Shock

Hokage Building.

"What!? Itachi attacked Danzo and gouged out his eye!?"

"And he even escaped Danzo's encirclement unscathed?"

Upon hearing the report from the spy he had planted beside Danzo, the Third Hokage nearly failed to hold onto his pipe.

The spy replied quietly, "Yes. Uchiha Itachi also possesses the Mangekyō Sharingan."

"He used the same Susanoo as Shisui, though his was orange-red."

The Third Hokage's expression turned extremely grim upon hearing this.

There were several reasons why he had allowed Danzo to wipe out the Uchiha Clan.

One of them was that Shisui's other eye was still unaccounted for.

There was a strong chance that it had been confiscated by the Uchiha Clan.

There was no need to elaborate on how terrifying Kotoamatsukami was. Naturally, having Danzo handle such a matter was for the best.

Furthermore, the Third Hokage believed that even if the Uchiha Clan resisted, they could still be completely exterminated.

Especially with Itachi, a powerful Uchiha, having already defected to Konoha.

Ninjas had high attack power but fragile defenses. With an insider, a Decapitation Operation could be carried out at any time.

The Uchiha Clan naturally had no chance of victory whatsoever.

Dealing with arrogant, prideful Uchiha geniuses like that was simply too easy.

All he had to do was praise such geniuses on a few occasions, and they would soon lose themselves.

In any case, for a qualified politician like the Third Hokage, it was merely a matter of moving his lips—child's play.

Afterward, bringing Itachi into the Anbu made it even easier to indoctrinate him.

Fugaku, afflicted with the Uchiha Clan's common failing, arrogantly believed that Itachi would never betray the clan.

That was why he had sent him to infiltrate Konoha as a spy.

Fugaku's stupidity lay in the fact that, during the two years following Shisui's death, Itachi had barely communicated with him.

He did not even know Itachi's state of mind, yet he arrogantly believed Itachi would certainly stand with the clan.

Meanwhile, the Third Hokage assigned Itachi missions every day and indoctrinated him day and night.

He only needed to have the other Council Elders play the bad cop and pressure Itachi, while he himself played the good cop and spoke lofty, high-sounding words.

That way, Itachi would place unlimited trust in the Third Hokage, even if the Third Hokage was merely paying lip service.

Whenever Itachi reported that certain Security Force clansmen were particularly radical, the Third Hokage found excuses to dismiss them.

Whenever Itachi reported that gathering the Security Force together made a coup easy, the Third Hokage found excuses to divide them.

Thus, from beginning to end, Itachi had been manipulated in the palm of the Third Hokage's hand.

And with nothing more than a few words, the Third Hokage could bring about the extermination of an entire clan.

That was the terror of politics.

Moreover, Itachi had always been trapped within an information cocoon, utterly unable to clearly understand any of it.

It was only several years after his defection, when his horizons gradually broadened, that he understood just how foolish he had been.

But by then, the die had been cast, and Itachi had also been crushed by immense mental pressure.

His mental state manifested in his body, and the Mangekyō was something that severely strained the body. That was why Itachi died young in the prime of his life.

Normally, at this point in time, Itachi definitely would not have awakened to the truth.

But the Third Hokage could never have imagined that the Uchiha Clan possessed something like Izanami, a form of forced brainwashing.

If someone's mind was unclear, they would remain trapped in the loop forever.

All he knew now was that Itachi had switched sides at the crucial moment—and that Itachi was a Mangekyō Sharingan wielder.

The Third Hokage was now in a difficult position. As Hokage, he knew at least a little about the Mangekyō Sharingan.

Unless he had combat power of the same level to match it, he could only overwhelm it with human lives.

The Uchiha Clan must already have prepared to fight to the death.

If they acted now, they would certainly suffer devastating losses.

The Third Hokage irritably took a puff from his pipe. "How is Danzo now?"

The spy dressed as a Root member said:

"When I left, the preliminary diagnosis was that Danzo had suffered severe mental trauma, and other problems had also appeared in his body."

One had to know that even Kakashi, whose physical condition was at its peak, had been bedridden for a week after being struck by a Tsukuyomi.

Danzo was already over sixty. His body and mental state were naturally his weak points.

Furthermore, the modifications to his Wood Style Arm were not stable.

Whether he would wake up at all, and when, was still uncertain.

Although the Third Hokage did not know what Tsukuyomi was, he knew Danzo would be of no use for the time being.

"Get Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura here at once!"

The entrance to the Uchiha Clan Compound was already packed with people.

Many of them had been dragged straight out of their sleep.

But the Uchiha Clan still had its foundations. Upon hearing that a major battle was imminent, they quickly donned their combat gear and headed out.

Standing at the front of the clan were Fugaku, the Great Elder, the Second Elder, and the Third Elder.

The Great Elder waited patiently, his gaze sharp.

The Second Elder and Third Elder wore extremely grim expressions. They had once worked hard to maintain peaceful coexistence with Konoha.

Yet Danzo had now issued an order to exterminate the Uchiha, and Root members had already crept up to the outskirts of their compound.

The feeling was no different from being slapped across the face dozens of times.

And the more they learned, the more alarmed they became.

They had never imagined that the Uchiha Clan had reached such a perilous point.

Tap, tap, tap. As footsteps approached, Itachi returned alone first.

He landed before the assembled group.

At once, furious shouts rang out without end. "Uchiha Itachi! How dare you betray the clan!"

"Uchiha Itachi, you traitor!"

Itachi looked somewhat numb and exhausted, with blood still around his eyes. He seemed not to hear the words around him.

After merely glancing at Fugaku, he went to stand beside the Great Elder.

A bitter smile appeared on Fugaku's face. He could not escape blame for how things had turned out.

The Great Elder swept his imposing gaze over the clansmen.

The clansmen all fell silent. As the most hardline and influential elder among the hawks, Shihu had earned his position through countless battles.

Though his hair and beard were white, his body remained robust. Clad in combat gear, he radiated killing intent, his presence overwhelmingly imposing.

The Great Elder said nothing, and no one else dared to speak.

The wait was not long before Senyo descended with Izumi.

Everyone's eyes turned toward him.

Senyo grabbed Izumi and shoved her into Itachi's arms as he said, "You weren't threatened by Konoha, were you? Sasuke has been rescued, and I rescued Izumi too."

Itachi froze for a moment as Izumi threw herself into his arms like a fledgling bird returning to its nest.

Grievance, fear, gratitude—buffeted by all kinds of emotions, Izumi's face was already covered in tears.

"Itachi, boohoo..."

Itachi's body stiffened briefly as he looked at Senyo.

Senyo merely gave him a look that said, It's up to you.

At a time like this, Itachi said nothing. He simply held Izumi tighter.

Senyo saw Itachi's Bond Value continuing to rise, and his heart finally settled. It looked like this would work!

He glanced at Fugaku, who was little more than dead weight, then stepped to the very front of the group and spoke.

"Tonight, the Uchiha did not stage a coup. We merely fought back against an invasion by Danzo and Root."

"Understand?"

The Uchiha in battle mode might not have become any smarter, but they still possessed the basic discipline of shinobi.

"Understood!"

Even if they did not understand why they had to do this, they knew that all they needed to do right now was obey.