Not all silence was betrayal

After Morikawa Osamu was taken to a temporary protective room inside the Hokage Building, word soon reached the Uchiha Clan Compound.

Anger traveled faster than the news.

That evening, the Conference Room at the Konoha Military Police Force was packed.

Several older clan members stood at the front, their expressions darker than the last.

"What are we waiting for?"

Uchiha Inabi slammed his palm onto the table.

"The authorization slip is real, the time is false, and the Chunin on duty admitted someone threatened him into backfilling the records. Everyone who handled those transfer orders should be arrested and interrogated immediately!"

Someone beside him immediately agreed.

"Exactly. The village never waited for complete evidence when it framed the Uchiha."

"We've been backing down for too long."

"We have the Hokage's authorization now. What is there to fear?"

Uchiha Toru stood in the corner, his face taut.

He did not entirely disagree with those remarks.

Left to his own temper, he would have dragged out everyone on duty in the Logistics Squad that day for questioning the moment Morikawa Osamu admitted to backfilling the records.

But then he remembered Morikawa Osamu kneeling in the Hokage Building.

That Chunin was not innocent.

But he did not seem like the mastermind, either.

He seemed more like a shield someone had shoved to the front.

Once that shield broke, the hand behind it would hide even deeper.

Uchiha Gen sat beside the table and waited for the voices to subside a little before speaking.

"Who would you arrest?"

Uchiha Inabi replied coldly, "Everyone who handled the authorization slip."

"And after you arrest them?"

"Interrogate them."

"Who would do the interrogating?"

"The Konoha Military Police Force."

Uchiha Gen raised his eyes.

"Then Danzo will say that the first thing the Uchiha did after receiving authorization was expand the scope of arrests without permission and force logistics ninjas to confess."

The Conference Room fell silent.

Uchiha Inabi frowned.

"So we do nothing?"

"That's not what I'm saying."

Uchiha Gen said, "We can't do exactly what our opponent wants us to do."

A Conservative Faction clan member sneered.

"Gen, you're starting to sound more and more like someone from the Hokage Building."

The tension in the room abruptly tightened.

Uchiha Toru jerked his head up.

That was a serious accusation.

It was practically saying that Gen was helping the village suppress the Uchiha.

Uchiha Gen did not get angry.

He looked at that clan member.

"If I were like the people in the Hokage Building, I wouldn't have pushed to have Morikawa Osamu's protection registration entered into all four parties' records today."

The clan member was momentarily at a loss for words.

Uchiha Gen continued, "I know why you're all angry. Someone used logistics authorization slips to pave the way for falsified accounts. Someone burned the old warehouse. Someone threatened the Chunin on duty and knew the Anbu's shift-change times. Every one of those things needs investigating."

His voice grew grave.

"But the real danger isn't that Morikawa Osamu did something wrong."

Uchiha Inabi stared at him.

"Then what is it?"

"It's that, from today onward, everyone who's been threatened might believe testifying for the Uchiha is more dangerous than staying silent."

No one in the Conference Room spoke.

Uchiha Gen pushed a copy of Morikawa Osamu's testimony onto the table.

"He was wrong to backfill the records."

"He was wrong to conceal it, too."

"But why did he stay silent?"

He tapped one line.

My home is too close to the Resettlement Zone.

There was no flash of steel in those words.

Yet they were colder than a blade.

"If we arrest everyone who handled the authorization slip now, what will the other witnesses see?"

Uchiha Gen looked around at them.

"They won't see the Uchiha investigating the truth."

"They'll only see that before speaking up for the Uchiha, they might be threatened by whoever is behind this; after speaking up, they might be dragged away for interrogation by the Konoha Military Police Force."

Uchiha Toru's hand slowly unclenched.

He suddenly understood why Gen had said that not all silence was betrayal.

Some people stayed silent out of fear.

Some stayed silent out of malice.

If they treated both as the same thing, the truly malicious would hide behind everyone else's fear.

Footsteps sounded at the doorway.

Uchiha Fugaku entered the Conference Room.

Everyone immediately fell quiet.

Fugaku's gaze swept over the testimony and timeline on the table.

"I heard."

Uchiha Inabi said gravely, "Clan Head, are we supposed to just keep waiting?"

Fugaku did not answer immediately.

He walked to the head of the table and looked down at the threat.

After a moment, he said, "Gen is right."

Several expressions shifted slightly.

Fugaku raised his head.

"Being firm doesn't mean treating everyone as an enemy."

He looked at the Conservative Faction clan members.

"True firmness means denying the enemy the chance to shove someone else forward to die in his place."

Uchiha Gen looked at Fugaku.

At that moment, he knew Fugaku had seen the situation clearly.

Witness protection registration was not just about protecting Morikawa Osamu.

It told everyone who had been threatened that the Uchiha would not simply force them to speak at knifepoint.

The Uchiha could also keep them alive long enough to finish speaking.

Fugaku continued, "Starting today, the clan will formally support witness protection registration. All non-Uchiha witnesses involved in the falsified accounts, authorization slips, or old warehouse fire may register for protection through the Hokage Building."

Uchiha Inabi tried to speak again.

Fugaku looked at him.

"The Konoha Military Police Force must not detain witnesses without authorization."

Those words carried weight.

Enough weight to make several Conservative Faction clan members lower their heads.

Uchiha Toru suddenly spoke.

"What if someone uses protection registration to lie?"

Uchiha Gen answered, "The lies get recorded, too."

"And we just let them get away with it?"

"No."

Uchiha Gen said, "Testimony can be checked. Times can be checked. Locations can be checked. A procedure isn't about believing everyone is a good person. It's about making sure everyone's lies have a wall to crash into."

Itachi had remained silent in the corner.

He looked at the testimony on the table, then at Gen.

In the past, what he had heard most often was sacrifice.

For the village, some people had to remain silent.

For the clan, some people had to endure.

But today, for the first time, he saw another choice.

Not silencing the weak to preserve the bigger picture.

But giving their voices a chance to reach the meeting table.

This was not weakness.

This was a way to keep the truth alive.

After the meeting, Uchiha Gen returned to the Hokage Building with Itachi and Uchiha Makoto.

Morikawa Osamu's protection registration had already been prepared.

He sat in the temporary protective room, looking even worse than he had during the day, but he was no longer trembling as he had earlier.

When he saw Uchiha Gen, he instinctively stood up.

"There's one more thing I can add."

Uchiha Makoto immediately opened his writing board.

Morikawa Osamu pulled a small, tightly folded scrap of paper from his sleeve.

Sweat had softened its edges.

"That ninja in gray slipped this to me before he left."

Uchiha Gen did not take it directly.

He had Uchiha Makoto record how it had been produced first, then asked the Hokage's Anbu to verify its origin.

Only after verification was the paper unfolded.

There was no name on it.

Only a single short line.

The evening after tomorrow. Uchiha clan meeting.

Uchiha Makoto's pen stopped.

Itachi's gaze changed as well.

Morikawa Osamu's voice was dry.

"I don't know what this means."

Uchiha Gen stared at those few words, his heart sinking.

This was not merely a case involving authorization slips.

Someone had already reached into the Uchiha clan.

And they knew when the clan meeting would take place.

Itachi said quietly, "Gen, if this paper is handed to the clan's Conservative Faction, they'll think the village is already monitoring our clan meetings."

Uchiha Makoto's expression changed as well.

That was precisely the most troublesome part.

The note did not say who intended to act.

Nor did it say who had leaked the meeting time.

It gave only a time.

A time more than enough to enrage the Uchiha.

Uchiha Gen flattened the paper again.

"That's why it can't go into the clan's records alone."

Itachi looked up.

"It needs to be filed at the Hokage Building too?"

"Yes."

Uchiha Gen said, "The clan needs to know, and so does the Hokage Building. Whoever wants to use this paper to provoke the Uchiha will have to face one question first."

Uchiha Makoto asked, "What question?"

Uchiha Gen looked at the words on the paper.

"How did he know when the clan meeting would take place?"

The room fell silent again.

That question was not directed only at the village.

It was directed at the Uchiha themselves, too.

If outsiders could learn the time of the clan meeting in advance, that meant the danger was not just outside the walls.

It could also be right beside them.

Or even in the hands of someone who believed he was merely angry.

Uchiha Gen handed the slip of paper to the Anbu witness to be sealed away.

"Record this. After his witness protection registration, Morikawa Osamu voluntarily submitted a coded note suspected of inciting discord at the Uchiha clan meeting. No public determination will be made regarding its contents pending a joint review by the clan head, the Hokage Building, and the Konoha Military Police Force."

Uchiha Makoto wrote it down word for word.

Looking at that line, Itachi suddenly realized that Gen was protecting more than just Morikawa Osamu.

He was also protecting the Uchiha from being led by the nose by a slip of paper.