Hyuga of the Police Force

Just as Natsuki had expected.

Konoha's public security had not been very good these past few days.

There were no major conflicts, but no one was handling the minor frictions either.

Fortunately, the Third Hokage had ordered the Anbu to keep watch. Otherwise, things might really have spiraled into a huge mess.

There were no longer any people filing complaints against the Police Force, but people came every day to ask when personnel would be assigned over. The Uchiha Clan had no manpower to spare either.

Helpless, those merchants could only go report the matter to the Hokage.

Although not just anyone could meet the Hokage.

But these villagers had lived in Konoha for a long time. They were all connected by blood or marriage somehow, and once their numbers grew, many complaints still made their way to the Third Hokage.

The Third Hokage had no choice but to urge the Hyuga Clan to take over as quickly as possible.

Under the Third Hokage's pressure, the Hyuga Clan moved two days ahead of schedule. On the sixth day, the Police Force members assigned to each area were finally in place.

However, their squad configurations were somewhat smaller than those of the Uchiha Clan.

The Hyuga Clan had the Byakugan for observation and the Gentle Fist to seal Chakra, making them quite suitable as Police Force members.

Sure enough, as soon as the Hyuga Clan took office, public security immediately improved.

Hizashi Hyuga was in charge of the Police Force, and all its members were from the Hyuga Branch Family.

Having learned from the Uchiha Clan's mistakes, Hizashi required every Hyuga Police Force member to enforce the law gently and not give the villagers anything to complain about.

The Hyuga Branch Family had always fought on the front lines, and all bore the Caged Bird mark on their foreheads.

Though they had been born into the Hyuga Clan, they carried none of an aristocrat's air and were instead approachable.

So most disputes among residents were handled through persuasion and admonition.

Seeing that even the noble Hyuga Clan was so easy to talk to, the residents praised them one after another.

"The Hyuga Clan really is reliable."

"They're much gentler than the Uchiha Clan."

"If you ask me, the Hyuga Clan should have been put in charge of the Police Force ages ago."

Natsuki and Itachi walked down the street together. Itachi had already resigned from the Anbu through the Third Hokage.

Natsuki intended to spend more time with Itachi. Itachi would become an extremely powerful Combat Power in the future, though they would need to think of something about his illness.

Fugaku wanted Itachi to become closer to Natsuki, and Itachi greatly admired Natsuki's mind as well. Both wanted to see how the villagers would react as the Uchiha Clan gradually withdrew from the Police Force.

"Itachi, what do you think our clan needs?"

As Natsuki spoke to Itachi, he surveyed Konoha's streets. Konoha was called a village, but its scale was simply absurd.

Judging from how bustling the streets were, its permanent population was at least several hundred thousand. No wonder the Uchiha Clan had been so fixated on seizing power.

Unfortunately, the coming changes in the shinobi world could not be altered by these mere hundreds of thousands of ordinary people.

After all, with its lack of top-tier Combat Power, Konoha was already strong on the outside but weak within.

And its long-standing high-pressure policies had made the Hokage faction fundamentally unwilling to trust the Uchiha Clan.

Forget the position of Hokage—even a position as an Advisor Elder was denied to the Uchiha Clan.

No wonder the Uchiha Clan harbored such deep resentment.

The less willing the Hokage faction had been to relinquish power, the tighter the Uchiha Clan had clung to the Police Force. And during the Nine-Tails incident, it had clearly been the higher-ups' order that kept the Uchiha Clan from joining the battle.

Yet in the end, it became the villagers' reason to suspect them.

It was difficult to say whether the Hokage faction had been manipulating public opinion behind all this. The only question was whether it had been Danzo or the Third Hokage.

Itachi thought seriously. "Vice Clan Head, I think it's a sense of belonging."

Natsuki waved his hand. "Just call me senior."

"A sense of belonging? How many jonin does our Uchiha Clan have? And how many does Konoha have?"

In Konoha, the total number of registered jonin was only around two hundred.

A jonin could normally lead three to five four-man squads, and even more during wartime, so each jonin carried tremendous weight.

But in the Police Force, even an Uchiha jonin was merely a squad leader.

There were more than thirty jonin squad leaders like that in the Police Force.

"Our Uchiha jonin clearly outnumber those of the other shinobi clans, yet they're all cooped up in this tiny patch of land called the Police Force."

"As long as the Uchiha Clan remains in the Police Force, we can never gain recognition. We can only have our edge worn away by trivial daily matters."

"The Uchiha Clan are strong by nature. Do we need others to acknowledge us?"

Itachi nodded thoughtfully.

"I heard the Hyuga Clan is doing quite well now, with very few complaints. What do you think, senior?" After thinking for a while, Itachi looked toward the side of the street.

Hearing Itachi change his form of address to senior, Natsuki felt much more comfortable.

Fugaku had given him the position of Vice Clan Head on a whim, and it always sounded strange to Natsuki.

Natsuki followed his gaze.

Two Hyuga Clan Police Force members were handling a dispute over there.

A moment later.

"Few complaints?"

The corner of his mouth curled up. "Police Force work isn't that easy."

Sure enough, the conflict over there escalated.

The two people being mediated both raised their voices. "Who the hell are you to meddle in my business? My wife is from the Yamanaka Clan."

"So what if she's from the Yamanaka Clan? My surname is Shimura, understand? I'm from Advisor Elder Shimura Danzō's clan..."

The two Hyuga Clan members were caught in the middle, unable to act no matter what they did. They could neither arrest them nor let them go.

"Sir, you were clearly in the wrong first. The other person was only forced to fight back," Hyuga Gasshin explained patiently.

After all, Hizashi had instructed them not to arrest anyone unless the situation was particularly serious.

"You're nothing but a dog guarding the gate for the Hyuga Branch Family. You dare meddle in my business?"

The man was drunk. He kicked and punched Hyuga Gasshin, who was restraining him, while the words coming from his mouth were vicious beyond measure.

Hyuga Gasshin's expression changed drastically. That was an insult aimed directly at his sore spot—the greatest taboo for the branch family.

He brought two fingers together and directly struck the drunkard twice with both hands.

The drunkard's acupoints were struck, and he immediately collapsed to the ground. His face smashed into the pavement, blood pouring from his nose as he cried, "You're using excessive force! I'm going to file a complaint against you!"

Hyuga Gasshin's face turned livid as he saw the nearby villagers pointing and whispering about him.

He hurriedly pulled his teammate along and took the drunkard away.

Watching the scene from the side, Uchiha Itachi felt it was strangely familiar.

He often saw Shisui encounter such situations, and every time, Shisui would take the initiative to apologize and make peace.

That had caused some people within the clan to become dissatisfied with Shisui.

Most of the merchants here had ties of blood or marriage with the major clans.

Whenever a conflict occurred, they would bring up their backing as a threat.

So the Uchiha Clan had often been caught in the middle as well, unable to please either side.

They could only smooth things over, but Despite this, many Uchiha were highly emotional.

There was no way they would smooth things over. If they disagreed, they simply started fighting.

Now that all these matters had been dumped onto the Hyuga Clan, it seemed the Hyuga Clan was no better at this than the Uchiha Clan.

Itachi admired Natsuki even more.

Natsuki smiled when he saw Itachi's expression.

Too many Uchiha had encountered situations like this, but the Uchiha Clan had never indulged people like them.

Because of the Uchiha Clan's pride, they had never deigned to play false with others. They always enforced the law impartially—those who should be arrested were arrested, and those who should be imprisoned were imprisoned.

For so many years, the Uchiha Clan had grown accustomed to this way of handling matters.

And this had also been Second Hokage Tobirama's scheme. If you wanted to enforce the law impartially, you were bound to offend the shinobi clans. Once you offended the shinobi clans, naturally you could not win the Hokage's Trust Vote.

That was why the Uchiha Clan could never become Hokage.

Otherwise, considering Fugaku's contributions during the Third Shinobi World War, forget becoming Hokage—it was impossible that he would not even receive a position as an Advisor Elder.