Sarutobi Hiruzen kept talking with a smile, but Fugaku did not give him a single word in reply.
No defiance. No compromise. Not a word.
Fugaku simply stood there, watching them perform in silence.
Even Sarutobi Hiruzen could tell by now that something was wrong.
Behind his back, he quietly made a hand signal. Better to have the Anbu summon Namikaze Minato back first.
At least with Namikaze Minato there, Fugaku probably would not be so brazen.
Outwardly, he kept the conversation going. "Since you have no objections, Fugaku, see that it's carried out as soon as possible. If you need anything, the village will offer some support."
Still, silence.
It was so quiet that a bead of cold sweat rolled down Sarutobi Hiruzen's forehead.
Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.
Why was Uchiha Fugaku, a man who habitually compromised, acting as though he did not care?
Sarutobi Hiruzen glanced at Xuanye, who looked utterly unoccupied and had even picked up a piece of fruit from the table to eat. Gritting his teeth, he took a document from the desk.
Clearly, they had not decided this on a whim. They had already put their demands in writing and even stamped the document with the Hokage's seal.
"Fugaku, this is the village's decision. You must ob—"
Just as Sarutobi Hiruzen resolved to take a hard line, he looked up and saw three jet-black Tomoe appear in Fugaku's eyes.
That was not all. The three Tomoe slowly fused, forming a complex pattern like one they had seen before.
Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō were both old men who had lived from the Warring States Period to the present. They had known the era of the First and Uchiha Madara.
How could they fail to recognize those eyes?
The Mangekyō... Uchiha Madara!?
During the Fourth Shinobi World War, the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki of Both Scales, had trembled at the sight of Edo Madara. The sight had triggered his trauma on the spot.
Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō were from the same generation as Ōnoki of Both Scales, and they were Konoha shinobi. How could they not recognize those eyes?
Young shinobi who had never lived through the Warring States Period could not imagine how much fear Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara had inspired in that era.
To those who had not lived through it, judging Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara was like a frog in a well judging the moon overhead.
But to those who had, even hearing those names made them feel like insects beneath the vast sky.
They had been young then, but they had seen Uchiha Madara's arrogance as he looked down on the world. They had also seen the Wood Golem and Susanoo towering hundreds of meters high.
Was that a level any human could reach?
The textbooks might call him, Sarutobi Hiruzen, the strongest Hokage in history.
But he alone knew that before people like Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, Sarutobi Hiruzen was nothing but a little girl!
What kind of joke was this? They had worked so hard to suppress the Uchiha Family. How had another pair of Mangekyō appeared?!
Konoha had no second Senju Hashirama now!
If Sarutobi Hiruzen recognized those eyes, how could Danzo not?
He instinctively stepped back, trying to put Sarutobi Hiruzen between himself and Fugaku.
Unlike Sarutobi Hiruzen, though, his eyes held a greed he could not conceal.
Shimura Danzō was obsessed with the power of Wood Release and the Sharingan, to the point of madness.
For years, he had researched the First's Wood Release Cells. He had also collected no small number of Sharingan, both openly and in secret, all to obtain the two powers that had brought order to a chaotic age!
Everyone believed that the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Family had reconciled, established the hidden-village system and forged deep ties with the great nations, bringing the Warring States Period to an end.
But the older generation knew it was not the Senju and Uchiha who had ended that age of war. It was Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara!
Just how powerful were those two?
As long as they lived, no one even dared start a war.
And that was exactly what had happened. In the battle at the Valley of the End, Uchiha Madara faked his death, while Senju Hashirama was gravely wounded.
What followed was simple: Senju Hashirama died in the morning, and the First Ninja World War began that afternoon.
Anyone who had never seen the Thousand Armed Buddha and Perfect Susanoo could not even imagine power like that.
No one who had visited the remains of the Valley of the End would dare believe those scars had been left by a battle between just two people.
Before such power, Genin, Chunin and Jonin alike could be killed with a single kick. Numbers meant nothing against shinobi like them.
Even the so-called Tailed Beasts were insignificant beside those two, little more than oversized pets.
Yet Uchiha Fugaku, whom they had always taken for an easy target, had quietly gained that kind of power?
All Sarutobi Hiruzen could see in his mind was Uchiha Madara's Perfect Susanoo, a giant hundreds of meters tall, leveling a mountaintop with one swing of its sword.
At the thought, Sarutobi Hiruzen felt sweat running down his back, just as Ōnoki of Both Scales had.
He was terrified Fugaku might unleash Susanoo right there in Konoha's Hokage office building.
Sarutobi Hiruzen no longer cared that Shimura Danzō had pushed him forward. He hurriedly raised a hand, not to form Hand Seals, but to keep Fugaku calm for the moment.
At least until the Anbu notified Namikaze Minato and he hurried back.
"Fugaku, please don't get worked up. Whatever this is, let's sit down and talk it through. Nothing is beyond discussion."
At that moment, Sarutobi Hiruzen missed Little Sun more than ever. When Namikaze Minato was around, their side at least had enough strength to serve as a deterrent.
But as he recalled Uchiha Madara's towering Susanoo, Sarutobi Hiruzen began to wonder whether Namikaze Minato could defeat Fugaku at all.
Namikaze Minato seemed unmatched against crowds, cutting through them with ease. Against a truly powerful opponent, though, his attacks still fell short.
Surely they could not expect him to pierce Susanoo's defenses with that special Kunai of his?
More importantly, they were in the heart of Konoha. On a battlefield, Namikaze Minato could flee if he could not win. No one could stop a man who had mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique.
But if a battle broke out inside Konoha, Namikaze Minato might have no choice but to take Susanoo's attacks head-on to protect the village.
Against a Perfect Susanoo, Namikaze Minato was still a step behind.
So Sarutobi Hiruzen's first priority was, naturally, to keep Fugaku calm.
Konoha had only just emerged from the Third Great Ninja War. It could not bear the damage a Susanoo rampaging through the village would cause.