[Hokage Office]
Just as Rengoku was making arrangements regarding the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
Jiraiya was reporting the situation of Uchiha Rengoku going to the school during the day.
"Uchiha Rengoku and Naruto didn't have any contact."
"I suspect he came to test our attitude."
Jiraiya directly plopped down on the desk. After Naruto went home, he first had the Anbu report in.
Then he went to soak in a hot spring and drink some sake before coming to report to the Third Hokage.
The Third Hokage frowned upon seeing Jiraiya reeking of alcohol, with lipstick marks that had been wiped off on his face.
"At a time like this, you're still out having fun?"
Jiraiya dismissively said, "Old man, you really think I went out to play? I went to investigate near the Uchiha clan grounds."
"In the Uchiha clan grounds, aside from combat personnel sparring, everyone else is doing what they're supposed to be doing."
"You're acting like a frightened bird. If the Uchiha see us like that, they'll think we're scared of them."
Jiraiya, skilled at gathering intelligence, was really hard to detect by ordinary Uchiha clan members.
But Jiraiya also didn't dare investigate too much.
If discovered, it would easily cause conflict.
The Third Hokage took a puff from his pipe and set it down on the desk, "It's always better to be careful."
"Right now, we're understaffed. We can't afford even a small mistake."
He handed some documents to Jiraiya, "Take a look. Some intel from the black market."
Jiraiya took it, and his casual expression turned serious.
The documents detailed Konoha's stationed agents in the black markets of each great nation, and intelligence returned by spies sent to various villages.
Not to mention the famous bounty ninjas interested in Danzo's head.
Some were people from the other four great ninja villages. They too sent people into the Land of Fire.
They weren't just interested in killing Danzo.
They were planning to test Konoha. Some might even try to contact the Uchiha.
After all, the Uchiha were an extremely important combat force for Konoha, and now they had openly broken away.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Among them, the most powerful Land of Lightning was the most active.
Although the Konoha spies in Kumogakure couldn't uncover detailed intel, the people of Kumogakure were clearly excited.
The most martial and aggressive village being excited at this time, no need to explain the reason.
Similarly powerful Iwagakure also had personnel movements, but the scouts couldn't find out who came.
As for the spies in Kirigakure and Sunagakure, they didn't uncover any intel.
But just this much was enough to give Konoha a real headache.
"This is a bit troublesome," Jiraiya said with a serious expression.
"If we show weakness, they'll pounce and tear Konoha to shreds."
In the original timeline, the reason no other village attacked Konoha after the Uchiha were wiped out, the main reason was that no one took the lead.
No one knew how the Uchiha clan was wiped out. The official report said Itachi did it alone.
So... you're told that a 13-year-old elite killed an entire clan of over a thousand people. And finished in just a few hours overnight. Would you believe it?
No one believed it.
After all, Konoha still had the Nine-Tails, and in the end, nothing came of it.
But now the situation was different.
The entire ninja world knew that the Mangekyo Sharingan could control Tailed Beasts.
Which meant Konoha's Nine-Tails might not even be usable.
And Konoha's other people could be restrained by the Uchiha.
So Konoha now couldn't show weakness and also needed to win the first battle.
Best would be to have a deterrent effect on the outside.
"Old man, we also have to prevent external spies from sneaking in," Jiraiya reminded.
The Third Hokage took a puff of smoke, "I've already discussed with Hiashi, and had them rotate the entire clan to monitor all of Konoha with Byakugan."
Jiraiya said in a strange tone, "Monitoring all of Konoha? That'll easily provoke other clans' resentment."
The Third slowly exhaled smoke, "There's no choice. Konoha is at its most dangerous point right now."
This was the first time in decades that Konoha had the Hyuga clan monitor the entire village.
It's simple. When the Hyuga clan uses Byakugan, everyone looks like they're not wearing clothes.
Although distance can be freely adjusted.
But if you're not from the Hyuga clan, how would you know whether they're looking at your chakra network, or something else under your skin?
[A/N: In the world of Infinite Tsukuyomi, the reversed Neji was a pervert who used Byakugan to peep on women.]
Besides, which ninja clan doesn't have secrets? Which ninja has no privacy?
Once the Byakugan is activated, everything is exposed.
Therefore, unless it's for dealing with enemies, the Hyuga clan usually doesn't use Byakugan to look around Konoha.
And in the past, there wasn't this kind of problem, because Konoha hadn't been massively infiltrated or invaded.
"If I had the Byakugan, it would be much more convenient," Jiraiya said seriously.
But everyone knew Jiraiya's perverted nature.
What he wanted to do with the Byakugan, no need to say.
The Third Hokage looked at Jiraiya, shook his head, 'Still as unreliable as ever.'
———
Although before, bounty ninjas got in relying on Itachi's intel.
Now, with barrier frequencies and patrol routes and times changed, ordinary bounty ninjas couldn't get in so easily.
It's just that too many people were eyeing Konoha this time.
The Third Hokage didn't dare be negligent and gave Hiashi his orders.
As the head of the main family, Hiashi naturally wouldn't do this himself.
After discussing with the great elder.
He summoned the elder of the branch family, the Fourth Elder, Koshin.
He assigned the mission to Koshin, to have him lead the branch family members to do it.
This kind of task was grunt work to begin with, activating the Byakugan consumes chakra.
If used too long, the eyes would become extremely uncomfortable.
And it was a job that offended people. The main family would never appear for it.
Just like that, hyuga branch family Fourth Elder Hyuga Koshin, led a large number of branch family clan members to begin monitoring Konoha.
The scope this time was very large. Not only the new districts, old districts also had to be checked for hidden people.
Everything had to be inspected.
But this was Konoha's first large-scale inspection, and problems were found as soon as it started.
"Elder Koshin, please take a look at this," Although Koshin was the Fourth Elder, the branch family still habitually called him 'Elder.'
After all, the Fourth Elder was a title granted by the main family.
Calling him 'Elder' meant Koshin deserved the title.
When Koshin had just assigned teams and began monitoring, a Hyuga branch member from the old district came up quickly.
And his expression was very strange, as if he had seen something unbelievable.
This branch member handed Koshin a very old exploding tag.
"Elder Koshin, the design of these exploding tags..."
Koshin picked up the exploding tag and saw that it was a design from twenty-five years ago.
"We've already found a lot of these in the old district, and we've sent people to inspect other important locations."
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