Two high-ranking figures from Konoha Village Leaders, Danzo Shimura and Hiruzen Sarutobi, watched helplessly as the Uchiha Clan, under the leadership of Shiyu Uchiha, continued to grow stronger day by day, causing them immense anxiety. Although they secretly employed various methods to restrict the Uchiha Clan's influence, these attempts proved largely ineffective.
The two discussed the matter thoroughly and eventually Danzo said, "I understand. Leave this to me. I will surely come up with a perfect plan!"
After hearing Danzo's words, Hiruzen Sarutobi felt quite pleased, finding him extremely reliable. "Alright then, I'll leave it in your hands. However, please be extremely careful!"
"Don't worry. I know exactly what I'm doing," Danzo Shimura replied before leaving the Hokage's office.
In handling the Uchiha issue, Danzo became increasingly aggressive due to minimal results. He began secretly plotting to take action himself, hoping to assassinate several powerful warriors from the Uchiha Clan to hinder their growth. However, knowing Danzo's nature, Shiyu Uchiha had already made thorough preparations. Shiyu was never the type to just sit there and take it.
Under Shiyu Uchiha's leadership, the Uchiha Clan struck a severe blow against Root in their first confrontation. Yet Danzo Shimura was the kind who would keep banging his head against a wall before even thinking of backing off.
Therefore, the Uchiha Clan and Root engaged in multiple covert ops. However, Root was no match for the Uchiha Paramilitary Police Force in terms of strength. Worse still, there was a shadowy, Kage-level expert like Shiyu Uchiha lurking, ready to strike at any opportunity. After a few rounds of covert ops, Root took heavy casualties, worsening Danzo Shimura's already scarce personnel situation.
Realizing he couldn't defeat Shiyu Uchiha through schemes and underhanded tactics, Danzo had no choice but to reluctantly go complain to his old buddy, Hiruzen Sarutobi, like a scorned man.
Faced with Danzo's grievances, naturally Hiruzen Sarutobi wanted to use the authority of the Third Hokage to officially punish Shiyu Uchiha—to help his old buddy get some revenge and eliminate the Uchiha Clan as a potential threat.
However, facing the Uchiha Clan's united front against external pressure, Sarutobi hesitated repeatedly and ultimately dared not proceed. After all, while the Uchiha Clan appeared arrogant in the eyes of various powerful families within the village, they still mostly played by Konoha's rules. Although small-scale frictions occasionally occurred, those were mostly petty squabbles and nothing to worry about.
More importantly, when it came to big decisions, there were no major issues. With their deep family foundations, the Uchiha mostly kept to themselves and rarely competed for power with others. In this regard, they behaved far better than Sarutobi and his four allied clans.
These four clans, having only received partial inheritance during the Senju Dissolution, inevitably clashed with other clans over resources for cultivating ninja in recent years. Although the Hokage position held by Hiruzen Sarutobi gave them an advantage, growing dissatisfaction among other ninja clans had gradually emerged—though such discontent had not yet become overt.
The Uchiha were always serious and dedicated when handling missions—never slacking off or cutting corners. Even more importantly, the Uchiha had always shown a loyal attitude toward Konoha. That's why the other ninja clans had no intention of going to war with the Uchiha clan just to serve Hiruzen Sarutobi's agenda.
At the same time, compared to the Root division, the Uchiha clan appeared even better, especially after Shiyu Uchiha took over. Of course, this was also greatly influenced by the propaganda conducted by Shiyu Uchiha himself. Although Shiyu's portrayal of Danzo Shimura wasn't entirely unfair, his interpretations occasionally went a bit too far.
Therefore, even though both sides were locked in fierce conflict, Hiruzen Sarutobi's attempt to use this as an excuse to have all the major clans jointly pressure the Uchiha clan was absolutely impossible.
This directly led to Hiruzen Sarutobi, who pursued stability above all else, being unwilling to confront the Uchiha clan directly. Otherwise, should anything unexpected happen, his position as Hokage would become extremely unstable. That's why neither he nor Danzo Shimura could come up with a solid plan.
"Danzo, we absolutely cannot openly oppose the Uchiha clan!"
"Then what? Just sit back and do nothing?"
"No… I think we should first observe the situation for a while and see exactly what the Uchiha clan is planning."
"Hmph! What's the point of observing? By the time you finish 'observing', they might've already wiped us out!"
"Alright, alright, come on, don't bicker like this. Let's think of other methods."
"What other methods? Other than military suppression, what better options do we have?"
"Military force is definitely not feasible; that would only provoke more discontent."
"Then tell me what we should do? We can't just sit around while the Uchiha clan grows stronger!"
"I honestly don't know either… Perhaps we could try negotiating with the Uchiha clan and see if we can find a solution acceptable to both sides."
"Negotiate? Like hell they will! There's no way in hell they'd ever agree!"
"But how do we know if we don't try? Perhaps we could offer some conditions in exchange for their compromise?"
"Hmph! Do you think they're all fools? Would they easily give up their own power?"
"Then we can only play it by ear…"
"If all else fails, we can always take drastic action. If Root and Anbu act together, along with our four clans attacking in full force, we will definitely eliminate the Uchiha clan." Danzo said firmly.
"Drastic action? Have you gone mad? That would only make things worse!" Hiruzen Sarutobi was alarmed and immediately objected.
"But if we don't do this, how else can we deal with the threat from the Uchiha clan?"
"I don't care! I absolutely will not agree to any drastic actions on your part! If you insist on doing so, don't blame me for taking action against you!" Realizing his friend was about to cross a line, Hiruzen Sarutobi firmly stopped him.
"Hiruzen, calm down. Danzo is only presenting a possibility; he didn't say we must do it this way." Homura Mitokado noticed that the argument was about to escalate and quickly stepped in to mediate.
"Hmph! I'd better not see otherwise!"
"In any case, I will absolutely not agree to you taking any aggressive action!" Hiruzen concluded the discussion. He knew that if such actions were taken, regardless of success or failure, his position as Hokage would come to an end, so there was no way he could agree.
"Alright, alright, since you're so insistent, I won't bring it up again. But we still need to quickly come up with a proper solution. Otherwise, Konoha might fall into crisis." Koharu Utatane saw that Danzo was still unwilling to accept the situation and spoke up to give both sides a way out.
Danzo, still furious, refused to accept this compromise. Finally unable to hold back, he said, "Hiruzen, you'll come to regret this." With that, he turned and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.
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