Who Are You Looking For?

The appearance of an unexpected name made all of Konoha's higher-ups return.

The high-level meeting reconvened.

"Ning Qi found the culprit behind those branch family member cases. He's tracking them now."

"Madara Uchiha... could it be someone with the same name?"

"But there's no Uchiha Clan member on record by the name of Madara Uchiha."

"You know who it refers to."

"Of course I do, but that man has been dead for over thirty years!"

"No matter what, he bears the Uchiha name, so... is this the confidence that makes the Uchiha Clan dare to rebel?"

The name seemed to possess immense power, plunging the four old men in the conference room who had lived through that era into silence.

Deep down, they all felt that the Madara mentioned in Ning Qi's letter was someone else in disguise. Yet the Uchiha Clan's recent madness kept them from drawing conclusions lightly. Could this Madara Uchiha truly be some old relic the Uchiha Clan had dug up from some mass grave?

"Should we call Ning Qi back and question him properly?" En asked.

"No!" Hiruzen and Danzo shook their heads at the same time. Such a rare lead could not be allowed to break so easily.

"What about Itachi? Did he mention that this Madara Uchiha might be the Uchiha Clan's secret weapon?"

"No."

If Itachi truly knew that the Uchiha Clan had reinforcements, he certainly would not have concealed it.

Seeing Hiruzen shake his head, Danzo frowned. Fugaku was not that brainless after all; he had still managed to deceive his own son...

The intelligence Ning Qi had sent was extremely valuable. Although it was troubling that this Madara Uchiha was entangled with the Hyuga branch family case, now that they had confirmed he was an enemy rather than a friend, there was nothing more to say. They only needed to make the appropriate preparations—soldiers against soldiers, water against earth.

Hiruzen considered it. The matter was plain enough: if an unexpected powerful figure might join the Uchiha during their rebellion, they too had to make corresponding adjustments. "The original battle plan remains unchanged. But to deal with this Madara Uchiha who appeared out of nowhere, we can form another spearhead combat squad. The squad's standard... will be the highest Shadow Level standard."

The Shadow Level standard did not mean the squad's strength could merely match that of a Shadow Level ninja. It meant something greater: a squad capable of defeating, even killing, a single Shadow Level powerhouse in conventional combat.

By the same logic, the Jonin standard referred to a squad capable of defeating or even killing a single Jonin.

No one objected to Hiruzen's proposal. Konoha's safety was at stake, as was that terrifying figure. No degree of caution would be excessive.

—They had treated the Madara Uchiha revealed in Ning Qi's letter as the real Madara!

"And the specific candidates?" Koharu asked.

Hiruzen named several people, all elite Konoha ninja capable of standing on their own. Still seeming to find it insufficient, he swept his gaze across the Jonin and elite Anbu waiting outside the corridor, then paused.

"Add one more... Kakashi."

The spearhead squad was complete. Their sole purpose was to guard against Madara Uchiha, lurking in the shadows, during Konoha's battle with the Uchiha Clan.

They might not necessarily be deployed, but that was what preparing for a rainy day meant. A massive shinobi village military force could not rely on improvisation to handle everything. Having a contingency plan was always more reassuring than having none.

Once the arrangements for dealing with Madara Uchiha were settled, the atmosphere in the meeting lightened again. Hiruzen seemed to think of something and shook his head with a sigh.

"As expected of Konoha's twin prides. One infiltrated the Uchiha and provided us with critical intelligence."

"The other investigated the Hyuga branch family case and unexpectedly uncovered suspected Uchiha reinforcements."

"They have both rendered great service to Konoha!"

Everyone nodded slightly. Only Danzo frowned. Was this a reminder not to go too far in dealing with meritorious individuals?

All arrangements proceeded in orderly fashion beneath the darkness. Though they had long concealed blades and harbored murderous intent, Konoha and the Uchiha Clan still maintained the appearance of marital harmony.

War was inevitable. Everyone had already quietly made their resolve.

Yet just as a beast, once released, would never be willing to let a gladiator tame it, Hiruzen Sarutobi's postwar strategy of punishing only the chief culprits while preserving the women and children still seemed to Danzo like grandiose nonsense bordering on naivety. For a time, he could not even tell whether Hiruzen was sincere or merely hypocritically inscrutable.

The position of Hokage truly required such a righteous and radiant image.

And Danzo, sinister and vicious, radiating an aura that kept strangers away, was indeed still far from that position.

As the root of Konoha's great tree, he occupied a place few noticed, a place sunlight could not reach. The deeper the roots dug, the taller the tree grew. Danzo had never resented such an allocation of roles. He even greatly enjoyed being the king of Konoha's darkness.

There were ways to play beneath the sunlight, and rules within the darkness as well. When a tree's roots competed with the tendrils of other plants for nutrients, only ruthless measures could secure victory. And uprooting the weeds was the foundation for consolidating the fruits of victory. Hiruzen was unwilling to say it too plainly, or perhaps unwilling to do it himself, but Danzo felt he had long understood the message.

As for the Uchiha Clan, aside from trying his luck by arranging for Itachi to slaughter them all on the night before the war, Danzo had also prepared a backup plan in case Itachi failed. On the next day's battlefield, when the Uchiha Clan deployed in full force, Root ninja lurking nearby would massacre every woman and child left in the Uchiha compound. Not one would be spared.

Naturally, under an extermination policy, all were equal beneath the blade. That one—Sasuke—would be no exception.

After all, once the direct conflict between Konoha and the Uchiha erupted, it would inevitably mean that Itachi's clan extermination operation the night before had failed. He would have failed to fulfill his promise to Danzo, and thus would no longer be able to demand that Danzo honor his corresponding promise to spare Sasuke.

Everything followed the rules of darkness, yet Itachi seemed quite confident. That gave Danzo a few more expectations.

If he could use Itachi's strength to slaughter the Uchiha clansmen, then the spoils he could obtain—the Sharingan—would multiply several times over.

There were still two days until the Hyuga Clan convened its clan meeting.

The setting sun was red as blood.

The wind brushed through his long hair as Itachi leaned against the rooftop, looking down at the village below.

Amid the hazy cooking smoke, the clamor continued. People came and went in bustling crowds.

"I didn't go all out this time... hah... hah!"

"You totally went all out, idiot!"

That was the indignant voice of the blond-haired boy on the training field after Sasuke had left him far behind in a running race.

The girls watching nearby giggled.

"Then let's compete in something else. How about the high jump?"

"Sure!" Sasuke smiled confidently.

Itachi's expression softened.

These were the people he protected.

This was the world he cherished.

That narrow-minded clan held less weight than the bright smile on the boy's face before him, or the dust carried over the land by the wind.

The so-called decision had actually been made two years ago, when Shisui threw himself into the Naka River.

The people of one clan.

Several hundred lives.

Some driven by ambition, some swept along by the tide, some lost and ignorant, some already in their twilight years, and some merely young children.

Life was not without weight. It was only that before certain things, it was as thin as gauze—its weight could be ignored, torn away in sheets.

Only after the sun had set and darkness swallowed the people and world Itachi loved did he turn and leave.

This journey was only so that the things he protected and cherished could see the light again.

Within the dense forest outside the village, Ning Qi was still looking around, seemingly rather puzzled.

"Who are you looking for?"

A long-haired man wearing a tiger-patterned mask hung upside down from a tree trunk. Beneath the mask's eyehole, a Mangekyo Sharingan shaped like three scythes pieced together stared coldly at Ning Qi.