The next morning, Roy hurried to the Military Police Force.
"Reporting in!"
When he arrived at the Military Police Force, Roy found all the members of the Fourth Squad gathered there.
Uchiha Natsume stood at the front, looking somewhat displeased.
"Fall in."
"Yes!"
"All right, the entire Fourth Squad is here."
"Roy, you four will be under your command. Patrol the village."
"The rest of you, come with me to the training ground."
After Uchiha Natsume finished speaking, he led the others away.
"What's wrong with the captain?"
"Big Brother Roy, the captain seems kind of strange today. Do you know anything?"
"Yeah, Big Brother Roy."
The three of them all turned to look at Roy.
They were among the six who had joined the Military Police Force alongside Roy, so they knew Uchiha Natsume had called him away during the battle.
And since Roy had been directly appointed squad leader, they all assumed he and Natsume had some kind of special relationship.
"I'm not sure."
"But we can't go wrong doing a good job patrolling Konoha."
"Come on, let's get going."
Roy was also a little unsure.
But most likely, Shisui's actions yesterday had gotten under Natsume's skin.
What Roy didn't know was that as soon as Natsume left Fugaku's study, he went straight to find Shisui.
And then... Shisui beat him up.
"If you just wanted me to understand how powerful the Uchiha are, I already know."
After winning, Shisui left him with those words and walked away.
That had only further provoked Natsume, which was why he'd arranged extra training for today.
"Naishiro, go help that old man push his cart over there."
"Xiu, there's an old woman over there. Go help her carry her things."
"Uncle, you can't leave these things in the road. They need to be moved right away. Let me help you."
"Yoichi, come over and help too."
That afternoon.
"Did you see that? Those are people from the Military Police Force. They're actually helping carry things."
"I know. They even helped me cross the road today. There used to be a cute Uchiha boy who liked doing things like that, too."
"I think the Uchiha are pretty great. They're not only powerful, they've also become much more polite than before."
Among those they helped, people were gradually beginning to change their opinions of the Uchiha.
At the same time, Sarutobi Hiruzen had been watching Roy and the others' actions.
But his expression was far from pleasant.
"Here are the four of them: Uchiha Roy, Uchiha Xiu, Uchiha Yoichi, and Uchiha Naishiro."
An Anbu member quickly placed the four men's files in front of Sarutobi Hiruzen.
"Uchiha Roy?"
Hearing that familiar name, Sarutobi Hiruzen furrowed his brow.
He had a feeling something was about to happen.
But... he was only a Chunin.
"Have they done anything unusual besides this?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen paid close attention to the Uchiha's movements.
"Of the four squads in the Military Police Force, everyone except these four has gone for extra training."
"Among those training, at least seven are at the Jonin level, and all four squad leaders are elite Jonin."
"The Uchiha are probably making preparations."
The Anbu member continued.
"Preparations?"
"I understand."
Sarutobi Hiruzen nodded.
The Anbu member then vanished from the room.
He took out two files, one for Uchiha Itachi and one for Uchiha Shisui.
The Uchiha's two geniuses had both completed the paperwork to leave the Anbu today.
"Uchiha Fugaku, what are you planning?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen wasn't sure what to make of it.
Before, he hadn't been this wary of the Uchiha.
But now...
Of course, Roy hadn't given a moment's thought to the possibility that this would affect Sarutobi Hiruzen.
He had already begun doing what he needed to do.
Uchiha Fugaku wasn't a fool. After taking these steps, he would surely notice the changes in the village.
"Big Brother Roy, is there some special reason we did all that today?"
Inside the Military Police Force, Uchiha Xiu looked at Roy curiously.
The other two turned to look at him as well.
"Xiu, were the old woman's apples tasty?"
"Naishiro, the old man offered you water, didn't he?"
"Yoichi, the ramen we ate together was pretty good, right?"
"Doing what we can for the village, then earning people's approval and gratitude—that's pretty interesting, don't you think?"
Roy said with a smile.
"Big Brother Roy, now that you put it that way, I really did feel like I got something out of today. So that's what it was—people's approval?"
Uchiha Xiu scratched his head and chuckled.
"This is part of training, too. Once we have people to protect and goals we want to work toward..."
"Our strength will grow quickly as well."
Roy added.
When they were done, the four of them headed back to the Uchiha Compound together.
Late that night.
Several figures moved around outside Konoha.
"My lord."
"This is the shipment. Could we make the next deal somewhere other than the outskirts of Konoha?"
"It's still a bit dangerous."
The man leaned against a few crates, looking somewhat disgruntled.
"Understood."
"This is the last deal."
A figure stepped into the moonlight, revealing a deathly pale face.
"My lord, what do you mean by that?"
"Is there something wrong with the goods we provided..."
"Shhk..."
Before the man could finish, two snakes darted out and killed him on the spot.
Even as he died, the man couldn't understand why Orochimaru had suddenly turned on him.
"Danzo, since you're here, come on out."
Orochimaru opened the crates and summoned several snakes, which swallowed all the bodies.
"Orochimaru, if you can't give me an answer I find satisfactory soon..."
"Then I may have no choice but to put an end to all this..."
"It won't be long now."
"I still need one thing: the Uchiha's eyes."
Orochimaru turned to look at Danzo.
His smile was even more deathly pale.
"I understand."
"That man escaped last time, and now he's been very active in the village."
"It's about time we used some methods to get what we want."
"Orochimaru, you'd better not be deceiving me."
Danzo finished speaking and disappeared into the darkness.
After Danzo left, Orochimaru licked his lips.
"Was that a threat?"
Orochimaru murmured darkly. A huge snake emerged from underground and carried him away.
At the same time, members of Root quickly left the village.
The next day, Uchiha Shisui also led a squad out of the village.
The New Year was coming soon, and they had to head to the Land of Fire Daimyo's residence ahead of time and stand by.
Before you continue