At present, the four men led by the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had Konoha's power firmly in their grasp.
This was not good news for the other great clans. However, Konoha's situation was ultimately different from when it had first been founded. Back then, a clan's interests took precedence over the village's, a problem that had remained unresolved throughout the First's entire tenure.
But now, after decades of development, Konoha had long since become deeply rooted in people's hearts. Though notions of clan and village still remained, what prevailed even more was the so-called Will of Fire. This was clear enough from the emergence of Shisui Uchiha and Uchiha Itachi within the Uchiha clan.
Therefore, during the secret meeting of the various clan heads, although some voiced these concerns, they remained nothing more than concerns. They still believed that the Uchiha clan's destruction had more to do with the Uchiha themselves and was fundamentally different from their own situation.
Furthermore, they did not know the true inside story behind the Uchiha clan's destruction, and Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others could not possibly tell them. Thus, most of the time, they could only speculate.
Overall, they were not overly worried about their own clans' safety, and they still identified with Konoha. Their decision to band together was simply to convey a message to the Hokage: their great clans formed a community of shared interests. The Uchiha clan had been destroyed because of its own stubborn individualism, but it was best for such matters to end there. They did not want anything similar to happen again.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, Hyuga, and the others had clearly received this unspoken message. Both the Anbu and Root had reduced their activities recently in order to reassure the great clans.
From the very beginning, they had never