Is This Not Insanity?

"Tombo Sarutobi! Stop clawing at the floor! You've already ruined the floorboards of the sobering room with your toes!"

Hearing Kawadera Uchiha say this, Tombo Sarutobi embarrassedly retracted his toes.

Once he sobered up, he realized he was in the sobering room of the Police Force.

Memories struck him like sharp blades, stabbing into him one after another.

Last night at the izakaya, he had drunk too much, acted out, and spilled everything he dared not say to his friends.

It seemed he had become quite agitated toward the end, saying many things he shouldn't have.

What was it he said again...

Oh, he had cursed the late captain Takashi Senju, that man who insisted on charging headlong into the battlefield.

Although he had blocked a Rock Iron Cannon for him in the end and saved his life, Takashi Senju had also caused him to lose eight of his fingers.

That idiot who should have died long ago, who deserved to have his whole family wiped out, had ruined his ability to be a ninja.

So what if he cursed him a bit?

Who the hell wants to die for the bullshit glory of you Senju Clan members?

Oh, he seemed to have shouted that last night as well.

At the time, the izakaya was packed with people inside and out.

It's over, everything is over.

The izakaya was in shambles, and after the Uchiha Police Force ninjas took control of the scene, it seemed he was the only one still there shouting.

Outside the izakaya, the crowd was packed, everyone eager to see which unlucky soul had been hauled in by the Police Force.

The things he had shouted seemed to have been heard by many.

Besides cursing Takashi Senju, he had also kept trying to reclaim his pride.

After his fingers were severed and he could no longer be a ninja, those sympathetic gazes hadn't comforted him; instead, they had trampled his dignity into the dirt.

He didn't want sympathy! Sympathy was just another way of insulting him!

In the end, his last shred of pride had become the Sarutobi surname.

There was a saying within the clan that the Sarutobi Clan would become the number one ninja clan in Konoha under the leadership of their patriarch, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Drunk last night, he had kept rambling about how the Sarutobi Clan was about to take off, about to become the number one clan, and he had demanded that others show him more respect.

Thinking of this, Tombo Sarutobi couldn't help but extend his toes, his eyes vacant, and claw at the floor once more.

The open-toed shoes of a ninja were truly a blessing, allowing him to claw at the ground whenever he felt embarrassed.

Bang!

The door to the sobering room was kicked open, and the jonin Mukade Sarutobi walked in with a dark expression.

Kawadera Uchiha quickly jumped up from his chair; he had long heard of this jonin's explosive temper.

"Jonin Mukade Sarutobi, I have been waiting for you to come and collect him."

"Hmph."

Mukade Sarutobi let out a muffled grunt, turned his head to look at Tombo Sarutobi sitting on the floor, his face full of disappointment.

"Get up! You idiot! Stop embarrassing yourself here, damn it!"

Mukade Sarutobi grabbed the handle and slammed the door against the wall behind it.

Tombo Sarutobi scrambled to his feet, keeping his head low as he followed Mukade Sarutobi out.

After seeing them off, Kawadera Uchiha looked at the file, thinking to himself that last night had been quite the show.

Tombo Sarutobi had said what many in the Sarutobi Clan wanted to say, and Kawadera Uchiha had found it quite satisfying to hear.

It was late by the time he finished his temporary shift, so Kawadera Uchiha went to find Seigetsu Senju.

Half an hour later, Seigetsu Senju was rinsing her mouth with Water Style.

Kawadera Uchiha stared at Seigetsu and said, "You don't have to swallow the water you used to rinse, spit it out."

Seigetsu Senju rolled her eyes at Kawadera and spat out the Water Style from her mouth.

"Seigetsu, let me show you a file. I remember it being particularly detailed."

Seigetsu Senju wiped the water from her lips, picked up the scroll, and read it, her brow furrowing more as she went on.

The people of the Sarutobi Clan actually thought they were the current number one ninja clan in Konoha?

Seigetsu Senju wasn't particularly surprised by this, as the Senju Clan had declined; both in the number of jonin and the total number of ninjas, they were inferior to several other large clans.

The only thing they had left was the pride of being the clan that founded the village.

She was more concerned about this line.

"Tombo Sarutobi said that many people are unwilling to team up with the Senju Clan? That they treat the Senju Clan like a plague god when they see them?"

Kawadera Uchiha quickly said, "I certainly don't have such thoughts; it's those cowardly Konoha ninjas who think that way."

Seigetsu Senju said, "I know it wasn't you. You aren't even fazed by hundreds of millions of casualties."

Kawadera Uchiha coughed repeatedly. Ever since he had opened the door to a new world, Seigetsu had become increasingly uninhibited, and he loved it.

"I never expected..." Seigetsu Senju said sorrowfully, "I never expected that we would be so brave that the other Konoha ninja would start to loathe us..."

Kawadera Uchiha steered the conversation away, saying, "Seigetsu, I'll be working as a temp at the Police Force recently to scout for intelligence on the Uchiha Clan and within the village. You don't need to doubt me; my heart has always been with the village and with the Senju Clan."

"Mm, of course I wouldn't doubt you."

In the days that followed, Kawadera Uchiha was busy every single day.

He practiced on his own during the day, worked as a temp at the Police Force when they were short-handed at night, went to sweat it out with Seigetsu after his late shift, and finished the night by giving Shingu Senju special training in genjutsu.

One night, while Kawadera Uchiha was arresting a rowdy drunkard at an izakaya, he heard two people talking at a table in the distance.

"Which clan do you think is actually the number one ninja clan in Konoha?"

"It has to be the Senju Clan, right? Ever since the village was founded, hasn't the Senju Clan always been the top clan?"

"How could it be the Senju Clan? Look at how weak the Senju Clan has become."

"Then it must be the Sarutobi Clan. The Sarutobi Clan has the Ino-Shika-Cho trio as vassals, plus the support of the Shimura Clan. They are at the height of their influence."

"How could it be the Sarutobi Clan? The Sarutobi Clan is far behind thousand-year clans like the Senju and Uchiha."

"Could it be the Uchiha Clan?"

"I think it's the Uchiha Clan..."

Kawadera Uchiha frowned.

For the past four or five days, everyone in this izakaya had been discussing the things Tombo Sarutobi had shouted while running wild—that the Sarutobi Clan was the number one ninja clan in Konoha.

A consensus had already formed in this izakaya that the Sarutobi Clan was the number one clan in Konoha.

Today, however, other rumors and versions had appeared.

Kawadera Uchiha instinctively felt that these rumors were not without cause.

After dragging the rowdy patron back, Kawadera Uchiha asked GG Uchiha for leave; he had something to discuss with his superior, Ishiya Uchiha.

Inside a building in the clan compound, Kawadera Uchiha met with Ishiya Uchiha.

"You're saying someone is deliberately muddying the waters, trying to pin the title of Konoha's number one ninja clan on us?"

"Yes. After Tombo Sarutobi caused that scene the other night, the people in that izakaya were spontaneously debating whether the Sarutobi Clan was the top clan, but today there was a shift. Someone is intentionally guiding public opinion. Is the Sarutobi Clan trying to divert the disaster and avoid attracting too much attention?"

After a moment of thought, Ishiya Uchiha said, "Kawadera, I trust your judgment. Wait here while I go find the Clan Head. We must take countermeasures immediately."

After waiting for over ten minutes, Kawadera Uchiha met back up with Ishiya Uchiha.

"Senior Ishiya, what should we do? Should we track down those spreading the rumors and interrogate them to find out who is behind this?"

"No need!" Ishiya Uchiha waved his hand dismissively and said:

"The Clan Head says we don't need to be humble. Our Uchiha Clan is indeed the number one ninja clan in Konoha right now."

Kawadera Uchiha was stunned. Was the Clan Head, No Uchiha, suffering from some kind of illness?

Was being the number one clan in Konoha even a good title? Even the Sarutobi Clan knew to distance themselves from it; why would the Uchiha Clan want this hot potato?

"Not only do we not need to investigate, we need to fan the flames and spread the word that the Uchiha are the number one ninja clan!"

Kawadera Uchiha was deeply confused, but he said, "It must be that I was too rash. The clan must have deeper considerations that my brain couldn't possibly fathom."

Ishiya Uchiha said with great fervor:

"The Senju Clan has suffered a major blow to their vitality. It is time to prove the strength of the Uchiha Clan with a grand victory! Young Master Fugaku will surely crush the competition and take first place in the Chunin Exams! The Uchiha are the present of Konoha, and they are also the future of Konoha! We must cooperate with Young Master Fugaku's performance and prepare the public opinion! Kawadera! Go! Go and spread the rumor that the Uchiha Clan is the number one clan in Konoha! The Clan Head says he wants to test the attitudes of all parties!"

"Senior Ishiya! Consider it done! You can count on me!"

In his heart, however, he thought, Isn't this insane? Isn't this too arrogant?