After the stallholder's testimony reached the temporary joint patrol post, Uchiha Jun's first instinct was to arrest someone.
"If someone taught them how to file complaints, we should get to the bottom of it."
Uchiha Gen did not object.
"Investigate."
Uchiha Jun was just about to stand when Gen added something else.
"But handle the complaints first."
Uchiha Jun almost thought he had misheard.
"The person's already run off, and we're still handling complaints?"
Gen pushed the earliest complaint toward him.
"If you were a villager here, and someone told you the Uchiha would grow increasingly heavy-handed, you'd already be afraid. Now you've written a complaint the way he told you to, but the Uchiha only care about catching the person who taught you to write it. They don't care why you're afraid."
He looked at Uchiha Jun.
"What would you think?"
Uchiha Jun opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
He finally understood that he had almost focused solely on the enemy again, overlooking the people whose fear the enemy had exploited.
Uchiha Jun frowned.
"They were coached to make those complaints."
"That doesn't mean their fear is fake."
Gen placed the seventeen complaints back on the table.
"We need to investigate whoever is behind the template, but we also need to address the complaints themselves. Otherwise, the villagers will only think we're using the template as an excuse not to listen to them."
Itachi nodded.
He had heard plenty of villagers speak in their own words that day.
Some of their words stung.
They said the Uchiha had frightening eyes.
They said the Konoha Military Police Force did nothing but take down names.
They said the Resettlement Zone had finally found a little stability, and they didn't want to get dragged into the ninja clans' struggle for power.