Naturally, Kakashi had also received the news. As a member of the Anbu, what could he do? He could only accept it helplessly.
He saw the situation very clearly; this was nothing more than internal strife between the two great forces of the village. It was obvious that the Third Hokage had wanted to make a move against the Uchiha Clan but had failed, and in doing so, had allowed his own weakness to be seized.
The result of this struggle was clear: the Uchiha Clan had won.
The village was about to undergo a massive change, and he had no power to intervene in such matters.
It would be better to just go eat a bowl of ramen. He walked into Ichiraku Ramen and spoke to the owner.
"Boss, one bowl of ramen."
"Alright! Coming right up."
Two days later, all the clan heads of the Leaf Village were gathered in the Hokage Building.
The Hokage Building was already under the control of the Uchiha Clan. Uchiha Fugaku had personally led the Konoha Military Police Force to secure the premises.
All the clan heads held their breath and focused. They already knew who was going to be judged in the upcoming clan head meeting.
It was the village's Third Hokage.
Their feelings were very complicated.
Some of the smaller families that supported the Hokage were sitting on pins and needles. If the Hokage fell, their families would definitely face difficulties developing in the Leaf Village. They were terrified that they would face a reckoning from the Uchiha Clan.
However, after these two days, most of the clan heads had calmed down.
The scandal committed by the Third Hokage was truly monumental: killing Uchiha Shisui to steal his eyes and attempting to manipulate Uchiha Ryōsuke.
This was all to achieve the goal of controlling the Uchiha Clan.
The charges were extremely serious, and the Uchiha Clan presumably would not let him off.
As for why Shisui's eyes could control Uchiha Ryōsuke, rumors claimed that Shisui had also awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan and a special ocular technique, though the specifics were unknown. This was also the motive for the Third Hokage killing Shisui and gouging out his eyes.
Furthermore, when the Police Force raided Danzō's Root base, they found a massive amount of evidence regarding Danzō's human experimentation.
It was rumored that there were even connections to Orochimaru.
The tragedy Orochimaru had caused back then was enormous, causing an uproar in the village. He had acted against villagers and ninjas alike. Now that Danzō was exposed for similar issues, could the Third Hokage be free of responsibility?
No one could believe that.
It was truly a dereliction of duty. Of course, these were just rumors for now, but they were likely the truth. Such news wouldn't spread without cause.
At this moment, Fugaku looked at everyone present, his heart filled with excitement.
Previously, he had been pressed to the point of suffocation by the combined force of the Third Hokage and Danzō. He hadn't expected that this time, it would be his turn to judge the Third Hokage. He would definitely nail him to the wall.
It wasn't just about Shisui; he absolutely had to push the blame for the human experimentation labs at Danzō's base entirely onto the Third Hokage.
He wanted to completely destroy his reputation in the village, which would make him easy to deal with.
This was something he had discussed with Ryōsuke.
He glanced at the numerous clan heads in attendance.
The gathered clan heads also looked at Fugaku as he stood up. They hadn't expected that the Uchiha Clan, suppressed by the village higher-ups not long ago, would now turn over a new leaf and become the masters. The winds of fortune had truly shifted.
Fugaku spoke coldly.
"I assume everyone has heard the rumors in the village and seen the announcement issued by my Uchiha Clan. I won't waste words. Next is the trial of the Third Hokage."
"First, let the clan heads of the Ino-Shika-Chō, the Inuzuka Clan Head, and the Hyūga Head present their evidence. These are materials they collected themselves."
The reason he said this was to distance the Uchiha Clan from the source, proving that these materials were not forged by them.
The expressions of everyone present changed. Were they laying out the evidence directly to bring down the Third Hokage?
Did the Third Hokage really do those things?
They all looked toward those specific clan heads. These were leaders of major clans in the village; their words were trustworthy.
Furthermore, if their words couldn't be trusted—implying they had thrown their lot in with the Uchiha—then the Leaf Village would truly be under the total domination of the Uchiha Clan.
However, based on their observations, aside from the close relationship between the Hyūga Clan and the Uchiha Clan, the other clan heads had maintained a distance. This was enough to prove their words would be fair.
Hyūga Hiashi organized a document, stood up slowly, and spoke.
"This was found inside a laboratory at a Root base, an area currently under the control of the Third Hokage. These are detailed files on human experiments."
At the same time, he signaled the people behind him to bring them out and distribute a copy to each clan head.
As the clan heads looked at these documents, their expressions changed drastically. It was truly shocking.
There were remains of 59 children alone. The files also listed the name of the experiment: the fusion of children with Lord Senju Hashirama's cells.
This was an even greater shock. It was too horrifying.
Some time ago, news of missing children had spread throughout the Land of Fire. Originally, they thought it was the work of other countries. They never expected it was done by their own people. Several clan heads even spoke up.
"Are the things written in these files true?"
"Did Danzō really conduct these experiments?"
To use so many children for experiments—what an utter lack of humanity. They couldn't be blamed for their disbelief.
One had to remember that this was Danzō, a Konoha Consultant Elder. His natural duty was to maintain the stability of the Leaf Village and the Land of Fire. How could he commit such evil acts?