Sarutobi Hiruzen's Helplessness!

Konoha.

Senju Clan compound.

"Enough!"

"Danzo's actions will naturally be punished by the village's laws!"

"He is one of Konoha's high-ranking elders!"

"Even if he has committed an unforgivable crime, only the Advisory Council and I may determine his guilt and punishment after discussing it in a high-level meeting!"

"Fugaku!"

"Do not forget your identity!"

"If you act now, you will be disregarding the village's laws and the Hokage's authority!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen shouted sternly.

The moment those words were spoken.

The muscles on Fugaku's face twitched violently.

The veins bulged on the hand gripping his blade, and his teeth ground together.

He was unwilling.

He truly was too unwilling!

A high-level meeting?

That was nothing more than Sarutobi Hiruzen, Shimura Danzō, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura playing house!

As long as Danzo was handed back to them.

Within days.

Danzo would change his identity and continue wielding power from the shadows.

But what could he do?

Could he really kill an elder under the Hokage's protection before everyone's eyes?

If he did that, the Uchiha Clan would become rebels beyond redemption.

Fugaku's gaze gradually dimmed.

He sadly realized that, as the Uchiha Clan's leader, he seemed unable to change anything.

Sarutobi Hiruzen noticed Fugaku's hesitation.

He secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as he could suppress Fugaku, there was still room to turn things around.

As long as they returned to the negotiating table, everything would remain under his control.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Just then.

A crisp round of applause rang out abruptly.

Chiba clapped as he stepped forward with a sneer.

He looked at Sarutobi Hiruzen, his eyes carrying an undisguised trace of pity.

It was the look one gave an idiot.

"A high-level meeting?"

"The village's laws?"

"Sarutobi Hiruzen."

"Have you sat in the Hokage's seat for so long that you've ruined your brain?"

The moment he said that.

Everyone was stunned.

Even Shikaku Nara could not help widening his eyes.

Had Chiba gone mad?

He had actually called the Third Hokage by name and even insulted him in public!

This was no ordinary defiance.

This was rubbing the Third Hokage's face into the dirt!

The two old fools, Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura, trembled with rage.

"Outrageous!"

"Chiba, how dare you speak to the Hokage like that!"

Utatane Koharu pointed at Chiba and screeched sharply.

Chiba did not even spare her a glance.

He merely stared intently at Sarutobi Hiruzen.

There was not the slightest reverence in those eyes, only endless indifference and lofty disdain.

"You seem to have gotten one very important thing wrong."

Chiba's voice was not loud.

Yet it clearly reached the ears of everyone present.

"Who founded Konoha?"

The question caught everyone off guard.

Chiba did not need their answer at all.

He suddenly stepped forward.

Massive cracks instantly spread across the ground beneath his feet.

A terrifying pressure belonging to the Perfect Sage Body descended with a boom.

"It was the Senju Clan!"

"And the Uchiha Clan!"

Chiba's voice was like a great bell, making everyone's eardrums tremble.

"Konoha is the foundation Hashirama Senju and Uchiha Madara built with countless rivers of blood and mountains of corpses!"

"This village bears the names of our two clans in its very bones!"

"What does your Sarutobi Clan amount to?"

"And what does the Shimura Clan amount to?"

Chiba extended a hand toward Danzo on the ground, his finger seemingly a sharp sword.

"You are nothing more than dependents who barely survived by sheltering beneath the wings of our two clans!"

"And now, a piece of trash from a dependent clan."

"Not only covets the Senju Clan's Wood Style, but even dares to gouge out the eyes of the Uchiha Clan!"

"For such beastly conduct—turning against one's superiors and forgetting one's roots."

"You dare speak to me of the village's laws?"

Chiba's cold gaze swept across the crowd.

At that moment, the majesty of his Super Kage Level strength was revealed in full.

"Let me tell you!"

"In Konoha, the dignity of Senju and Uchiha bloodlines is the greatest law!"

"Anyone who dares steal the power of Senju and Uchiha."

"Forget an elder."

"Even if Danzo were Konoha's Hokage, he would have only one path today: death!"

"Whoever dares stop us will die!"

Boom!

The entire scene erupted.

Fugaku Uchiha abruptly raised his head.

A light unlike anything before burst forth from his previously dim eyes.

Every word Chiba had said struck directly at his heart!

"Well said!"

"The dignity of Senju and Uchiha will never be trampled upon by anyone!"

"Danzo must die!"

Fugaku could not help roaring.

That's right!

Konoha was founded by us Uchiha and Senju!

Why should we suffer oppression from these dependent clans at every turn?

Why should our forebears be desecrated at will by this kind of trash?

"Kill him!"

"Kill that old dog Danzo!"

"..."

All the Uchiha clansmen fell into a feverish uproar.

Dozens of Sharingan lit up like a sea of crimson flames.

The humiliation and fury they had suppressed for years had finally found an outlet in that moment.

Amid that fervor.

Only one person seemed utterly out of place.

Shisui Uchiha.

He stood at the very edge of the crowd, his expression agonized beyond measure.

His fingers clenched tightly around his arm, his nails nearly digging into his flesh.

Why had things turned out this way?

Shisui's heart was filled with confusion.

Since childhood, he had received the education of the Will of Fire.

Yet his Will of Fire was harming the clan that had raised him.

This left Shisui more lost than ever.

The village?

Or the clan?

Shisui simply did not know how he should choose.

At the center of the grounds.

Sarutobi Hiruzen's expression could no longer be described as merely unpleasant.

The Hokage authority he had always taken pride in.

The political rhetoric he had painstakingly cultivated for decades.

Before Chiba's absolute strength and tyranny, it was not worth a damn.

Not only was Chiba monstrously powerful.

His skill at pinning labels on others was a hundred times better than Sarutobi Hiruzen's.

"Chiba... you..."

"Even if what you say makes sense, could you do me this favor?"

"For Tsunade's sake..."

"Leave this matter to me?"

After a long while.

Sarutobi Hiruzen's voice became hoarse.

He lowered his stance outright, even bringing up Tsunade.

"Third Hokage."

"If it were any other matter."

"I could indeed do you this favor."

"But in this matter, your face carries no weight!"

"I will ask you only one question."

"Are you determined to openly violate the ironclad rule Konoha established from the beginning for the sake of this beast who gouges out his comrades' eyes?"

"Do you wish to announce to the entire Ninja World that Konoha has become a den of thieves where Kekkei Genkai clans can be slaughtered at will?"

"..."

Chiba refused without the slightest hesitation.

The way he looked at Sarutobi Hiruzen was as though he were looking at garbage.

Without Sarutobi Hiruzen's tacit approval.

How could Danzo's Root have become so arrogant?

"I... I..."

After hearing Chiba's words.

Sarutobi Hiruzen froze where he stood.

That accusation was far too huge.

So huge that even Sarutobi Hiruzen did not dare accept it.

If he dared nod.

Not only would the Uchiha immediately riot today.

The Hyuga, the Ino-Shika-Cho, and even the ordinary civilian ninja present would be utterly disheartened.

Konoha's very foundation would truly be destroyed.

He could not protect him!

He truly could not protect him!

Danzo was doomed to die today!