Finance Department's Bloody Reckoning and Shikaku's Pledge of Allegiance

Night was as deep as ink.

Konoha's Finance Department building loomed like a colossal beast lurking in the darkness, so quiet it made hearts tremble. The air was thick with the stale smell of old paper, ink, and dust. Moonlight filtered through the high windows, casting patches of sickly white light across the cold floor and illuminating the drifting motes.

Shikaku Nara stood in the shadows outside the building. The face that usually wore an expression of "what a drag" now held only frozen calm. Behind him stood the finest ninjas of the Ino-Shika-Cho clans, each holding their breath, their Chakra suppressed to its utmost limit like blades hidden within their sheaths, awaiting the moment they were drawn.

Baishi's words seemed to still echo in his ears.

"What I want is not hypocritical loyalty, but absolute control."

"Clan Head Shikaku, the future of Ino-Shika-Cho rests on your choice tonight."

Shikaku slowly exhaled a cloud of breath that swiftly vanished into the frigid night air. He knew that the moment he entered the Hokage's Office, his choice had already been made. Tonight, he was not Konoha's Jonin Commander, nor was he the strategist who plotted from behind the scenes.

He was the first butcher's blade wielded by Fifth Hokage Baishi against the old era.

"Inoichi, Choza." Shikaku's voice was low and hoarse. "Are you ready?"

Yamanaka Inoichi and Choza Akimichi nodded at his side, their expressions equally grave. They both understood that after tonight, the Ino-Shika-Cho clans would be bound completely to the same chariot as that young Hokage, with no way back.

Shikaku hesitated no longer. He raised a hand and swung it sharply downward!

"Move!"

Boom!

There was no infiltration, no assassination. Several Akimichi Clan ninjas instantly launched Human Bullet Tank, smashing the Finance Department's refined steel doors apart