Chapter 42 (Patreon)

At the same time, Danzō Shimura—who had once again been stripped of his position as the Hokage’s adviser and placed under house arrest—had no intention of remaining quietly at home.

Hiruzen had ordered Root to be dissolved, but its members had never served the Hokage or the village.

They answered only to Danzō.

Whether he issued his orders from Root’s underground headquarters or from his own residence made little difference.

During the brief period he had been away from the village, the Uchiha members of the Konoha Military Police Force had actually changed their approach to law enforcement. They had begun treating civilians with patience and courtesy, clearly hoping to repair the clan’s reputation and win the villagers’ support.

To Danzō, it was nothing more than a foolish dream.

He had long since seen through the Uchiha clan’s ambitions.

As long as he, Danzō Shimura, remained alive, he would never allow the Uchiha to regain their standing in Konoha.

At his command, several former Root operatives skilled in infiltration and disguise began posing as members of the Konoha Military Police Force.

From time to time, they would appear in public and violently mistreat civilians.

The villagers’ attitudes toward the Uchiha, which had only just begun to improve, quickly returned to suspicion, resentment, and disgust.

When the reports reached Fugaku Uchiha, he could no longer remain idle.

At first, he suspected that some of his clansmen had reverted to their old behaviour. He immediately summoned Itachi, whom he had assigned to observe the members of the Military Police.

However, Itachi’s report made it clear that the clansmen had continued handling their duties with restraint.

Moreover, as some of the more courageous villagers began responding positively to the Uchiha’s efforts, many members of the Military Police had started leaving for work with genuine smiles on their faces.

There was no reason for them to suddenly return to abusing civilians.

The moment Fugaku confirmed this, one name came to mind.

Danzō Shimura.

Fugaku went directly to the Hokage’s office and reported that someone had been impersonating members of the Uchiha clan to carry out acts of violent law enforcement.

He did not openly accuse Danzō.

Even if he did, Fugaku doubted Hiruzen would believe him.

For now, all he needed was to make it clear that the Uchiha clan was not responsible.

“I understand.”

Hiruzen folded his hands on the desk.

“Clan Head Fugaku, return to your duties. I will have the Anbu investigate. Whoever is deliberately stirring up conflict inside the village must be found.”

After hearing Fugaku’s report, Hiruzen did indeed suspect Danzō.

However, another possibility also occurred to him.

Danzō had targeted the Uchiha clan for years. Hiruzen did not believe Fugaku harboured no resentment toward him.

Now that Danzō had returned to Konoha, been stripped of his authority, and had Root officially dissolved, perhaps the Uchiha believed this was their best opportunity to eliminate him once and for all.

Was it possible that Fugaku had ordered members of his own clan to disguise themselves as former Root operatives who were, in turn, pretending to be Uchiha?

If the deception were exposed, all blame would fall on Danzō.

If Hiruzen himself were the head of the Uchiha clan, he might also have been reluctant to let such an opportunity pass.

Fugaku understood Hiruzen Sarutobi’s nature and never expected him to uncover the truth without pressure.

As it turned out, the former members of Root were far too familiar with the Anbu’s investigative methods. They misled the Anbu with ease and continued acting directly beneath their noses.

In the end, it was the Uchiha clan’s own shinobi who caught several of the impostors in the act.

However, the moment the former Root operatives realised escape was impossible, they decisively took their own lives before they could be captured.

The civilians knew nothing about Root’s cursed seals or the conditioning imposed upon its members.

All they saw was the Konoha Military Police surrounding several apparent civilians, who then died in the middle of the street.

The Anbu arrived only after everything was over.

They recovered the bodies and brought the Uchiha shinobi involved in the incident back to the Intelligence Division for questioning.

When Fugaku arrived, Hiruzen immediately confronted him.

“Clan Head Fugaku, it would seem you did not trust me to handle this matter. That is why you sent your own people to investigate.”

Hiruzen had already received the Anbu’s report.

The dead had been identified as former members of Root.

That confirmed Fugaku’s claim: the people who had impersonated the Uchiha and abused civilians were indeed connected to Danzō’s organisation.

Nevertheless, Hiruzen had promised to investigate personally, yet the Uchiha had still acted without authorisation. Their intervention had ended with several deaths in the street.

If he did not warn them now, he feared the clan would become even more difficult to control in the future.

“Hokage-sama, this time—”

“Enough.”

Hiruzen cut him off.

“The identities of the deceased have been confirmed, but there is no evidence proving that Danzō personally ordered them to act.”

His expression remained stern.

“Root has already been dissolved. It is entirely possible that some of its former members are dissatisfied and chose to vent their resentment against your clan out of habit.”

Fugaku frowned, but Hiruzen continued before he could object.

“From now on, I will have the Anbu place all former Root operatives under strict surveillance.”

“As for Danzō, further investigation will be necessary. Although I have removed him from office, he served as my adviser for many years. Without undeniable evidence, any formal action against him would be difficult to justify to the village.”

After hearing those words, Fugaku understood that Hiruzen had no intention of moving against Danzō.

Fortunately, the Hokage did agree to publicly clarify that the recent acts of violence had not been committed by members of the Uchiha clan.

Not long afterward, an official notice bearing the Hokage’s seal was posted throughout the village.

It claimed that Kumogakure spies had disguised themselves as members of the Uchiha clan in an attempt to divide Konoha from within. Their goal, according to the notice, had been to disrupt the village’s internal stability, interfere with its wartime logistics, and weaken the morale of the shinobi fighting on the front lines.

Whatever flaws Hiruzen possessed as Hokage, his reputation among Konoha’s civilians remained strong.

Because the explanation bore his personal seal, many villagers accepted that the Uchiha clan had not returned to its former behaviour.

However, the trust established over the previous few days had already been damaged.

The atmosphere between the civilians and the Uchiha was no longer as warm as it had briefly become.

Inside the headquarters of the Konoha Military Police Force, several Uchiha jōnin stared at their silent clan head.

“Clan Head…”

“Captain…”

Their voices were filled with frustration and indignation.

“Enough.”

Fugaku raised a hand.

“This matter ends here.”

His gaze passed over the assembled officers.

“If something similar happens again, do not make an arrest immediately. Keep the suspects under observation and notify the Anbu first.”

Fugaku no longer held any illusions about Hiruzen Sarutobi.

However, Hiruzen was still the Hokage.

Unless the Uchiha clan intended to openly rebel against Konoha, there was little Fugaku could do.

The more aggressively the clan acted, the more opportunities they would give Danzō to use their actions against them.

Danzō was confined to his residence and had little else to occupy his time. That gave him more than enough opportunity to search for weaknesses in the Uchiha clan.

For now, Fugaku placed his hopes in Kushina.

During their previous private conversation, she had made it clear that she intended to take action against Danzō.

Unfortunately, she was currently stationed on the front line.

Fugaku could not reveal the full truth to the rest of his clan, so he had no choice but to suppress their anger and calm them himself.

It was a task he had performed many times before.

By now, he was painfully skilled at it.

---

On Konoha’s front line, no further attacks occurred before nightfall.

Kushina, however, was still irritated after Roy’s earlier lesson and hurled several blasts of Hadō #31: Shakkahō toward Kumogakure’s defensive positions.

The sudden barrage plunged the Hidden Cloud’s forces into chaos.

For a moment, the Fourth Raikage nearly believed that Konoha was launching a decisive assault.

In truth, his own patience was already nearing its limit.

He had initially believed that breaking through the Land of Fire’s border would be simple without Minato Namikaze commanding the defence.

Instead, he had discovered that Konoha’s military command structure remained extremely effective.

No matter how Kumogakure attacked, Konoha always deployed the right combination of shinobi to stop them.

To make matters worse, the Uchiha clan had sent a large number of fighters to the front, and several newly arrived experts had further strengthened Konoha’s line.

Each day, the two armies fought for control of the border without achieving any meaningful progress.

All the while, Kumogakure continued burning through money and supplies.

The village elders and the Raikage’s secretary were still managing affairs in his absence, but the longer the Raikage remained away from Kumogakure, the greater the risk that the old fox Ōnoki would take advantage of the situation.

If Dodai had not repeatedly persuaded him to exercise restraint, the Raikage would have already ordered Yugito and Killer B to bombard Konoha’s defensive line with Tailed Beast Balls.

The Uchiha’s presence meant little to him.

No matter how powerful their Sharingan might be, could they truly withstand the destructive force of a Tailed Beast Ball?

“Lord Raikage.”

A Kumogakure shinobi entered the command tent.

“The envoys we sent to Kirigakure were rejected.”

The Raikage’s expression darkened.

“Damn that village. How many kekkei genkai shinobi who fled the Hidden Mist have we taken in over the years?”

“The Mist Anbu pursue their missing-nin too aggressively,” the shinobi answered. “In many cases, by the time our people reach the area, the targets have already been killed. We rarely have an opportunity to make contact.”

“We have managed to shelter a few by chance, but most possess only mediocre abilities. Their individual combat strength is also unimpressive.”

Kumogakure had its own methods for handling kekkei genkai users whose abilities were useful but whose personal strength was lacking.

Usually, they were encouraged—or ordered—to marry and produce children, allowing their bloodline to spread through the village.

Even if the first generation produced no exceptional shinobi, one or two talented descendants would eventually emerge.

Those with unusually valuable bloodlines might instead be handed over to Kumogakure’s researchers for closer examination.

However, unless the circumstances were exceptional, the village rarely resorted immediately to the most extreme methods.