Uchiha and Konoha's Verdict on Feng

While everything was going smoothly on Feng's side, the atmosphere in Konoha was exceptionally tense.

After he had fled Konoha for so long, a joint investigation by Konoha's Anbu and Root uncovered something.

Not only had Uchiha Feng defected from the village, but before doing so, he had even crazily dug up the graves of several heroes, including the Second Hokage.

Thus, Konoha designated him a rogue ninja and issued an extremely high bounty for his execution.

However, the Uchiha Clan refused to accept the village's conclusion and handling of the matter.

The reason was simple. The Uchiha had also investigated Feng's disappearance.

Their investigation showed that after leaving the village, Feng had been reading atop the statue of their ancestor Madara in the Valley of the End, when he suddenly vanished.

As for why and how he had disappeared, the Uchiha's opinion was entirely different from the village's.

The village claimed he had defected, while the Uchiha believed he had definitely been captured by Danzo.

After all, when Orochimaru had defected from Konoha a year ago, there had been quite a few Uchiha corpses on his experimental tables, including Feng's own uncle.

And although there was no evidence, everyone in Konoha knew that most of Orochimaru's experiments had been conducted in cooperation with Danzo.

Furthermore, for three generations, Feng's ancestors had been upright and loyal Konoha people. Let alone defecting, he had barely even left Konoha.

How could a person like that possibly defect from Konoha? And if he did defect, where could he even go?

Since Feng could not possibly have defected yet had truly vanished, the Uchiha believed he had most likely been seized by Root for experiments. It had to be that "Pot Kage" doing good deeds again.

Of course, if he had merely been captured for experiments, that would have been one thing. After all, quite a few Uchiha had disappeared over the years.

Whenever they had tried to seek justice, that idiot clan head, Uchiha Fugaku, had suppressed them.

But at least when clan members had disappeared in the past, the Uchiha could still make a scene, and Konoha had not dared say anything because they knew perfectly well that they were in the wrong.

But this time, it was different. Not only had someone disappeared, the village had falsely accused the Uchiha of producing a traitor and would not even let them make a fuss.

That was more than the long-aggrieved Uchiha could bear. The village had simply bullied them too far.

As for Feng digging graves? Heh. When Root said that, not only did the Uchiha not believe it, not a single Anbu standing nearby believed it either.

At that moment, nearly everyone thought of the same phrase: a thief crying thief.

The two sides' investigations had reached different conclusions, so conflict naturally arose. Then certain people fanned the flames, such as the Uchiha's most extreme hawk, Elder Setsuna Uchiha.

Coupled with Root's long-standing "excellent" image and reputation, the Uchiha firmly believed that no one from their clan could have defected. Root had clearly harmed someone and was now trying to frame them.

Thus, the Uchiha made quite a commotion this time, turning Danzo and his Root upside down. They vented both the humiliation they had endured in silence before and the injustice they now suffered.

As for Shimura Danzō, not only did he not stop them, he even fanned the flames from the side and let the Uchiha keep making trouble.

In the past, Danzō knew he had no grounds to stand on. He had indeed been responsible for all sorts of shady, underhanded affairs in the village, so he could only endure the villagers' dissatisfaction.

But this time, Danzō knew he had not falsely accused anyone! Feng had truly defected, and he really had dug up the graves of the village's heroes.

So this time, I'm in the right! Am I supposed to let some petty Uchiha bully me?!

Wouldn't that make Konoha's Darkness, Danzō, lose all face? How would he run for Fifth Hokage in the future?

Thus, with both sides believing themselves justified and the other side at fault, while people continuously added fuel to the fire, their clashes never ceased and only grew more intense.

Even when the Hokage tried to mediate and the clan head tried to pull people back, neither side showed any intention of stopping.

Danzō: That's right, Hiruzen, you're the Hokage. Usually, when you use the Hokage's title to suppress me, I have nothing to say. But this time, I'm in the right. The evil Uchiha must die.

The Uchiha: Fuck, when Danzō used to bully us, he at least did it secretly. If we made some noise, he knew to restrain himself. But now? He bullies us and even demands that we apologize. If we endure this bullshit too, can we even go on living? The Hokage? The clan head? Even if the Sage of Six Paths himself came today, it would be useless. This time, we have to kill Danzō and make the higher-ups apologize.

With that mindset, Root and the Uchiha fought and slashed at each other every few days.

This even made the Third Hokage, who had always accepted the Anbu and Root's investigation results and believed that Uchiha Feng had indeed defected, somewhat uncertain.

And although Uchiha Fugaku always liked to stand between the village and the clan, stewing in his own self-righteous misery, faced with the entire clan united against a common enemy, he too was swept into several battles against Root.

In the end, after nearly a hundred casualties had appeared on both the Root and Uchiha sides, the indecisive Hiruzen Sarutobi finally displayed the courage and decisiveness expected of a Hokage.

First, both sides would receive equal punishment.

For Root, its annual funding would be reduced by 30% for each of the next three years. Danzō would publicly apologize to the Uchiha on behalf of all Root members and guarantee that Root would never again approach Uchiha clan territory.

For the Uchiha, the Security Force's annual funding would likewise be reduced by 30% for each of the next three years. Fugaku would publicly apologize to Root on behalf of the Uchiha, and they would no longer hold Root accountable over Uchiha Feng's matter.

Then, the Hokage personally led the entire Anbu to watch Root and the Uchiha apologize to one another.

He also sternly ordered, "From now on, neither side is to engage in armed conflict in the village. Whoever makes the first move in the future will be arrested by the Anbu. All those arrested will be sent to the border and forbidden from ever returning to the village."

Under the dual suppression of such severe punishment and strict orders, Root and the Uchiha had no choice but to obediently stand down. Whenever they met again, they only dared glare and provoke one another, but no one dared strike first.

After delivering the punishment, the "upright, great, and glorious" Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, gave each side a reward as well.

Root would receive all of the village's death-row prisoners from then on. How they were handled and what they were used for would not concern the Hokage.

For the Uchiha, the bounty and designation of Uchiha Feng as a defector would be revoked. He would only be treated as an ordinary missing person, and the Hokage publicly praised the Uchiha.

With that, the Uchiha Clan's relationship with the village finally eased considerably.

As for Uchiha Feng, neither side mentioned him again, as though Konoha had never had such a person.

Meanwhile, while Konoha was dealing with the relationship between the Uchiha and the village, Feng was slowly improving his strength under Uchiha Mikio's guidance in the capital of Tea Country.

The main ninjutsu he practiced were the Fire Release: Great Fireball he had joked about before—Kakashi Release: Dog Awkward Cry Technique—the Earth Release: Earth Wave Technique that Kakashi had used as a child, and the Shadow Clone Technique he had been longing for most.

Although the Great Fireball had always been mocked as Kakashi Release, it was the most basic Fire Release technique. As long as Feng wanted to improve his Fire Release ability, he had to practice it seriously.

As for the Earth Wave Technique, its effect and power merely made the ground shake and caused people to fall. Yet as a basic Earth Release technique, it was naturally something Feng, whose body had been tested by Uchiha Mikio and found to possess both Fire and Earth attributes, needed to practice.

As for the Shadow Clone Technique, although it was inferior to the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, given Feng's current circumstances, the Shadow Clone Technique was actually the best choice. More importantly, Uchiha Mikio did not know the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.

Of course, while cultivating, Feng also secretly stirred up trouble in the capital from time to time, while openly presenting himself as a loyal and dutiful good man.

For instance, in his capacity as captain of the samurai: every day, he seriously patrolled the daimyo residence several times and carefully inspected everyone entering and leaving.

To outsiders, he was truly a fine servant of the daimyo, active and conscientious in his work, meticulous in every detail.

Yet in secret, Feng had Uchiha Mikio strengthen and deepen the genjutsu controlling the daimyo every day.

At the same time, he thoroughly investigated who belonged to the daimyo's previous generation, current generation, and next generation; which of them were qualified to inherit the daimyo's position; and what their personalities and conduct were like.

For another example, in his capacity as protector of the capital:

He cracked down harshly on criminals within the capital, making public security more stable and orderly than before;

He personally gave his subordinates time off and money on a regular basis, making the capital's guard and samurai units more united and prosperous.

Outsiders thought even more highly of Feng. Those who had originally objected to the daimyo directly promoting him now had no choice but to praise, "Lord Daimyo truly has an eye for talent."

But the truth was this: in order to reduce the chance of his identity being exposed, Feng had ordered a strict inspection of all suspicious people of unknown origin in the capital.

In the end, they did not uncover many suspicious outsiders, but they found a great many criminals. Thinking that since they had already been discovered, leaving them alone would only be troublesome, Feng simply dealt with them.

As a result, he unexpectedly improved the capital's public security by a great deal.

As for regularly giving his subordinates time off and paying them out of his own pocket, any person from China would understand that he was simply buying their loyalty.

Moreover, those subordinates who were given leave did not actually rest. Feng assigned them other tasks: taking money to underground bounty exchanges and posting missions to seek information concerning the tailed beasts of Kirigakure and Takigakure, as well as the location of the Uzumaki Mask Hall in the Land of Whirlpools.

And once they gathered useful information, regardless of how useful it was, Feng rewarded them with a substantial sum of money. In any case, it was money taken from the daimyo, not his own, so he felt no pain spending it.

The result was that the three guard captains became even more obedient to Feng.

The two guard captains who had previously been loyal to the daimyo even hinted several times that they wanted to join Feng's side and pledge allegiance to him.

Naturally, Feng, who currently had only one living subordinate and one dead one, would not refuse.

Thus, after Sada Hidemasa, the capital guard captains Shibata Keiichi and Furukawa Kengo also joined Feng's ranks.

Of the three, Sada Hidemasa was the strongest and had joined first, so Feng appointed him as their leader.

With the loyalty of those three, Feng had effectively gained complete control of Tea Country's capital and could begin the next stage of his plan.