Early the next morning, another new wooden board went up outside the Uchiha Clan Compound.
This time, it did not list those rescued on the Night of the Nine-Tails.
Instead, it displayed a Post-Disaster Assistance Daily Report.
Three sites cleared of debris.
Seventeen injured people escorted.
Twenty-nine allotments of medicine distributed with assistance at the Medical Station.
Forty-six missing people registered, with relocation sites confirmed for twelve.
One conflict mediation in the temporary Resettlement Zone, with no injuries caused by the Konoha Military Police Force.
Every entry was followed by witnesses.
Medical ninja.
Logistics chunin.
Transport Squad members.
Villager representatives from the Resettlement Zone.
Uchiha Gen stood before the board, watching Uchiha Makoto pin the final signature in place.
"Will this really help?"
Uchiha Makoto asked quietly.
His fingers still bore black smudges from his charcoal pencil.
Over the past few days, he had written down more names than he had in the entire previous year.
Uchiha Gen watched the crowd gradually stopping at the street corner.
"It will, but not right away."
"Then why make it public?"
"Because rumors travel faster than scrolls."
Uchiha Gen said, "If we only submit our records to the leadership, the villagers will always hear versions other people have twisted for us."
Uchiha Makoto fell silent.
He understood that.
Scrolls in the Hokage Building could influence meetings.
But gossip on the street was what shaped how ordinary people looked at the Uchiha.
And the most frightening thing about the relocation order was that the leadership could call it a safety measure, while the villagers could take it to mean, "The Uchiha really should be kept apart."
They had to lay out the facts before that idea fully took shape.
Before noon, the same daily assistance report went up in the Resettlement Zone.
There was no boasting.
No cries of injustice.
Only who had done what, who had seen it, and who had signed their names.
At first, the onlookers merely read.
Some sneered.
Some frowned.
Some turned and left as soon as they saw the Uchiha Clan Crest.
But others stayed for a long time.
A woman who had learned her husband's whereabouts at the registration point the night before stood in front of the board. When she saw her own name, she quietly told the person beside her, "This entry is true. They wrote down the location of the eastern Medical Station for me."
The person beside her asked, "Are you speaking up for the Uchiha?"
The woman shook her head.
"I'm only saying this entry is true."
That was enough.
Uchiha Gen did not go over to thank her, nor did he send any Uchiha clansmen over to speak with her.
If facts needed someone standing watch before people dared acknowledge them, they were not yet secure enough.
Let them stand there on their own.
Let everyone who saw them judge for themselves.
That afternoon, another kind of talk began circulating, just as expected.
"The Uchiha are bribing witnesses."
"Who knows what those people got for signing?"
"They rescued a few people and put it all on a board. Aren't they just afraid of being relocated?"
This time, it spread faster than before.
It was not coming from a single source.
It surfaced on several streets at once.
When Uchiha Toru heard it, his expression turned thunderous.
"They can just say whatever they want?"
"Of course they'll say that."
Uchiha Gen was not surprised.
"As long as a witness is an individual civilian, they'll call it bribery. As long as the Uchiha wrote the record, they'll call it fabricated. As long as we make it public, they'll say we're trying to win people over."
Uchiha Ryo asked, "Then what do we do?"
Uchiha Gen looked toward the Medical Station.
"Make the signatures harder to dismiss as bribery."
Before evening, the second version of the daily assistance report was carried to the center of the Resettlement Zone.
This time, a witness sheet had been placed beside the board.
The first column held the medical ninja's signatures.
The second held the Transport Squad's signatures.
The third held the logistics chunin's signatures.
The fourth held the Resettlement Zone villager representatives' signatures.
The final column held the signatures of the Uchiha Konoha Military Police Force personnel who had carried out the work.
Five parties, side by side.
The Uchiha were not listed first.
Nor had they hidden everyone else's names at the back.
Standing beside the board, Uchiha Gen told the gathering crowd, "Every signatory can independently verify today's records. If you suspect the Uchiha of bribing witnesses, you can ask the Medical Station, the Transport Squad, the logistics department, or the Resettlement Zone representatives."
Someone in the crowd sneered. "Who knows whether they all took something?"
Uchiha Gen looked toward the speaker.
The person quickly lowered their head and slipped toward the back of the crowd.
Uchiha Gen did not pursue them.
"You're free to have doubts."
His voice remained steady.
"But please write them down. Which record do you question? Which signature? Which distribution? We'll verify it here and now."
The crowd went quiet for a moment.
This was the hardest part to deal with.
It was easy to throw out an accusation of "bribing witnesses."
But once people had to specify which entry they questioned, they had to confront concrete facts.
A medical ninja stepped forward.
"I signed the medicine distribution records."
Her face was weary, but her voice was clear.
"If anyone thinks I took something from the Uchiha, you can question me right now."
The middle-aged ninja from the Transport Squad also spoke up. "We cleared the Western Main Road together with the Konoha Military Police Force. I have records of who moved the wooden beams and who repaired the wheels."
The old man in the Resettlement Zone who had lost his son leaned on his wooden staff and slowly walked up to the board.
He did not look at Uchiha Gen.
He looked only at the crowd.
"I didn't take anything."
The old man's voice was hoarse.
"And I don't like the Uchiha, either."
The crowd grew even quieter.
The old man continued, "But the medicine line didn't descend into chaos that day because they held their ground. And it was a medical ninja who found out that someone had injured himself to frame them. If you want to curse something, curse the Nine-Tails. Curse your rotten luck. But don't curse away what I saw with my own eyes."
Those words fell into the crowd like a stone.
Not loud.
But heavy.
Chiyo Morikawa stood nearby with her child in her arms and nodded as well.
"I didn't take anything, either."
She said, "Uchiha Ryo carried my child out on his back. Whoever asks me about it, that's what I'll tell them."
Two different voices began emerging among the onlookers.
One side still sneered.
The other began murmuring that at least some of it was true.
Uchiha Gen knew this was a shift.
He did not need everyone to trust the Uchiha today.
As long as public opinion was no longer entirely one-sided, that would be enough to slow the relocation order's advance.
Root wanted a simple conclusion.
The Uchiha were dangerous.
The Uchiha were putting on a show.
The Uchiha should be relocated.
What he had to do was break each simple conclusion down into specific people, specific events, and specific evidence.
The more specific it was, the harder it was to manipulate.
As dusk approached, a member of the Hokage's Anbu appeared outside the Resettlement Zone.
This time, he did not approach Uchiha Gen directly. Instead, he first read through all five parties' signatures on the board.
Only after a moment did he walk up to Uchiha Gen.
"Orders from Lord Third Hokage."
Uchiha Gen looked up.
The Anbu said, "Tomorrow morning at seven, Uchiha Fugaku is to report to the Hokage Building to explain his Konoha Military Police Force Reform plan."
He paused after speaking.
"Uchiha Gen is to accompany him."
Several Uchiha nearby turned to look at him at once.
Uchiha Toru said quietly, "They want you there too?"
Uchiha Gen did not answer immediately.
Summoning him meant the Third Hokage was no longer merely watching Fugaku's stance.
It also meant Danzo would certainly be there.
The Hokage Building was not the Resettlement Zone.
There would be no civilian onlookers there, no old man stepping forward to testify, and no wooden board for them to check entry by entry.
There would be only the leadership, rhetoric, and power.
Uchiha Gen accepted the written summons the Anbu handed him.
"I'll be there."
The Anbu nodded and vanished with the Body Flicker Technique.
Uchiha Ryo frowned. "Is this a good thing or a bad thing?"
Uchiha Gen looked toward the Hokage Building.
"Neither."
He folded the summons.
"It means they want to hear us explain the Konoha Military Police Force reforms clearly."
Uchiha Toru asked, "Then what do we say?"
Uchiha Gen looked at the board covered in signatures at the center of the Resettlement Zone.
"We won't ask for trust."
"Only that every accusation must be backed by evidence."
Before you continue