Moonlight flowed like water, gently spilling over the courtyard filled with rubble and cracks.
However, this cold moonlight could not calm the suffocating tension in the air.
Wearing the Hokage’s haori, Hiruzen Sarutobi stood silently at the end of the passage.
He glanced at the mess on the ground, then at Uchiha Akahiro, who, despite the pressure of his immense aura, still stood with one hand in his pocket, his back as straight as a pine tree.
“Hoo…” Hiruzen slowly exhaled a puff of blue smoke.
The next second, his vast Chakra fluctuations, deep as an abyss, receded silently like the tide.
The mountain that had been weighing heavily on everyone’s chests vanished instantly.
In its place appeared the iconic, gentle smile on Hiruzen’s face, like that of a kindly neighborhood grandfather.
He sighed, took a step forward, and bowed slightly to Uchiha Fugaku: “Fugaku, tonight’s incident is due to my poor discipline over my subordinates.”
This “Professor of Ninjutsu,” renowned throughout the Ninja World and the supreme ruler of Konoha, held a posture so humble it was appalling:
“These children in the Anbu are eager to achieve merit in their daily work, but tonight, they committed the foolish act of trespassing into the heart of the Uchiha Clan in the dead of night. This is not only rude to our companions, but also a trampling upon the dignity of the Uchiha Clan. I hereby offer my most sincere apologies to you and the entire Uchiha Clan.”
As he spoke, Hiruzen turned his head again, looking at Akahiro with a gentle gaze filled with the concern and pity of an elder for a junior: “Akahiro, you have been wronged. Rest assured, as the Hokage, I will never let any hero of this Village bleed and shed tears in vain. Regarding tonight’s events, I will definitely give you and the Uchiha Clan a satisfactory explanation and generous compensation.”
These words were spoken with genuine sincerity, even carrying a hint of self-reproach.
The Uchiha clansmen, originally filled with rage, saw the usually high-and-mighty Hokage-sama lower himself so much, even offering an apology, and the hostility and anger on many of their faces dissipated by more than half.
“The Third Hokage… he really is as gentle and fair as the legends say.”
“Indeed, it seems tonight’s incident was truly the subordinates acting on their own.”
Faint murmurs arose among the crowd, and the once murderous encirclement showed signs of loosening.
Fugaku also secretly breathed a sigh of relief, his tense body relaxing slightly.
As long as the Hokage provided a way out, this crisis, which could very well have triggered a war of extermination, was averted in the most dignified manner possible.
However, Uchiha Itachi, standing behind Hiruzen, felt his gaze darken slightly at this moment.
He knew this Hokage-sama too well.
Sure enough.
After using a soft approach to pacify the restless Uchiha clansmen, Hiruzen Sarutobi took another puff of his pipe.
The curling smoke obscured his eyes, which were hidden in the shadows, making them somewhat blurred.
His tone remained gentle, but the gaze landing on Akahiro became profound and sharp in an instant, as if it wanted to dissect the young man’s soul completely: “However… Akahiro, I am quite surprised.”
Hiruzen chuckled, his tone light, yet every word pierced the heart: “I didn’t expect that at such a young age, you would possess such astonishing power, power that even I find amazing. Before tonight, in the Village’s records, you seemed to have always been just an ordinary Chunin, right?”
“Hiding so deeply… do you have any concerns, so much so that you even kept it from me, the Hokage? Or is it that… you harbor some unknown ‘dissatisfaction’ toward the Village?”
Boom!
This sentence seemed like casual chatter, but in reality, it was a poisoned blade thrust directly into Akahiro’s vitals!
A peerless genius possessing Kage-level Chakra, intentionally hiding their strength, being extremely disrespectful to the Hokage.
Once this label was firmly attached, he would be a “terrorist attempting to overthrow the Village”!
The atmosphere, which had eased slightly, became deathly silent again in an instant.
Uchiha Fugaku’s face turned pale instantly, and large beads of cold sweat soaked his collar.
He stepped forward almost instinctively, bowed, and said with a hint of undisguisable panic in his voice:
“Hokage-sama, please see the truth! Akahiro lost his parents when he was young, has a solitary personality, and is not good at socializing; he definitely did not mean to deliberately hide his strength! Furthermore, he has no dissatisfaction with the Village! The Uchiha Clan is absolutely dedicated to the Village, with no ulterior motives!”
Listening to Fugaku’s defense, which was almost fawning, Hiruzen narrowed his eyes and nodded with a smile: “Hehe, Fugaku, I naturally believe you.”
However, the moment he lowered his head, Hiruzen’s peripheral vision swept coldly over Uchiha Itachi, who was standing to the side in silence.
In his heart, a nail of suspicion had already been driven in.
Itachi, as the double agent he had planted in the Uchiha Clan, had never reported a single word to him about Uchiha Akahiro possessing such terrifying strength!
Was Itachi’s ability insufficient, and he hadn’t discovered it?
Or was it that…
this “tool” he had always trusted implicitly had actually long since turned back to the family, secretly helping the Uchiha Clan cover their tracks?!
The once seamless trust was, at this moment, torn open by Hiruzen’s deep, seasoned suspicion, creating an unbridgeable gap.
And all of this was within Akahiro’s expectations.
Facing the Hokage’s heart-piercing interrogation and Fugaku’s cowardly, panicked stance, Akahiro not only showed no panic but instead lowered his head, emitting a low chuckle from his chest. Read the latest chapters at novelping dot com.
“Hehe… Hahahaha!”
He slowly raised his head, his scarlet Three-Tomoe Sharingan staring at Hiruzen, his demeanor exceptionally relaxed, even carrying an elegant air of composure.
“Hokage-sama, you are truly joking.”
Akahiro spoke unhurriedly, his voice not loud, yet it clearly reached everyone’s ears: “You are the embodiment of Konoha, the great leader who inherited the ‘will of fire’ from the First and Second Hokage. How could a great being like you, who is so fair, selfless, and loves the people like your own children, ever do such a shameless and despicable thing as’sending direct Anbu subordinates in the dead of night to sneak like thieves into the heart of the Uchiha Clan, the founders of the Village, to conduct vile surveillance’?”
“Don’t you agree, Hokage-sama?” A mocking smile hung on Akahiro’s face, emphasizing the words “great” and “vile surveillance” heavily.
This was an overt conspiracy, and even more so, a huge moral trap!
Hiruzen’s face became extremely rigid in an instant.
Dozens of elite Uchiha Ninjas were watching him.
As the Hokage, he absolutely could not admit on the surface that the Anbu were monitoring the Uchiha, otherwise the fig leaf between the Konoha leadership and the Uchiha would be completely torn off, and the “gentle and fair” persona he had worked so hard to cultivate would completely collapse.
Facing Akahiro’s Toxic moral kidnapping, Hiruzen could only bite the bullet, force a smile, and speak dryly: “That is natural… I would never do such a thing that harms the feelings of our companions.”
“Very good.” The curve of Akahiro’s mouth suddenly widened, but the temperature in his eyes dropped to freezing point in an instant, turning into tangible, brutal killing intent: “Since you, Hokage-sama, would absolutely not send anyone to monitor the Uchiha.”
“Then… these three guys wearing Anbu clothes and masks simply cannot be your direct Anbu!”
What?!
Hearing this, Fugaku was stunned, Itachi’s pupils contracted, and even Hiruzen’s hand holding the pipe shook violently.
Akahiro pointed at the three pale and trembling Anbu on the ground, his words ringing out clearly as he looked directly at Hiruzen with a righteous air: “The only explanation—they are spies sent by other hostile Ninja Villages! They disguised themselves as Anbu, attempting to assassinate and steal the Sharingan of my Uchiha Clan in the dead of night, and even wanted to use this to sow discord between the Uchiha Clan and you, Hokage-sama. Their sinister intentions are simply appalling!”
“And as one of the founders of Konoha and the ones in charge of the Konoha Military Police Force, we, the Uchiha Clan, are duty-bound to maintain the safety of the Village!”
Akahiro took a deep breath, and his entire body’s dark green Tyranitar Chakra erupted like a volcano at this moment!
“Boom!!”
A violent sandstorm current raged wildly in the courtyard, instantly extinguishing more than half of the surrounding torches.
In that terrifying dark green light, Akahiro looked down at the three desperate Anbu from above, his voice like a judge from the underworld, cold and ruthless: “For spies from other Villages who dare to sneak into the Village, the Uchiha Clan has only one attitude—that is, kill!”