The silence of the Hokage Tower was a physical thing, heavy and suffocating. The two ANBU guarding the office of the deceased Third Hokage were statues of grief and confusion, their animal masks unable to hide the tension in their postures. The door slid open without a sound.
Hana Uchiha walked in. She did not rush. Her footsteps were measured, her posture unnervingly calm. She walked around the large desk, her fingers trailing over the polished wood that still held the imprint of a dead man. She did not sit. She simply turned to face the room, her dark eyes settling on the two ANBU.
Her voice, which had moments ago been a vessel for a storm-song, was now flat, clear, and carried the absolute weight of command. It brooked no argument, no hesitation.
"ANBU, report now. I will be taking temporary command of you for now. One will go call for Nara clan head to come with Nara members to manage the paper works of the village and to process informations. Other will go to the Uchiha clan to let the police force increase the village entrances security. The ROOT will follow the command center on the Hokage Tower for now. Also we need two teams to go bring Tsunade and Jiraiya to the village. Also create a teams that include Inuzuka, Aburame and Hyuga to search inside the village for intruders or enemies. Oh, tell the Uchiha police force to ban anyone from getting out of the village till further notice. The clans heads should come to meeting on the Hokage office to command the village till we get clear view of the situation. As for the four corpses, guard them till Tsunade come to check on them. Now move."
The two ANBU stood frozen for a full three seconds. The commands were flawless, a comprehensive and shockingly competent crisis management plan issued in a single, uninterrupted breath. It was what a Hokage would have ordered. But it was coming from an unknown Uchiha woman, her face placid, her tone suggesting she simply expected to be obeyed.
Their training overrode their shock. The chain of command was shattered. Someone was giving clear, logical orders. It was a lifeline in a sea of chaos.
*"Hai!"*
They vanished in twin shunshin, the air cracking with the sound of their compliance. One flickered toward the Nara compound. The other toward the Uchiha police headquarters.
Hana stood alone in the office. She finally lowered herself into the Hokage's chair. It was too big for her. She did not seem to notice. She looked out the large window, over the village she had just seized control of with nothing but the force of her will and a song.
The reaction across Konoha was swift and seismic.
At the Uchiha police headquarters, the ANBU's arrival and relayed orders caused another wave of stunned silence, followed by a surge of grim purpose. Fugaku's eyes widened marginally. The orders were strategically brilliant and, most importantly, they came from one of *his* clan. A pride he had long forgotten swelled in his chest. "You heard the command!" he barked, his voice louder and more confident than it had been in years. "All units, to the gates! No one leaves! Secure the perimeter!"
In the Nara compound, Shikaku Nara was already calculating the staggering implications of the leaders' simultaneous deaths when the ANBU appeared. The order to manage information and paperwork was, frankly, a relief. It was a problem he could solve. "Yoshino, round up the usual analysts," he said, already moving. "The Hokage Tower. Now." For the first time, chaos had a flowchart.
Across the village, specialized tracking teams formed with unprecedented speed. Inuzuka dogs barked, Aburame kikaichu swarmed in organized clouds, and Hyuga Byakugans activated, scanning every building, every street for a threat that had already come and gone.
Deep underground, in the non-existent halls of ROOT, the message was received with cold confusion. Their master was dead. The order to report to the Hokage Tower came not from a familiar voice of darkness, but from a new, unknown one. Their programming to follow orders warred with their loyalty to Danzo. After a moment of silent paralysis, the ROOT operatives began to emerge from the shadows, moving toward the light of a tower now occupied by a woman they did not know.
And in the Hokage office, Hana waited. She did not fidget. She did not pace. She simply watched the village through the window, a queen on a newly acquired throne, waiting for her court to arrive. The storms had raged. And from the calm they left behind, a new power had risen, utterly unexpected and absolute.