Danzo: None of You Uchiha Were Even Injured?

"This Nine-Tails incident is shrouded in mystery! The masked man behind it is definitely a member of the Uchiha Clan! Their ambition to seize power is already glaringly obvious!" Shimura Danzō shouted. "The Uchiha must be kept in a cage. From now on, monitoring the Uchiha Clan twenty-four hours a day is absolutely necessary!"

"But there's no way to determine that the Uchiha Clan did it!" Sarutobi Hiruzen said calmly. "We have eyewitness testimony!"

Mitokado Homura asked doubtfully, "Have someone from the Uchiha Clan prove that it wasn't someone from the Uchiha Clan? Isn't the Sharingan controlling the Nine-Tails an obvious fact?"

Utatane Koharu said quietly, "After fighting the Masked Man, Minato personally praised Uchiha Retsuo's Will of Fire as even stronger than his own. Many people heard him! There's no reason to doubt Minato's words. I believe him."

"Ha!" Shimura Danzō had been waiting for this. He immediately asked, "Then where is the Masked Man's body? Why can't we find it even after deploying all of ANBU? There's no need to doubt Minato, but didn't he say he had already killed the Masked Man?"

A brief silence fell as the four of them each harbored their own thoughts. Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō had not told the other two about the Masked Man's abilities beyond the Sharingan, whether Wood Release or Space-Time Ninjutsu.

As Hiruzen had said, this secret absolutely could not be known by a fourth person—not Mitokado Homura or Utatane Koharu either.

That was precisely why Shimura Danzō kept a stony expression while raging inside! What a perfect opportunity to destroy the Uchiha Clan. If only there hadn't been that damned eyewitness! Even now, he still wanted to pin the blame directly on the Uchiha Clan, but Uchiha Retsuo had become an obstacle he could not get around.

Why won't he just die? Ah—

Danzō and Sarutobi Hiruzen stared at each other, their gazes colliding in midair and throwing off sparks. Neither backed down. Danzō knew that Sarutobi Hiruzen surely knew that no one among that bunch of useless Uchiha could use Wood Release or Space-Time Ninjutsu. He also knew that Hiruzen surely knew he was looking for an excuse to make trouble for the Uchiha.

But he could not retreat! If he gave up even a little, this opportunity would be gone! How this opportunity would affect the village remained unknown, but to him, it was practically the most important thing in the world...

"Hiruzen!" Shimura Danzō abruptly stood up. "Monitoring the Uchiha is imperative. If we find nothing, that will instead prove their innocence. After all, the fact that we can't find the body does not completely rule out the Uchiha as suspects. Besides!"

He emphasized his words. "Don't forget, isolating the Uchiha was a rule established by the Second Hokage!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen stood as well, refusing to yield. "That will make the Uchiha Clan suspicious and create divisions!"

Danzō only said ominously, "You didn't let the Uchiha Clan fight the Nine-Tails tonight. Did that not make them suspicious?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen was rendered speechless. Utatane Koharu immediately interjected, "When all is said and done, it would be best if we could figure out who the Masked Man is."

Danzō sneered. "Then we can ask Fugaku."

Mitokado Homura continued to question him. "Shouldn't we ask Uchiha Retsuo?"

Danzō sneered again. "Then call them both in."

Soon, the two entered the office. Fugaku still had his arms folded across his chest, looking imposing as he concealed his panic at having encountered a natural enemy.

Uchiha Retsuo, on the other hand, was perfectly open and composed, until Shimura Danzō viciously demanded, "Who exactly is that Masked Man? You must have some clues!"

Retsuo projected a helpless expression onto the public screen. "Teacher Minato already said that I absolutely couldn't guess who it was. If I had a clue, why would I have absolutely no idea? Besides, I can imagine every man and woman, old and young, in our Uchiha Clan."

Fugaku began to get a headache. Here it comes, here it comes. The blame is drifting toward me! However, he suddenly realized that among all the possible headaches, the current outcome was not the most painful.

Danzō clearly had no intention of stopping. "That's not right. If it were someone you didn't know at all, Minato would have had no reason to emphasize that you couldn't imagine who it was. It's precisely because you know him—and very possibly know him extremely well—but there's a huge contrast between his public identity and the mastermind behind the scenes that you can't imagine it. The village needs you to remember who this person is now!"

"No, no, no. Actually, I've been wondering what Teacher Minato meant the whole time. It might even be a powerful person I've heard of. After all, Teacher Minato immediately demanded to know whether the other party was Uchiha Madara. Our Uchiha Clan is a thousand-year-old clan, and we have far too many powerful people."

As he spoke, Retsuo kept his expression under control, but he was deeply shaken inside. Danzō's insight into people was frighteningly accurate!

The problem is, I absolutely can't admit it...

His clan leader, Fugaku, nearly fainted from anger when he heard their exchange. We absolutely can't let this blame drift onto our Uchiha Clan!

"It's impossible for it to be someone from our Uchiha Clan. If it were, then even if Retsuo had been fooled, Minato isn't weak. How could he possibly not have noticed?"

"Hmph!" Retsuo and Danzō both snorted at the same time.

Sarutobi Hiruzen said, "The situation now is that ANBU has expanded the search area, but the Masked Man's body still hasn't been found. At the same time, not a single member of the Uchiha Clan was injured or killed tonight. Everyone is accounted for. The situation is extremely complicated."

After saying that, he began tapping his fingers against the armrest of his chair. Danzō immediately wore a mocking expression. "The village suffered heavy casualties during a crisis that nearly destroyed it, yet not one person from your clan was injured or killed? Isn't that suspicious?"

Fugaku was instantly rendered speechless, when Retsuo countered, "Did Root suffer any casualties?"

Danzō's face immediately darkened. "Root was protecting the village!"

Uchiha Fugaku finally came to his senses and shouted, "Wasn't our Konoha Military Police Force protecting the village too?"

Ragging on Danzō together with Fugaku did not keep Retsuo in a good mood for long, because there were simply too many thickheaded idiots with the Uchiha name!

When he dragged his exhausted body back to the temporary base, he actually heard the thickheaded idiots enthusiastically bragging to one another: "Look! With the Sharingan, you can fight Uchiha Obito to a draw!"

It was not without reason that the Uchiha were headed for clan extinction...

The circuits in these lunatics' brains were definitely different from ordinary people's. Thinking about it carefully, the ones among them who seemed like normal people were none other than Obito, Shisui, and Itachi. Yet when they went crazy, they took it to an even higher level.

Their future was utterly bleak.

Moreover, this temporary campsite was not occupied solely by the Uchiha. If certain things were overheard by people from the village, it would be nothing short of a disaster. But the thickheaded idiots had no reservations whatsoever and even looked rather proud.

Just as he was utterly exhausted and planning to sleep, two sets of footsteps suddenly sounded behind him. A girl called out in delight, "Uchiha Retsuo, you're fine! Hahahaha, that's wonderful! Huh, why are you sweating so much? Is the weather too hot?"

Retsuo turned around and saw them. "Tenma, Shinji? You two are fine too?"

Tenma and Shinji were two of the few friends he had made during his nine years in this life. They were also classmates at the Ninja Academy, and both came from civilian families.

Tenma was this year's honored last-place student, a seemingly cold boy who was extremely tsundere inside. As for Shinji, despite her carefree manner, her figure was practically criminal for a nine-year-old, and she especially loved joking around.

Shinji said proudly, "It's because I dragged Tenma to make up lessons at the Ninja Academy. Otherwise, we would've been in trouble. But what are we going to do about training from now on? We probably won't be able to find a suitable training ground anytime soon."

A spark of inspiration flashed through Retsuo's mind. "Speaking of training grounds, I happen to know an excellent place."