In the darkness, a pair of Three Tomoe Sharingan stood out starkly, yet no one could make out the man's face.
"Alright, everyone, make your decisions quickly. Lord Hokage's patience isn't very good."
"This..."
"Black Shadow, how did the handling of those people go?"
Inside the Hokage's Office, Ronglin sipped his tea and asked absentmindedly.
"Reporting to Lord Hokage, it went very smoothly. If they dared refuse, then heh heh."
Black Shadow's voice was rather effeminate, but anyone who mistook him for a sissy would die an ugly death.
This man had once been notoriously terrifying, yet now there were few people left in the entire Uchiha clan—or even all of Konoha—who still recognized him.
"That's good."
Ronglin nodded and set down his teacup. Looking at the man entirely shrouded in a black robe, with only a pair of Three Tomoe Sharingan exposed, he said, "They may only be commanders of ordinary troops, but we'll need their help when the time comes. They can save us a great deal of trouble."
Black Shadow fell silent for a moment before finally speaking.
"Then why doesn't the Clan Head simply control them directly?"
Controlling ordinary people like them was something the Uchiha could accomplish by sending just a few people. Why go through the trouble of recruiting them?
"No."
Ronglin did not mind Black Shadow's form of address. He was Uchiha to begin with, and though he was a little old, whether he called him Clan Head or Hokage was up to him.
"Although the Uchiha now stand alone at the top, those ordinary troops are nothing but numbers to us. They're not worth wasting people and time on. Besides, prosperity can lead certain people down a road of no return. I don't want those I send out to end up