A new day.
Fine weather, with brilliant sunshine.
Konoha's shopping street.
Shops of every kind bustled with voices. People came and went in a lively scene of prosperity.
"Laifu! You again!"
Dressed in a Konoha Military Police Force uniform, Uchiha Changwei snapped at the fat, big-eared tavern owner before him, "How many times has it been now?!"
Changwei pointed at the heaps of leftover food and drink outside the tavern. "There's a designated place to dump your garbage, but you insist on leaving it at your door!!"
"This is a shopping street! Not a garbage dump!"
The hefty Laifu looked at Changwei unhappily. "I only get a handful of customers a day! Where am I supposed to find the money to hire someone to take out the garbage?!"
"Don't you have hands of your own?! Do we have to catch you and tell you every single time before you'll lift a finger?!"
"What are you, a spinning top?! You won't move unless someone gives you a couple of lashes?!"
Changwei sneered. "Or do you want to spend a few more days at the Konoha Military Police Force?"
At that, Laifu finally gave in. With a thoroughly unwilling expression, he picked up the garbage and left the shop.
"Fuck! Always threatening me with the Konoha Military Police Force over something so trivial! Can't I leave a few bags of garbage outside my own place?!"
As he walked, Laifu muttered resentfully, "Just you wait. I'll report you through the public mailbox later!!"
In parks, streets, shops, schools, and training grounds, large numbers of Uchiha Clan members in Konoha Military Police Force uniforms were still discussing the orders passed down at yesterday's clan meeting.
"What exactly is the clan head thinking?!"
"On the one hand, he wants us to enforce the rules more strictly than before, but on the other, he wants harsh punishments for clan members who receive complaints."
"He's making us create trouble for ourselves!!"
"I think something's off too! Just last month, he warned us not to look at the pay when taking missions, and now he's switched to having us specifically take well-paid missions."
"I really can't figure out what the clan head is thinking."
Meanwhile, Uchiha Fugaku, the subject of everyone's complaints, was dressed in casual clothes.
Under the surveillance of Anbu ninja, he walked openly all the way from the Uchiha Clan compound through the gates of Konoha's other great clan, the Hyuga Clan.
Directly beneath Hokage Rock.
In the Hokage Building, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was handling paperwork when he heard his Anbu subordinate's report. Somewhat surprised, he asked, "You're saying Fugaku went to the Hyuga Clan openly?"
The masked Anbu nodded. "Yes! Not just us! Many villagers on the streets saw him too. He made no attempt to hide it."
Hiruzen Sarutobi, whose hair was already completely white and whose face was covered in wrinkles, took a puff from the pipe in his hand and knitted his brows tightly at the news.
The Uchiha Clan and the Hyuga Clan could be called the two greatest clans in Konoha at present!
If the two really had some close connection, that would be terrible...
"Send people to keep a close watch on the Hyuga gates!"
"How long Fugaku stays inside, whether anyone sees him out-report all of it to me as soon as he comes out!"
At Sarutobi's orders, the Anbu ninja nodded and vanished from the room with a Body Flicker Technique.
Sarutobi rose and gazed out through the office window. His deep gaze turned toward the Hyuga Clan.
Creak!
The door to the Hokage's office was pushed open!
"Hiruzen, you've received the news, haven't you?!"
Dressed in white robes, with bandages covering his right eye, Danzo spoke in a chilling tone the moment he entered. "I told you long ago! The Uchiha Clan isn't the sort to behave!"
"There's still time! While Fugaku is away, we can organize our forces and attack the Uchiha Clan compound first!"
Good grief. Faced with the fear that Fugaku might strike some sort of deal with the Hyuga Clan,
Danzo actually saw an opportunity to wipe out the entire Uchiha Clan while Fugaku was away!
Sarutobi seemed accustomed to Danzo barging in without being announced. He did not reprimand him, merely continuing to look out the window as he said without turning, "Calm down, Danzo."
"Since Fugaku went in openly, that means whatever he wants to discuss isn't some secret that can't bear the light of day."
"What if it is?!" Danzo said coldly. "What if Fugaku guessed what you were thinking and deliberately acted this way?!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi took a hard puff on the pipe between his lips, his tone remaining calm. "He wouldn't. Even if Fugaku wants an alliance, the Hyuga Clan would never agree."
"Hiashi is a smart man."
"Don't get overconfident, Hiruzen!" Danzo sneered. "If those two clans really do form an alliance, your position as Hokage... won't be so secure."
"We should send out troops at once and eliminate the Uchiha Clan once and for all!"
"Enough."
Hiruzen Sarutobi turned to Danzo with a frown. "Say no more! Even if the Uchiha Clan rebels, it certainly won't happen in the next day or two."
"As for why Fugaku went to the Hyuga Clan, I'll arrange to see Hiashi later and find out."
Still unwilling to give up, Danzo continued in dissatisfaction, "You clearly don't trust the Uchiha Clan either, yet you keep wavering, unable to make up your mind."
"Why don't you just stay here and handle your paperwork? Give me the Anbu. Let me lead them and finish off the Uchiha Clan!"
"You're only the Hokage's aide right now, not the Hokage!"
"Without my say-so, the Anbu will not obey your orders!"
At Danzo's repeated overstepping, Hiruzen Sarutobi's tone could not help growing a little colder.
"Enough. Say no more. You may leave!"
"Hmph!"
Danzo snorted coldly and said in an icy voice, "You'll regret this, Hiruzen."
"You'll regret not seizing this chance to deal with the Uchiha Clan directly!"
With that, Danzo turned and left.
After silently smoking his pipe for a few minutes, Sarutobi tapped his desk three times.
Another masked Anbu ninja pushed open the door and entered.
"Once Fugaku leaves, arrange for Hiashi to come to my house for dinner," Sarutobi instructed quietly, then added, "Have Suzaku come here."
The ninja nodded upon receiving the orders, then went out to carry them out.
The Hyuga Clan's reception room.
Fugaku, who occupied both Sarutobi's and Danzo's thoughts, was discussing something with the Hyuga Clan head, Hyuga Hiashi.
Yet Hiashi, whose expression was usually calm, wore an extremely strange and surprised look, though what Fugaku had said to him was unknown.
Elsewhere,
Danzo had returned to Root. Though his expression was composed, the anger in his heart had yet to subside.
He could not help complaining to the guard beside him, "Hiruzen has been Hokage for too long. He's lost the boldness and decisiveness he once had!"
"He clearly fears the Uchiha Clan, yet he still acts so timidly! If I were Hokage, these problems would have been resolved long ago!"
Neither the guards beside him nor the ninja around him found such outrageous remarks strange.
It was as though they were used to them.
"Lord Danzo, I have something to report."
Upon seeing Danzo return, a Root ninja walked over quickly.
He handed Danzo a letter and said, "While I was on surveillance duty, someone came out of the compound and gave me this letter, asking me to pass it on to you."
"Someone who came out of the Uchiha compound?"
Danzo frowned. "Who?!"