"What? Is that difficult?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen asked again, his tone turning stiff and edged with anger.
Uchiha Fugaku remained silent for a long time.
He said nothing.
He gazed at the Third with a distant look.
"Uchiha Ao didn't have many relatives left. As the person responsible for this incident..."
Sarutobi Hiruzen offered him a way out.
He stopped pressuring him further.
At last, Uchiha Fugaku spoke, slowly delivering a few words.
"He has a younger brother named Uchiha Ran, who just passed the Special Jōnin examination and was recruited into the Anbu. His other younger sibling is a sister named Uchiha Zi, who graduated from the Ninja Academy at the beginning of the year."
Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at him, picked up the pipe on his desk, and pursed his lips around it.
"What about Uchiha Ran?"
He came straight to the point.
The talent displayed by Uchiha Ran, a young member of the Uchiha Clan, was astonishing. He was even closely connected to Shimura Danzō.
That made Hiruzen deeply wary.
If he let the young man continue to grow, and the relationship between Shimura Danzō and the Uchiha Clan improved,
then his Hokage Position would no longer be secure.
One side controlled a special force of ninja assassins responsible for foreign operations, infiltration, and executions. The other had the Uchiha Police Force, which patrolled all of Konoha and was responsible for village security and law enforcement.
If the two joined forces, they could keep the Hokage's authority from extending beyond the Hokage Building.
With his core powers at stake,
Sarutobi Hiruzen couldn't afford to take that gamble.
That was why he had set this whole thing in motion.
Uchiha Fugaku hadn't noticed any of this. The moment he heard Uchiha Ran's name, he froze.
All kinds of thoughts flashed