"This is an outrage!"
A furious, violent low growl echoed within the tightly closed doors and windows of the Hokage Office, yet it was firmly locked inside by a powerful Soundproofing Barrier.
The Hokage Office was brightly lit, but it couldn't dispel the gloom.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat behind the wide desk; the pipe between his fingers had long since gone out, and the thin curls of residual smoke dissipated weakly into the air.
His brow was furrowed, his face showing an unprecedented gravity. Before him lay an open report scroll, containing the strictly worded text submitted by Uchiha Tenjima in his capacity as Clan Chief regarding "Uchiha Shao Yu attacking Elder Setsuna and leading eleven clansmen in a defection."
In front of the desk, Danzo Shimura, who had just been urgently summoned, had almost lost his usual gloom and restraint.
His single exposed eye was wide with rage and bloodshot. His good hand gripped another brief copy tightly, veins bulging on the back of his hand, his body trembling slightly from extreme anger.
"Uchiha Shao Yu... that naturally evil Uchiha brat! He actually... he actually dares!"
Danzo's voice was hoarse, every word sounding as if it were ground out from the depths of his throat.
"Attacking an elder, stealing clan secrets, inciting accomplices... defecting?! And he took eleven people with him! Eleven Uchiha who have awakened the Sharingan! Among them are three Jonin!"
He slammed the copy in his hand onto Hiruzen Sarutobi's desk with a muffled "bang," making the ashtray jump.
"Hiruzen! Do you see this? This is the Uchiha! Wolf cubs that can never be tamed! We gave them the power of the Police Force, gave them status in the Village, but what do they give us in return?"
"Arrogance hidden under respect, rebellion written in their bloodline! Now, they don't even bother with appearances and defect directly! They even attacked their own elder! How brazen! How...!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi took another puff of smoke, the smoke obscuring his face so that Danzo could not see his expression at this moment.
"Enough, Danzo. Calm down."
A raging fire burned in Danzo's single eye as he gripped his cane.
"How can you expect me to be calm? The Uchiha Clan is simply pushing their luck. And that Uchiha Setsuna—he was ambushed? What a joke. He's an old fossil who has lived since the Sengoku period; how could he be outplayed by a hothead? I can tell at a glance that this was orchestrated by that old man."
Hiruzen Sarutobi's face was also dark. He also knew Uchiha Setsuna; he was among the oldest people in Konoha, the Grand Elder of the Uchiha Clan, with a deep and calculating mind. He had even attempted to assassinate the Second Hokage back then.
For such a person to say he was blindsided by Uchiha Shao Yu was somewhat hard to believe. After all, the name of Uchiha Shao Yu as a hothead was known to all the Konoha high-level officials; Uchiha Setsuna wasn't stupid enough to reach that point.
It was obvious that the old man Uchiha Setsuna had planned it, but at this moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi had no choice. Uchiha Setsuna's story was self-consistent, and Hiruzen Sarutobi had no excuse to move against him.
Seeing Hiruzen Sarutobi's dark face and silence, Danzo grew anxious, tapping his cane heavily against the Hokage Office desk.
"Hiruzen, say something! After all, you should have listened to me two days ago and just signed the warrant. If I had gone to arrest that Uchiha Shao Yu, this wouldn't be happening now."
Listening to Danzo's roar, Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly exhaled the last puff of smoke and tapped his pipe heavily against the edge of the ashtray. A crisp "clang" cut off Danzo's agitated words.
"Enough, Danzo."
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried the authority of the Hokage.
"Is getting angry useful? You accuse Uchiha Setsuna of being calculating and staging this himself, but do you have evidence? Without evidence, everything is just empty talk. It will only alert the enemy and further alienate the remaining Uchiha!"
He stood up, walked around the desk to the window, and stood with his back to Danzo, looking at the sky outside which was gradually turning pale. His tone was heavy.
"As for what you said two days ago, about signing a warrant for you to arrest Uchiha Shao Yu..."
Hiruzen Sarutobi turned around, his gaze sharp as a blade, looking directly into Danzo's remaining eye.
"Danzo, tell me, what reason would we have used then? Based on that full-of-holes report of yours claiming Uchiha Shao Yu colluded with Sunagakure to deliberately fail the assassination of the Ichibi Jinchuriki Bunpuku? Do you take me for a fool, or do you think Sunagakure and the entire Ninja World are fools?"
"That clumsy excuse wouldn't hold up under scrutiny! To rashly arrest an Uchiha genius without solid evidence of betraying the Village—do you have any idea how much turmoil that would cause? The Uchiha Clan would immediately lash out, and other ninja clans would feel threatened! You would have pushed Konoha directly to the brink of Civil war!"
Danzo's face turned ashen under Hiruzen Sarutobi's barrage of questions. He stiffened his neck, the malice in his single eye growing even stronger.
"Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures! For a clan like the Uchiha, naturally evil and rebellious to the core, why talk about evidence? Why talk about procedure? They should be deterred and purged with thunderous methods!"
"Hiruzen, you are just too indecisive, too obsessed with that hypocritical will of fire! Look at the result now! An evil Uchiha has escaped, and we've lost eleven pairs of Sharingan! Can you afford this loss?!"
There was another matter: the three members of the Root he sent to capture Uchiha Shao Yu had mysteriously disappeared; they had certainly been dealt with by Sho U.
The main thing was that he couldn't tell Hiruzen Sarutobi about this.
He became more agitated as he spoke, his cane thumping heavily on the floor again.
"This time we can't hesitate any longer! Uchiha Shao Yu's defection is the perfect excuse! We should immediately launch a comprehensive investigation of the Uchiha Clan!"
"The Root has already mastered a list of Radical elements and signs of their activities. We should take this opportunity to wipe them all out! Completely eradicate this unstable tumor."
"Otherwise, once they catch their breath, or once Uchiha Shao Yu establishes himself outside and works with those inside the clan, Konoha will be in dange—"
"Enough!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi shouted, cutting off Danzo's increasingly dangerous and extreme rhetoric.
A clear look of anger finally appeared on his face. "Danzo! Put away that routine of yours! A comprehensive investigation of the Uchiha Clan? Wiping them all out? Do you know what that means?"
"It means Civil war! It means Konoha collapsing from within! It means we will become the laughingstock and the target of the entire Ninja World!"
He walked quickly back behind the desk, leaned forward with his hands on the surface, and stared intensely at Danzo.
"The Uchiha are one of the founding clans of Konoha! Despite the conflicts and suspicions, they have not openly rebelled yet, and most clansmen are still serving the Village! They are still our comrades, the Village's comrades."
"What reason do you intend to use to wipe them out? Based on the defection of Uchiha Shao Yu alone? This will only force all Uchiha to take risks! When that happens, who will bear the consequences? You, or me? Or the entire Konoha?!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, but his tone remained firm.
"Pursuing Uchiha Shao Yu and his accomplices is the current top priority. But as for the overall policy toward the Uchiha Clan, we must maintain the status quo, focusing on appeasement and monitoring. I will not allow you to use this as a pretext. Do you understand, Danzo?"
"Bullshit!"
"Hiruzen, you really are getting weaker and weaker. The evil Uchiha are pushing their luck, and you're still tolerating it!"
"Enough, Danzo. From now on, the funding for your Root will be cut by thirty percent. If you dare to move against the Uchiha, I will directly disband your Root."
...
"Hiruzen, you will regret this!"
"Danzo, I am the Hokage now!"
Bang!
The door was slammed shut by the furious Danzo, leaving behind Hiruzen Sarutobi, who smoked his pipe with a dark expression.
"Danzo, don't blame me. It's wartime... the Uchiha... are still useful."
Advance chapter available on pãtrêon Got1808