After slamming the door of the Hokage's Office shut without mercy and leaving, Uchiha Tokimitsu paid no heed to the consequences. He first went to the Konoha Military Police Force to check in with his father, Uchiha Nakagen, and presented him with Three-Color Dango he had conveniently picked up from Konoha Commercial Street. After exchanging some insights on ninjutsu with the Uchiha officers, he leisurely returned to the Uchiha Clan Compound, paid his respects at Elder Setsuna's Mansion, and only then strolled home to prepare dinner with his mother, Emiko.
Everything appeared orderly and unhurried.
But in the eyes of the major ninja clans watching this matter closely, it was an entirely different story.
Due to Konoha's unique political environment, every matter, great or small, that occurred in the Hokage's Office Building—especially within the Hokage's Office—was a major event in the eyes of Konoha's high-level ninja, particularly the great ninja clans.
Ever since the Third Hokage took control of Konoha, he had consistently sought to strengthen the Hokage's centralized authority atop the Second Hokage's system of control. This would inevitably intensify the conflicts between the village and the ninja clans.
In the past, however, faced with the Hokage Faction that occupied the moral high ground, aside from the Uchiha Clan—the strongest and most hard-headed of them all—the other ninja clans had few ways to respond. Their clan governance systems had been steadily eroded for a long time.
The ninja clans all understood why Torifu Akimichi, another member of the Second Hokage's Kage Guard, had retired in his prime. Though the Ino-Shika-Cho Three Clans publicly claimed that Lord Torifu's old injuries had flared up and forced him to retire and recuperate, anyone who had seen Torifu Akimichi devour thirty jin of grilled meat in a day would never believe such a