They didn't want rumors. They wanted corpses.

When trouble broke out in the Resettlement Zone's medical passage, Uchiha Gen was checking the second daily report.

The first shout came from the west.

Then came the sound of a wooden frame breaking.

Then the entire Resettlement Zone descended into chaos.

"We're running out of medicine!"

"Let the wounded through first!"

"Someone's down up ahead!"

The voices piled over one another, surging from the Medical Station like a tide.

The instant Uchiha Gen looked up, his two-tomoe Sharingan had already appeared.

He saw the crowd pressing toward the medical passage.

At the front were several family members carrying wounded relatives.

Behind them were villagers who had panicked after hearing that medicine was running out.

Farther back, several people kept pushing the line forward.

They didn't shout about the Uchiha.

They didn't shout about the Sharingan.

They didn't even say anything that could be used against them.

They just pushed.

They pushed fear toward the medical passage.

This time, Root didn't want rumors.

They wanted corpses.

If even one person was trampled to death in the crush, every record would become an excuse made after the fact.

The Uchiha Konoha Military Police Force had failed to maintain order.

The Uchiha Reform had caused casualties in the Resettlement Zone.

The Uchiha were unfit to remain in the village.

Those claims wouldn't even need to be fabricated.

Because the dead themselves would become the most damning evidence.

"Toru, hold back the rear ranks! Don't draw your sword!"

Uchiha Gen barked the order immediately.

"Ryo, take some people and guide the elderly and children to the open ground on the right!"

"Makoto, stop recording! Save people first!"

Uchiha Makoto jerked his head up.

Uchiha Gen was already rushing toward the medical passage.

Two lines had originally been separated by wooden railings there. Now the left railing had been knocked down, while a collapsed section of wooden framework blocked the exit on the right.

People could only squeeze forward.

An elderly person fell to the ground, and a child beside them wailed desperately.

Uchiha Toru rushed over and braced his shoulder against the crowd at the rear.

"Get back!"

He didn't draw his sword.

But fear drove the crowd forward, and they couldn't listen.

People slammed into him. Someone grabbed his collar and shouted, "My family is still in there!"

Uchiha Toru gritted his teeth and held firm.

His face was scratched bloody, but he still didn't strike back.

Uchiha Gen glanced at the wooden framework blocking the right exit.

It was part of a half-collapsed shelter roof.

The wood was soaked from the rain, with an oilcloth hanging over it and medicine crates and stretchers stacked beside it.

If ordinary Fire Release caught, it would set the entire Medical Station ablaze.

But without Fire Release, moving it would take at least seven or eight minutes.

They didn't have seven or eight minutes.

At the very front of the crowd, people were already being crushed so tightly they couldn't breathe.

"Medical ninjas, move the medicine crates back!"

After shouting, Uchiha Gen formed hand seals.

The member of the Hokage's Anbu beside him immediately turned to look at him.

"You're going to use Fire Release?"

"To open a second exit."

Uchiha Gen offered no further explanation.

Chakra transformed in his throat.

This time, he didn't let the flames burst outward.

He compressed his Fire Release into an extremely thin line, concentrating its heat on several load-bearing joints in the wooden framework.

The line of fire bored into the wet wood.

There was no blaze.

There was no thick smoke.

Only a few charred points rapidly turned brittle.

Sweat seeped from Uchiha Gen's temples.

This kind of control was far harder than the Great Fireball.

The Great Fireball only needed to be unleashed.

Now, he had to make the fire burn only where it should.

An inch too far, and the oilcloth would catch.

An inch short, and the framework wouldn't break.

"Toru!"

Uchiha Toru heard the shout and whipped his head around.

"Kick the second post on the right!"

Without hesitation, Uchiha Toru raised his leg and drove a heavy kick into the fire-weakened wooden post.

Crack!

The entire section of framework collapsed outward, revealing a narrow exit.

Uchiha Ryo immediately rushed over with his team.

"The elderly and children, this way!"

The medical ninjas reacted too, lifting the fallen elderly person and moving the wounded toward the second exit.

At last, the packed crowd had a way out.

The pressure gradually eased.

Several villagers at the rear still tried to push forward, but Shisui suddenly appeared behind them.

He didn't attack.

He simply used the Body Flicker Technique to move between several critical positions, separating the people doing the pushing.

"Go right."

Shisui's voice wasn't loud, but it made people instinctively obey.

Seeing this, Uchiha Gen felt a little of his tension ease.

He had no time to thank him.

The line of fire hadn't stopped.

After the second wooden beam burned through, the exit widened.

The third.

The fourth.

He controlled every breaking point with exact precision.

The member of the Hokage's Anbu stood nearby, his gaze growing increasingly grave.

What he was seeing wasn't ordinary Fire Release.

It was an entirely different way of using it.

Control, cutting, preventing ignition.

Dangerous.

But effective.

Seven or eight minutes later, traffic through the medical passage was finally flowing along separate routes again.

The fallen elderly person had been rescued, and the child had suffered only scrapes. Several wounded people at the front were pale from being crushed, but no one had died.

No deaths.

Only then did Uchiha Gen lower his hands.

His throat hurt as though fire had scraped through it.

He forced down the taste of blood without letting anyone notice.

The medical ninjas quickly began checking the wounded.

"Minor bruising on the elderly patient."

"Scrapes on the child."

"Three wounded patients briefly suffered asphyxiation. All are breathing again."

Uchiha Makoto wrote down each report as it was called out.

The cries that had been about to erupt across the Resettlement Zone slowly subsided into strained panting.

A woman holding a child suddenly sank to her knees, trembling all over with lingering fear.

"If that route at the front had been the only way out, my child would've been crushed to death."

No one answered.

But everyone around her heard those words.

The member of the Hokage's Anbu also added them as a note.

Uchiha Toru walked over, panting.

"If we hadn't opened that exit, it would've been over."

Uchiha Ryo looked at the framework severed by the line of fire, his expression conflicted.

"Fire Release can save people too."

Several young Uchiha nearby were also looking at Uchiha Gen.

In the training they had received since childhood, Fire Release meant attack and suppression. It was part of the Uchiha's pride.

But today, for the first time, they had seen Fire Release used to clear a path, redirect a crowd, and save people who had nearly been trampled to death.

Uchiha Gen didn't bask in their gazes.

"Record this."

Uchiha Makoto had already run over.

"Near-stampede in the medical passage. Cause: the right exit was blocked by collapsed wooden framework, and unidentified individuals pushed the crowd forward. Response: the Konoha Military Police Force opened a second exit, and medical ninjas moved the wounded. No deaths occurred."

Halfway through writing, he looked up and asked, "What about the Fire Release?"

Uchiha Gen looked toward the member of the Hokage's Anbu.

"Write exactly what happened."

The Anbu nodded.

"Uchiha Gen used Fire Release to burn through the framework's joints with precision, without igniting the oilcloth or medicine crates. Witnesses: a member of the Hokage's Anbu, medical ninjas, and members of the transport team."

Uchiha Gen added, "Include the area affected by the Fire Release and the result."

"Area affected: wooden framework at the right exit. Result: a second evacuation passage opened, with no secondary ignition."

Uchiha Makoto quickly wrote it down.

In the distance, a man who had been mingling with the crowd slowly backed away.

Shisui's gaze followed him.

The man slipped into the shadows between the tents and soon vanished.

Shisui didn't pursue him.

He knew that catching this man wasn't the most important thing today.

It was keeping Root from getting their corpses.

That evening, the member of the Hokage's Anbu delivered the record to the Hokage Building.

When Hiruzen Sarutobi opened the scroll, the first thing he saw was "Near-stampede in the medical passage."

Farther down were the details of the Fire Release used.

He held the scroll and studied it for a long time.

An identical report was delivered to Root's underground base.

After reading it, Danzo rested his finger on the line that read, "Fire Release to burn through the framework's joints with precision."

"The Uchiha used Fire Release in the disaster zone."

The Root ninja lowered his head. "But the report clearly states that there was no secondary ignition and no casualties."

Danzo said coldly, "The villagers won't read the second half first."

He closed the scroll.

"Spread the word."

"Let them know the Uchiha have started using Fire Release in the Resettlement Zone."