Chapter 19: The Yin Snake Spits Its Tongue (Part 1)

A squad of Anbu stood on one side of the road, appearing to have been waiting for a long time.

The person in the lead wore a dog mask and had short silver hair; his aura was dense and his focus absolute, giving off a suffocating sense of oppression. In a state of combat readiness, Kakashi had almost every nerve in his body taut, prepared to fight at any moment. His gaze remained fixed on the Uchiha gate at the end of the road, and it was only after two figures appeared at the entrance that he relaxed slightly.

"Lord Fugaku, the Third Hokage has ordered us to come and escort you."

As he spoke, Kakashi's eyes swept toward the youth standing beside Fugaku. Although his tone was very polite, in reality, anyone could hear that they had come to be responsible for surveillance. The Uchiha, who were perfectly clear on this, were extremely unwelcoming to the Anbu and the others, not even letting them inside the gate.

A squad of Uchiha blocked the entrance just like that, each of them staring at Kakashi and his team with ill intent.

Large in number, powerful in strength, isolated in one place, and ignoring authority—in any era, these are major taboos.

It was no wonder Kakashi and the others looked fully alert and ready to strike at any moment. The degree of the Uchiha's distrust toward the Konoha high command was matched by the severity of the high command's wariness of the Uchiha; the conflict between the two had long since become irreconcilable—now, they were merely lacking an excuse, an excuse that would allow Konoha to occupy the moral high ground to "purge" the Uchiha, and both sides were well aware that that day would come sooner or later.

A suffocating, cold murderous intent permeated the air; the Uchiha's eyes were red, as if they would rush out and tear them to shreds the next second.

"That is enough, stand down."

After waving his hand to have his clansmen stand down, Fugaku swept a glance at the Anbu with an expressionless face.

"Thank you for your hard work, lead the way."

"……Please."

They are simply a group of monsters.

Although most of the Uchiha here did not participate in the Third Shinobi World War, the aura of dozens among them was even stronger than Kakashi's. Especially those pairs of glowing red Three Tomoe; one had to be extremely cautious when fighting even one of them, as a moment of carelessness meant death. If two attacked at once, even Kakashi would have to turn and run, and for a group battle against four or more, the Anbu would at least have to mobilize a squadron-level force.

Strong, cohesive, and possessing an extremely excellent Xuejijiexian.

At the same time, rebellious, arrogant, and harboring strange ambitions.

With such a powerful and unstable clan, it was no wonder the Third Hokage and the others thought that way... Kakashi sighed faintly in his heart. If the Fourth Hokage hadn't died, this power could clearly have been gathered and used for the village's benefit. Master Minato, perhaps you really shouldn't have died so early.

After waving goodbye to the Uchiha gathered at the gate, Fugaku and Nanshu followed the Anbu and left. ………………

2 hours before the Uchiha headed to the Hokage Building.

Noon: 12:44:56

Location: Hokage Building……

Under the summons of the Third Hokage, Hyuga Hiashi had already arrived in front of the Hokage Building, and he had the clan guards following behind him stay outside the building.

They had initially wanted to follow their clan head inside, but they didn't expect to be stopped by the Anbu stationed in front of the door.

This was an extremely unusual move, and the Hyuga clansmen immediately began to argue with the Anbu.

But no matter how the Hyuga clan protested, the Anbu firmly rejected their idea of wanting to accompany him inside.

From the perspective of the Third Hokage, he did this to prevent the conflict with the Cloud Ninja delegation from escalating. Although it wronged the Hyuga clan to some extent, it was still better than letting things deteriorate further.

Secondly, the Third Hokage was also worried that the Cloud Ninja delegation would deliberately provoke the Hyuga clansmen, so he simply didn't give the two sides a chance to escalate the conflict.

"……"

The clansmen could not understand the Third Hokage's approach; in their eyes, this was some kind of bad omen.

Hyuga Hiashi, relying on his years of experience dealing with the Third Hokage, vaguely guessed something. He ordered his subordinates to stay where they were, while he himself followed the Anbu who had come to receive him into the Hokage Building.

Amidst the voices of his clansmen shouting, "Clan Head, please be careful!", Hyuga Hiashi's back disappeared into the corridor of the Hokage Building. ……

The destination was the Foreign Guest Conference Room on the second floor. Generally speaking, one only needed to go up to the second floor and walk through a long circular corridor to get there, but today, strangely, this corridor felt exceptionally long.

No, to be precise, the Anbu leading the way in front was walking quite slowly. For an ordinary person, it was indeed a normal pace, but as a ninja, his movement was ridiculously slow.

And at this moment, just as the two passed a giant portrait, the Anbu leading the way in front suddenly stopped.

"Lord Hiashi, before I take you to the conference room, Lord Danzo has entrusted me to bring you a message."

Hyuga Hiashi took a deep look at the back of the Anbu leading the way, and in his heart, he immediately understood that the "Anbu" before him was likely a member of Root.

Hyuga Hiashi asked, "Does Lord Danzo have any requests for the Hyuga?"

The Anbu shook his head slightly.

Hyuga Hiashi revealed a puzzled expression.

"Root will do its utmost to quell this disturbance, and we hope the Hyuga can cooperate with our actions to weather this crisis together."..

He had thought there would be some valuable information; a look of disappointment flashed in Hyuga Hiashi's eyes.

"I appreciate Lord Danzo's good intentions, but this incident is a conflict between the Hyuga and the Cloud Ninja delegation; I am afraid Root cannot easily intervene."

"Moreover, this is a serious diplomatic issue, and the Hyuga clan will make every effort to cooperate with the village."

In these few words, it was all about the Hyuga and Root, yet he didn't mention the Third Hokage at all—what did this mean?

Hyuga Hiashi knew in his heart that this was likely just another conspiracy.

They wanted to use the Hyuga to achieve their own ambitions, but how could Hyuga Hiashi be willing to cooperate with Danzo? The fate of the Uchiha family was right before his eyes; if Danzo were to take power, it would bring a hundred harms and no benefits to the Hyuga. Furthermore, pushing aside the Third Hokage to have the Hyuga cooperate with Root was a huge shock and gamble for the Hyuga clan's political stance of several decades.

Therefore, Hyuga Hiashi decisively and tactfully refused. He could not let the Hyuga cooperate with Danzo, not to mention that the other party seemed to intend to bypass the Third Hokage. Who knew what trap was waiting for the clan behind this seemingly well-intentioned invitation?

"I appreciate Lord Danzo's good intentions, but the Hyuga has decided to advance and retreat together with the village (the Third Hokage), and will spare no cost to quell this disturbance."

Hyuga Hiashi stared into the Root member's eyes and said this; the Hyuga had no intention of changing its political stance within the village.

"Even if it costs you your life?"

"……"

Hyuga Hiashi was silent for a moment. He seemed not to have considered that things would reach this point. In reality, Hyuga Hiashi had always thought this matter would at most involve the clan losing some blood, but he hadn't expected that he himself would likely be dragged into it.

"Letting the sinner go privately was the Third Hokage's order, and the Anbu were the executors. Therefore, Lord Danzo said that under no circumstances should the Hyuga clan take the fall for the Third Hokage. Moreover, the Cloud Ninja breaking into the Hyuga compound at night was a capital offense to begin with; how can there be a saying that the victim must pay with their life for the criminal? But the Third Hokage is, after all, the Hokage of Konoha, and there are some things he cannot touch. This time, wronging the Hyuga is also a helpless move by the Third Hokage."

"However."

Changing the subject, the person said again: "Lord Danzo simply cannot stand such inexplicable things, so he has decided to step in and help the Hyuga. On the basis of being able to preserve both the safety of the Hyuga clan and the prestige of the Konoha Ninja Village, he will strive to reach a peace agreement with the Cloud Ninja Village."

This person was clearly a confidant of Danzo, and his rank must be very high, otherwise, he would not have been sent out to contact the Hyuga Clan Head.

"Are these words the intention of Danzo himself?"

Hyuga Hiashi paused upon hearing this, frowning as he pondered something.

"Danzo... Lord, is there a way?"

"Yes, in fact, Root has already found a way that satisfies both sides. It will neither harm the interests of the Hyuga clan nor allow this disturbance to continue. Lord Danzo has said that compared to the Hyuga clan, there are more pressing problems in this village that need to be solved, and therefore, protecting the Hyuga is the most beneficial choice for all of Konoha."

"After all, it was not Hyuga Hiashi who attacked the Cloud Ninja envoy last night, but someone else. And it is precisely because of the clan that person belongs to, and the increasingly arrogant and unreasonable position they have formed, that ultimately led to the accidental death of the Cloud Ninja envoy. Is it not a fact that the Hyuga Clan did not touch a single hair on the Cloud Ninja envoy from beginning to end?"

"But the other party was also innocent; that person was still alive when the Anbu took them away."

"The fact is that he caused the death of the Cloud Ninja envoy; the Anbu did not intervene in this matter, and the Third Hokage was even less aware of it."

"You are playing with fire..."

"The facts are not decided by their clan, but by Lord Danzo and Lord Third Hokage, and... Lord Hyuga."

Hyuga Hiashi understood Danzo's plan; the other party wanted to shift the conflict this time from the Hyuga to the Uchiha Clan. If they resisted, it would give the higher-ups an excuse to suppress them, and if they did not resist, Danzo had plenty of ways to force them.

And once the Uchiha could no longer hold back and decided to rebel, regardless of the outcome, the Third Hokage would have to take responsibility and resign, at which point he, Danzo, could rightfully become the Hokage.

The current Konoha Village is in a period of transition, with the Legendary Sannin having left and the new generation unable to shoulder major responsibilities. It can be said that if something happened to the Third, there really is no one in the entire Konoha Village more suitable as a successor than him, Danzo. Danzo must have seen through this point before deciding to act.

"You want to take the Uchiha... aren't you afraid that this will trigger an internal conflict?"

Although Hyuga Hiashi's face remained expressionless, his heart was actually surging with great waves.

If things really went according to Danzo's calculations—the success rate of this matter is not low—and if the testimony of the Hyuga Clan were added to identify them, the Uchiha would not be able to shake off this scapegoat even if they lost a layer of skin!

"What is meant to come will come."

With an extremely cold tone, the Root member spoke as if they did not care at all.

"Lord Danzo already made contact with the Cloud Ninja delegation 20 minutes ago, and the process went very smoothly. In fact, whether for the sake of Konoha or yourself, choosing to cooperate obediently with Lord Danzo's strategy is the best choice right now."

Within the words, there was a hidden edge.

Seeming to have lost patience, the intent to threaten was already overflowing in their expression.

"Or is it that Lord Hiashi would rather sacrifice the Hyuga Clan than protect the Uchiha, who will rebel sooner or later?"

This sentence was truly a lethal blow to the heart.

Hyuga Hiashi's pupils suddenly constricted; if he had to choose between the Hyuga and the Uchiha, Hiashi would choose to protect his own clan without hesitation.

It is just that if this happens, the Uchiha youth from that night will likely... be discarded by the Uchiha like a lizard's tail.

A great conflict arose within Hyuga Hiashi's heart, and he quietly clenched his fists beneath his sleeves.

"……Hyuga……"

————————