Uchiha's Reputation Couldn't Sink Any Lower

Nara Shikaku held a letter in his hand, a pensive 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 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 after Sarutobi Hiruzen or Shimura Danzō. Whoever's people made the move, that's who I'll deal with—Uchiha Genya."

Yamanaka Inoichi read the note over and over several times, racking his brains but unable to understand why such a short sentence had made Nara Shikaku fall silent for so long.

"Uchiha Genya? Wasn't it Fugaku?" Yamanaka Inoichi still did not know that the Captain of the Security Division had changed.

"The young man who defeated Kakashi some time ago. He's also the current Captain of the Security Division." After thinking for a moment, Nara Shikaku added, "It happened this morning."

"The Captain of the Security Division changed without an announcement at the Jonin Conference?" Yamanaka Inoichi casually remarked, but did not think much of it.

After all, that position had always been held by the Uchiha. Whoever held it had nothing to do with them.

What he cared about more was what exactly Xuanye meant by sending this letter.

Why send 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, and also as a warning."

"A warning that we must not interfere in the struggle 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."

"Xuanye 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 against the entire Uchiha clan in an all-out clash, the three Ino-Shika-Cho clans could accept anything else.

Wasn't politics supposed to be like this? There were no eternal winners.

Besides, Danzo's actions today—directly assassinating a village jonin—had also left them somewhat dissatisfied.

They were loyal to the Hokage, not to the Hokage Assistant.

If not for Sarutobi Hiruzen's sake, who the hell was Danzo?

Considering the things he had done over the years—forcibly taking geniuses from the major clans and brainwashing them into ninja tools without any sense of self—without Sarutobi Hiruzen backing him up, he could have been beaten to death in the street at any time.

Yamanaka Inoichi turned the slip of paper over and over in his hands several times, still unable to understand how Nara Shikaku had gleaned so much meaning from a single sentence.

Why hadn't he seen it?

Xuanye knew the advantage of speaking with smart people. There was no need to explain things in detail; they would understand what he meant.

He also knew that Yamanaka Inoichi would definitely seek out Nara Shikaku after this incident, so he had arranged for the letter to be delivered in advance.

Nara Shikaku took the paper from Yamanaka Inoichi's hand and struck a match to set it alight.

Something like this could not leave behind any evidence. If he had not known Yamanaka Inoichi would come, he would have destroyed it long ago.

"How much compensation did we pay the Uchiha for emotional damages this time?"

Yamanaka Inoichi said gloomily, "Fifty million ryo, and that was after haggling."

Don't think fifty million ryo was not much just because Asuma's bounty was worth thirty-five million. That was absolutely not a small sum.

Even S-rank missions generally only paid between one and five million ryo. For missions of that level, even elite jonin faced near-certain death, 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 had agreed without hesitation as Yamanaka Inoichi slashed the amount in half, his chest tightened with frustration.

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 suggesting that I let this matter end here?"

Nara Shikaku said, "Of course. And in the future, I don't recommend sending any more clansmen to Danzo. It's best to make a clean break."

"I have a feeling that this Uchiha Genya is playing a very big game."

Everything this young Uchiha did was difficult for him to understand. This move appeared to be nothing more than Xuanye having no choice but to avoid offending Danzo, so he found someone else to vent his anger on.

But Nara Shikaku felt that it was not that simple, even though he could not find the thread connecting it all.

Not being able to see through someone made Nara Shikaku feel uneasy.

Since he could not see through him, it was better to protect himself wisely. In any case, that was how the three Ino-Shika-Cho clans had always operated.

Yamanaka Inoichi opened his mouth, but in the end, he could only sigh helplessly.

Compared with Xuanye, he actually hated Danzo more.

The fire at the city gate had spread to the fish in the moat. The Uchiha and Shimura Danzō were fighting each other, yet the Yamanaka Clan had suffered a disastrous blow.

Ever since Yamanaka Fu had been taken away by Danzo, Yamanaka Inoichi had considered him dead. But he had never expected there to be more to the matter.

The Uchiha had actually extorted fifty million ryo from them!

Fifty million ryo was roughly a month's expenses for the Yamanaka Clan!

That was absolutely no small amount.

Nara Shikaku had considered even more.

Was Xuanye's move meant to cut away Shimura Danzō's wings in advance?

Honestly, without Root, no matter how capable Danzo was, his influence would probably fall to the level of Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu.

Although extorting the Yamanaka Clan and the other ninja clans suspected of attacking Uchiha Genya would further worsen the Uchiha's reputation.

But under Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō's manipulation, was there even any room left for the Uchiha's reputation to fall?

Once an Uchiha realized that and stepped outside that framework, the Uchiha would be almost completely unrestrained.

On the contrary, once word of this spread, given their understanding of Shimura Danzō, he would never compensate those clans for their losses.

If that happened, whether anyone would still be willing to provide people to Root in the future would be hard to say.

When he wanted people, he acted all high and mighty. When something went wrong, he made the ninja's clan take 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 made!

No one could possibly think highly of that kind of trash.

And judging from Root's complete lack of response so far, there was a good chance Danzo thought exactly that—and had acted accordingly.

If he were merely weakening Root, Danzo could still ask other ninja clans for people, essentially treating every ninja clan in Konoha aside from the Uchiha as Root's blood bags.

But once Danzo's reputation was ruined to that extent, no one would provide him with talented young ninja again. At most, Danzo could only seize civilian ninja or begin raising tools from orphaned children.

Without the support of the ninja clans, the time and resources needed to cultivate elite ninja would increase exponentially.