Hiruzen Sarutobi Cannot Represent Everything

No one does anything superfluous, and no one reserves redundancy for sudden disasters.

The Shanty Town could accommodate tens of thousands of villagers, which means that many people once lived there, but they are no longer present.

Before yesterday, Yamanaka Chujiu did not even know the Shanty Town existed, which implies that not many people have been moving out of it.

There is only one truth: the people are all dead.

Uchiha Shisui asked with trepidation, "Senior Chujiu, those villagers from yesterday..."

Yamanaka Chujiu answered with certainty, "Yesterday, someone used their power to employ extremely brutal methods, skipping the struggle of insufficient income to push those villagers below the Execution Line, and even impatiently used your Uchiha clan to send them to their final place of execution."

"They obtained the property they had long coveted, while letting the Uchiha bear the infamy of bullying veteran villagers, turning you into enemies in the eyes of the commoners."

Uchiha Shisui turned pale upon hearing this, gritting his teeth as he asked, "Senior Chujiu, do you know who is encroaching on the villagers' property and using it to frame us, the Uchiha?"

Yamanaka Chujiu said, "What would you do if you knew?"

Uchiha Shisui was so angry his face turned red, and he snorted coldly, "Of course, I would report it to the Third Hokage and have him severely punish these villains!"

Yamanaka Chujiu: "..."

In his mind, an image of the Third Hokage wearing a Ming Dynasty seventh-rank official's robe appeared, accompanied by a classic line:

"Who is it below the hall accusing this official?"

Yamanaka Chujiu almost laughed out loud and hurriedly took a sip of tea to suppress it.

After coughing twice, he prompted, "Shisui, you saw the land deeds yesterday; do you remember the surname of the homeowners on them?"

Uchiha Shisui's flushed face turned white instantly, and a surname leaked through his teeth: "Sarutobi..."

Upon hearing this surname, Uchiha Itachi also suffered a violent shock; he trembled all over and asked, "How could this be?"

"The Third Hokage is the best Hokage, he is the embodiment of the 'Will of Fire'; how could he seize the land and houses of the villagers?"

"Hahaha."

Yamanaka Chujiu laughed loudly, "Uchiha Itachi, you are truly adorable."

"But I must say, the education you Uchiha receive is truly problematic. Did your elders never tell you that Hiruzen Sarutobi and the Sarutobi Clan are not one and the same?"

"Just like... the Third Hokage has never been Shimura Danzō, and Root can never represent the Hokage."

Yamanaka Chujiu had another layer of meaning he didn't voice: conversely, Hiruzen Sarutobi cannot represent everything in Konoha.

But seeing their two pairs of bewildered eyes, Yamanaka Chujiu knew they could not grasp the deeper implications.

So he acted out the utmost surprise: "Has really no one ever said that?"

Uchiha Shisui replied, "No, no one in the clan has ever said that..."

Yamanaka Chujiu scratched his head: "Tsk, then it's not your education that's the problem, but the Uchiha clan itself that has a problem."

"A great clan with a thousand-year heritage, are you really this naive?"

Shisui and Itachi's faces turned completely red; they stammered, not knowing what to say, and could only look at Chujiu awkwardly, hoping he wouldn't continue.

Chujiu understood their meaning and curled his lip: "Fine, I will continue talking about the Execution Line."

The Execution Line for civilian ninjas is the monopoly on ninjutsu held by the Hokage and the ninja clans, and it hasn't been around for very long.

Before Tobirama Senju became the Second Hokage, he founded the prototype of the Ninja Academy, gathering the essence of the Senju Clan's ninjutsu and making it public for everyone to learn.

Dan Katō's Spirit Transformation Technique, Might Duy's Eight Inner Gates, and Maruboshi Kosuke's Three-Seal Water Release were all obtained directly through this open channel.

During the Second Hokage's reign, the Ninja Academy taught not only all ninjutsu below A-rank, but excellent students could even access forbidden techniques.

Consequently, led by Orochimaru and Jiraiya, civilian ninjas began to rise powerfully.

Small ninja clans also produced a batch of geniuses, led by the White Fang of Konoha, Hatake Sakumo.

The situation where Konoha produced geniuses one after another was thus formed, but after the Third Hokage took office, the Ninja Academy only taught taijutsu, shurikenjutsu, and six E-rank ninjutsu.

Ninjutsu of C-rank and above completely disappeared; to obtain them, one had to take a master or spend a large sum of money to purchase them from the Mission Department.

This resulted in the new generation of Ninja Academy graduates being weak; not only did the gap between them and their predecessors widen, but without a clan or a master, they were completely inferior to the genin of Sunagakure, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure.

If their strength was insufficient, they could only perform C-rank missions, and the meager rewards were only enough to maintain a living.

Without money, they couldn't buy high-level ninjutsu; without ninjutsu, they couldn't improve their strength; and without sufficient strength, they couldn't be promoted to chunin, leaving them to remain poor and destitute.

As long as they encountered one serious injury or one major illness, a Konoha genin would immediately go bankrupt and enter the spiral of the Execution Line.

Without money to receive ninjutsu-based medical treatment, they couldn't perform missions while injured or ill, and thus became even more short of money.

Serious injuries dragged on into disabilities, and major illnesses turned critical; even if they didn't die directly, they would likely be discharged due to disability.

Afterward, like the villagers, they couldn't pay rent and became homeless, forced into the Shanty Town by curfew laws.

The bodies of retired ninjas, adapted to the flow of chakra, are the favorite living experimental materials for Root's laboratories, and their deaths are often faster than those of the villagers.

By the time he finished speaking, the two Uchiha youths had their sanity bars emptied, appearing dull-eyed and soul-lost.

It was as if they had been ravaged by a hundred burly men.

Yamanaka Chujiu, on the other hand, felt the pain in his heart lighten significantly after pouring it all out.

He said to Uchiha Shisui, "Let's call it a day. Any further and the mental toll will be excessive."

Uchiha Shisui gritted his teeth and said tremblingly, "Senior Chujiu, I can still persist. Please, continue."

Yamanaka Chujiu shook his head, "Uchiha Shisui, I am not worried about you. Look at the state Uchiha Itachi is in; are you unaware that he suffers from a mental illness?"

Uchiha Shisui turned his head abruptly, "How is that possible? How could Itachi have a mental illness?"

"He has always been normal..."

His words came to an abrupt halt, for Uchiha Itachi looked terrible.

Itachi's eyes were bloodshot and crimson, his face as pale as white ash, and his breathing had become so faint it was barely there—he truly looked like a dead man with just one breath left in him.

Yamanaka Chujiu said, "Shisui, I am a ninja of the Yamanaka Clan; my judgment will not be wrong."

"Uchiha Itachi has had this mental illness for at least a year. The reason he appears normal is because he is a genius who can suppress his mental abnormalities with sheer willpower."

"Or rather, he is usually performing—performing the role of a normal, genius youth."

"He is strong, but he is also very tired."

"The Execution Line I described today is too dark; the mental stimulation is no less than that of a battlefield. If I let him continue listening, it may cause his willpower to collapse and trigger a full-blown explosion of his suppressed mental illness."

"If that happens, he will be completely ruined."

"I do not wish to ruin the village's genius, nor do I wish to make an enemy of the Uchiha Clan."

"Take Uchiha Itachi home."