News of the Hyuga sliding past spread through Konoha like a gust of wind.
The first to feel stunned was the Uchiha.
Deep within the clan compound, Mikoto Uchiha had just finished a grueling etiquette training session and was reporting her progress to her husband, who served as clan head.
When she finished listening to the news her husband brought back, her mind went blank for a split second.
"So, Lord Daimyo never intended to force the Hyuga family from the very beginning?"
"Mn, it seems... we misunderstood."
Fugaku Uchiha's expression was somewhat absent, but he quickly recovered. "Still, it doesn't matter."
His gaze grew firm once again, masking an undisguised ambition within.
"Even if this was a misunderstanding, our choice will not change."
"Whether the Daimyo cares or not is unimportant."
"In the past, we had no choice, and could only follow Konoha!"
"Now we must seize this opportunity to show the Daimyo our loyalty and value!"
"As long as we seize this chance, our Uchiha clan will soar to the skies."
He looked at Mikoto, his tone leaving no room for rebuttal.
"Training continues!"
"Since those fools of the Hyuga have backed down, we of the Uchiha must execute this matter even more perfectly!"
"For the Uchiha!"
Deep down, Mikoto always harbored a sense of worry regarding such an extreme gamble.
Yet her husband's steadfastness caused her to press down her worries and nod heavily. "Alright! For the Uchiha!"
To them, the twists and turns along the way were utterly meaningless.
As long as the Uchiha bloodline could genuinely integrate into the power center of the Land of Fire,
even if this were merely self-deluding flattery, they would play their parts to the bitter end.
Compared to the Uchiha's attitude of following through with their mistake, the atmosphere within the compound of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio was far heavier.
Inside the house, Shikaku Nara stared at the intelligence report in his hands, completely frozen.
Inoichi Yamanaka and Choza Akimichi sat across from him, their expressions equally dramatic.
After a long silence.
Shikaku Nara let out a long breath, his entire body going limp.
He looked dejected, self-contempt surfacing on his face.
"We all guessed wrong."
"Wrong to an outrageous degree."
As Konoha's acknowledged strategist, Shikaku Nara was accustomed to calculating everything, accustomed to exchanging the minimal cost for the maximum benefit.
Yet this time, the brain he took pride in played a fatal joke on him.
"I kept analyzing the Daimyo's motives, thinking that his use of both carrots and sticks was to plot against our Kekkei Genkai, to create internal divisions within Konoha."
He forced a bitter smile, pressing his throbbing temples hard.
"Now it seems..."
"Our vision was simply too small."
Inoichi Yamanaka swallowed hard and spoke with difficulty. "You mean the Daimyo... never even cared about our bloodline in the first place?"
"It's not that he didn't care."
Shikaku Nara shook his head. "It's that from the very beginning, the Daimyo never wanted it."
"What we considered was the gains and losses of a single village or clan, and how to preserve our own secret techniques and heritage."
"What the Daimyo considered was the entire Land of Fire, and how to hold Konoha in the palm of his hand."
"Choosing a consort was merely a stone he tossed out to test the waters."
"We waited and watched for developments, thinking ourselves clever."
Hearing Shikaku's analysis, Choza Akimichi broke out in a cold sweat, speaking with lingering fear. "Thank goodness... thank goodness the Hyuga family blocked this disaster for us."
"If the Daimyo's ultimatum had been sent to our three clans..."
The consequences would have been too ghastly to contemplate!
Powerful though the Ino-Shika-Cho alliance was, how many more days could it have lasted than the Hyuga family before the thunderous methods of the Daimyo Manor?
"We can't wait any longer!"
Shikaku Nara slammed a hand onto the table and abruptly stood up.
He made a prompt and decisive choice.
"Inoichi, Choza, go back immediately and pick people!"
"The Genius Cultivation Plan, the Guardians of the Twelve—we must participate in both, and we must select the most outstanding younger generation and clansmen!"
"Right now!"
"Immediately!"
He heightened his tone, his expression incomparably solemn.
"We must never become the next family named by the Daimyo!"
"This time, not only will we participate, but we'll do it brilliantly!"
On this day.
It was not just the Ino-Shika-Cho trio.
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Every single ninja clan in Konoha that was still sitting on the fence began to spin into a frenzy.
In the Hokage Building, within the advisor's office.
The atmosphere was similarly heavy.
Hiruzen Sarutobi silently puffed on his pipe, the rising smoke obscuring his aged face.
Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura sat across from him, both wearing expressions of emotion and desolation.
"We've all grown old."
Ultimately, Mitokado Homura broke the silence, his voice desolate.
"Our mindset remained stuck in that era when the village was first founded, always feeling that a Kekkei Genkai was a ninja clan's most vital foundation."
"To protect it, one could stop at nothing."
Utatane Koharu pushed up her glasses, the gaze behind the lenses complex.
"Indeed, we always assumed that this new Daimyo coveted beauty and lusted after power."
"Little did we expect that what he wanted was loyalty."
"Nothing more!"
"And we are inherently citizens of the Land of Fire; offering loyalty is nothing more than our duty."
Hiruzen Sarutobi exhaled a ring of smoke and slowly spoke, "Before he died, Danzo said that this Daimyo was even more evil than the Uchiha..."
"Now it seems Danzo understood a part of it, but didn't completely understand."
"He isn't evil."
"He is a sovereign."
"A true monarch who views the entire country as a chessboard."
"And we shinobi, the villages and clans we take pride in, are merely pieces on his chessboard."
He looked out the window at the carvings of the successive Hokage, his gaze dim.
"With a Daimyo like this, the era of the Hokage..."
"Has truly come to an end."
While the major ninja clans of Konoha threw themselves with unprecedented enthusiasm into the two initiatives launched by the Daimyo Manor,
a corner of the village remained as lifeless as ever.
The Shimura clan compound.
There was no clamor of voices like the Uchiha compound, nor the solemn dignity of the Hyuga Main Family.
Only desolation and ruin.
The weeds in the courtyard went unclipped, and the doors and windows of many houses appeared aged.
The clansmen walking within the compound each wore gloomy and terrified expressions on their faces.
Danzo's death was both a relief and a disaster for the entire Shimura clan.
During his life, he had been Konoha's Root, a blade in the darkness with monstrous authority.
Yet toward his own clan, he was harsh to the extreme.
He regarded the Shimura clan as his personal source of soldiers and treasury, continuously pulling out the most promising young ninja seedlings to send into Root.
He even poured the profits of the clan's enterprises endlessly into Root itself.
For decades, the Sarutobi clan, the Utatane clan, and the Mitokado clan all grew increasingly prosperous due to their close relationships with the Hokage.
Only the Shimura clan, far from growing stronger, withered day by day.
Today, Danzo had been executed for treason, his corpse hung from the city walls.
In Konoha, the surname Shimura had become synonymous with a sinner.
Inside the council hall, three white-haired elders sat opposite one another, surrounded by heavy clouds of sorrow.
They were the surviving elders of the Shimura clan.
"Outside... how is it going?" asked Shimura Ken, the lead elder.
"Every clan has gone mad," another elder replied bitterly. "The Genius Cultivation Plan, the Guardians of the Twelve... I hear that the Uchiha and the Hyuga have submitted the lists of their clans' most core descendants."
"Even Ino-Shika-Cho had the three clan heads personally lead the selections, terrified of falling even half a step behind."
Inside the council hall, silence fell once more.
Other families were celebrating a carnival.
Their family was facing doomsday.
"Do we... still have a chance?" a younger clansman could not help speaking, his voice filled with unwillingness.
To this question, no one had an answer.
The crime Danzo committed was the grave offense of regicide and treason.
For the Daimyo not to execute the entire Shimura clan down to the roots was already an act of extraordinary mercy.
Still wanting to secure an opportunity?
That was sheer daydreaming.
"Without trying, how can we know?"
After a long time, Elder Shimura Ken slowly stood up, a trace of resolve surfacing on his aged face.
"The crime Danzo committed was his crime alone."
"We of the Shimura clan have been loyal to the Land of Fire for generations, and that has never changed!"
"We cannot just sit here and wait for death!"
He looked at the crowd, his gaze growing sharp.
"Prepare a modest gift; I am going to see the Fourth Hokage!"
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