Thinking of the heads they had received that morning, Mito Uzumaki nodded. "They've arrived!"
"Then notify them to come watch the execution at noon, and have the Third Elder prepare a gift for them while he's at it!"
"Understood!" Mito Uzumaki took a scroll from her sleeve and wrote down the order.
She handed it to the guard behind her.
After the guard left, the Second Elder said with a smile, "The Third Elder really is suited to this job!"
The others chuckled in unison.
The Third Elder was famous throughout the Shinobi World for his sharp tongue and vicious ways.
Before taking his position, he had been in charge of all the interrogations and punishments within the Senju Clan Grounds.
If he was preparing a gift, Sarutobi and Danzo would surely be very pleased.
After their brief joke, the Second Elder reminded the three of them, "These policies will help restore the Senju's strength, but it will still take a long time!"
"We demanded a third of the military budget, but the Hokage can still access plenty of funds. Although the Shinobi Clans and the daimyo's envoy are keeping watch, Sarutobi is still the Hokage, after all!"
"Now that we've taken half of the school, Sarutobi Hiruzen probably won't divert even more funds to it. Should we consider setting up our own covert training base as well?"
Hearing that, the others understood what the Second Elder meant.
From birth to adulthood took at least fifteen years.
The Third Hokage and the others weren't going to just sit by and watch the Senju recover.
If the Senju could take twenty billion to train their own private army, then the Third Hokage would take at least as much, if not more!
After all, he was the Hokage in name. Even without secretly diverting funds, he could directly call upon them to train a force of ninja loyal to him.
The school had been able to train so many people each year because the Third Hokage had directed funds toward it.
Now that the Senju had gotten involved, they could set a quota for part of the enrollment, but that funding would certainly dry up.
If everyone grew at the same rate each year, then there wouldn't be a problem as long as they stayed on equal footing.
But the Third Hokage wouldn't sit back and wait for the Senju to recover. What if he secretly trained another thousand people?
Then all it would take was ten years for them to gain the strength to suppress the Senju.
What if he trained even more? Then it would take even less time!
Mito Uzumaki nodded slightly. "We have Wood Release, and we also have the advantage in the number of Jonin!"
"But the gap in the number of ordinary ninja is too large. That could become a serious problem!"
"We should indeed consider setting up a covert base to train people!"
Listening to the two elders' opinions, Senju Toka began thinking over a countermeasure.
After a moment, she tapped the table lightly and said in a low voice, "Have the daimyo's envoy lead the effort to strictly monitor the Hokage's spending in the village. Force them to put every force developed with Konoha's funds out in the open!"
"As for developing our forces in secret, the Senju have a thousand years of accumulated wealth. Those few small clans can't compare!"
Then she turned to Mito Uzumaki. "Get in touch with Miko and have her gather orphans from throughout the Land of Fire. Then find suitable locations on the southern battlefield and secretly train our people!"
"Spend money-spend all of it, until the Senju have fully recovered. We have the capital to do it!"
If she'd said this a day ago, she wouldn't have dared.
When the village was founded, Lord Hashirama donated more than ten billion in one go. After that, the Senju clan's financial situation started to show signs of trouble.
During Tobirama Senju's time in office, he had even led the way in cutting various subsidies within the clan.
But after becoming clan head and learning about the family's true reserves, she understood just how good Tobirama's act had been.
And it was precisely because of Tobirama's act that no one else had ever gotten a complete picture of the Senju's wealth!
So, spending money? That was the last thing she was afraid of now!
Toka's "I've got money to burn" attitude made the other three shake their heads, laughing.
They understood what Toka meant, and they fully supported her decision.
If they lost, they didn't know who would end up benefiting from the money they'd saved.
So they might as well bring it all out now, train their people, and help the clan through this crisis!
With everyone keeping watch over the village, they could severely limit the others.
Those few small clans and their meager reserves?
How could a few small clans that had only recently risen to power imagine the wealth accumulated by the Senju over a thousand years?
Sarutobi Hiruzen's delaying tactics were good, but unfortunately, they played right into the Senju's hands.
Of course, they also had Sarutobi to thank!
Otherwise, given how hidebound the Shinobi Clans had been for a thousand years, they really wouldn't have thought of this way of doing things that the common people used!
After taking a sip of tea, the Second Elder added with a smile, "Have Miko look for people in other directions. We'll handle the south ourselves."
"Leave a few out in the open, and hide the rest much deeper!"
"Good. I'll contact Risa later and tell her about Tsunade's marriage while I'm at it!" Mito Uzumaki said with a smile.
"Mm. Have her come back when she's free to settle on a date. We can use Uka's happy occasion to help counter the effects of all this mess within the clan!"
Hearing that, Senju Toka shook her head helplessly.
Her second uncle had no eyelashes left to spare, and still he wouldn't miss a single opportunity to make use of something.
Early morning.
Hokage Building.
"Bang-!"
After seeing the message from the Senju clan, Shimura Danzo smashed the tea table in front of him in a fit of rage.
He'd thought he was already prepared to take a beating, but he hadn't expected the Senju to strike so hard right from the start!
Four civilians, one from the Utatane clan, one from the Shimura clan, and the families of six Root members-thirty-six people in total!
Apart from the one from the Shimura clan, all of them had only joined Root yesterday.
At the recruitment meeting twenty-four hours ago, he'd personally shouted, "For the sake of our families who live in the sunlight, for the sake of Konoha's strength, join Root!"
And now, twenty-four hours later, the Senju wanted him to personally kill the families of those who had carried out the mission?
How could he lead the rest of them after doing something like that?
Who would still dare to risk their lives for him?
Would joining mean their whole family would die?
The Pot Kage was only in his thirties now, and hadn't yet evolved into the complete version seen in the story.
When he saw this demand, the little conscience he had left told him he couldn't do it!
Not just for the sake of his own reputation, but also for those willing to risk their lives for them.
Nearby, Hiruzen Sarutobi sat with the other two around three sides of the tea table, silently watching Danzo rant and rave.
After reading the report, Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura leaned back in their chairs as if they felt the same way, without saying a word!
But as Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the letter in his hands, he began to think.
According to his plan, things shouldn't have gotten this bad with the Senju.
He'd previously turned a blind eye to Danzo's little moves only because he wanted to slowly split up and weaken the Senju from within, not openly oppose them like they were now.
Everything had gone wrong because his old friend had twice targeted Uka Senju.
Now that the Four Clans had lost the Senju's trust, they could only band together to survive. Wouldn't it be better for Danzo, the one who'd started this, to be more straightforward?
Besides... it seemed that they didn't have the right to refuse this demand now.
After a long while, Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at his old friend, who had finally finished venting and was sitting in his place, breathing heavily. He said calmly, "You don't want to, and neither do we. But is that even possible?"
Hearing his old friend's words, Shimura Danzo, who had only just managed to calm down, interrupted him again in agitation. "Why wouldn't it be possible? The Senju aren't what they were ten years ago. They have only two hundred registered ninja in the entire clan!"
"They have allies, and so do we. The four of us have more than three thousand civilian ninja together. Why can't we do it?"