When the application for Cross-District Joint Defense reached the Hokage Building, the office fell silent for a long time.
Hiruzen Sarutobi read it twice.
The application was carefully measured.
So measured that it hardly resembled the Uchiha the leadership remembered.
There were no angry accusations.
No direct demands for greater power.
Nor did it frame every recent incident targeting the Uchiha as a debt the village owed them.
It simply listed the locations, risks, corresponding measures, and scope of defense support, point by point.
That made it all the harder to dismiss on emotional grounds.
Mitokado Homura read it slowly.
He had originally intended to pick out instances of the Uchiha overstepping their authority.
But every item in the application specified a pilot program, witnesses, acknowledgments of receipt, and conditions for withdrawal.
This was not an ultimatum.
It was more like an administrative application that the Hokage Building had no choice but to take seriously.
It did not demand expanded privileges for the Uchiha.
It did not demand that the Konoha Military Police Force take control of more areas.
It merely proposed pilot defense-support programs around the outskirts of the Resettlement Zone, near the Shop Supply Line, and around the Old Training Ground.
The reasoning was also difficult to refute.
All of those places had recently been linked to risk incidents involving the Uchiha.
Having the Konoha Military Police Force assist with defense would protect both the Uchiha and order within the village.
Mitokado Homura frowned.
"This expands the Konoha Military Police Force's area of operations."
Utatane Koharu said, "But they called it a pilot program, not a takeover."
"The Uchiha are expanding one step at a time," Danzo said coldly.
Hiruzen Sarutobi did not immediately respond.
Of course he could see the risks.
But he could also see that