Konoha through killing.
"We'll hit Hidden Cloud exactly the way they hit us. This is precisely the field Root is best at, isn't it?"
Danzo smiled with deliberate implication, his expression inscrutable.
Aburame Ryuma nodded in understanding, then turned and walked out to make the arrangements.
Indeed, just as Danzo had said, this was precisely what Root excelled at.
◎
In the forest outside Konoha Village.
Ayane was standing on the branch of a tree; the veins around her eyes began to bulge, and in the depths of her white pupils a thin layer of iridescent color appeared, releasing a high-purity white light.
Now that she had activated her Byakugan, Ayane immediately picked up a squad of Konoha Ninja wearing Anbu uniforms but masks slightly different from those of Konoha Anbu, slipping out of Konoha through a concealed route.
Root.
The Dark Ninja organization led by Shimura Danzo.
With the Third Hokage's indulgence over the years, they had grown ever more robust.
"So you couldn't hold back after all, that Danzo guy. Looks like things are going very smoothly over there."
Ayane narrowed her eyes and smiled.
Thinking it over, this result was only natural.
If you want to become Hokage, you can't keep hiding in the dark scheming forever.
Even if acting rashly now meant being suppressed by the Third Hokage afterward, compared to gaining the support of the Hyuga Clan, Danzo would definitely make the choice that best suited his long-term interests.
The support of a Kekkeigenkai Ninja Clan was of a completely different order of significance.
Even if Root temporarily gave up some benefits, from a long-term perspective, they would still come out far ahead.
"Next I just need to watch how things develop, then decide how to tie everything off at the end."
Through this incident, she would not only thoroughly worsen relations between Konoha and Hidden Cloud, but also further aggravate internal conflicts and contradictions within Konoha.
In that sense, Ayane almost had to thank Hidden Cloud for creating such a perfect opportunity for her to arrange pieces within the Hyuga Clan and further consolidate power inside the clan.
Without the jolt brought by this move from Hidden Cloud, further infiltrating the Hyuga Clan would not have been so easy.
◎
Roughly three days passed after that.
Hidden Cloud's prodding grew more and more urgent.
From their attitude you'd think they wanted nothing more than to charge straight into the Land of Fire and give Konoha a vicious lesson.
But in reality, the Hidden Cloud Village Ninja stationed at the Land of Fire's borders were all exercising great self-restraint, not breaking through Konoha's defensive line.
No matter how noisy things were inside Konoha, the atmosphere inside the Hyuga Clan had also been stretched to an extreme.
Over the past few days, the high-level leadership had visited the Hyuga Clan more than once, discussing the matter with them repeatedly.
Judging from how often they came, the difficulty of the situation had surpassed everyone's expectations.
And today, in the Main Family's conference room within the Hyuga Clan, all the elders of the Main Family were present.