The morning air in Konoha carried a chill.
Sanitation workers swept the fallen leaves on the streets into piles.
Shisui Uchiha walked back toward the Konoha Military Police Force.
His steps were slow, his heart heavy with worries.
Lately, the mood in the village had shifted far too quickly.
So quickly that he could no longer make sense of it.
In the past, when his clansmen in the police force went on patrol, they always swallowed their anger at the villagers' disdainful looks.
The slightest friction between the two sides would spark a furious argument.
But now, everything had changed.
Ever since Deputy Captain Chikage began overhauling the regulations and paperwork, the merchants on South Street had completely changed their attitude toward the Uchiha.
Just yesterday, he had even seen the Ramen Stand Owner on South Street voluntarily add two extra poached eggs for a police officer on patrol.
Something like that had been unimaginable over the past three years.
Yet the calm on the surface could not hide the currents beneath.
Shisui could sense that the Anbu had increased their sentry posts around the Uchiha Clan Compound.
Those shadowy figures from Root were also moving in and out of the village outskirts more frequently.
What troubled him even more was the atmosphere within the clan.
Clan Head Fugaku sat in the Konoha Military Police Force Hall, much of the worry gone from his face.
Even yesterday, when Yashiro and Chikage led their people out of the village, Fugaku had looked utterly confident, as though everything were under control.
That confidence was far too unusual.
The Uchiha Clan was facing the whole of Konoha High Command.
Lord Hiruzen Sarutobi, Lord Shimura Danzō, and the two elder advisers.
How could a single police force possibly gain an advantage in a direct