Uchiha Takes the Blame

Dust filled the Old Storehouse, stark in the torchlight.

A secret letter lay spread across a wooden crate. The paper had yellowed, but the writing was still legible.

The route has been leaked. As agreed, the Uchiha will take the blame.

Those eleven words threw the Sarutobi outside the storehouse into a panic.

Uchiha Tekka's hand rested on his sword hilt, his knuckles white.

The words implicated more than the Nine-Tails' Attack.

They pointed to the very beginning of the Uchiha Clan's suspicion, isolation, and marginalization.

For six years, the Konoha High Command had used the claim that "the Nine-Tails was controlled by the Sharingan" to turn the village against the Uchiha. The Konoha Military Police Force was reviled, the clan was forced to relocate, people avoided its children in the streets, and its mission assignments grew worse.

Now this letter had appeared in the Old Storehouse.

It told Tekka that the Uchiha had not merely been suspected.

Someone had planned to make them take the blame from the start.

The Third Hokage picked up the letter. His fingers trembled visibly.

"Whose handwriting is this?"

Naruto asked.

The Third Hokage did not answer.

He recognized the writing.

Even deliberately altered, even after so many years, certain habits were unmistakable.

Mitokado Homura.

His old friend. A Hokage Advisor. A man who had stood beside him since their days on the battlefield.

Naruto saw the answer on the Third Hokage's face.

"Mitokado Homura."

The sound of Tekka drawing his sword rang through the Old Storehouse.

Shinnosuke Sarutobi was still on his knees, his face deathly pale.

He knew the Sarutobi Clan Compound would not come out of this unscathed.

Even if they had only stored the crate, even if he had known nothing at the time, the Old Storehouse belonged to the Sarutobi Clan. The crate had been hidden here for six years—more than enough to make everyone suspect the Sarutobi of helping cover it up.

Naruto picked up the route map.

"The birthing room route was leaked. The Fourth Hokage and his wife were attacked."

Then he picked up the copy of the ANBU transfer order.

"The Uchiha Clan Compound was sealed off. Anyone who approached the battlefield was to be treated as a rebel."

Finally, he picked up the secret letter.

"As agreed, the Uchiha will take the blame."

He looked at the Third Hokage.

"Put those three things together. Is it really that hard to understand?"

The Third Hokage's face went ashen.

It was not hard to understand.

Someone had learned Kushina's route to the birthing room in advance and leaked it to the Masked Man. After the Nine-Tails' Attack began, they used the claim that the Sharingan had controlled the Nine-Tails to keep the Uchiha off the battlefield, having already arranged for them to take the blame.

The real question was who had been party to that "agreement."

Only Mitokado Homura?

Danzo?

Utatane Koharu?

Root?

Who else?

For the first time, a bone-deep chill gripped the Third Hokage.

He had always believed he was balancing Konoha's factions.

Now it seemed some people had long used his tacit approval to steer Konoha down another path.

Naruto handed the letter to Tekka.

"Take it back to the Uchiha."

Tekka accepted it, his eyes reddening.

"I'll give it to the Clan Head."

"Not just the Clan Head."

Naruto looked at him.

"Tomorrow, bring out the minutes from the meeting that ordered the Uchiha Clan Compound relocated."

Tekka froze.

Naruto continued, "They made you take the blame for six years. You can't tell me your clan kept no records."

Tekka's throat tightened.

Of course the Uchiha had records.

They simply had not dared bring them out before.

Doing so would have been called disloyalty to the village, proof of rebellious intent.

But tonight was different.

Danzo was dead.

The arm covered in Sharingan had been exposed.

The secret letter about the Nine-Tails' Attack had surfaced.

The Uchiha were no longer a lone clan crying injustice.

Naruto had ripped away everyone's cover.

The Third Hokage looked at Naruto.

"Naruto, do you want to tear the Uchiha and the village apart for good?"

Naruto shot back, "Am I the one tearing them apart?"

The Third Hokage fell silent.

Outside the storehouse, the Sarutobi had gone from angry to uneasy.

They knew nothing about the letter, but they knew that once word got out, the Sarutobi Clan would be caught in the storm too.

Shinnosuke Sarutobi crawled over and grabbed the Third Hokage's trouser leg.

"Lord Third, we only stored the crate! You can't blame the Sarutobi for this!"

Naruto looked down at him.

"Then hand over everyone who handled the crate back then."

Shinnosuke's face stiffened.

"Some of them are dead."

"The ones still alive."

Shinnosuke said nothing.

Naruto stepped on the back of his hand.

Bone gave a faint crack.

Shinnosuke screamed.

The Third Hokage's expression changed. "Naruto!"

Naruto did not look at him.

"Root's remnants tried to burn the evidence. Someone tried to burn the letter at the Advisors' Office. Someone set a fire at the Sarutobi Old Storehouse, too."

"You all say you know nothing."

"But every time I find a record, someone rushes to burn it."

He pressed down harder.

Shinnosuke's face twisted in pain.

"I'll talk! I'll talk!"

Naruto lifted his foot.

Gasping, Shinnosuke stammered out three names.

Two had died of old age.

One was still alive.

Ryosuke Sarutobi's younger brother, Sarutobi Ryohei.

He was currently in charge of the Sarutobi Clan's supplies.

The moment the Third Hokage heard the name, he turned toward a Sarutobi behind him.

The man's face changed. He turned and ran.

Naruto moved faster than anyone else.

A Chakra arm swept over the crowd, caught Sarutobi Ryohei around the waist, and dragged him out from among his clansmen.

Sarutobi Ryohei was over fifty, his hair streaked with gray. He rolled several times when he hit the ground, and a tiny copper key fell from his pocket.

The key bore the Sarutobi clan crest.

It also bore an old Advisors' Office number.

Naruto picked it up.

"What does it open?"

Sarutobi Ryohei's lips turned purple.

"I... I don't know."

Naruto did not ask again. He slid the key straight into a hidden compartment beneath the crate.

Click.

The compartment opened.

There was no scroll inside.

Only a very thin ledger.

The first page read:

"Compensation for passing on the birthing room route."

Below it were several payments and supplies.

One recipient was Ryosuke Sarutobi.

The final column held the payer's code name.

"Root."

Tekka could barely contain the killing intent in his eyes.

The Third Hokage swayed when he saw the ledger.

He knew Ryosuke Sarutobi.

He had been a guard trusted by the Third Hokage's wife, Biwako.

If the route truly had leaked from here, then on the night of the Nine-Tails' Attack, Minato and Kushina had been killed, Biwako had died, Naruto had been orphaned, the Uchiha had taken the blame, and the rifts within Konoha had deepened.

Not one step had been an accident.

Naruto closed the ledger.

"We make it public on Central Street tomorrow."

The Third Hokage's throat went dry.

"That will throw the village into chaos."

Naruto tucked the ledger inside his clothes.

"Then let it."

He looked at the Third Hokage, not a trace of hesitation in his golden slit-pupiled eyes.

"A little chaos is better than letting the killers stay in power."

Just then, an explosion sounded in the distance, beyond the Sarutobi Clan Compound.

An Inuzuka Ninja rushed in, his expression grim.

"Someone's attacked the Advisor Residence!"

"Mitokado Homura is gone."