This Must Have Been Danzo's Doing!

At Danzo's words, the Uchiha showed no reaction, but the Hyuga Clan head, Hyuga Hiashi, darkened.

Who was he taking a jab at here?

During the Third Great Ninja War, the Hyuga Clan's main house lost a Byakugan on the Kirigakure battlefield. That eye was later openly transplanted into the eye socket of an elite jonin from Kirigakure.

This was no secret among Konoha's upper ranks, because Kirigakure could not even be bothered to hide it.

To the Hyuga Clan, having their Kekkei Genkai openly transplanted by another village was an enormous humiliation.

The key was that the Hyuga Clan had no way to reclaim their honor.

Could they really expect Hyuga ninja to storm Kirigakure, kill Ao, and take back the Byakugan?

That was not how one went looking for death.

By saying that right in front of him, was Danzo claiming the Hyuga were inferior to the Uchiha?

Danzo had no mood to worry about whether he had offended the Hyuga Clan. Even if he had realized it, he probably would not have cared.

He was currently giving it his all to pin the label of traitor onto the Uchiha.

If one could not defeat someone physically, one could still crush them completely in spirit.

Hatake Sakumo was the best example.

That was precisely what Danzo was doing now.

Yet Xuanye revealed a meaningful smile.

"Was that really so, Lord Danzo?"

"Of course!"

Danzo spoke with righteous conviction, but he felt somewhat guilty.

Because beneath the bandages over his right eye was a transplanted Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

Strictly speaking, the origin of that Sharingan was not particularly shameful. It had belonged to Kagami Uchiha, the friend of both himself and Sarutobi Hiruzen, and also Tobirama's student.

It was simply that after Kagami died in battle, Danzo had privately appropriated it and transplanted it into his own eye without obtaining the Uchiha's consent.

The Sharingan collected by Root ninja on the battlefield were all still perfectly preserved in the Root base, and almost no one knew about them.

But this was still a massive vulnerability. If those fearless Uchiha tore the bandages from his face in public, it would all be over.

All he could do now was gamble—gamble that Xuanye did not know about this.

Yet the more a person feared something, the more likely it was to come true.

Xuanye's smile did not change as he continued looking at Danzo with an unfathomable expression.

Only this time, he addressed everyone present.

When someone slandered you, the one thing you must not do was fall into the trap of proving your own innocence.

Remember: whoever made the accusation had to provide the evidence. At the very least, try to drag the other party into the mud as well.

And if you could not drag them in, then muddy the entire water.

"Actually, there are two very good ways to determine whether someone is the culprit."

"The first is to analyze their motive. In this Nine-Tails Incident, the Fourth Hokage and his wife died, and Konoha had to choose a Fifth Hokage."

"Everyone, who among those present most wanted to see such a thing happen?"

Upon hearing this, everyone could not help but fall into thought. Some shrewder people turned their gazes toward Danzo.

It was common knowledge that Danzo had wanted to become Hokage for far more than a day or two.

He wanted to become Hokage so badly that he had already reached the point of being willing to do anything.

Moreover, Danzo had more than once publicly declared that the Jinchuriki had to be completely controlled by the village. He also had ambitions toward the Nine-Tails.

The Uchiha, on the other hand, only wanted to become Hokage. They did not seem to care about the Nine-Tails.

Everyone was shocked to discover that it all actually lined up!

Coincidences did not happen like this. Judging from his motive, Danzo truly had major suspicion of committing the crime.

It had to be said that Danzo's usual unpopularity had its benefits. Many people now automatically dumped the blame straight onto his head.

If you discovered something bad and could not find the true culprit behind it, then it must have been Danzo's doing.

Knowing that Danzo had once tried to assassinate him, even Sarutobi Hiruzen could not help looking at Danzo suspiciously.

Could he really have done it?

At that moment, even those jonin who were not familiar with Danzo followed the crowd and turned their eyes toward him.

Everyone else was looking at him, so they would too.

It could only be said that anyone capable of making everyone suspect him alone had some real talent.

This was called reputation.

Because Danzo's reputation was terrible among nearly every ninja clan, almost everyone now suspected that he had something to do with the Nine-Tails breaking free and the deaths of Minato and his wife.

The reason was simple: he was the greatest beneficiary.

Unless the Third Hokage returned to power and continued to hold absolute authority, the election for the Fifth Hokage was inevitable.

And Sarutobi Hiruzen was already old. Even if he returned to office, how many more years could he retain such power?

Power would eventually pass to the next Hokage.

And it had to be said that within the Hokage Faction, there were not many people left who were both qualified and capable of succeeding as Hokage.

Among the legendary Sannin, Tsunade suffered from Hemophobia and could not even serve as a ninja.

Jiraiya had no interest in power and had already been away from Konoha for a long time.

As for the remaining Orochimaru, after failing to compete for the position of Fourth Hokage, he no longer seemed particularly interested in becoming Hokage. At this moment, he sat in a corner of the venue with a faintly amused expression.

That was right. Orochimaru currently looked like he was simply enjoying the show.

He was no longer very interested in the position of Hokage, but that did not stop him from enjoying Danzo's predicament.

Danzo truly was the person in the Hokage Faction most likely to succeed as Hokage at present.

As for the Uchiha... although their combat power was indeed terrifyingly strong, anyone with eyes could see that Sarutobi Hiruzen would certainly stop anyone outside the Hokage line from becoming Hokage.

Without knowing that the Uchiha possessed such extraordinary combat power, it was perfectly reasonable—and perfectly Danzo-like—for him to unseal the Nine-Tails and get Namikaze Minato killed.

Xuanye's earlier remark had also dug a huge pit for Sarutobi Hiruzen.

It was fine for him to take control of power for a short time, after all, the transition of authority had to remain stable to prevent Konoha from suffering excessive turmoil.

But if he did not hold an election for the Fifth Hokage for too long, some perceptive people would likely figure out Sarutobi Hiruzen's intentions.

Seeing everyone's gaze turn toward him, Danzo finally realized that he had been led into a huge trap.

"Y-You slanderer! I clearly did no such thing!"

At this point, those were the only dry, feeble words Danzo could manage.

Because he suddenly realized that the Evil Uchiha brat was right. Judging from motive, he truly was the most suspicious one.

Even the Uchiha were less suspicious than he was.

But Danzo was so furious at that moment that he nearly spat blood.

If there was anyone present who knew he was innocent, it was probably only himself.