The red sun rose, its light piercing the clouds as another day dawned. For the people of Konoha, however, this day was rather different.
Almost no one had slept well last night. News of the battle on the village outskirts had spread throughout Konoha overnight, though there were very few villagers who had slept soundly enough to miss watching it.
First off, Hiruzen Sarutobi had already sent people to suppress the news, yet it seemed to have leaked anyway. After just one night, Konoha's residents discovered a few unfamiliar faces in the village.
They paid that little mind, however, eagerly discussing last night's great battle instead. According to the officially released information, no innocent civilians had been injured or killed in the incident.
Though many people had started complaining that the Uchiha Clan was disturbing the peace after their initial amazement wore off in the middle of the night, it wasn't long before Uchiha shinobi and ANBU came door to door together, handing out compensation for emotional distress.
They apologized for disturbing everyone in the dead of night and encouraged the villagers to ask for anything they needed. The Konoha Military Police Force would serve them wholeheartedly; there was nothing they couldn't do. If someone bullied a villager, they wouldn't let it slide even if the offender was another village's Kage.
Whenever this came up, most ordinary bystanders couldn't help remembering the ANBU member trailing far behind the Uchiha. Though his face was hidden, even through the mask they could tell something was off about his expression.
The Uchiha were poaching work right from under the ANBU's noses. But apparently, the Uchiha Clan really meant what they said. With those three giants fighting together, people couldn't even imagine how powerful they were.
"Clan head, the first round of compensation has all been distributed. As Sasuke instructed, it totaled thirty-five million ryō, along with some vouchers for free services at our clan's businesses."
Uchiha Yashiro bowed slightly as he reported to Uchiha Fugaku and the others inside. All four of them, including Sasuke Uchiha, were sprawled on reclining chairs, occasionally lifting small bottles to put drops in their eyes.
They couldn't help it. Last night had taken a serious toll, leaving their vision blurred after the battle. Once they had handled some preliminary cleanup arrangements with the Third Hokage and the others, they had come back to lie like corpses and apply eye drops.
"Good. Next, take some people and post the Military Police Force recruitment notices we discussed. Recruit civilian shinobi widely. Anyone else who wants to join can take the assessment too. Use the salary standards we agreed on, with the monthly minimum benchmarked against D-rank missions."
Waving a hand, Uchiha Fugaku thought for a moment before announcing the decisions they had discussed earlier. At the same time, he handed over a small pouch Sasuke had made-a treasure pouch, a simplified piece of storage equipment.
"And remember to have people spread the word in taverns about ninjutsu rewards for outstanding performance. Basically, we can offer any clan ninjutsu that doesn't involve the Sharingan. Those aren't much use to us anyway."
After tending to the Mangekyō eyes, plucking them out, and putting his own eyes back in, Sasuke added that with a grimace. Then he watched Uchiha Yashiro leave and turned to Fugaku.
"So, Dad? Those people's attitudes this time were obviously different from before, weren't they?"
Recalling the earlier scenes, Fugaku's lips curved slightly. In all honesty, whether their standing had been at its lowest or its highest, they had never received treatment like last night's.
There had been so many looks of respect, awe, shock, delight, and fear. They were completely different from the expressions those people had worn once the crisis of the Night of the Nine-Tails passed.
"Heh heh heh heh. Human nature can be pretty damn cheap sometimes. Put simply, we're different from tailed beasts. We can actually communicate. All we need to do is show the outside world absolute power, then show them a reasonably approachable side. Without doing much else, our situation will change completely.
"Now we're no longer reacting passively. Given how much time has passed, the whole shinobi world probably knows about last night by now. We're definitely about to be thrust into the eye of the storm and make headlines across the shinobi world.
"And at a time like this..."
Smiling slightly, Sasuke shrugged. They didn't need to do much else now, just wait a little and go meet with Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Before Hiruzen Sarutobi left with his people last night, aside from leaving behind some ANBU ostensibly to assist but actually to watch them, he had arranged a time for detailed talks with Fugaku and the other two.
All Sasuke needed to do was attend the meeting later as a witness. As for now, rather than dwell on all that pointless crap, he might as well figure out where the hell Danzo had gone!
Just thinking about it pissed Sasuke off. That bastard Danzo had spent all that time burning, so how had he ended up getting away?
He had even sent a bunch of shadow clones to search the Root Base without finding him. All he could do was seal the chakra of the Root shinobi he had sucked into Kamui, tie them up, and pull them out to await interrogation.
All he could say was that, aside from the main quest, he hadn't killed either of the two main targets he had hoped to lure out this time. Danzo had escaped half-dead to who knew where, while Obito had never shown himself at all. Even a shadow clone specifically stationed in the Kamui Dimension had found nothing. He didn't know whether the dimension was too large or Obito had sensed someone inside and hadn't dared enter.
Before plucking the eyes out, Sasuke had simply tossed dozens of special recording orbs into the Kamui Dimension to serve as cameras.
He didn't know Flying Thunder God or any other Space-Time Ninjutsu yet. Once he learned, he was definitely claiming that Kamui Dimension for himself.
Ownerless things belonged to the virtuous, and he, Uchiha Sasuke, was very virtuous indeed.
Learning Flying Thunder God needed to go on the agenda. Barring any surprises, he should be able to go learn it with Kakashi once this incident was over.
That thought reminded Sasuke of the strange things Naruto had told him before they parted last night.
What did he mean he had figured out a rudimentary Tailed Beast Chakra Mode on his own? And what did he mean the Sage of Six Paths had visited his dreams again and taught him a bunch of weird stuff about some Ashura guy?
Wasn't something wrong here?
Was that old Sage of Six Paths really still alive and constantly handing Naruto cheats? Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
Believing that the old Sage of Six Paths had gone nuts and kept giving Naruto cheats was less plausible than believing Minato, the pinnacle of strategic genius, had faked his death and gone into hiding. Even believing that some Warring States-era ancestor, Uchiha Hikari-whose existence was uncertain-had also faked her death, collected a bunch of the Uchiha Clan's Mangekyō Sharingan abilities, and survived until now to pull off something huge would be more plausible.
Curling his lip, Sasuke still felt Naruto had most likely heard something from Kurama. The old Sage might indeed visit his dreams, but surely he couldn't keep doing it. Every time Sasuke spouted some nonsense, Naruto would excitedly announce that the old Sage had visited his dreams too.
Based on Sasuke's understanding of Naruto, although it sounded real, he was most likely just being absurd.
He was certain.
Naruto's home.
"Achoo!" Rubbing his nose, Naruto looked around suspiciously. He kept feeling as though he was hearing things, like there was an echo in the room. But he didn't dwell on it and went back into his mental space to bicker with the fox, each blaming the other for letting Danzo escape last night. He paid no attention whatsoever to the golden flicker that flashed before the mirror, looking like refracted sunlight.
A secret Root base.
Danzo lay tightly trussed up inside a sealed chamber. A masked mysterious man sat quietly in the corner, holding a book titled "Icha Icha Paradise Side Story: To Capture a Wealthy Young Heir's Heart, First..."
Only after an unknown length of time did he put the book away and quietly approach Danzo, meeting his vacant eyes. The space before them immediately shifted into an execution ground. Danzo was bound to a cross, tortured again and again, and restored again and again. Before him, one screen of light replayed the things he had done over the years, while another seemed to have a different purpose, hovering silently without displaying anything yet.
"Tsk, tsk. Compared to those people, you're every bit as bad-and worse..." Watching the human experiments Danzo had performed, the masked man seemed to recall the past and sighed softly.
Letting this old dog die just like that would be far too wasteful. I'll let that filthy identity of his burn a little longer in service of my grand plan.
Let him wait here and watch his own public execution.
The Konoha Heroes Memorial.
For some reason, once last night's incident had provisionally settled down, Kakashi had found himself drawn back here.
He stood before Obito's gravestone for a long time, his expression extraordinarily complicated. His gaze shifted again and again before he finally let out a soft sigh.
Just as he bent down to lay his bouquet, his ears suddenly twitched. He whipped around, but there was nothing behind him.
After a moment's silence, Kakashi shook his head and left.
A little later, a mysterious man wearing a spiral mask slowly emerged from the empty ground.
"Kakashi..."
"Damn it! Why did an Uchiha who knows Space-Time Ninjutsu suddenly appear at a time like this? How can his abilities be so bizarre?"
Recalling the mysterious masked man who had launched straight into a beating last night, leaving him utterly unable to fight back, the corners of Obito's eyes twitched wildly.
Genjutsu, Taijutsu, ninjutsu-he had lost in practically everything. More importantly, that damned Kakashi had lent out Kamui, leaving him too afraid to hide in the Kamui Dimension! Even when he tried to retreat, that fellow dressed exactly like him could drag him straight back out. As if to humiliate him, the man had even kicked several footprints into his body like brands.
Damn it. I need to launch the plan ahead of schedule.
Outside Konoha, where Danzo had last appeared.
A half-black, half-white humanoid emerged from underground.
Looking at the forest before him, where it seemed nothing had happened, Black Zetsu's eyes flashed with surprise. His unusual perception detected a faint trace of fiery energy here, as though someone had burned every last trace of Danzo away.
A genjutsu that can drag people into a strange space, Space-Time Ninjutsu, and a technique that freely manipulates flames. Just who is that guy?!
This was the opportunity he had finally managed to wait for, yet so many unexpected variables had appeared one after another! Could that damned Hagoromo be interfering...?
No. This can't continue. How am I supposed to rescue Mother at this rate?
He had never been closer. He absolutely could not allow his great undertaking to rescue his mother to fail at the final hurdle!
At that thought, a ruthless gleam flashed through Black Zetsu's eyes. Konoha, Sasuke Uchiha... just you wait!
But seemingly sensing something, Black Zetsu sank back into the earth. A moment later, a silver-haired ANBU wearing a fox mask appeared with two companions. After a brief investigation, they vanished again using the Body Flicker Technique.
The atmosphere in the Hokage Building's conference room was solemn.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat at the head of the table. To his right sat the assembled Konoha High Command. Almost everyone with decision-making authority was present, with only Danzo, whose whereabouts remained unknown, absent.
To his left were the seemingly outnumbered Uchiha representatives. Only Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Fugaku served as the main representatives, with Shisui Uchiha and Sasuke Uchiha seated slightly farther back, essentially there to observe.
"This is the damage report the ANBU compiled on an emergency basis today. Chief Fugaku, please take a look."
Fugaku accepted the report, skimmed it, and nodded unconcernedly. "Whatever the losses, the Uchiha Clan will cover them all."
Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded calmly as well. Although quite a few nearby houses had been damaged, since there were no casualties, the expense truly amounted to little for the wealthy Uchiha.
But the look Fugaku fixed on him made it clear that everything so far had merely been a prelude. What came next would be the real subject of today's talks.
"Before leaving last night, Chief Fugaku said there was something very important he wished to discuss. What might that be?"
Taking a deep breath, Uchiha Fugaku naturally lowered his eyelids and instinctively used his Mangekyo to glimpse the future. His heart clenched abruptly, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
Sure enough, it's nothing but fucking bad endings again.
But... so what?
After a rare moment of nervousness, Fugaku relaxed again. Last night's battle seemed to have unlocked shackles he had worn for years. He solemnly surveyed everyone before finally resting his gaze on the Third Hokage.
"Madara, an ancestor of our Uchiha Clan, founded Konoha together with the First Hokage. Our clan has lived here for generations. We were born here and grew up here. Like everyone else in the village, we drink the water of the Naka River and eat rice from the same fields. This is our home, and we are part of this village.
"Legally speaking, since our ancestor Lord Madara founded the village together with the First Hokage, we are also among its owners and should enjoy our rightful share of rights. We, too, contributed to this age of prosperity.
"Admittedly, our clansmen are rather proud. But that is no reason to treat us unfairly.
"Looking into our hearts after all these years, we believe the Uchiha Clan has never done anything to betray the village. We have laid down our lives and spilled our blood for it, yet we have suffered so much undeserved discrimination and persecution..."
Without holding back any longer, Fugaku poured out everything he had bottled up inside over the years.
We've endured all we can. What's there left to endure?
In the past, he had told himself not to fear having cold water thrown on him, to keep an open mind and stand firm. But who could endure forever?
As Fugaku's forceful words rang out, everyone present underwent a slight change of expression.
Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura, in particular, looked distinctly uncomfortable.
This...
What is he trying to do?
Express his dissatisfaction with the village?
"Konoha has always treated everyone equally. If you don't want to stay, pack your things and leave. The farther you get, the better. The village has never needed your clan."
Danzo's voice automatically played in Hiruzen Sarutobi's mind. Without revealing anything, he exchanged a glance with Mitokado Homura. Seeing the look in the other man's eyes, Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed softly.
Only when a scapegoat was needed did one regret having too few. If Danzo were here to play bad cop while he played good cop, the effect would surely be excellent. Unfortunately, there were no ifs. Danzo had disappeared after encountering a battle while invading the Uchiha Clan Compound last night, and whether he was alive or dead remained unknown.
And judging by past experience...
Unknown whether alive or dead meant dead.
Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart was a jumble of conflicting feelings. Of course, this wasn't the time to think about Danzo. The issue now was the Uchiha's challenge.
What should I do? What can I do?
Before you continue