Hiruzen Sarutobi forced a wrinkled smile onto his face.
“Since everything has been cleared up, that’s naturally for the best.”
“Still, next time, make sure you have sufficient evidence before arresting someone.
Otherwise, public opinion will become difficult to manage.”
“After all, I doubt the Uchiha wants to be hated and rejected by Konoha’s villagers.”
Shinya put on a slightly surprised expression.
“Isn’t managing public opinion something the Fourth Hokage should be worrying about?”
“The Konoha Military Police is only responsible for making arrests and determining guilt.”
“Even as the former Hokage, Lord Third, surely you shouldn’t overstep your authority and interfere with responsibilities that belong to the Fourth Hokage?”
Even Fugaku turned toward Shinya with a stunned expression.
You’re going to use that against him too?
Sure enough, Hiruzen’s gaze immediately became dangerous.
Shinya had practically pointed at Hiruzen’s nose and accused him of refusing to give up power after retirement.
Even a clay statue had a temper.
And Hiruzen had ruled Konoha for more than a decade.
“Of course, this is Military Police headquarters, and there are only three of us here.”
Shinya smiled.
“So you don’t need to worry about these words reaching anyone else.”
That was practically a warning.
The meaning was obvious.
The Uchiha no longer needed to cling to Hiruzen.
They had another option.
Minato Namikaze may have taken the Hokage position that Fugaku had wanted, but objectively speaking, the Yellow Flash was at least trustworthy as a person.
Supporting him would be far better than continuing to tie themselves to people like Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzō Shimura.
And if Minato gained the support of Konoha’s strongest clan, the Uchiha…
Would Hiruzen still be able to keep the Fourth Hokage under such tight control?
That would be much harder to say.
The Uchiha had never seriously considered taking this path before because doing so would have bruised their pride.
But that didn’t mean the option didn’t exist.
Hiruzen stared deeply at Shinya before shifting his gaze toward Fugaku.
“Fugaku.”
“The Uchiha has produced quite an outstanding young man.”
Fugaku gave no response.
He merely continued staring at Hiruzen with those intimidating eyes.
At this point, there was nothing more to discuss.
Hiruzen turned and left with a sweep of his sleeve.
On his way back, he would need to think carefully about how to deal with this completely different kind of Uchiha.
Shinya understood the rules.
Worse, whenever he spoke, he didn’t bother easing into an argument.
He simply slapped a political accusation onto your head first and forced you to defend yourself afterward.
Who could possibly withstand that?
Accuse first, force them to choose a side second.
That had always been one of the Hokage faction’s favorite tactics.
But now that the same method had been turned against him, Hiruzen felt as though a mouthful of blood were trapped in his chest, impossible to swallow.
…
The moment Hiruzen left, Fugaku immediately took Shinya back to his office.
Defensive barriers had been installed all around the Military Police commander’s office.
They could effectively block most sensory ninjutsu as well as surveillance through the Byakugan.
Anything discussed inside could be kept completely secure.
The moment the door closed, Fugaku hurriedly asked,
“Did you really kill that woman?”
Shinya nearly spat out his tea.
He had anticipated plenty of questions Fugaku might ask.
But he certainly hadn’t expected something this irrelevant.
“We only arrested her a little while ago.”
“Even if I wanted to kill and cremate her, I couldn’t possibly have done it that quickly.”
Of course, Shinya was only saying that she hadn’t been killed yet.
That didn’t mean the troublesome civilian who had attacked members of the Konoha Military Police was going to have a pleasant outcome.
Realizing that he had asked a rather stupid question, Fugaku quickly changed the subject.
“What exactly are you trying to accomplish?”
“Can you just give me a straight answer for once?”
Only now had Fugaku realized that he seemed to have been maneuvered into another setup.
Just yesterday, Shinya had taught him how to respond when Konoha’s leadership pressured the Uchiha.
Then, the very next day, Hiruzen personally came knocking.
And unsurprisingly, the entire confrontation had been caused by Shinya creating trouble outside.
Even Shinya’s obviously flawed claim about executing the woman now looked suspiciously like bait designed specifically to lure Hiruzen over.
Shinya remained completely unhurried.
“Clan Head, let me ask you a question.”
Fugaku sighed helplessly and nodded.
Shinya was excellent in almost every respect.
But for some reason, he always insisted on answering questions by asking more questions.
Every single time, Fugaku somehow ended up sitting upright like a student waiting for a lecture.
I’m the clan head!
Why do you show me absolutely no respect?
And then there was Hiruzen.
Perhaps it was only Fugaku’s imagination, but Shinya didn’t seem to regard the man as a Hokage at all.
Shinya asked calmly,
“Do you think the existence of the Military Police is good or bad for the Uchiha?”
Before Fugaku could answer, Shinya answered his own question.
“Because of the Military Police’s responsibilities, almost all of the Uchiha clan’s elite shinobi work inside Konoha.”
“Outside their regular duties, most missions they accept are only C-rank or D-rank.”
“In other words, low-paying work.”
“The village does allocate funding to the Military Police, but compared with other Konoha shinobi of equivalent rank, powerful Uchiha shinobi earn considerably less.”
“Compared with major clans and shinobi in the other Great Villages, the average income of the Uchiha is actually quite low.”
Fugaku didn’t understand why Shinya had suddenly shifted the discussion toward money.
“Is money really that important?”
Shinya stared speechlessly at Fugaku’s genuinely innocent expression.
“…You’re the clan head.”
“Of course someone who has never had to manage household expenses doesn’t understand how expensive everything is.”
“What part of being a shinobi doesn’t require money?”
“With enough money, you can afford better medicinal baths to heal the damage caused by training.”
“You can buy higher-quality ninja tools, technique scrolls, and even summon contracts.”
“There are even secret techniques belonging to other clans that can be purchased if the price is high enough.”
“Being a shinobi is a bottomless pit.”
“Except for kekkei genkai users and an extremely small number of natural geniuses, the amount of resources you invest into a shinobi usually has a direct relationship with the strength you get back.”
Money wasn’t everything.
But for a major clan, having no money was absolutely unacceptable.
Without money, they couldn’t train more shinobi.
Without enough shinobi, they couldn’t accept enough missions.
Without missions, they couldn’t earn enough money.
If that continued long enough, the clan could easily fall into a vicious cycle.
Fugaku had simply been detached from ordinary life for too long.
Just look at Sunagakure.
Because the village lacked money, it had been forced to focus its resources on producing smaller numbers of elite shinobi.
Did anyone really think they preferred raising only elites?
Of course not.
They simply had no other choice.
If you had enough resources to saturate an entire battlefield with force, who would voluntarily settle for precision strikes?
After being criticized for not understanding how important money was, Fugaku finally began thinking seriously about the matter.
Shinya had a point.
Fugaku’s branch of the family had served as clan leaders for generations.
From the moment he began training as a child, money had never been something he needed to consider.
After training, he had always used the highest-quality medicinal baths to relax and restore his body.
There had even been servants assigned specifically to attend to him.
Ninjutsu scrolls, ninja tools, and training equipment…
He had never lacked any of them.
To put it bluntly—
Fugaku Uchiha had gone his entire life without ever truly worrying about money.