The temporary Resettlement Zone was more chaotic than Uchiha Gen had imagined.
People who had escaped the collapsed houses had been gathered in an open area on the western side of the village.
Konoha had used tents and wooden boards to divide the area into temporary sections. The wounded lay near the Medical Station, the elderly and children had been placed in the middle, and ordinary villagers who had lost their homes lined up for food, medicine, and blankets.
But there were too many people.
Everyone was exhausted and afraid.
Some could not find their families, some had wounds that were still bleeding, and some had stood holding empty bowls for an hour without receiving so much as a mouthful of hot water.
In a place like this, the greatest danger was someone starting a fire.
When Uchiha Gen arrived with the young clan members from the Konoha Military Police Force, the first thing he looked at was not the length of the lines.
It was who was moving through them.
He had not activated his two-tomoe Sharingan to its most conspicuous state. Only a faint layer of red lingered deep in his eyes.
He saw several men weaving back and forth between different lines.
They neither collected supplies nor helped carry anything. They only spoke in low voices wherever the crowds were thickest.
"Why do the people behind us get theirs first?"
"The Medical Station is almost out of medicine."
"The Uchiha are here. Will they give supplies to their own people first?"
The words were mild.
Yet they were like tiny sparks, falling steadily into dry grass.
Uchiha Toru frowned. "Something's wrong with those men."
"Don't act yet."
Uchiha Gen stopped him.
"If we arrest them now, it'll just become a story about the Uchiha arresting villagers in the Resettlement Zone."
Uchiha Toru gritted his teeth. "So we just watch them stir people up?"
"No."
Uchiha Gen looked toward the Supply Tent.
"First, we take away the reasons they can use to stir people up."
He approached the chunin in charge of distributing supplies.
At the sight of the Uchiha Clan Crest, the man's expression visibly tightened.
Uchiha Gen paid it no mind.
"What's the biggest problem right now?"
The chunin blinked. "You're asking me?"
"The Konoha Military Police Force is here on the clan leader's orders to help maintain order in the Resettlement Zone. You handle the supplies. We keep the lines orderly."
After a moment's hesitation, the chunin pointed toward the crowd.
"The lines are a mess. Families of the wounded, ordinary villagers, the elderly, and children are all packed together. We haven't announced how much medicine or food we have, either. Everyone's afraid there'll be nothing left when their turn comes."
Uchiha Gen nodded.
The problem was clear.
Root was merely giving genuine fear a push.
That meant shouting would not solve it.
Shouting could not disperse fear.
"Make three lines."
Uchiha Gen spoke immediately.
"One for families of the wounded and medical supplies, one for the elderly and children to receive hot water and food, and one for ordinary food distribution. Keep the entrance and exit of each line separate. No doubling back."
He turned to Uchiha Makoto.
"Write the signs."
Uchiha Makoto immediately crouched down and began writing on wooden boards with a charcoal pencil.
Uchiha Gen looked back at the chunin.
"Please announce the remaining supplies. How many bags of food, how many portions of medicine, how many blankets. Update the numbers every hour."
The chunin frowned. "Announce the numbers? If they know there isn't enough, won't things get even worse?"
"If you don't announce them, they'll think there's even less."
Uchiha Gen said, "Nothing fuels fear like not knowing how much is left."
The chunin fell silent for a moment, then turned and ordered a count.
Uchiha Ryo began separating the lines with several clan members.
He did not shove anyone. He simply stood at the edge of the crowd and repeated the rules in a cold voice.
"Families of the wounded to the left, elderly and children to the middle, food collection to the right. Every line will receive supplies. Don't crowd."
At first, no one listened.
Only when a medical ninja personally stepped forward and confirmed that the priority lane would get medicine to the wounded's families faster did the chaotic crowd begin to move slowly.
Uchiha Gen kept his eyes on the men moving back and forth.
When one of them noticed the lines being separated, he immediately squeezed his way to the front of the food line.
"They say everyone will get something, and you believe them? You think you can trust the Uchiha?"
The faces of the people around him changed at once.
Uchiha Toru's hand went to his sword hilt.
Uchiha Gen caught his wrist.
"Keep your sword sheathed."
"He's insulting us!"
"He's waiting for you to draw."
Uchiha Toru froze.
Seeing that the Uchiha had made no move, the man raised his voice.
"Didn't the Nine-Tails have the Sharingan in his eyes last night? Now they're letting the Uchiha manage the supplies. Who knows if they'll set some aside for their own people first!"
People in the crowd immediately chimed in.
Others lowered their heads, afraid to speak.
The Night of the Nine-Tails had only just passed. Those words were too vicious, and they struck too close to home.
They were not merely an insult to the Uchiha.
They tore open the fear in everyone's hearts.
A young Uchiha flushed red and could not help stepping forward. "Say that again!"
Uchiha Gen moved faster.
Clack.
He set a freshly written wooden board upright in front of the Supply Tent.
The current quantities were clearly written on it.
Thirty-seven bags of food.
Eighteen portions of blood-clotting medicine.
Twenty-nine rolls of bandages.
Forty-three blankets.
Water was being heated. The first bucket was expected in fifteen minutes.
Uchiha Gen looked at the crowd.
"Konoha Logistics Ninja count the supplies, and medical ninja witness the count. The Konoha Military Police Force only maintains order in the lines. Every portion handed out is subtracted from the total. Everyone can watch."
He turned to the man who had been stirring up the crowd.
"If you suspect the Uchiha are withholding supplies, you can stand here and watch."
The man sneered. "Who knows if the numbers you've written are real?"
Uchiha Gen did not argue.
He looked at the medical ninja beside him.
"Please sign off on the quantities every hour."
Then he looked at the logistics chunin.
"You sign, too."
Finally, he looked at the people waiting in line.
"Choose two villagers from each line to watch the distribution together."
The crowd fell quiet for a moment.
This was not how they had expected the Uchiha to behave.
No force.
No driving people away.
They had not even drawn their swords after being insulted.
The agitator's expression finally changed.
Transparency was not what he wanted.
He wanted chaos.
Just then, cries suddenly rang out from the wounded's lane.
A woman carrying an unconscious child rushed toward the medicine line, knocking over an elderly person waiting there.
The line instantly dissolved into chaos.
"Medicine! Give me medicine! My child's dying!"
The people behind her grew frantic as well.
"Why does she get to cut in?"
"We have wounded people, too!"
Several hands reached for the medicine crate at once.
Uchiha Gen's gaze darkened.
The real flashpoint had arrived.
"Ryo, protect the child. Toru, block the medicine crate. Don't touch anyone."
Uchiha Toru forcibly stopped himself from drawing his sword and planted his body in front of the medicine crate instead.
Several hands shoved against his chest. He did not retaliate, only said firmly, "Step back!"
Uchiha Ryo helped the woman and child over to the medical ninja.
The medical ninja examined the child quickly, and his expression changed.
"Blood-clotting medicine won't help. It's smoke inhalation and a high fever. We need to cool the child down and clear the airway first."
Uchiha Gen immediately called out, "Hot water line, clear a path! Bring two blankets. Let the medical ninja treat the child first."
Then he looked at the people around him.
"This isn't cutting in line. Different injuries need different treatment priorities. The medical ninja decide that, not the Konoha Military Police Force."
Those words pulled their resentment away from the question of whom the Uchiha were favoring.
The medical ninja immediately followed up. "I make that decision. Anyone with an objection can come to me."
The crowd finally settled a little.
But the man who had first stirred them up suddenly fell to the ground, clutching his arm and shouting.
"The Uchiha hit me!"
Uchiha Toru's expression changed sharply.
"I didn't touch him!"
The man lay on the ground, but his sleeve had already been torn open, and there was a fresh scrape on his arm.
Someone nearby immediately shouted, "I saw it! That Uchiha pushed him just now!"
Uchiha Gen's gaze instantly landed on the person who had shouted.
The Two-Tomoe Sharingan slowly rotated.
He saw a small shard of broken roof tile still caught between the man's fingers.
He also saw that the angle of the fallen man's wound did not match a scrape from being shoved to the ground. It was a shallow cut he had made himself with something sharp.
A trap.
They had deliberately planted testimony that the Uchiha had injured a villager.
Uchiha Toru was so frantic that his eyes reddened. "Gen, I really didn't!"
"I know."
Uchiha Gen's voice was very low.
Then he raised his head and looked at the crowd, which was beginning to stir again.
"Everyone, stay where you are."
He did not raise his voice, yet several young Uchiha immediately took up positions at the exits of each line, preventing the crowd from doubling back.
Uchiha Gen did not look at the man on the ground. Instead, he turned to the medical ninja.
"Please examine his injury."
The man's expression changed.
Uchiha Gen continued, "Now, in front of everyone."
Then he looked at Uchiha Makoto.
"Record this. First incident in the Resettlement Zone: suspected self-inflicted injury intended to frame the Konoha Military Police Force. Witnesses: the medical ninja, the logistics chunin, and the villager representatives from all three lines."
The charcoal pencil touched the board.
At that instant, panic finally appeared in the fallen man's eyes.
Uchiha Gen watched him.
Someone had already started a fire in the Resettlement Zone.
But this time, he would make everyone see exactly who was holding the torch.
Before you continue