The vast funds obtained from selling off their assets had not sent a single coin into Konoha's banks. Every bit of it had been converted into hard currency and scarce supplies—
Enough compressed rations and fodder to feed the entire clan of over ten thousand people for three years, enough medicine, antidotes, and hemostatic powder to fill half a room, hundreds of thousands of Explosive Tags, Shuriken, and Kunai, as well as high-purity chakra metal rarely seen even in Konoha's warehouses. All of it had been transported into the underground chambers beneath Naka Shrine under cover of night, through the summoning contract passed down for generations between the Uchiha and the Ninja Cat Clan.
It was not just supplies.
The clan's inheritance, accumulated over a thousand years, had also been emptied out.
From complete rubbings of the stone tablet left behind by the Sage of Six Paths to the secret technique notes of every previous clan head, from training scrolls for the most basic Three-Body Technique to the complete legacies of forbidden techniques such as Izanagi and Izanami.
Even the ancestral tablets enshrined in the clan district's ancestral hall had been carefully packed into specially made wooden boxes and sealed away in the deepest part of the underground chambers.
Other than the clan district estate that could not be moved, the Uchiha had left Konoha almost nothing.
All clan members had long since been gathered back.
Everyone carrying out missions elsewhere, even the garrison units stationed at the border of the Land of Rain, had withdrawn to the clan district under the pretext of "ancestral rites, the entire clan returning home."
The elderly, the weak, women, and children had been quietly settled into courtyards around Naka Shrine. The young and able-bodied ninja were divided into two shifts. One shift worked day and night to reinforce three layers of sealing formations along the clan district's perimeter.
The other took turns patrolling. On the surface, they were maintaining order in the clan district ahead of the rites. In truth, they had already rehearsed every evacuation route and contingency plan more than ten times.
Behind all these surging undercurrents, in the top-floor office of the Hokage Building, Hiruzen Sarutobi's patience had long been worn to its limit.
The office was still filled with smoke. Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu sat across from him, their expressions as cold and ugly as ice. Shimura Danzō still stood in the shadows by the window, his lone eye beneath the bandages full of barely suppressed gloom and viciousness.
"Sarutobi! It's already been a month!" Utatane Koharu was the first to break the silence, her voice full of agitation. "The Uchiha have recalled every member stationed outside. They've been holed up in the clan district every day, and Naka Shrine has been sealed so tightly not even a bird can fly in. How much longer are you planning to endure this?!"
"I said it from the beginning—they're definitely plotting a rebellion!" Mitokado Homura took over, slamming the table hard. "If we don't act now, it'll be too late once they're ready!"
"Hmph." Danzo stepped out of the shadows, his hoarse voice laden with mockery. "Lord Hokage, you keep talking about considering the bigger picture and stabilizing the other ninja clans. But if we wait any longer, the Uchiha's blade will be at your throat."
The pipe in Hiruzen Sarutobi's hand flickered on and off. His brows twisted into a tight knot, but in the end, he slowly shook his head.
"Wait a little longer."
He tapped the desk. Spread across it were the reports delivered daily by the Anbu. "Fugaku has already voluntarily transferred all authority over the Konoha Police Force to the Anbu. That is equivalent to surrendering the only armed power in his hands.
"He also personally requested that we deploy Anbu to guard the four entrances to the Uchiha Clan District. He said it was to prevent outsiders from disturbing the rites and to stop radical elements within the clan from causing trouble."
He raised his eyes to the three of them, certainty in his tone. "We have them surrounded on all sides, and they no longer hold military authority. Even if the Uchiha want to rebel, what kind of waves can they possibly make?"
Over this past month, it was not as though he had not remained vigilant.
But Fugaku's two moves had simply been too far beyond his expectations.
Voluntarily surrendering authority and requesting surveillance on his own initiative meant handing the Uchiha's very life and death completely into his hands.
If they truly intended to rebel, who would do something so foolish as cutting off their own arms?
Besides, the Anbu's daily reports were perfectly clear: the Uchiha's activities were limited to the clan district and Naka Shrine. There had been no large-scale assembly of ninja, no stockpiling of forbidden ninja tools, and no secret correspondence with other ninja clans or other countries. Everything appeared to be nothing more than quiet preparations for ancestral rites.
As time passed, the taut string in Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart gradually loosened.
He even began to feel that perhaps he and the higher-ups had been overly nervous. Perhaps Fugaku was merely using the rites as an excuse to unite the clan and suppress the momentum of those radicals.
But Danzo did not see it that way.
He stared fixedly at Hiruzen Sarutobi, his lone eye brimming with hostility. "You're too naive! What kind of man is Fugaku? He is the Uchiha clan head, proud and arrogant his entire life. How could he possibly yield so easily?
"There must be something wrong here! Especially Naka Shrine. My men have tried eight times and couldn't even get near the gates. We have no idea what they're doing inside!"
"No idea?" Hiruzen Sarutobi frowned. "The Anbu have been watching them. The things going in and out every day are incense, candles, and offerings for the rites. What else could there be?"
"Offerings?" Danzo sneered. "What kind of ancestral rite requires them to use Summoning Jutsu to transport things into the shrine in the middle of the night? My men saw it with their own eyes—the Ninja Cat Clan's summoned beasts run into the Uchiha Clan District every night. Have you investigated what they're carrying inside?"
"That's enough, Danzo."
Hiruzen Sarutobi's expression darkened. "Now is not the time to create further complications. The Uchiha have already yielded. If we continue pressing them step by step, we'll only truly drive them into rebellion. Once their rites are over and everything is settled, there will be plenty of time to investigate slowly."
He had been Hokage his entire life, and what he valued most was Konoha's stability.
Three Ninja World Wars had drained Konoha's foundations dry. At a time like this, he absolutely could not completely fall out with the Uchiha, one of the village's founding clans, and give the other four great nations an opening to exploit.
Seeing how impervious he was to reason, Danzo clenched his fists in fury. Veins bulged on the arm beneath his bandages. In the end, he merely snorted coldly, swung his sleeve, and turned back into the shadows.
Meanwhile, in the underground chambers of Naka Shrine—the center of their dispute—Natsu was reviewing the supply list in his hands while Uchiha Kei stood beside him, quietly reporting their progress.
"Young master, the contracts for all the assets have been signed. The formal handover with the daimyo is scheduled for thirty days from now." Kei kept his voice low, excitement filling his eyes.
"Everything that could be liquidated has been exchanged for supplies and gold. The chambers are almost too full to hold it all. The clan's scrolls, secret techniques, and inheritances have all been inventoried and sealed away. Not a single item was missed."
"What about the clan members?" Natsu set down the list and looked up.
"There are 13,621 people in the entire clan. Aside from three households we simply could not contact, everyone else has returned to the clan district." Kei's tone became increasingly certain. "More than ninety-five percent are willing to leave with us, far exceeding the seventy-percent minimum you originally set."
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