Behind Jie Uchiha stood three Kumogakure ninja, each carrying a heavily injured comrade on their back.
This strange combination immediately sparked a flurry of whispers among the gathered crowd. Jie, however, clearly had no intention of explaining himself just yet.
Walking slowly to Fugaku Uchiha's side, Jie looked at Danzo's gloomy face and smiled. "Look at my memory. Elder Danzo's position as the Hokage's Assistant was revoked by the Third Hokage three years ago. Since Root has been disbanded, Elder Danzo is no longer the Hokage's Assistant either."
Danzo's face darkened instantly. He opened his mouth to speak, but found himself entirely unable to refute the claim.
After all, Jie was telling the truth. Stripped of his titles, Danzo was technically nothing more than a common civilian now. Helpless to argue the technicality, Danzo could only snort coldly to express his extreme dissatisfaction.
Jie didn't care about Danzo's attitude in the slightest. He turned around, fixing his gaze on Hiruzen Sarutobi. "Since Root no longer exists, this so-called 'Root Base' is nonsense. So, may I ask Lord Hokage, what exactly is wrong with Clan Head Fugaku bringing the Uchiha clansmen to the back mountain for a training drill?"
Jie's question left Hiruzen completely speechless.
If Root was disbanded, the base was naturally abandoned property. Surrounding an abandoned facility for a clan drill didn't seem unreasonable on paper. But if Hiruzen admitted that Jie's logic was sound, wouldn't it make him look like he was making a mountain out of a molehill?
"I'm not referring to that," Hiruzen said, forcefully changing the subject. "I'm asking why the Uchiha clan locked down the village! And why did you arrest the Kumogakure delegation?"
'Nice assist!' Jie gave Hiruzen a look of genuine appreciation. He had just been wondering how to steer the conversation in this exact direction, and Hiruzen had practically handed him the perfect excuse on a silver platter.
"Then you should be asking our dear Elder Danzo," Jie sneered. "Why were these so-called 'delegates'—who are actually Kumogakure spies—able to evade the Anbu's surveillance without making a sound? How did they manage to create chaos in the village, using the distraction to target both the Uchiha clan head's son and the Hyuga main branch?"
Danzo's eyes narrowed dangerously. Although he had definitely pulled the strings behind the scenes, he was absolutely certain he hadn't left behind a single shred of evidence. Settling his nerves, he spoke without changing his expression.
"What does that have to do with me? If the Uchiha clan head's son is taken right from under your noses, it only proves that your clan is incompetent. You can't even protect your own leader's child," Danzo mocked instinctively.
"Nonsense! It was obviously you who ordered people to cause chaos in the Uchiha compound!" Arui seized the moment, pointing frantically at Danzo and shoving all the blame onto him. "You were the one who gave us the deployment patrols of the Hyuga main branch! And after we succeeded, it was your subordinates who escorted us out of Konoha!"
Internal strife among Konoha's higher-ups was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Kumogakure. Since Arui knew it was impossible for them to return to their village alive, he figured he might as well throw his life away to cause as much damage to Konoha as possible.
Did he need actual proof for a false accusation? No! He was the best living witness.
Ironically, Arui had no idea that his desperate attempt at framing Danzo had accidentally struck the absolute truth.
His outburst caused an immediate uproar among the spectating clans. A Konoha elder colluding with foreign spies to sell out the village's intelligence? Actively trying to let their precious Kekkei Genkai fall into enemy hands? If this was true, it would be the biggest scandal to hit Konoha since Orochimaru defected.
Jie nodded slightly. He had kept these three Kumogakure ninja alive for this exact moment. The strategy worked perfectly; even without his explicit instructions, the Kumo ninja played their parts flawlessly.
"Absolute nonsense!" Danzo's face turned completely black as he reflexively barked back. "How can you believe the words of enemy spies? This is clearly a plot to sow discord between Konoha's leadership and its noble clans! Hiruzen, I propose we rebuild Root immediately and let me investigate the bottom of this."
Danzo's mind worked incredibly fast, instantly fabricating an excuse for himself while simultaneously pushing his agenda to rebuild Root in front of everyone.
"Root?" Jie scoffed coldly. "You mean those rats hiding in the dark? Coincidentally, while I was pursuing these Kumo spies, I caught a nest of them. It was these very rats who ambushed the Uchiha clansmen, dug out their Sharingan, and escorted the Kumogakure spies out of Konoha."
With a wave of his hand, Jie ordered his men to drag forward three heavily injured, dying Root ninja. Then, he tossed several scrolls onto the ground, unsealing the corpses of the Anbu operatives and letting them roll out into the open.
"It really is too difficult to control the power required to brush past ants without accidentally crushing them," Jie sighed, his face a picture of exaggerated annoyance. "Even with my utmost restraint, only three of them survived."
Watching Jie's arrogant display, Hiruzen almost lost his temper and punched him.
But right at that moment, someone in the surrounding crowd gasped.
"Shikaku, isn't that... Shiku?" Inoichi Yamanaka asked, staring wide-eyed at one of the dying Root members.
"Yes, that's Shiku," Shikaku Nara nodded, his expression grim as he confirmed his clansman's identity.
"But Shiku died in the Third Shinobi World War! His name is already carved on the Memorial Stone. Why is he here?"
"And isn't that Tatsuma Aburame?" another voice chimed in. "Didn't he die in the war too?"
"Is that Fu Yamanaka?"
The sudden reappearance of several people who were supposed to have died years ago immediately sent a shockwave of frantic discussion through the crowd.
When Danzo saw that Shiku Nara and the others were still alive, his heart plummeted straight into his stomach.
'There are actually survivors!' Not only did these useless pieces of trash fail their mission, but they also managed to get captured alive. Danzo cursed viciously in his heart, his brain spinning rapidly as he tried to figure out a way to break out of this dead end.
Before he could conjure a viable excuse, Jie's expression shifted into dead seriousness.
"Uchiha clan, hear my order!" Jie's voice rang out, cold and authoritative. "I suspect Danzo Shimura is a spy planted in Konoha by an enemy village. According to the regulations of the Konoha Military Police Force, we will conduct a thorough search of the Root base. Do not let a single Shimura clansman slip away!"
"Jie Uchiha, what do you think you're doing?!" Hiruzen roared out. "Danzo cannot be a spy!"
If Danzo fell here today, how could Hiruzen possibly stand against the Uchiha clan all by himself? He absolutely could not let anything happen to his old teammate.
"The words of a few spies and missing-ninja cannot be considered solid evidence!" Hiruzen argued.
Jie let out a harsh laugh. Hiruzen was truly getting more senile with age. The living witnesses were right in front of him, yet he was still stubbornly refusing to admit the truth. It was just as the saying went: you can never wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.
But it didn't matter if the Hokage refused to acknowledge it. This play was put on for the benefit of the other clans. As long as the rest of Konoha believed it, Jie's goal had been perfectly achieved.
"Do it," Jie commanded, completely ignoring Hiruzen's outrage.
The Uchiha ninja moved like a well-oiled machine, surging forward to bypass Danzo and storm the Root base.
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