Nara Shikaku held a letter in his hand, a thoughtful look on his face.
For the first time, Yamanaka Inoichi saw hesitation in the eyes of his wise old friend.
"What's wrong? Did you receive some other news?"
Nara Shikaku said nothing more and simply handed the letter in his hand to Yamanaka Inoichi.
Yamanaka Inoichi took it and was surprised to discover that it had actually been sent by Uchiha Genya, the central figure in this incident.
"I won't go looking for Sarutobi Hiruzen or Shimura Danzō. Whoever's people made the move, that's who I'll deal with—Uchiha Genya."
After reading the note over and over several times, Yamanaka Inoichi racked his brains but still could not understand why that one short sentence had left Nara Shikaku silent for so long.
"Uchiha Genya? Wasn't it Fugaku?" Yamanaka Inoichi still did not know that the Captain of the Security Division had been replaced.
"The young man who defeated Kakashi a while ago. He's also the current Captain of the Security Division." After thinking for a moment, Nara Shikaku added, "It happened this morning."
"They didn't announce a change in the Captain of the Security Division at the Jonin Conference?" Yamanaka Inoichi casually remarked, but did not think much of it.
That position had always been held by the Uchiha anyway. Whoever occupied it had nothing to do with them.
What he cared about more was what exactly Genya's letter meant.
Why had he sent it to Nara Shikaku?
Seeing Yamanaka Inoichi's expression, Nara Shikaku could only explain helplessly.
"You can take it as a gesture of goodwill toward our Ino-Shika-Cho, as well as a warning."
"A warning that we must not interfere in the conflict between the Uchiha and Sarutobi Hiruzen's Hokage Faction, nor offer either side any assistance. Otherwise, what happened today will absolutely not be an isolated case."
"Genya also promised that he would not lead the Uchiha in a coup, nor put our Ino-Shika-Cho in a difficult position."
As long as Sarutobi Hiruzen was not planning to lead Konoha's elite into an all-out clash with the entire Uchiha Clan, the three Ino-Shika-Cho clans could accept anything else.
Wasn't politics just like that? There were no eternal winners.
Besides, actions like Danzo's assassination attempt on the village's jonin today had also made them somewhat dissatisfied.
They were loyal to the Hokage, not to the Hokage Assistant.
If not for Sarutobi Hiruzen's sake, what the hell was Danzo?
Based on the things he had done over the years—forcibly taking away the geniuses of major clans and brainwashing them into selfless Shinobi tools—without Sarutobi Hiruzen backing him, he could have been beaten to death in the street at any time.
Yamanaka Inoichi turned the note over in his hands several times. He truly could not understand how Nara Shikaku had inferred so much from that single sentence.
Why had he failed to see any of it?
Genya knew the benefits of speaking with smart people. There was no need to spell everything out; they would understand what he meant.
He had also known that Yamanaka Inoichi would definitely seek out Nara Shikaku after this incident, which was why he had arranged for someone to deliver this letter in advance.
Nara Shikaku took the paper from Yamanaka Inoichi's hand, struck a match, and lit it.
Something like this could not leave behind any evidence. If he had not known Yamanaka Inoichi would come as well, he would have destroyed it long ago.
"How much compensation are we giving the Uchiha for emotional damages this time?"
Yamanaka Inoichi said gloomily, "Fifty million ryo. And that was after haggling."
Just because Asuma's bounty was worth thirty-five million ryo did not mean fifty million was a small amount. It was absolutely no trivial sum.
Even S-rank missions generally only paid between one and five million ryo. Elite Jonin faced near-certain death on missions of that level, and several squads usually had to work together to complete them.
Whenever he thought of the look on that junior Inabi's face when he agreed without hesitation as the amount was cut in half, Yamanaka Inoichi felt a wave of stifling anger in his chest.
The Evil Uchiha were actually playing schemes now?!
Nara Shikaku sighed. "Let's just consider it paying to avert disaster."
Yamanaka Inoichi's expression turned strange. "From the sound of it, you're advising me to let this matter end here?"
"Of course," Nara Shikaku said. "And in the future, I would not advise you to send any more clan members to Danzo. It would be best to make a clean break."
"I have a feeling that this Uchiha Genya is setting up a grand game."
Everything this young Uchiha had done was difficult for him to understand. This move looked like Genya had no choice but to avoid offending Danzo, so he found someone else to vent his anger on.
But Nara Shikaku felt it was not that simple, even if he could not figure out why.
Not being able to see through someone left Nara Shikaku deeply uneasy.
Since he could not see through him, he might as well protect himself. Their three Ino-Shika-Cho clans had always done things that way.
Yamanaka Inoichi opened his mouth, but in the end, he could only sigh helplessly.
Compared to Genya, he actually hated Danzo more.
A fire at the city gate had harmed the fish in the moat. The Uchiha and Shimura Danzō were fighting each other, yet the Yamanaka Clan had suffered a disaster.
Yamanaka Fu had been as good as dead to Yamanaka Inoichi from the moment Danzo took him away, but he had never expected the matter to have a sequel.
The Uchiha had actually extorted fifty million ryo from them!
Fifty million ryo was roughly the Yamanaka Clan's monthly expenditure!
That was absolutely not a small amount.
Nara Shikaku was thinking even further ahead.
Was Genya's move meant to cut away Shimura Danzō's wings in advance?
To be honest, without Root, no matter how capable Danzo was, his influence would probably drop to the level of Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu.
Extorting the Yamanaka Clan and the other ninja clans suspected of attacking Uchiha Genya this time would make the Uchiha's reputation even worse.
But after all of Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō's efforts, was there even any room left for the Uchiha's reputation to fall?
Once the Uchiha realized that and stepped outside that framework, they would be almost completely free of restraints.
On the other hand, if news of this spread, given their understanding of Shimura Danzō, he would absolutely never compensate those clans for their losses.
If that happened, it would be hard to say whether anyone would still be willing to provide people to Root in the future.
When you wanted people, you acted all high and mighty. When something went wrong, you made the Shinobi's clan bear the blame.
It already hurt enough to hand over a genius from one's own clan, yet now the ninja clans had to clean up the mess Shimura Danzō had caused!
No one in their right mind would think highly of such trash.
And judging from Root's complete lack of response so far, Danzo was very likely thinking exactly that—and had acted accordingly.
If he merely crippled Root, then with Danzo's methods, he could still demand people from other ninja clans. It would be equivalent to treating every ninja clan in Konoha except the Uchiha as Root's blood bags.
But once Danzo's reputation had rotted to that extent, no one would ever provide him with talented young Shinobi again. At most, Danzo could only seize civilian Shinobi or start raising tools from orphanhood.
Without the support of Shinobi clans, both the time and resources required to cultivate elite Shinobi would increase geometrically.