The Uchiha had mobilized. Nobody had seen that coming.
When Danzo heard the news, he was overjoyed.
In his experience, when this branch of the Uchiha mobilized, it usually meant no more than a few dozen people.
Danzo had been racking his brains over how to draw Qi out. Without bothering to ask for details, he gathered every available force at his disposal—over a hundred people—and prepared to ambush and kill Qi along his route.
A hundred against a few dozen. The advantage was ours.
Just get it done.
Sarutobi was also taken aback.
In his experience, young people who had just put on a grand show and attracted a great deal of attention should have been riding high.
Young people at that age were most prone to getting carried away. In the past, if someone that age had been through an experience like this, he would have been celebrating the spectacle of thousands bowing to him the day before, surrounded by song and dance.
Sarutobi wouldn't even have been surprised if Uchiha Kei was currently gathering people to write his biography.
But suddenly rallying all his subordinates and setting off as if heading into battle, without any clear objective, left everyone baffled.
And judging by the direction, they were heading for the site of Danzo's Root headquarters.
Had Danzo done something else behind my back?
Had Kei found out about the little hint I'd just dropped to the Uchiha Clan elders?
Sarutobi was somewhat uneasy, but not overly so.
He'd wait and see. At any rate, they weren't coming for him or the Hokage Building. Whatever Uchiha Kei was up to, even if the two sides really did clash, there was nothing to fear.
If they did end up fighting, that would be all the better. He could use Root to gauge Uchiha Kei's capabilities, and use Uchiha Kei to see what Danzo had been hiding all these years.
Either way, it was good for him.
Uchiha Fugaku, who had brought his wife Mikoto to visit the Uzumaki family, was dumbfounded too.
His wife, Mikoto, was close friends with Kushina Uzumaki, so he had a good excuse to visit today and, while he was at it, strengthen his ties with Minato Namikaze. After all, the two of them had shared a meeting of minds while discussing the battlefield situation yesterday, with the distinct feeling that they'd met too late in life.
Revisiting the unfinished conversation from the day before would be a pleasure.
Just as the four of them were happily chatting about everything from personal matters to ideals, childhood memories to recent events—
The Uchiha Clan had turned the whole place upside down.
Wait, shouldn't someone have told me the clan was launching a major operation? Wasn't I the clan head?
What should I do now? I have no experience with this. Should I go home and handle it, or stay here and put on a calm, confident front, as if I had everything under control?
Fugaku started agonizing over it again.
Kei hadn't expected this either. He was simply moving house. Why was everyone panicking?
It really was true: if you had nothing to hide, you had nothing to fear.
Uchiha Kei led everyone straight out of Konoha and headed for Naka Shrine.
It was the Uchiha Clan's place of worship, but after Uchiha Madara left, hardly anyone had maintained it.
It was also the birthplace of the Uchiha Clan. Konoha had been built midway between the Uchiha and Senju Clans' places of origin, so Naka Shrine wasn't within Konoha itself.
According to the rules, even a lone shinobi needed written authorization to leave the village.
People had always followed the rules, so there was no need for many capable shinobi to guard Konoha Gate. One or two Chunin and a Special Jōnin were enough.
Besides, who would dare cause trouble right at Konoha's front gate?
But today, the gate guards were too scared to do anything. They didn't even think of stepping forward to ask questions. They let Uchiha Kei and his people pass, watching them go while muttering under their breath.
These guys are even more brazen than Root. When Root leaves the village without registering, at least they know not to use the main gate. They go through the gap in the Sealing Squad's barrier that they control.
You Uchiha really don't take Konoha seriously.
Oh, right. Konoha belongs to them, doesn't it? Do they really need to report to anyone before doing what they want?
We're sticking our noses where they don't belong.
Worrying over nothing.
Let them do whatever they want.
But just after the Uchiha left, a group of Root shinobi came rushing out after them.
They'd always been arrogant, but at least they used to show some restraint.
Today, though, they were clearly in a hurry. They didn't even use the concealed exit they'd prepared. Instead, they charged straight out the main gate after the Uchiha.
It seemed Danzo was really panicking.
When he first heard that Kei had left, Danzo had been delighted. He had been in Konoha, planning to discuss how to deal with Uchiha Kei with the Hokage, but now he didn't care about that.
He dropped everything and gathered every force he could muster, rushing after Kei.
Only when he arrived did he realize that Uchiha Kei wasn't out on some ordinary patrol with three or four bodyguards and a couple dozen hangers-on.
The entire clan had turned out—more than two hundred people, marching in a long column and even bringing supplies for a military campaign.
Not worth the risk. Not worth the risk.
Danzo prepared to retreat.
He eyed the subordinate who had brought him the intelligence suspiciously, while getting ready to withdraw.
The subordinate was innocent too. My lord, you left before I could finish. Root's rules say I'm not allowed to speak out of turn.
Before Danzo could decide how to punish his subordinate later, something even worse happened. The armed Uchiha force was clearly headed for Root's headquarters outside Konoha.
That was where Root trained new recruits and stored its secrets.
This was bad!
Were they coming for him?
Were they going to raid his headquarters?
He couldn't let that happen!
If a clash broke out at Root's headquarters, it wouldn't matter who won—the Hokage would definitely get involved. Then every dirty secret would be exposed.
He couldn't let Uchiha Kei go any farther.
Danzo didn't even care that most of his subordinates were merely Genin filling out the numbers and stood no chance against the Uchiha before him. He led them in a head-on charge, hoping to use their utterly inferior strength to stop the Uchiha on the road between Konoha and Root.
He was even prepared to sacrifice most of his subordinates to hold them off until the Hokage arrived to save the day.
What should have been a perfectly good ambush had turned into a desperate defensive stand under Danzo's watch.
And Danzo was still quite pleased with himself!
Good thing I'm so brilliant. Otherwise, this could've been a disaster.
Before you continue