Danzo Starts Imagining Things: This Must Be an Uchiha Conspiracy!

Konoha.

Hokage's Office.

At this moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi stood alone by the window, admiring the bright moonlight.

The friction between the village and Kumogakure had finally come to an end today.

It had ended perfectly.

"With the threat from Kumogakure gone, I can focus my attention on uniting the village internally."

Hiruzen thought to himself.

Ever since the Nine-Tails Rampage, a rift had formed between the village and the Uchiha Clan.

"If this rift cannot be smoothly eliminated, the Uchiha Clan will be a ticking time bomb within the village."

Although the Uchiha Clan had outstanding ninjas like Shisui and Itachi, who had inherited the Will of Fire, compared to the enormous clan, they were but a drop in the ocean.

However...

Just as Hiruzen was carefully pondering these trivial matters, someone knocked on the office door.

Hiruzen's thoughts returned to reality. "Come in."

After receiving Hiruzen's permission, the visitor pushed open the door and entered.

Once he reached an appropriate distance, he immediately dropped to one knee and lowered his head slightly.

"Lord Hokage."

"Speak." Hiruzen scrutinized the Anbu who had arrived, then returned to his seat.

"Kumogakure's ninjas attempted to abduct Hyuga Hinata..."

Before the Anbu ninja could finish explaining, Hiruzen's eyes widened, and he shot to his feet from the Hokage's seat.

"What?!"

For a moment, Hiruzen's mind went completely blank.

Had Kumogakure not just signed a peace treaty with them?

Why had they committed such a deed in the blink of an eye?

Was the peace treaty nothing more than a scrap of paper in their eyes?

Furthermore, Hinata's identity was no trivial matter.

On a smaller scale, she was the Hyuga Clan Head's daughter.

On a larger scale, she was the future heir of the Hyuga Main Family, a ninja possessing the purest Byakugan!

If she had been taken to Kumogakure for human experimentation,

the secrets of the Hyuga Byakugan could very well have been cracked, becoming Kumogakure's strength instead!

"Where is Hinata?"

"Was she recovered?"

Hiruzen asked urgently.

"Not only was she recovered, but the ninjas holding her hostage were all killed. However..."

"However what?" Hiruzen raised his brow. "Speak."

"The one who killed those ninjas seemed to be Uchiha Kazekage."

When the Anbu ninja finished speaking, Hiruzen froze in place.

He was no stranger to the name Kaze.

Just two days ago, Shisui, who reported on Uchiha movements, had mentioned him.

He had claimed that the ninja who blew up Fugaku's roof was Kaze.

He had accidentally caused it while developing a new Ninjutsu.

Hiruzen had thought it was merely an insignificant incident.

He had not expected to hear Kaze's name again after only two days!

Then, the Anbu ninja explained the entire sequence of events in detail.

Although they had not witnessed Kaze's battle, according to Hyuga Hiashi,

Kaze had single-handedly eliminated one Jonin and four Chunin, then rescued Hinata.

Most importantly...

Kaze had not only emerged unscathed, but not even dust or blood had stained him.

"I also specifically examined the corpses of those Cloud Ninja..."

"The fatal wounds were indeed not caused by the Gentle Fist."

As Anbu directly under the Hokage,

they had handled plenty of corpses.

They would never make a mistake when determining a cause of death.

"You're saying that Chunin named Kaze easily dealt with the enemy?!"

Upon hearing this, Hiruzen sharply inhaled.

If it had been Shisui or Itachi, he would not have been so shocked.

But it had to be Kaze...

He remembered clearly that during the Third Shinobi World War, Kaze had gone to the battlefield with his parents at only five years old.

Although his strength had been ordinary and he had not awakened the Sharingan, considering that his parents had died for the village, when Minato Namikaze became the Fourth Hokage, he had proposed promoting Kaze to Chunin.

In other words, in terms of strength, Kaze had only been a Genin in the village.

Yet it was precisely this Genin from Hiruzen's memories who had first developed Lightning Release Ninjutsu, then eliminated a Kumogakure Jonin!

Strange...

It was simply too strange.

"Moreover, the Uchiha Compound is located on the edge of the village. If he did not have a clear objective, why would Kaze have gone to such a place?"

Could it be...

Kaze had been hiding his strength all along?

But why had he chosen this critical moment to reveal it?

For a time, Hiruzen racked his brains but could not understand Kaze's motives.

However, before one wave had settled, another rose...

Just as Hiruzen tried to process this information,

another member of the Konoha leadership rushed into the Hokage's Office.

He had short black hair, and white bandages were tightly wrapped around his right eye.

It was Danzo!

He had long planted informants within the Anbu forces directly under the Hokage.

When he learned of the major incident that had occurred tonight, he put down all his work and came here.

"Hiruzen, you've heard about it, haven't you?"

"Danzo." Hiruzen narrowed his eyes. He had not expected Danzo's information network to be so efficient.

"What do you think the truth is?"

Danzo met Hiruzen's gaze and skipped the pleasantries.

In his view, what had happened tonight was a major incident capable of threatening Konoha.

"The first possibility is that Hyuga Hiashi killed the Cloud Ninja Leader, then pinned the matter on an Uchiha to clear the Hyuga Clan of any involvement in this incident."

"But why would Kaze have appeared there?"

"That would be difficult to explain."

As he spoke, Danzo raised his right index finger.

Then, he raised his middle finger as well.

"The second possibility is that Hiashi was not lying. By the time he arrived, Kaze had already dealt with all the Cloud Ninja."

"But the Uchiha Clan has always been arrogant. Why would they save Hinata?"

"And how did they obtain that intelligence?"

"What exactly are you trying to say, Danzo?" Hiruzen frowned deeply.

He actually knew very well what Danzo wanted to say.

But he needed Danzo to say it himself.

"What I am saying is..."

"That brat Kaze has most likely been hiding his strength all along."

"The reason he appeared there was because of the Uchiha Clan's ocular powers. They secretly cast Genjutsu on the Cloud Ninja, allowing them to learn of their plan."

"Yet they did not report this matter to us."

"Instead, they sent Kaze to rescue Hinata."

"Fugaku must have wanted to win over the Hyuga Clan, right?"

"Although he voluntarily withdrew from the election for Fourth Hokage back then, the voices within the Uchiha Clan supporting him as Hokage have never weakened over the years."

"On the contrary, they have only grown louder."

"But you and I both know very well that the Uchiha Clan cannot be trusted."