Yōkō entered the Hokage's office and felt the atmosphere was extremely heavy.
Heavy is good, Yōkō thought, otherwise, all my efforts would have been in vain.
No one offered any explanation to Fox.
Sarutobi Hiruzen sat with his head down, smoking. Danzo stared at a scroll from the sofa.
Mitokado Homura sat on another sofa, also silent.
Yellow Dog stood behind Mitokado Homura, while Yōkō walked over and stood beside Yellow Dog.
Orochimaru seemed completely unbothered, clearly lost in thought.
After a long time, Danzo spoke: "How much longer will your Sarutobi clan hide?
Look at what the report says. Sarutobi Shizutaka was spared because of his surname.
Sarutobi Kanenosuke also said that everyone from the Sarutobi clan gets a one-time pardon from death in his presence.
Sarutobi Kanenosuke killed Shimura Heiya and others, yet spared Sarutobi Shizutaka. Such deep clan affection.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sarutobi Shinnosuke, aren't you two touched?"
Who would have thought Danzo could be so cutting when he was being sarcastic.
Danzo stood up abruptly: "How much longer must we retreat! Uchiha Madara and Sarutobi Kanenosuke, these two rogue ninja must be executed!
The village must form a large capture team to find and kill the rogue ninja!"
Mitokado Homura thought for a moment and said, "We really should form a unit to hunt down rogue ninja.
The existence of Uchiha Madara makes the Land of Rain extremely unsafe for Konoha shinobi.
The existence of Sarutobi Kanenosuke makes the Land of Grass unsafe.
Are we, Konoha, just going to give up our mission shares in these two countries like this?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen said, "We should indeed take action. I estimate the Land of Grass Daimyō's official letter will arrive in Konoha soon. We must take action.
Capturing such dangerous rogue ninja cannot be rushed.
My opinion is to first establish two investigation corps to gather intelligence on the two rogue ninja.
The personnel for these investigation corps can be specially designed based on the identities of the rogue ninja."
The shinobi of the Black Ant Squad dispersed to relay the Hokage's orders.
In the Jōnin Commander's meeting room.
Uchiha Kane, Uchiha Tōka, and Uchiha Mahiru entered the meeting room very apprehensively, unsure why the higher-ups had summoned them.
The Uchiha clan had no one in the higher echelons; they were completely in the dark.
When they arrived, three Sarutobi clan jōnin were also present.
Including Sarutobi Hinotama, the strongest person in the Sarutobi clan besides the Third Hokage.
Furthermore, the Hyūga clan head, Hyūga Tengaku, the Inuzuka clan head, Inuzuka Kari, and the Aburame clan head, Aburame Kazuma, arrived one after another.
Subsequently, several of Konoha's elders, along with T&I's Yellow Dog and Fox, and Lynx, also entered the meeting room.
Seeing such a lineup, Uchiha Kane grew even more confused.
Since when could the Uchiha clan participate in such important meetings?
Shimura Danzo was the first to speak:
"Recently, Konoha has suffered terrible losses due to two rogue ninja.
Three days ago, the rogue ninja Sarutobi Kanenosuke attacked the Daimyō of the Land of Grass.
The Daimyō's Guardian Ninja suffered heavy casualties. Two jōnin and two special jōnin died at the hands of Sarutobi Kanenosuke."
Uchiha Kane thought, Good, it's a Sarutobi clan rogue ninja, nothing to do with me.
Perhaps his thoughts were guessed, or his sudden relaxed expression was noticed by Danzo.
Danzo's Four White Eyes stared at Uchiha Kane, making his heart sink.
Danzo said, "Sarutobi Kanenosuke has repeatedly stated that he is loyal to the Uchiha clan's rogue ninja, Uchiha Madara."
Uchiha Kane knew then that the higher-ups summoning them was definitely not for anything good.
That Uchiha Madara was indeed a rogue ninja from the Uchiha clan, but even the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, couldn't kill Uchiha Madara. What were they supposed to do?
Go tell Uchiha Madara that if he doesn't return to the light, the whole clan will commit suicide to make him heirless?
Danzo said, "Next, we will form two Rogue Ninja Investigation Corps.
The Hyūga clan, Inuzuka clan, and Aburame clan will each provide two powerful reconnaissance shinobi to form two reconnaissance squads.
The Uchiha clan will form a platoon with at least four jōnin participants.
The Sarutobi clan will form a platoon with at least four jōnin participants.
The Uchiha platoon, one reconnaissance squad, and the Fox Squad will enter the Land of Rain to investigate the aged Uchiha Madara.
The Sarutobi platoon, one reconnaissance squad, and the Lynx Squad will enter the Land of Grass to investigate and kill the rogue ninja Sarutobi Kanenosuke."
After hearing Danzo's orders, Uchiha Kane first looked at the Third Hokage.
The Third Hokage smoked and did not meet Uchiha Kane's gaze.
Uchiha Kane then looked at Mitokado Homura.
Mitokado Homura did meet his gaze, but his eyes clearly said, "Shouldn't Uchiha Madara be investigated primarily by the Uchiha clan?"
Uchiha Kane then looked at Fox.
Fox wore a mask, his expression unreadable.
At least the Fox Squad is coming, he thought, so it's not completely terrible.
Yōkō secretly observed Sarutobi Hinotama, considering whether to extract an Elite Jōnin-level Chakra reserve from him and then kill him.
That way, his chakra would increase, there would be no future troubles, and the Sarutobi clan would be weakened.
The Shimura clan was half-crippled; they wouldn't leave the village for now, so there were no suitable targets. He had no choice but to target the Sarutobi clan.
To reshape the power structure within Konoha, just killing the ringleaders wasn't enough.
The shinobi world didn't care about bottom lines or limits. Just executing the ringleaders would lead to the Sarutobi and Shimura clans seeking revenge with mountains of corpses and seas of blood later.
Yōkō wanted to hand over a clean Konoha to Hatake Chōdai.
For Hatake Chōdai's sake, Yōkō was truly worrying himself sick.
This meeting was a notification, not a discussion. No one could refuse; all anyone could do was obey.
Uchiha Kane and the other two returned to the Konoha Military Police Force.
Uchiha Fugaku had been waiting anxiously in the office. Seeing them enter, he immediately stood up and asked, "How did it go? What does the village actually want to do?"
Uchiha Tōka said, "The matter of Uchiha Madara has finally fallen on our heads.
The village has ordered that our Uchiha clan's jōnin take the lead in investigating Uchiha Madara."
"Just us?" Uchiha Fugaku said, puzzled, "What's the difference between that and... and sending us to our deaths?
Before Uchiha Madara defected, not a single person from the Uchiha clan followed him. He must hate us, right?"
Uchiha Kane said, "I was there at the time. That Lord Madara's final look towards us was full of contempt and a curse.
As if by staying in Konoha, we were doomed to suffer a great calamity.
However, Fugaku, you don't need to worry too much. It's not just our Uchiha clan going.
There's also an elite reconnaissance squad and the T&I Fox Squad.
The T&I Fox Squad is very strong, most of its members have considerable skill.
Especially the squad leader, Fox. We've dealt with him several times; he's even stronger than before."
Hearing that the Fox Squad was also involved, Uchiha Fugaku breathed a sigh of relief.
Uchiha Kane said, "We're not having it easy, but the Sarutobi clan isn't much better off either.
The Sarutobi clan is sending a platoon to investigate Sarutobi Kanenosuke.
I don't know when Uchiha Madara subjugated Sarutobi Kanenosuke. This combination...
is strange, but because it's so strange, it somehow seems a bit logical."
At the same time, discussions were happening within the Sarutobi clan, T&I, and other locations.
Inside the T&I base.
Yellow Dog said to Yōkō, "Fox, for this investigation mission on Uchiha Madara, your squad shouldn't be aggressive. Let the Uchiha clan take the lead.
The higher-ups' intention is to test the waters, to see what Uchiha Madara's attitude is towards the village and the Uchiha clan."
"I understand. I'll watch for a situation where Uchiha Madara and the Uchiha clan inflict heavy losses on each other. What I want to talk about is something else." Yōkō said to Yellow Dog:
"Does the Lynx Squad count as a T&I squad or Danzo's squad?
Lord Yellow Dog, if only you were truly promoted to T&I Commander!
Shouldn't we look into it? The T&I Commander position should belong to us in T&I!"
***
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(End of Chapter)