While everything was going smoothly on Feng's end, Konoha's atmosphere was exceptionally tense.
After he had fled Konoha for so long, the Anbu and Root conducted a joint investigation.
They discovered that Uchiha Feng had not only defected from the village, but had also gone mad before his defection and dug up the graves of several heroes, including the Second Hokage.
Therefore, Konoha labeled him a rogue ninja and issued an extremely high bounty for his capture and execution.
However, the Uchiha Clan refused to accept the village's conclusion or its handling of the matter.
The reason was simple: the Uchiha had also investigated Feng's disappearance themselves.
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 view was completely different from the village's.
The village claimed he had defected, while the Uchiha believed Danzo had definitely captured him.
After all, when Orochimaru defected from Konoha a year ago, there had been many Uchiha corpses on his experimental tables, including Feng's own uncle.
And though there was no proof, everyone in Konoha knew that most of Orochimaru's experiments had been conducted in cooperation with Danzo.
Furthermore, Feng's family had been loyal Konoha citizens for three generations. Let alone defecting, he had barely even left Konoha.
How could someone like that possibly defect from Konoha? And even if he did, where could he possibly go?
Since Feng could not possibly have defected yet had truly vanished, the Uchiha believed he had most likely been taken by Root for experiments. It had to be that Pot Kage's handiwork.
Of course, if he had merely been taken for experiments, that would have been one thing. After all, quite a few Uchiha had disappeared over the years.
Whenever they tried to seek justice, that fool of a clan head, Uchiha Fugaku, had suppressed them.
But at least when clan members had disappeared before, the Uchiha could still make a fuss, and Konoha had not dared say much because it knew perfectly well it was in the wrong.
But this time, not only was their man gone, the village had accused the Uchiha of producing a traitor and would not even let them raise a fuss.
That was more than the long-aggrieved Uchiha could bear. The village was simply bullying them too much.
As for Feng digging graves? Heh. When Root said that, forget the Uchiha—not even a single Anbu agent standing nearby believed it.
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. On top of that, some people kept fanning the flames, such as the Uchiha's most extreme Hawk Faction member, Elder Setsuna Uchiha.
Combined with Root's long-standing "excellent" image and reputation, the Uchiha firmly believed that their clan could not possibly have produced a defector. Root had clearly harmed someone and was now trying to frame them.
Thus, the Uchiha Clan made an enormous commotion this time, turning Danzo and Root upside down. They vented both the humiliation they had endured in silence before and the injustice they suffered now.
As for Shimura Danzō, not only did he fail to stop them, he even fanned the flames from the sidelines and let the Uchiha cause trouble.
In the past, Danzo knew deep down that he had no ground to stand on. He really had done all sorts of shady things in the village, so he could only endure the villagers' resentment.
But this time, Danzo knew he had not wronged anyone! Feng had genuinely defected, and he really had dug up the graves of the village's heroes.
So this time, I am in the right! How could I let some petty Uchiha bully me?!
Wouldn't that utterly disgrace Danzo, the Darkness of Konoha? How would I run for Fifth Hokage in the future?
Thus, with both sides believing themselves justified and the other side guilty, while people constantly added fuel to the fire, their clashes continued without end and grew increasingly fierce.
Even when the Hokage tried to mediate and the clan head tried to pull people back, neither side showed any intention of stopping.
Danzo: That's right, Hiruzen. You're the Hokage, and when you use that 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, Danzo used to bully us in secret. Whenever we raised a fuss, he at least knew to restrain himself. But now? He bullies us and expects us to apologize to him. If we put up with this shit, are we even living anymore? Hokage? Clan head? Even if the Sage of Six Paths came today, it would be useless. This time, we have to kill Danzo and make the higher-ups apologize.
With that mindset, Root and the Uchiha fought and hacked at each other every other day.
This made even the Third Hokage, who had always accepted the Anbu and Root's investigation and believed Uchiha Feng had indeed defected, somewhat uncertain.
And although Uchiha Fugaku always liked to stand between the village and the clan, stewing in self-pitying frustration, he was swept along to fight Root several times when the entire clan was united in outrage.
In the end, after nearly a hundred casualties had appeared on both the Root and Uchiha sides, the indecisive Hiruzen Sarutobi finally showed the resolve and decisiveness expected of a Hokage.
First, both sides would receive equal punishment.
Root would have its annual funding reduced by 30% for the next three years. Danzo would publicly apologize to the Uchiha on behalf of all Root members and guarantee that Root would never again approach Uchiha clan territory.
The Uchiha would likewise have the Konoha Military Police Force's annual funding reduced by 30% for the next three years. Fugaku would publicly apologize to Root on behalf of the Uchiha, and they would no longer pursue Root over Uchiha Feng's case.
Then the Hokage personally brought the entire Anbu to watch Root and the Uchiha apologize to each other.
He also strictly ordered, "From now on, neither side is to engage in armed conflict within 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 never allowed to return to the village."
Under the double pressure of such harsh punishment and strict orders, Root and the Uchiha had no choice but to obediently stand down. When they met again, they only dared glare and provoke each other, with no one daring to strike first.
After handing out the sticks, the "glorious, great, and righteous" Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, gave each side a carrot as well.
Root would receive all of the village's death-row prisoners from then on. How they were handled and what was done with them would not concern the Hokage.
For the Uchiha, the bounty and defector designation concerning Uchiha Feng would be revoked. He would be treated only 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 dealt with the relationship between the Uchiha and the village, Feng slowly improved his strength under Uchiha Mikio's instruction in the capital of Tea Country.
The main ninjutsu he practiced were the Fire Release: Great Fireball he had previously mocked, Card Release—Dog Awkward Cry Technique; Earth Release: Earth Wave Technique, which Kakashi had used as a child; and the Shadow Clone Technique he had longed for most.
Although the Great Fireball was constantly mocked as Card Release, it was the most basic Fire Release technique. As long as Feng wanted to improve his Fire Release abilities, he had to practice it seriously.
As for the Earth Wave Technique, its effect and power merely made the ground tremble and caused people to fall. Yet as a foundation of Earth Release, Feng naturally needed to practice it after Uchiha Mikio confirmed that his body possessed both fire and earth attributes.
As for the Shadow Clone Technique, although it was inferior to the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, given Feng's current condition, the Shadow Clone Technique was actually the best choice. More importantly, Uchiha Mikio did not know the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
Of course, while training, Feng also secretly stirred up trouble in the capital from time to time, while outwardly presenting himself as a loyal and dutiful good man.
For instance, in his capacity as captain of the Samurai Corps, he carefully patrolled the Daimyo Palace several times every day and meticulously inspected everyone entering and leaving.
To outsiders, he was truly a fine retainer of the daimyo, active and conscientious in his work, meticulous in every detail.
In secret, however, Feng had Uchiha Mikio strengthen and deepen the genjutsu controlling the daimyo every day.
At the same time, he thoroughly investigated everyone in the daimyo's family from the older generation, his own generation, and the younger generation—who was eligible to inherit the position of daimyo, what their personalities were like, and what sort of people they were.
For another example, in his capacity as protector of the capital:
He cracked down hard on criminals within the capital, making public security more stable and orderly than before;
He personally gave his subordinates regular leave and money, making the capital's Guard Corps and Samurai Corps more united and prosperous.
Outsiders thought even more highly of Feng. Those who had originally objected to the daimyo promoting him directly now had no choice but to praise Lord Daimyo for recognizing talent.
But the reality was that, to reduce the chances of his identity being exposed, Feng ordered strict inspections of every suspicious person of unknown origin in the capital.
They did not find many people of unknown origin, but they uncovered a huge number of criminals. Thinking that since they had already been found, 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 personally giving his subordinates regular leave and money, anyone from China understood that he was buying people's loyalty.
Moreover, those subordinates on leave did not truly rest. Feng assigned them other tasks instead: carrying money to the Underground Marketplace to post missions seeking information about Tailed Beasts connected to Kirigakure and Takigakure, as well as the location of the Uzumaki's Mask Hall in the Land of Whirlpools.
And once they uncovered useful information, regardless of its value, Feng rewarded them handsomely. In any case, the money came from the daimyo, not his own pocket, so he did not feel the slightest pain spending it.
As a result, the three Guard Corps captains became even more obedient to Feng.
The two Guard Corps captains who had been loyal to the daimyo even hinted several times that they wished to transfer to Feng's side and pledge loyalty to him.
For Feng, who currently had only one living subordinate and one dead one, there was naturally no reason to refuse.
Thus, after Sada Hidemasa, Shibata Keiichi and Furukawa Kengo, the captains of the capital's Guard Corps, also joined Feng's ranks.
Of the three, however, Sada Hidemasa was the strongest and had joined first, so Feng appointed him their leader.
With the loyalty of those three, Feng had thoroughly seized control of Tea Country's capital and could begin the next stage of his plan.
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