A cold sneer in response, let the bullets fly

"Expel Sasuke Uchiha!"

The cries outside the Hokage Building came in wave after wave.

Some people held leaflets, others stood at the back of the crowd with children in their arms, and a few unfamiliar ninja squeezed into the front, deliberately shouting the most inflammatory things they could.

"He's possessed by the Nine-Tails! He can't stay in the village!"

"Last night he killed people outside the Hokage Building, and today he dares to take over the Konoha Military Police Force! Will he start killing civilians tomorrow?"

"Lord Hokage, please protect us!"

The Third Hokage stood by an upstairs window, his pipe unlit.

Utatane Koharu watched the crowd below and urged quietly, "Hiruzen, it's time to have Sasuke explain himself."

Mitokado Homura immediately added, "Yes. Make him bow his head before the entire village and admit that he went too far, then place him under temporary protection in the Hokage's Office. Once he enters the Hokage Building, we can keep him under control."

The Third Hokage turned to an ANBU member. "Go invite Sasuke here."

The ANBU member had barely turned when Kakashi came up the stairs.

"Lord Hokage, Clan Head Sasuke is already on his way."

Mitokado Homura's expression darkened. "He's certainly quick."

Kakashi glanced at him. "It's his name they're shouting outside."

Downstairs, the crowd suddenly parted.

Sasuke approached with Fugaku, Takaya, Yamada Naoto, and a newly integrated squad of Military Police ninja. Uchiha and civilian-born ninja stood in the same rank. Their forehead protectors differed, but the law enforcement scrolls in their hands were identical.

The man in a bamboo hat leading the disturbance pointed at Sasuke and shouted, "He's here! Take a good look, everyone! That's the Nine-Tails!"

The crowd immediately stirred.

Naruto stood at the edge of the crowd. At the mention of the Nine-Tails, his expression grew even uglier. He tried to push through, but Kakashi caught his shoulder from behind.

"Don't go over there."

"They're insulting him!"

"Someone will handle it."

Sasuke stopped before the Hokage Building's steps, in no hurry to speak. He raised a hand to straighten his collar, his fingertips brushing the spot of dried blood on it.

Shikaku stood to one side of the crowd. His eyelid twitched slightly when he saw the gesture.

Takaya placed a thick evidence bag at Sasuke's feet.

The Third Hokage came downstairs, followed by the two advisors.

"Sasuke," the Third Hokage began. "Rumors have unsettled the villagers. As the Uchiha Clan Head, you owe everyone an explanation."

Someone in the crowd immediately shouted, "Make him explain! Is he the Nine-Tails?"

"Why was there red chakra last night?"

"Did he use genjutsu to control Lord Hokage?"

Sasuke looked at the man in the bamboo hat at the front. "You've been shouting all morning. Aren't you tired?"

The man faltered. "Don't change the subject!"

Sasuke asked, "How much do you get paid a day?"

A section of the crowd fell silent.

The man immediately raised his voice. "Did everyone hear that? He's threatening me now!"

Sasuke pulled a stack of bills from the evidence bag and handed them to the Yamanaka Clan's recording ninja. "Read them."

The recording ninja unfolded the first sheet, his voice carrying across the square. "Konoha's underground Bounty Exchange. Three to five this morning: thirty thousand ryo withdrawn for operational expenses. Recipient: Kuroda Roppei. Stated purpose: distributing leaflets within the village and organizing a protest."

The flesh on the man's face twitched.

Sasuke looked at him. "You're Kuroda Roppei, aren't you?"

"Nonsense!" The man tore off his bamboo hat, revealing an ordinary middle-aged face. "My name is Kawai!"

Yamada Naoto stepped out of the squad and held up a register. "The leaflet posters arrested on South Street last night confessed that their leader was named Kuroda Roppei. A notch in his left ear and a knife scar between his right thumb and forefinger."

Every eye turned toward the man's ear and hand.

A piece was missing from the edge of his left ear, and an old scar ran across the web of his hand.

The crowd backed away.

Kuroda Roppei's face went pale. "I only took the money to do a job! I didn't write the leaflets!"

Mitokado Homura snapped, "Sasuke, you're obscuring the issue. The villagers are asking about the Nine-Tails!"

Sasuke pulled out another bill. "Yamanaka, continue."

The recording ninja read, "Five to seven this morning, in the alley behind the mission office: Yamano Jiro received twelve thousand ryo to spread rumors among the crowd that the Nine-Tails had gone berserk."

A short ninja in the crowd turned and ran.

He had barely taken two steps when a civilian-born ninja among the onlookers suddenly kicked him behind the knee. Yamada Naoto lunged forward, pinned him to the ground, and locked his arms behind his back.

"Clan Head, we've got him!"

Sasuke didn't look at the man. "The third."

"Seven to nine this morning, beneath Hokage Rock: Tanabe Suke received eight thousand ryo to incite demands for Sasuke's expulsion."

A man in gray threw his leaflets to the ground and tried to slip into the crowd.

Two newly enlisted Military Police ninja were already waiting behind him. A civilian-born Chunin pinned his shoulder while an Uchiha caught his wrist, their movements clean and precise.

The watching villagers' expressions began to change.

"They really took money?"

"Then the Nine-Tails story was fake?"

"But the leaflets were so detailed..."

Sasuke raised the black-market remittance slip in his hand, amplifying his voice with chakra.

"How much do you get for a day's protesting? Thirty thousand ryo for Kuroda Roppei, twelve thousand for Yamano Jiro, eight thousand for Tanabe Suke. Some of you took just five hundred ryo and still dared to stand at the front shouting that I was possessed by the Nine-Tails."

Someone at the back swore. "You fooled us for five hundred ryo?"

Kuroda Roppei struggled and shouted, "I didn't lie! So many people died on the Night of the Nine-Tails! Who isn't afraid? I only said what everyone was scared of!"

Sasuke walked up to him. "Then why did you take the money?"

Kuroda Roppei gritted his teeth. "I'm poor!"

"Being poor gives you the right to spread lies?"

"The Uchiha used to bully civilians too!"

"That's why I opened up the Military Police last night and paid the overdue survivor benefits." Sasuke tossed a roster in front of him. "Your family has no relatives killed in battle and no unpaid benefits. You're poor because you owe the underground black market forty thousand ryo in gambling debts."

Kuroda Roppei's expression changed.

Yamada Naoto searched his clothes, pulled out an IOU, and unfolded it for the crowd to see.

A villager at the back recognized him. "Kuroda, you tricked me into lending you money last month! You said your mother was sick!"

Kuroda Roppei tried to argue again, but Yamada Naoto slapped a hand against his head and held it down. "Shut up! You took the whole village for fools, and you still have the nerve to shout!"

The Third Hokage's face grew darker by the moment.

Sasuke turned toward the villagers outside the building. "If I'm the Nine-Tails, why are people in the leadership paying others to denounce me?"

No one could answer.

Sasuke continued, "If I orchestrated the clan massacre last night, why does Danzo's massacre Order Document bear Root's seal? Why do Root's ledgers contain payments for recovering Sharingan? Why were the leaflet distributors paid with underground black-market funds?"

A woman holding a child asked in a trembling voice, "But the leaflet said there were fox tails behind you..."

Naruto couldn't help shouting, "That's a lie! You never even saw them!"

Sasuke glanced at Naruto but didn't expose him.

Kakashi caught Naruto by the back of his collar and pulled him half a step back.

Sasuke pointed at the Hokage Building. "The Nine-Tails is an old wound for Konoha. Someone is turning your dead loved ones into a knife. Today they stab me with it. Tomorrow they can stab you."

At those words, the crowd's anger began to shift targets.

"Who paid them?"

"Why does the underground black market have Root seals?"

"Lord Hokage, this needs to be investigated!"

Mitokado Homura's face was livid. "Sasuke, you have no evidence that the money came from Danzo!"

Sasuke held a remittance slip out to the Third Hokage. "Root's hidden mark, a sealing label bearing the character for wind, and the Bounty Exchange's transaction records. Do you recognize them, Lord Hokage?"

The Third Hokage took it and glanced down. Veins stood out on the back of his hand.

Mitokado Homura was about to speak again when Shikaku interjected from the side. "Lord Advisor, Root's hidden marks are very difficult to forge. With so many witnesses here, it would be best to investigate the source of the funds first."

Utatane Koharu immediately said, "Even if these are Root remnants, they don't necessarily represent Danzo himself."

Sasuke nodded. "Then let's take them alive."

He signaled with a raised hand, and the Military Police pushed Kuroda Roppei, Yamano Jiro, and Tanabe Suke in front of the steps.

Sweat streamed down Kuroda Roppei's face. "I don't know where Danzo is! All the money came through a middleman!"

Sasuke asked, "Who's the middleman?"

Kuroda Roppei clenched his teeth and refused to speak.

Pinned to the ground, Yamano Jiro suddenly began trembling. Kakashi noticed something was wrong and stepped forward, but Sasuke moved faster, seizing Yamano's jaw.

"Trying to die?"

Yamano's mouth was forced open, revealing a black poison pill lodged beside his teeth. Sasuke pried it out with the tip of a kunai and dropped it into the Evidence Box.

Takaya restrained Kuroda Roppei and Tanabe Suke, finding poison pills on them as well.

The crowd erupted.

"They even brought poison!"

"This is to silence them!"

"Who gave them the poison?"

Yamano Jiro broke down in terror. "I'll talk! The middleman wore a Root cloak and held a secret seal bearing the character for wind. He said that once the commotion got big enough, the Hokage Building would put Sasuke under house arrest!"

Those words left the Third Hokage's face rigid.

Sasuke looked at the Third Hokage. "Lord Hokage, when you sent the ANBU to invite me here to explain myself, were you planning to place me under protective house arrest?"

Mitokado Homura immediately roared, "How dare you!"

The Third Hokage raised a hand to stop him and stared at Yamano Jiro. "Keep talking."

Yamano Jiro cried out, "I only know where we collected the money! Outside the black market on South Street, a mute handed over an envelope marked with the character for wind. I really don't know anything else!"

Tanabe Suke suddenly struggled like a madman. "You can't tell them! If you do, your whole family dies!"

While the civilian-born ninja holding him was distracted, he pushed his tongue against his teeth. Sasuke turned, but it was already too late. Tanabe Suke swallowed, and his face took on a bluish tinge.

A Medical Ninja rushed forward, but Sasuke forced Tanabe's mouth open first and hooked a bitten wax-sealed capsule out from beneath the root of his tongue.

Tanabe Suke collapsed to the ground, convulsed a few times, and stopped breathing.

Yamada Naoto cursed. "Damn it, we were still too late!"

Sasuke opened the wax-sealed capsule. Inside was a rolled strip of thin paper stamped with a small wind-character seal, with Root's secret code along its edge.

The Third Hokage stared at the seal, his lips pressed tight.

Mitokado Homura's face changed color too.

Sasuke held the thin paper up to the firelight, and the writing gradually appeared.

"Upon completing the mission, proceed to the Third Safehouse and destroy the black-market transaction records."

Shikaku stepped forward. "The Third Safehouse?"

Kakashi had already drawn his short blade. "I know an old Root money-exchange site. The number might match."

Sasuke put away the secret message and turned toward the villagers who had been protesting moments earlier.

"Want to know who's using you as weapons?"

No one shouted for his expulsion anymore.

Sasuke slapped the secret message onto the evidence chest. "All Military Police units, move out. Follow the black-market transaction records and make arrests. Anyone who obstructs us will be charged with shielding funds used for village betrayal."

Just as the Military Police squad turned to leave, Kuroda Roppei suddenly lifted his head, a strange smile spreading across his face.

"Too late."

He spat out a mouthful of bloody foam, staring at the evidence chest beside Sasuke's feet.

"The moment you open the wind-character letter, the Third Safehouse burns the records. By the time you get there, all you'll find is ash."