Early the next morning, inside the Hokage Building.
The Third Hokage exhaled a ring of smoke. As he looked at the thick stack of documents before him, his face was filled with exhaustion.
After staying up all night, several hours of sorting through matters, and meeting with Itachi Uchiha, he had roughly grasped just how many major events had occurred yesterday.
First, Naruto had attacked the Hokage Building, driven back the pursuing Danzo, and left Konoha with the Scroll of Seals.
Second, Shisui, who had previously been confirmed missing, had returned like a king and fled Konoha with the remaining Uchiha. Their current whereabouts were still unknown.
Besides that, Itachi had brought him another piece of news.
The mysterious Masked Man whom Itachi had contacted to help wipe out the clan was very likely the culprit behind Nine-Tails Night. Itachi intended to infiltrate the Masked Man's organization as a spy, on the condition that Sasuke received fair treatment in Konoha.
Each of these three matters was serious enough to warrant a high-level meeting, yet they had all happened on the same day.
The Third Hokage did not know how to explain this to the advisory elders. Yet blaming it on coincidence did not seem convincing either. After all, where could there be so many coincidences in this world?
Perhaps Naruto's defection, Shisui's return, and the assistance in Itachi's clan massacre had all been the work of the same organization.
But if that was the case, just how powerful would an organization capable of accomplishing all three things at once have to be? Even old rivals like Iwagakure and Cloud could not have done it. Could there be an organization in the shinobi world that stood above the hidden villages?
With a soft sigh, the Third Hokage had little desire to