Kicking a man while he was down, seizing the vault

"Who wrote this label?"

Hiashi held the bottle, his arms rigid. Behind him, the Hyuga ninja all activated their Byakugan, their chakra weighing heavily over the entire vault passage.

Kakashi reached to take it. "Clan Head Hiashi, let's secure the evidence first."

"Don't touch it."

Hiashi's gaze remained fixed on the bottle. "Why are my brother's eyes in the Root Vault?"

The Root death squad member pinned to the floor turned his head, blood at the corner of his mouth. "Those are Konoha's spoils of war."

A Hyuga ninja rushed forward and shattered two of his ribs with a palm strike.

"Lord Hizashi died for the village!"

The man coughed up bloody foam. "If he died for the village, then the village should get to use him."

Before the next palm strike landed, Sasuke raised a hand to stop it.

The Hyuga ninja's eyes were red. "Clan Head Sasuke, move!"

Sasuke looked at the man on the floor. "Killing him would be too easy. Let him finish."

Hiashi closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them again, the blood vessels in his Byakugan stood out even more. "Talk. What really happened during the Kumogakure envoy incident?"

The man clenched his teeth and refused to answer.

Sasuke turned the bottle's label toward everyone.

"Kumogakure envoy incident. Eyes of Hizashi Hyuga. Transferred to the Root laboratory. Handled by Shimura Danzō. Notes: deterrence against the Main Family; research into countermeasures against the Caged Bird Seal."

The Hyuga people present paled at the mention of the Caged Bird Seal.

Hiashi's shoulders sank, as though someone had pressed down on them from behind.

Shikaku walked to the crate and pulled a file from the bottom. "There's a case file here."

Kakashi broke the seal and read two lines, then his hands went still.

Sasuke took it from him. "Read it."

Kakashi looked at Hiashi.

Hiashi forced a single word from his throat. "Read."

Kakashi's voice carried through the vault. "Kumogakure demanded the body of Hyuga Hiashi. Konoha High Command decided to substitute Hizashi Hyuga, publicly declaring the decision an effort to preserve peace. Root simultaneously intercepted two Byakugan samples to verify the Caged Bird Seal's protective effect following the death of a Branch Family member."

The vault fell utterly silent.

Yamada Naoto swore. "That's what they call preserving peace? They sold out one of their own, then kept his eyes for experiments!"

The Hyuga people could no longer hold back.

"Kill Root!"

"Make the Third Hokage explain!"

"Hack Danzo to pieces!"

Kakashi immediately stepped between the ANBU and the Hyuga. "If you attack now, the evidence will get mixed up."

Hiashi turned to him. "Kakashi, you were in the ANBU back then too. Did you know?"

Kakashi's mask covered half his face, and his visible eye looked weary. "I didn't."

Hiashi stared at him for several seconds before looking away. "Then keep your distance. I don't want to see any ANBU right now."

The ANBU temporarily serving as the Third Hokage's messenger had just reached the doorway. At those words, he stopped dead.

Sasuke raised a hand and tapped the file. "Register all the evidence. The Hyuga Clan will temporarily hold Hizashi Hyuga's eyes, with joint seals of confirmation from the Konoha Military Police Force, the ANBU, and the Nara Clan."

The clerical ninja sent by Mitokado Homura could not help speaking up. "That violates the procedure for sealing the vault. Bloodline Limit samples are special village assets. They cannot be returned to their clans."

Hiashi turned and stepped right up to him.

Under the pressure of his Byakugan, the clerk backed away and hit the wall.

"Say that again."

The clerk's lips trembled. "I, I was only following the old rules..."

Sasuke walked over, pulled the scroll of old regulations from the clerk's robes, and tore it in half.

"From now on, Root's old rules are void. Anyone who calls our clansmen's eyes assets again will become evidence in court."

Fugaku looked toward the Uchiha crate. "Clan Head, there are belongings of our clansmen here."

Sasuke nodded. "Register everything. Return anything belonging to the clans to its rightful owners. Anything whose ownership can't be established goes into the Joint Evidence Repository for now."

Shikaku frowned. "There's too much here. Distributing it on-site will be chaos."

"Then make the registers on-site, stamp them on-site, and post the notices on-site."

Sasuke swept his gaze over the Gold Notes in the vault. "Pay out the death benefits owed to fallen ninja today. The subsidies for civilian ninja in the Konoha Military Police Force will come out of this too. Let the whole village see where Danzo's money came from, and where it ought to go back to."

Yamada Naoto's eyes lit up. "Clan Head, shall I take some men and move the Gold Notes?"

"Do it." Sasuke pointed at the crates. "But every crate needs records from all three parties. If even one note goes missing, I'll hold you responsible."

Yamada Naoto immediately wiped the smile off his face. "Not a single one will go missing."

Shikaku sighed. "You're practically prying the lid off Danzo's coffin."

Sasuke looked at him. "He's not dead yet. Don't rush to get him a coffin."

Outside the vault, the news spread quickly.

When the first batch of death benefits was carried to the training ground, several civilian ninja holding old IOUs stood rooted to the spot, unsure what to do with their hands.

An One-Armed Veteran looked at the name in the ledger, his voice hoarse. "My son's death benefits have been held up for four years."

Yamada Naoto placed a money pouch in his hand. "Root pocketed it. We're paying part of it back now. There's more to come."

Clutching the pouch, the old ninja suddenly turned and knelt toward the vault. "I'm not thanking Danzo. I'm thanking the people who investigated the accounts."

Someone nearby joined in with a shout. "Investigate Root thoroughly!"

"Give us our money back!"

"Answer for those lives!"

When the Hyuga people emerged from the vault, guarding the two bottles, the cries across the training ground changed again.

"Are those Byakugan?"

"Didn't Hizashi Hyuga sacrifice himself for peace?"

"Root even dared to gouge out Hyuga eyes?"

Hiashi offered no explanation. He merely handed the bottles to a clan elder, then walked up to Sasuke.

"The Hyuga Clan will demand answers."

Sasuke handed him the file. "If you want answers, don't just go after Danzo. The people who signed off, the people who tacitly approved, and the people who sealed the files afterward are all part of this chain."

Hiashi looked at the Hokage Building's archive stamp on the file. He did not shout in anger. He simply closed it.

"I'll go to the Hokage Building."

Fugaku approached. "Would you like the Uchiha to accompany you?"

Hiashi glanced at him. "Yes."

The two clan heads' gazes met. Neither said anything about an alliance, but the sight already made Shikaku's temples ache.

"If you two go together, you'll blow the roof off the Hokage Building."

Sasuke sealed the last crate of ledgers. "We won't. We'll submit the evidence according to procedure."

Shikaku smiled bitterly. "Every time you say 'procedure,' I feel like someone's about to suffer."

Just then, Kakashi emerged from the depths of the vault, holding a file secured with a Snake-pattern seal.

"There's something else."

Sasuke took it, opened it, and skimmed the contents.

The file listed the Backup bunker, the Northwestern forest outside the village, and the Shimura private evacuation point.

Fugaku's gaze darkened. "Danzo's hiding place?"

Kakashi shook his head. "He may have moved already. But this is Root's last fallback route."

Sasuke sealed the file in an evidence bag. "We won't pursue him yet. Send the vault evidence to the Hokage Building and force the Third Hokage to sign a new order for action. Danzo won't get away."

Meanwhile, in the bunker outside the village.

After hearing the fragmentary intelligence relayed by his death squad member, Danzo smashed his cane against the floor, sending wood splinters flying.

"The vault has fallen?"

The Root remnants kneeling on the floor did not dare raise their heads. "Yes. Hizashi Hyuga's Byakugan were discovered too."

Danzo's chest heaved. A mouthful of black blood rose in his throat, and he spat it onto the back of his hand.

"Hiashi... Sasuke Uchiha..."

A slender snake slipped through a crack in the wall beside him and spat out a scroll.

Danzo looked at the snake, his gaze growing darker.

"Tell Orochimaru we're moving the deal forward. I want something that can kill that Sharingan brat."

The slender snake flicked its tongue, gathered up the blood, and slipped back into the shadows.

At Konoha's training ground.

With Hiashi, Fugaku, Shikaku, and Kakashi, Sasuke escorted the first batch of evidence from the vault toward the Hokage Building.

Villagers lined both sides of the road.

No one shouted about the Nine-Tails anymore.

Some lowered their heads to avoid the Uchiha's eyes. Others hugged their newly received benefit pouches and followed the procession.

Inside the Hokage Building, the Third Hokage had already received the vault inventory.

His pipe lay on the desk, unlit.

An urgent dispatch bearing the crest of the Daimyo's Residence also lay on the desktop.

Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu sat to one side, their expressions grim. Neither dared touch the ledgers again.

Sasuke pushed open the door and entered, placing the evidence custody record for Hizashi's eyes on the desk.

Hiashi followed him in without offering a salute.

"Lord Hokage, the Hyuga Clan demands every file from that year."

The Third Hokage looked at the record, the veins on the backs of his hands slowly bulging.

Before he could speak, a messenger ninja dropped to one knee outside the door.

"Lord Hokage, the urgent dispatch from the Daimyo's Residence demands an immediate explanation for Konoha's recent unrest. A special envoy is already on the way."

Sasuke looked at the urgent dispatch on the desk and pressed a hand onto it.

"Perfect."

The Third Hokage raised his head.

Sasuke pushed Hizashi's file beside the dispatch. "I'd also like to know who the Daimyō will hold accountable first when he sees that Konoha High Command secretly harvested Bloodline Limit eyes."