"Cuff everyone still alive and take them back for questioning. Move out."
Xuanye waved a hand listlessly.
He looked up at the clear night sky, a faint smile touching his lips.
Not only had he dealt with the thugs disrupting the village's peace, he had also dealt Kumogakure's arrogance a heavy blow.
As Konoha's Police Force Captain, he was in a fairly good mood today.
"Another peaceful, fulfilling day."
Xuanye stretched and casually sighed.
Peaceful?!
You broke all four of the mighty Fourth Raikage's limbs and trampled him underfoot, and you call that peaceful?!
Hiruzen Sarutobi hurried to the village entrance, his aged face so dark it looked ready to drip. He could not even be bothered to maintain the most basic pretense as he strode straight up to Xuanye and roared at the top of his lungs!
"Uchiha Genya! Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused?!"
What are you shouting for?
"You're too loud."
Xuanye did not even raise his eyelids. He casually lifted his right hand and, with a smack, planted it directly on Hiruzen Sarutobi's head.
The meaning of that gesture could not have been clearer: if you raise your voice even a little more, you old bastard, I'll crush your skull right here!
"Ahem... what I meant was..."
Hiruzen Sarutobi's aged face flushed crimson, his body trembling with rage.
But regardless, feeling the cold touch on top of his head, the old fox involuntarily lowered his voice.
"What I meant was, the man lying on the ground is the Fourth Raikage!"
"Lord Raikage personally led a delegation to Konoha to forge a peace treaty with us! As a senior Konoha officer and the Police Force Captain, how dare you treat another village's Kage so brutally!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi gritted his teeth and glared at Xuanye. Perhaps because he held the moral high ground, his voice grew increasingly confident:
"Do you know what consequences your actions will bring down on Konoha?!"
"Even if you're threatening my life with your hand right now, I will never compromise with a thug like you who destroys the village's peace!"
"You must give everyone in the village an explanation today! If Kumogakure declares war on Konoha over this, can you bear that responsibility?!"
War?!
At that word, the villagers watching nearby sharply sucked in their breath.
That was right!
That was the Fourth Raikage!
The Police Force Captain had not only crippled the Raikage, but wiped out the elite members of Kumogakure's delegation too.
What would Konoha do if Kumogakure really sent its army to their borders?
They had been too busy enjoying the sight of the Konoha Military Police Force beating those thugs senseless to think any further.
Now that Lord Hokage had pointed it out, every villager's heart hung in suspense.
Konoha truly could not afford another war!
The Third Shinobi World War and the Nine-Tails' Rampage had long since emptied Konoha's coffers, leaving the villagers scraping by.
A shortage of money was a minor matter. The most terrifying part was that people would die again!
At the thought of their children, who had only just grown up, being sent to the battlefield as cannon fodder again, many villagers grew so anxious their eyes reddened.
Even so, they could not bring themselves to criticize Xuanye.
After all, if that beastlike Raikage had been allowed to charge into the village, who knew how many innocent people would have died?
Just as expected.
Use the villagers' fear and hatred of war to apply pressure.
Once the banner of righteousness is raised, no matter how powerful you are, Uchiha Genya, you'll have to swallow this dead fly!
Hiruzen Sarutobi sneered inwardly.
When it comes to political maneuvering and manipulating public opinion?
I've held the Hokage's seat for decades. I've eaten more salt than you've eaten rice!
A wet-behind-the-ears brat like you thinks he's fit to fight me?!
I have the advantage!
Everything is under my control!
And yet...
Hiruzen Sarutobi saw none of the panic and fear he had expected on Xuanye's face.
Quite the opposite.
Xuanye looked at him as though he were looking at an incurable imbecile, with even a trace of undisguised pity.
Why is this brat still pretending to be calm?!
Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart lurched, and his brows knitted tightly together.
The atmosphere at the village entrance had become unbearably oppressive.
Seeing that Xuanye would not take the bait, Hiruzen Sarutobi decisively turned and signaled to the followers behind him.
Mitokado Homura, who had long been itching to act, immediately understood and strode out of the crowd.
Some time ago, the Konoha Military Police Force had forcibly thrown him, a Hokage Advisor, into jail. Not only had they stripped him naked and hung him upside down in the interrogation room, he had also suffered utter humiliation in prison, sending his prestige in Konoha straight into the gutter.
He had paid an extremely painful political price to settle that affair.
He had long since laid that bitter grudge at Uchiha Genya's door!
"Uchiha Genya!"
Mitokado Homura pointed at Xuanye's nose and sternly rebuked him:
"Your selfish desires and arrogance have pushed the entire village into the fires of war!"
"Having committed such an unforgivable crime, you're utterly unfit to remain commander of the Konoha Military Police Force!"
So this was what they were after.
Xuanye understood.
No wonder Hiruzen Sarutobi had dared to bring his people here today and so forcefully demand his surrender.
So all along, these old bastards had been planning to strip him of his captain's position?
The bizarre reasoning of these politicians almost made Xuanye laugh in exasperation.
Could Hiruzen Sarutobi really believe that Uchiha Genya was only so domineering because of his title as Police Force Captain?
That once he was dismissed, they could push him around however they liked?
How pitifully stupid.
Xuanye had never relied on any position to do as he pleased in Konoha.
Quite the opposite.
It was because he was strong enough that he dared to set the rules and turn the Konoha Military Police Force into Konoha's most unreasonable instrument of violence!
"Exactly! As a senior Konoha advisor, I also believe Uchiha Genya must resign immediately to take responsibility, and bear full responsibility for provoking a war between the two nations!"
Utatane Koharu, standing nearby, immediately jumped in to back him up.
These two old bastards had long since been carrying on an affair in secret.
According to intelligence secretly gathered by the Konoha Military Police Force, every time Mitokado Homura went to meet Utatane Koharu for a secret tryst, he would first send someone to the pharmacy to buy several doses of kidney-strengthening virility pills.
Now that these secret elderly lovers had joined forces against him, they clearly intended to crush Xuanye completely.
Faced with the Konoha High Command's collective denunciation, the surrounding shinobi and villagers all fell silent, watching the farce before them at a loss.
They did not want to see Captain Xuanye, who had protected the village, dismissed, much less face the brutal war that was coming.
Yet Xuanye, at the center of the storm, still wore the calm expression of someone watching a show.
Not only did he leave his hand on the Hokage's head, he even...
Thump, thump.
Xuanye curled his fingers and knocked hard on Hiruzen Sarutobi's skull twice.
"Judging by that sound... this old bastard's head must be full of water."
Xuanye scoffed, making no effort to conceal his contempt.
"How dare you!"
Having his head knocked in public nearly gave Hiruzen Sarutobi a cerebral hemorrhage from sheer rage.
He wished he could draw a kunai right then and stab this lawless bastard to death, teaching the brat his place!
But he did not dare move.
Not only because the hand above his head could crush his skull at any moment, but also because the faint trace of destructive chakra seeping from Xuanye's fingertips as he knocked on his skull made his hair stand on end.
Even with a last resort like the "Reaper Death Seal" that would take them both down, who would willingly trade his life for a nineteen-year-old lunatic's unless he had absolutely no other choice?
What reassured him slightly was that there was no killing intent on Xuanye's face.
Only pure mockery.
"What exactly do you mean?!" Hiruzen Sarutobi growled through clenched teeth.
"I can't be bothered explaining it to an idiot like you."
Xuanye abruptly withdrew his hand, his tone turning utterly cold and stern.
"Someone will naturally give the entire village a clear explanation of what happened today."
Someone would give an explanation?
Hiruzen Sarutobi's brows furrowed tightly, and an extremely ominous premonition suddenly welled up inside him.
Before he could work it out, Xuanye had already turned and shouted toward the Konoha Military Police Force's formation:
"Uchiha Itachi! Step forward!"
What could leave a politician more despairing and frustrated than having the mole he had personally planted among his enemies publicly turn against him and slap him in the face?
Since they wanted an explanation, Xuanye would of course deliver the most direct, resounding slap possible, battering the Third Hokage's aged face!
"Here!"
Hearing Xuanye call his name, Uchiha Itachi shuddered and reluctantly stepped out of the ranks.
His face was deathly pale as he looked at his captain with an immensely complicated gaze, the ominous premonition inside him reaching its peak.
What was the captain planning?
Caught between the Hokage and the captain, when would these miserable days as a triple agent finally end?!
Before you continue