Danzo's Fury, Uchiha & Hidden Leaf

The time returned to last night.

Hidden Leaf—Root base.

The three Root members who had left Uchiha Mo quickly returned to the underground base, slipping into the dark, damp depths.

The three hurried through the base and soon arrived before Shimura Danzo.

Danzo had only just begun to show signs of age. Though he was already past fifty, for a ninja, he had only just begun to leave his prime. Even without deliberately displaying it, his heavy, restrained presence and the authority cultivated through years in power still made others afraid to meet his gaze.

"Lord Danzo!"

The three immediately dropped to one knee, bowing their heads and not daring to look up.

Shimura Danzo had been reclining on a stone chair with his eyes closed. Only upon hearing them did he lift his eyelids slightly and look over.

Seeing that there was no one behind them, he straightened slightly and asked with lowered lids, "What happened? Where are Uchiha Mo and Uchiha Shisui?"

"L-Lord Danzo..."

The leading Root member's voice trembled as he hesitated.

Shimura Danzo's gaze sharpened, and he spoke sternly. "Speak."

"Uchiha Mo... he... he refused to cooperate. He also attacked us with genjutsu. This subordinate was incompetent and failed to bring him back..."

As he spoke, his bowed body began to tremble violently.

Shimura Danzo had led Root for many years and knew his subordinates extremely well. Seeing the leader trembling so fiercely, he braced himself with both hands and asked in a deep, suspicious voice, "Is that all?"

"M-My lord..."

The Root member did not dare deceive Danzo, much less repeat Mo's exact words. For a moment, anxiety flooded his heart. His body shook like a sieve, cold sweat pouring down like rain as his teeth chattered. All he could do was cry out helplessly.

"Speak!"

As Shimura Danzo's icy words fell, the Root member immediately prostrated himself on the ground. Gritting his teeth as if giving up all hope, he blurted out every word Uchiha Mo had said in one breath.

"Uchiha Mo said that before the Uchiha, there are no so-called great figures. To the Uchiha, you are nothing but a maggot in a gutter. He said that if you want to see him, then crawl your ugly self out into the sunlight..."

"He also said... the Uchiha are the strongest clan in the ninja world. The power of the Sharingan will not be wielded by light-fearing rats. He told you to give up on that idea..."

As his words fell, the entire dark chamber sank into deathly silence. The three kept their heads lowered, not even daring to breathe, remaining motionless like stone statues for fear of drawing Danzo's attention...

Crack, crack, crack...

A series of teeth-grinding cracking sounds rang out. After an unknown amount of time, Danzo's indifferent voice finally came from above.

"You may leave first..."

As though granted amnesty, the three hurriedly rose with their heads lowered and left.

Once the dark chamber was completely empty, a violent roar suddenly exploded within it.

"Arrogant! A Uchiha brat born evil, with no respect for his elders! How dare he insult me like this?!"

Furious, Shimura Danzo rose to his feet and smashed the cane concealing his sword against the stone chair. Then he kicked the chair over and continued roaring, "For the sake of Hidden Leaf, I have willingly remained in the darkness for decades. How could a mere child like you possibly understand such greatness? That damned Uchiha brat dares to act like this! I will—"

As he spoke, Danzo narrowed his eyes, danger flickering within them.

Yet just as a thought rose in his heart, Hiruzen Sarutobi's stern face suddenly flashed through his mind.

"Do not entertain any improper thoughts about those two brothers. At the very least, not now!"

"Hmph!"

Danzo snorted coldly, drew a deep breath, and muttered to himself, "Fine. For Hiruzen's sake, Uchiha Mo, I will give you one more chance. I hope you do not bring ruin upon yourself..."

"Mo, how do you think the Uchiha should treat Hidden Leaf now..." Setsuna stared directly into Uchiha Mo's clear black eyes.

"..."

Their eyes met, and the air fell silent for a moment.

After a long while, Uchiha Mo slowly spoke. "Great Elder, did you call me here just to ask such a boring question as 'how to fight stray dogs for food'? Or are you hoping I can play an actor who cooperates with you in this tedious play?"

As his words fell, Uchiha Setsuna froze. When he understood what Mo meant, his expression quickly turned extremely ugly. Yet he did not lash out. After all, the person before him was indeed the most talented Uchiha he had ever seen, second only to that man.

"You think the Uchiha should not fight for power in Hidden Leaf?"

His gloomy eyes locked onto Uchiha Mo. The faint accusation in his words added an even more murderous chill to the air.

But Mo remained expressionless and calmly asked in return, "Hidden Leaf? Power? You think copying others and playing politics can return the Uchiha to their former glory?" As he spoke, he shook his head and chuckled softly.

"Heh... I don't believe it. If the Uchiha could take that path, things wouldn't have come to this."

"Then where do you think the Uchiha's future lies?"

Uchiha Setsuna was somewhat puzzled. From Mo's words, his stance was indeed firmly on the clan's side, yet he seemed equally dismissive of both voices within the Uchiha.

Mo quietly watched Setsuna. His black eyes suddenly turned blood-red, taking on the form of three tomoe.

"This is the Sharingan, undeniably the strongest bloodline limit in the ninja world. The only thing that could rival it was the Senju Clan's absurd physique, but the Senju Clan has already faded away. So why should the Uchiha confine themselves to a single village, agonizing over how to snatch food from stray dogs? Do the Uchiha not have the ability to hunt for themselves?"

"!"

Setsuna froze as those words entered his ears. He stared blankly at Uchiha Mo, and in a daze, two utterly different faces seemed to slowly overlap.

"Clan Head..."

Mo looked at the stunned Setsuna and continued, "The Uchiha are the strongest clan in the ninja world. Hidden Leaf is not the Uchiha's Hidden Leaf, nor are the Uchiha Hidden Leaf's Uchiha."

The same idea had been raised by another person decades ago. He had been the strongest figure in the Uchiha's thousand-year history. Back then, the Uchiha had been immersed in fantasies of a beautiful future, and not a single person had been willing to follow him away...

At the time, Setsuna had only been a child. He had naively believed that the Clan Head had merely gone out on a mission, and he had failed to seize the opportunity.

Yet no one could have imagined that, decades later, someone else would offer him the same opportunity.

But this time, the one proposing it was a ten-year-old Uchiha boy, while Setsuna had become the Uchiha's aged Grand Elder.

Setsuna looked at the handsome, extraordinarily gifted Uchiha boy before him, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

"So alike, too alike! The person this old man has been waiting for all along has finally descended upon the Uchiha once more..."