Chapter 48: I Don’t Fancy the Uchiha

About half an hour later.

Danzō pushed open the office door and asked directly,

"Hiruzen, why did you call me here?"

Danzō’s expression was completely normal.

Could it really not have been him?

Hiruzen’s heart stirred.

Narrowing his eyes, he immediately questioned him.

"Danzō, why did you kill Shisui?"

He didn’t even bother confirming whether Danzō was responsible.

He might as well question him first.

Hearing this, Danzō frowned.

"Shisui was killed? It wasn’t me!"

Although he had indeed attacked Shisui earlier, someone had intervened and disrupted everything.

In the end, all he had found were the corpses of his own Root shinobi.

So Danzō had no idea that Uchiha Shisui had already been killed.

He had, however, already thought of the mysterious person who had interfered.

Although he was somewhat furious, the truth was that he really hadn’t been the one who killed Shisui.

Therefore, Danzō showed no fear whatsoever.

Of course, he wasn’t going to reveal the existence of the mysterious person either.

Otherwise, he would expose the fact that he had attacked Shisui in the first place.

Seeing his reaction, Hiruzen couldn’t help frowning.

They had been friends for decades.

He could already tell that Danzō wasn’t lying.

If Danzō had really done it, he probably would have simply admitted it and used Kotoamatsukami to force the matter through.

Then who was it?

The Third Hokage fell into deep thought.

Danzō continued,

"Are you certain Uchiha Shisui has been killed?"

Hiruzen shook his head.

"He’s missing. There’s a very high probability that he’s been killed."

If Uchiha Shisui had harbored ulterior motives, he wouldn’t have openly revealed the ability of his Mangekyō Sharingan.

He had revealed it, yet he hadn’t appeared at the clan meeting...

The result was obvious.

Hiruzen had already given up hope.

But...

Who had done it?

The Uchiha?

Or...

Danzō, meanwhile, was also thinking.

He didn’t ask anything further.

Being missing didn’t necessarily mean Shisui was dead.

Perhaps he had defected from the village!

After all, Danzō had attacked Shisui that afternoon.

Judging others by his own standards, Danzō always assumed the worst possible intentions.

He believed there was a very high chance that Shisui had defected!

He had even begun wondering whether the mysterious person’s appearance had really been a coincidence...

Or whether that person had been working together with Shisui.

He had just taken Shisui’s eye when the mysterious person appeared, severed his hand, and took the eye away!

Then Shisui had immediately fled!

It had all happened far too conveniently!

Shisui had even seemed completely unconcerned about losing his eye!

I must determine as quickly as possible whether Shisui is dead!

If he was dead, there was naturally nothing to worry about.

But if he wasn’t...

A powerful sense of danger suddenly rose within Danzō.

As expected, every Uchiha is an ambitious wolf!

...

Meanwhile.

Inside the sealing space.

"Itachi really did conceal Shisui’s death. Even after being misunderstood, he didn’t explain himself.

"Danzō also concealed your involvement, Naruto, thereby hiding the fact that he had attacked Uchiha Shisui."

After merging with the Sharingan, Naruto had returned home.

Minato had continued monitoring the situation within the Uchiha clan and among Konoha’s higher-ups.

There was no denying that the crystal ball was incredibly useful.

Stealing it had definitely been worth the risk.

And Minato was extremely useful as well!

He was merely a consciousness.

As long as he had a supply of chakra, he didn’t need to sleep or rest.

He could monitor Konoha twenty-four hours a day.

His enthusiasm for monitoring Konoha was even greater than the Third Hokage’s enthusiasm for peeking at the women’s bathhouse!

Apart from a few minor gaps whenever he switched between different scenes, practically nothing happening in Konoha could escape Minato’s surveillance.

Naruto nodded hesitantly.

"Yeah. The Uchiha clan is probably..."

As he spoke, he glanced at Izumi Uchiha, who had also entered the sealing space.

Minato turned his head as well and fell silent.

The Uchiha clan’s current situation was extremely dangerous.

If they wanted to eliminate their conflict with Konoha’s higher-ups, the only way would be for Uchiha Fugaku to harden his heart and eliminate all the extremists.

But that wasn’t realistic either.

At least eighty percent of the Uchiha clan’s members were extremists.

This was the result of the Uchiha’s long-standing resentment toward Konoha.

If Fugaku only wanted to preserve the clan members’ lives, he could also secretly lead them away from Konoha and defect from the village.

But that wasn’t realistic either.

With the Uchiha clan’s almost absurd self-confidence, how could they possibly run away?

Of course, if Uchiha Itachi hadn’t been a traitor within the clan, then even with Shisui dead, the Uchiha clan could still have fought Konoha.

After all, this was merely an internal coup within Konoha, not an outside enemy invading the village.

The difference between the two was enormous!

There were plenty of opportunists within the village who would simply sit back and watch.

Konoha wasn’t the Sarutobi clan’s personal village.

And Konoha’s shinobi weren’t necessarily loyal to Sarutobi Hiruzen!

Many shinobi didn’t care who became Hokage.

What they cared about was whether the Hokage could bring them benefits!

If the Uchiha clan had been a little more politically savvy and recruited some neutral clans or unaffiliated shinobi by promising them high positions and benefits...

Considering that many shinobi were already dissatisfied with Hiruzen at this stage, they might genuinely have been able to recruit quite a few.

For example, four years ago, the head of the Hyūga branch family had been forced to die, while the young princess of the main family had been thrown onto the battlefield by Sarutobi Hiruzen.

The Hyūga clan could very well have been persuaded to join them!

If Konoha’s two largest clans joined forces in a coup, it would be enough to make the shinobi of Konoha seriously consider whether they should suppress the rebellion or support the new regime.

Unfortunately, the Uchiha clan was far too arrogant.

Far too confident in themselves.

And there was also a traitor within their ranks.

Minato had absolutely no confidence in the Uchiha.

Therefore, with the Uchiha clan facing a major crisis, Naruto and Minato had to consider Izumi Uchiha’s position.

As for whether Izumi would be dragged into the Uchiha clan’s downfall...

Neither Naruto nor Minato was particularly worried about that.

Izumi had only lived within the Uchiha clan for three years.

Four years ago, she had completely severed ties with the clan.

She no longer even wore clothes bearing the Uchiha clan crest.

Under Naruto’s arrangements, Izumi also reported Naruto’s situation to the Third Hokage every month.

Konoha’s higher-ups had privately expressed their trust in Izumi more than once.

They had even considered having her formally change her surname.

However, the village’s higher-ups were concerned about provoking the Uchiha clan, so they ultimately abandoned the idea.

After all, Sarutobi Hiruzen still hadn’t hardened his heart enough to eliminate Konoha’s greatest fighting force—the Uchiha clan.

Seeing Naruto and Minato both looking at her, Izumi lightly bit her lip and spoke softly.

"If the Uchiha clan really faces the threat of extermination, I only need to take my mother with me. You don’t need to worry about anything else."

Over the years, Naruto and Minato had never hidden anything from her.

How could she possibly fail to see the Uchiha clan’s predicament?

Perhaps she had still retained the slightest trace of familial blood ties before...

But just now, while monitoring the Uchiha clan meeting, she had learned how the Uchiha treated her—summoning her whenever they needed her and discarding her whenever they didn’t.

They had even imagined using her as an inside agent to cooperate with the clan from within and control Naruto!

That final trace of familial affection had completely disappeared.

Naruto walked over to Izumi and gently rubbed her head.

"If you can’t bear to leave them behind, I can take some of the Uchiha clan members with us."

Taking some Uchiha members away wouldn’t make much difference.

As long as it made Izumi happy, that was all that mattered.

Izumi’s heart warmed.

She smiled and shook her head.

"As long as my mother is safe, that’s enough. They never treated me like a person in the first place. Why should I care about them?"

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