"Chisen, that... Anbu Ninja named Sarutobi Shinosuke, was he once your teacher? Um... was he closely connected to Lord Third Hokage?"
Along the way, Izumi felt that Chisen was walking awfully slowly.
The awkward, overly silent atmosphere left her vaguely uncomfortable.
She plucked up her courage and cautiously broke the silence with a question.
"He was once my Jonin instructor."
Uchiha Chisen said, "A few years ago, when the Third Shinobi World War broke out, he took me onto the battlefield. His surname was Sarutobi, so of course he was connected to the Third. He was the Third's eldest son."
Izumi: "!!!"
The conversation between Chisen and that Anbu Ninja during their fight had been rather indistinct, and Izumi had not heard all of it.
After all, she had not even dared approach a battle on that level.
She had never expected Sarutobi Shinosuke to be the Hokage's eldest son!
Izumi swallowed, feeling her palms grow sweaty.
No matter how she wiped them, they would not dry.
Didn't this practically mean they had offended Lord Third Hokage beyond repair? Yet Izumi was also puzzled. Why had the Hokage simply let her and Chisen leave?
The Hokage had clearly arrived with so many Anbu, looking aggressive and ready to demand answers.
"Then, Lord Hokage..."
Before Izumi could finish her worried question, Uchiha Chisen interrupted her. "Relax. Since the Third chose not to detain me just now, that means he respected Teacher Shinosuke's dying wishes."
He glanced at the anxious Izumi and added, "You don't need to worry about an Anbu Ninja sneaking up to your bedside in the middle of the night."
It seemed Chisen had seen through her thoughts again.
"Oh!"
Izumi nodded meekly.
She did not really understand the undercurrents at work, nor did she know when the Hokage's eldest son had left any dying wishes.
But since Chisen had already said everything was fine...
Then it should probably, possibly be fine, right?
Just then, Izumi felt her head dip, as though something heavy had landed on it, and she could not help crying out.
Then a strangely inflected voice rang out from the top of her head. "Meow. Newbie, just let Lord Chisen have some peace and quiet. Stop asking questions all day, meow!"
Izumi immediately fell silent.
In their little group of two people and a cat, her standing was probably the lowest.
Even lower than a cat's.
"There's no need to overcomplicate things," Uchiha Chisen said evenly. "Sarutobi Shinosuke took the wrong path. He was already deep in the abyss without realizing it. Only at the moment of his death did he finally understand something, but he still had no regrets."
"The Shinobi World has grown so diseased that even an Elite Jonin thinks falling into the abyss is no big deal. Countless cases like this happen simultaneously across different parts of the Shinobi World."
"Newbie, this is your fourth lesson."
"No matter what high-sounding excuses others use to justify 'evil,' you must carry out absolute justice without wavering. Even if that means turning your blade on those you know best."
Izumi committed every word Uchiha Chisen said to memory.
"Understood, Chisen!"
Her expression turned serious.
Meanwhile.
Konoha.
"Lord Danzo, what is the meaning of this? What is Root doing?"
Uchiha Fugaku stood at the head of a group of Konoha Military Police Force members, facing off against Shimura Danzō and his Root operatives.
The Konoha Military Police Force members behind him also glared furiously at the Root Ninja ahead.
The atmosphere was extremely tense.
Both sides stood ready to draw their weapons.
Fugaku's face darkened as he stared straight at Shimura Danzō and spoke in a stiff voice. "Uchiha Chisen, a member of the Uchiha Clan's Konoha Military Police Force, has encountered an emergency outside the village and needs support. I was taking the other members of the force to assist him. That is perfectly reasonable, isn't it?"
"But you, Lord Danzo... what exactly do you intend by bringing so many Root Ninja to block our way?"
As he spoke...
Fugaku kept finding his gaze drifting toward the bandages on Danzo's body.
He remembered what Uchiha Chisen had told him about Danzo's hidden trump card.
If Chisen was right, then beneath those white bandages might lie one Sharingan after another!
A shadow involuntarily clouded Fugaku's eyes.
"Hmph!" Danzo shifted sideways in discomfort. Fugaku's reaction told him that the Naturally Evil Uchiha Brat must have informed Uchiha Fugaku about this.
Damn it!
That brat really is the village's greatest menace. I wonder whether Monkey has gotten rid of him yet.
Danzo refused to retreat even half a step. There was no way he would let Fugaku go to Uchiha Chisen's aid.
Danzo said coldly, "The Hokage has already taken the Anbu to provide 'support.' There is no need for your Uchiha Clan to interfere. Besides, your law enforcement jurisdiction is limited to Konoha. Outside Konoha, your Konoha Military Police Force has no law enforcement authority whatsoever."
When dealing with the Uchiha Clan, "speaking politely" simply did not exist in Danzo's vocabulary.
Fugaku froze.
He gave Danzo a long, searching look and said, "With reinforcements from the Konoha Military Police Force, Lord Hokage will be able to resolve this matter even sooner. Lord Danzo, please allow our force to leave the village and provide support."
Danzo's eyes grew colder. "Fugaku! Are you planning to defy the leadership's orders?"
The Root Ninja behind him had already placed their hands on their ninja tools.
The Uchiha Clan's ninja immediately grew wary as well.
"You..." A younger, radical Uchiha ninja had just started to speak when Fugaku swiftly stopped him.
Fugaku shot him a warning look.
Then...
He addressed Danzo again. "If your delays cause the Uchiha Clan to lose a genius with double Kekkei Genkai for no reason, Lord Danzo, I will certainly report it to Lord Hokage."
Danzo gave a cold snort.
Just then...
A Root Ninja who had been watching the distance walked up beside Danzo and said, "Lord Danzo, the commotion over there has been silent for more than ten minutes now. If my guess is correct, the Hokage and his men must have arrived some time ago and stopped the battle through some unknown means."
Fugaku heard the Root Ninja's words as well.
His brow furrowed.
A cold smile curled Danzo's lips. His objective had already been achieved. Narrowing his eyes, he said, "Fugaku, it seems things are already over there. Do you still intend to gather so many Uchiha here? Or... do you have some other agenda, Fugaku?"
Fugaku clenched his fists.
Then he relaxed them.
"Disperse!" He drew a deep breath and spoke to the Uchiha Clan ninja behind him, his face rigid and expressionless.
"Clan head!" Many of the Uchiha ninja were deeply reluctant.
It was not necessarily that they truly wanted to leave the village to support Uchiha Chisen.
Rather, they were furious and frustrated at being treated with distrust.
"Disperse!"
Fugaku repeated the order through gritted teeth.
Before you continue