Return to Konoha!

The next day.

Outside Amegakure.

Uchiha You and Kisame left the tower.

Konan stood high above, silently watching the two depart.

At some point, Deva Path Pain appeared beside her.

"Do you think he'll succeed?"

Konan fell silent for a moment.

"He doesn't seem like someone who would fail."

Pain asked,

"Do you trust him?"

Konan shook her head.

"Not completely."

"But I believe he'll kill Danzo."

Pain's Rinnegan gazed at the gloomy sky.

"That's enough."

Elsewhere.

Tobi stood in the shadow of a more distant tower.

Watching the direction Uchiha You had left in, he said softly,

"Uchiha You."

"I hope you can bring enough chaos to Konoha."

Black Zetsu asked,

"What if he really prevents the Uchiha Massacre Night?"

Tobi's gaze turned cold.

"Then we'll make the Uchiha Clan the target of the shinobi world once again."

"Konoha cannot tolerate the Uchiha Clan."

"Nor can the shinobi world tolerate an Uchiha Clan who wields the power of the Akatsuki."

"As long as hatred remains, he won't escape this game."

White Zetsu laughed.

"You're pretty confident."

Tobi said nothing.

Yet for some reason, a faint unease stirred within him.

Would Uchiha You really follow the path he had laid out?

The border of the Land of Fire.

Kisame stopped walking.

Beyond this point lay Konoha's sphere of influence.

He could not go any farther.

At least, not yet.

Uchiha You looked at Kisame.

"Wait here for news."

Kisame carried his sword on his shoulder and grinned.

"What if you die in Konoha?"

Uchiha You replied blandly,

"Then you can consider collecting my body."

Kisame laughed.

"I'm not good at that."

Uchiha You took out a Black Umbrella kunai and tossed it to him.

"If this kunai turns red, it means I need support."

"If it turns black, it means the operation has begun."

"If it breaks..."

Kisame asked,

"That means you're dead?"

Uchiha You shook his head.

"It means you should run."

Kisame froze for a moment, then burst into laughter.

"Hahahaha!"

"Fine, I'll remember that."

Uchiha You said nothing more and turned toward Konoha.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves and fell across him.

Unlike the gloom of the Land of Rain, the Land of Fire remained warm.

But Uchiha You knew perfectly well that this warmth was only superficial.

The darkness within Konoha might not be any less than that of Hidden Rain.

It was simply that Hidden Rain's rain fell outside.

Konoha's rain fell into people's hearts.

Several hours later.

Konoha's gates appeared at the end of his vision.

When the guard shinobi saw the figure approaching from afar, he was initially stunned.

Once they saw the Uchiha Clan crest on his back, their expressions changed instantly.

"Uchiha You?"

"He came back?"

"What about the three ANBU?"

Uchiha You walked step by step to the village gate.

His clothes were somewhat torn.

His face looked slightly pale.

There were still bloodstains from battle on his body.

Of course, most of them had been deliberately added by him.

The gatekeeper chunin hurried forward.

"Uchiha You, weren't you sent on a mission to the Land of Water?"

"Where are the accompanying ANBU?"

Uchiha You glanced at him, his calm tone carrying just the right amount of exhaustion.

"On the way, we were ambushed by rogue shinobi from the Land of Water."

"The three ANBU died in battle."

"I broke out while seriously injured."

The gatekeeper chunin's expression changed drastically.

"All three ANBU died?"

Uchiha You nodded.

"Report this to the Hokage immediately."

"I would also like to know why an ordinary investigation mission encountered such a precise ambush halfway through."

At that, his eyes turned faintly cold.

"And the signals those three ANBU used before they died seemed unfamiliar to me. I don't think I've seen them in the official ANBU system."

The gatekeeper chunin's face changed sharply.

What did that mean?

The ANBU signals were not part of the official system?

Then what else could they be?

Root?

The surrounding shinobi exchanged glances, and no one dared respond.

This was far too serious.

Yet Uchiha You acted as if he had not seen their reactions and strode straight into Konoha.

"Have the Hokage Building give me an explanation."

"I, Uchiha You, carried out a mission for the village and nearly died outside."

"Three ANBU died, yet the intelligence seemed to have been leaked in advance."

"This matter cannot be pinned on the Uchiha Clan, can it?"

He did not say it loudly.

But it was just loud enough for everyone nearby to hear.

The village gate instantly fell silent.

The expressions of several shinobi about to enter the village changed.

An intelligence leak?

ANBU deaths?

Uchiha You had returned seriously injured?

This was huge news.

The news would inevitably spread through Konoha at the fastest possible speed.

And that was exactly the effect Uchiha You wanted.

Since the Third Hokage liked to smooth everything over.

Then Uchiha You would dump the mud right at the Hokage Building's doorstep first.

Let's see who gets sick of it first.

The Hokage Building.

Bang!

The office door was violently pushed open.

An ANBU dropped to one knee.

"Hokage-sama!"

"Uchiha You has returned!"

The Third Hokage paused with his pipe in hand.

"Returned?"

In the corner of the office, Danzo's single eye darkened abruptly.

He came back?

How was that possible?

What about the three Root members?

A sense of foreboding rose within Danzo.

The ANBU continued,

"Uchiha You claims that he was ambushed by rogue shinobi from the Land of Water during the mission."

"The three accompanying ANBU were all killed."

"He was the only one to break out, severely injured."

The Third Hokage's expression shifted slightly.

Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura also frowned.

Danzo's fingers instantly clenched around his cane.

Dead.

The three Root members were all dead.

Yet this Uchiha brat had returned alive.

The ANBU hesitated, then added,

"Also, Uchiha You publicly stated at the village gate that the signals used by the three ANBU before their deaths seemed not to belong to the official ANBU system."

The air in the office froze abruptly.

The Third Hokage slowly looked toward Danzo.

Danzo remained expressionless.

But the killing intent in the depths of his single eye was nearly impossible to suppress.

Uchiha You.

He actually dared to throw Root's problem out in the open at the village gate!

He was forcing the Hokage Building to take a stance.

The Third Hokage asked in a low voice,

"Where is he now?"

The ANBU replied:

"He has already returned to the Uchiha Clan Grounds."

The Third Hokage frowned deeply.

"Notify him to report to the Hokage Building."

The ANBU lowered his head.

"Yes!"

After the ANBU left, no one spoke in the office for a long while.

Utatane Koharu was the first to speak.

"This matter must be suppressed."

"If the Uchiha Clan uses this as a pretext, the trouble will only grow worse."

Mitokado Homura also said:

"ANBU deaths, mission failure, intelligence leaks—none of this can be allowed to spread through the village."

The Third Hokage took a drag from his pipe, his voice low.

"Danzo."

"Were those three really ANBU?"

Danzo said coldly:

"Hiruzen, does it matter now?"

The Third Hokage's expression darkened.

"I'm asking you whether those three were from Root."

Danzo fell silent for a moment.

Then he said coldly:

"Root is also part of Konoha."

The Third Hokage closed his eyes.

Just as he had feared.

The thing he feared most had happened.

Danzo had made his move.

But he had failed.

And Uchiha You had returned alive.

The most troublesome part was that Uchiha You had not attacked in secret. Instead, he had laid everything out openly at the village gate.

That meant that if the Hokage Building mishandled this, the Uchiha Clan would seize upon it immediately.

Danzo said coldly:

"Hiruzen, we cannot let him keep living."

The Third Hokage's eyes snapped open.

"Enough!"

"He has just returned from a mission, and three accompanying shinobi died."

"If something happens to him now, what do you think the Uchiha Clan will think?"

Danzo said darkly:

"The Uchiha Clan has long harbored rebellious intentions."

The Third Hokage said in a deep voice:

"Even so, we cannot escalate things now!"

The office fell silent again.

Danzo's eyes were filled with resentment.

This time, Uchiha You had outmaneuvered him.

And he had done so in public.

Danzo had clearly set a death trap, intending for Uchiha You to die outside the village.

Yet now, it was Root who had died.

And the Hokage Building might be the one left taking the blame.

More humiliating still, he could not make a move for the time being.

Because there was no evidence.

No evidence that Uchiha You had killed the three Root operatives.

Instead, Uchiha You had beaten him to it, pinning the blame on "intelligence leaks" and "irregular ANBU identities."

The feeling was like being slapped across the face.

And being forced not to strike back.

Danzo said coldly:

"Uchiha You..."

"That brat must be eliminated as soon as possible."

The Third Hokage did not answer.

But his gaze had also turned graver than ever before.

Uchiha You was more difficult to deal with than they had imagined.