After seeing the Third Hokage return, the golden Susanoo did not immediately come back.
Instead, it made a detour, reached into the forest, and hauled out a shinobi before returning ahead of Hiruzen.
The golden Susanoo slammed the shinobi onto the ground in front of Uchiha Fugaku.
It was none other than an elder of the Uchiha clan—
Uchiha Setsuna.
Uchiha Yoru looked at Fugaku and said,
"The elder you trusted so much actually turned out to be that rarest of creatures—an Uchiha who fled from battle."
"How embarrassing."
Both of Uchiha Setsuna's legs had been broken by the impact.
He struggled to prop up his upper body, opened his blood-covered mouth, and roared,
"Uchiha Yoru!"
"My greatest regret now is that I didn't kill you earlier!"
Setsuna knew he was finished.
Naturally, he descended into one final bout of madness.
His eyes bloodshot, he stared at Uchiha Yoru and cursed him without restraint.
Yoru ignored him.
Like everyone else, he turned toward the distance.
Another enormous eruption of pollen proved that new shinobi had entered the area.
Before long, the Snake Unit shinobi were the first to react.
They instinctively sensed a threat and immediately began adjusting their formation, shifting their attention toward a new direction.
Seeing the Snake Unit's reaction, Orochimaru and Uchiha Yoru both guessed who had arrived.
Naturally, it was the unit that the Snake Unit had always studied and regarded as its hypothetical enemy.
A group of shinobi approached.
Their formation was almost identical to the Snake Unit's.
However, their movements were smoother, their actions more decisive, and their courage far greater.
Faced with the Snake Unit's vigilance, they showed no concern whatsoever.
They simply occupied the positions most advantageous to themselves.
Every one of these shinobi wore a Konoha forehead protector.
And every single one of them had crimson Sharingan blazing in their eyes.
Their identities were unmistakable.
The Uchiha clan's Tiger Unit.
The moment the Tiger Unit appeared, they did not deliberately release any fierce aura.
They even positioned themselves casually and lazily.
Yet the disciplined Snake Unit opposite them immediately became tense under the invisible pressure.
Their strength came from within.
It had been forged when Uchiha Yoru led them to kill three thousand Kirigakure shinobi in a single battle, then routed the Kirigakure army in another.
And it had been further cemented after they lost their leader, Uchiha Yoru, yet continued operating independently in the Land of Hot Water, fighting enemies from both Kirigakure and Kumogakure while remaining undefeated across the battlefield.
The entire Tiger Unit increasingly resembled true tigers.
Even while relaxed and lazy, they still carried an unquestionable majesty that warned others not to provoke them.
The Snake Unit feeling pressured by the Tiger Unit was perfectly normal.
But the Snake Unit was no pushover either.
After slightly tightening their formation, they subtly shifted into a posture ready to counterattack at any moment.
They were like a massive serpent coiled tightly upon itself, hiding its sharpest and deadliest fangs while simultaneously displaying unmistakable aggression.
The Tiger Unit instinctively sensed the danger from the Snake Unit.
They automatically adjusted their positions, deliberately giving up several key locations so as not to overstimulate the other side.
In only a brief instant, the two units exchanged several rounds of pressure and formation changes.
Eventually, a standoff formed with the Tiger Unit holding a slight advantage.
Orochimaru was quite satisfied with the Snake Unit's performance.
Although they had fallen somewhat behind, they had not collapsed.
That was enough.
After all, the Snake Unit had only recently been formed.
They had yet to forge a true unit spirit, nor had they created any awe-inspiring battle record.
Being slightly inferior was unavoidable.
Orochimaru turned toward Uchiha Yoru with an ambiguous smile.
"Yoru-kun, when did you recall the Tiger Unit?"
Uchiha Yoru calmly replied,
"When I left the village for the Land of Demons."
Orochimaru looked enlightened.
"So that's how it is."
"You had already made your decision back then?"
"Of course."
Yoru continued,
"I knew something major was going to happen in the Land of Rain."
"That's why I stood up and openly resisted the suicidal orders issued by our clan head and the Third Hokage."
"I knew with absolute certainty that no matter how correct my decision was, and no matter how wrong the Third Hokage's decision was, the moment I refused to obey him, he would definitely move against me."
Orochimaru smoothly followed up,
"So you ordered the Tiger Unit in advance to secretly approach Konoha?"
Uchiha Yoru nodded.
"Exactly."
Uchiha Fugaku was stunned.
He had no idea that the Tiger Unit was already near Konoha.
Nor had he known this force had become so elite and powerful.
He looked at Uchiha Yoru.
His lips moved for a long time.
In the end, he said nothing.
What was there left to say?
Such a massive troop movement had occurred without him, the clan head, hearing even the slightest rumor.
That alone proved the entire clan had already abandoned him.
His title of clan head existed in name only.
Meanwhile, Uchiha Setsuna was still cursing.
In fact, his insults were becoming increasingly vicious.
He had, after all, spent time "furthering his education" in Konoha Prison.
Ten years behind bars had taught him many bad habits.
Among them was an extensive vocabulary of vulgar insults.
Once he stopped restraining himself, the variety of curses he produced was genuinely impressive.
Of course, this level of vulgarity—perhaps Level 2—had little effect on Uchiha Yoru.
In his previous life, he had experienced verbal abuse at least ten levels higher.
Setsuna's insults were nothing more than a light drizzle.
But the Uchiha members of the Tiger Unit could not tolerate it.
One after another, they glared furiously at Uchiha Setsuna.
Some even drew their weapons.
The Tiger Unit's movement immediately made the Snake Unit tense.
Quite a few Snake Unit shinobi drew their weapons as well.
The atmosphere suddenly became extremely dangerous.
Fortunately, Uchiha Yoru raised a hand in time.
All unrest within the Tiger Unit disappeared instantly.
They returned to a relaxed posture.
Only then did the Snake Unit ease as well.
Yoru blinked.
His Sharingan opened.
He turned his head and casually looked at Uchiha Setsuna.
Then he said,
"Go ahead."
"Tell us all the disgraceful things you've done."
"Start with the most serious."
"Keep it brief."
"That way, you should just about finish before the Third Hokage gets here."
Uchiha Setsuna's eyes bulged.
The veins on his forehead swelled even more.
Endless terror filled his gaze.
Yet somehow, he forcibly resisted.
He did not say a word.
Setsuna's resistance surprised Uchiha Yoru.
He genuinely hadn't expected the man to withstand several times the normal amount of ocular power through sheer will.
Yoru closed his eyes.
When he opened them again—
His three interlocking rings Mangekyō Sharingan appeared.
Under Setsuna's despairing gaze, Yoru looked at him once more.
This time, Setsuna's will was completely crushed.
He became like a puppet.
Uchiha Setsuna opened his mouth blankly.
And the very first sentence was explosive enough to stun everyone.
"I cooperated with Shimura Danzō."
"Together, we eliminated those within the Senju clan and Uchiha clan who opposed us."
The revelation was so shocking that even Uchiha Fugaku stared blankly, unable to speak.
Only after a long while did he mutter,
"That's impossible…"
"How could that possibly be true?"
"What's impossible about it?"
Uchiha Yoru shook his head.
"I suspected from the beginning that there was a traitor inside the clan cooperating with Root."
"Uchiha shinobi have always been among the finest shinobi."
"Their combat strength is extremely high."
"Furthermore, most Uchiha shinobi serve in the Police Force and rarely leave the village."
"Logically speaking, apart from wartime, there shouldn't have been many casualties."
"But when I examined the records in the clan archive, I discovered that the Uchiha death rate during peacetime was actually higher than during war."
"The strangest part was that the overwhelming majority of those who died had awakened the Sharingan."
"And nearly all of them belonged to Uchiha Kagami's faction."
"So I followed a simple rule—whoever benefits the most is the most suspicious."
"And that led me straight to Elder Uchiha Setsuna."
Uchiha Fugaku stared at Yoru in disbelief.
"You…"
Yoru answered the question Fugaku had failed to voice.
"Yes."
"I deliberately opposed Uchiha Setsuna."
"I wanted to observe his reactions and see whether they moved in coordination with Root's actions."
"That was how I intended to confirm his identity."
"I was only a genin, yet I openly clashed with a clan elder and ended up having every bit of my clan allowance and benefits stripped away."
"Obviously, I had an important reason."
"It's not like I had nothing better to do."
Meanwhile, Uchiha Setsuna continued speaking in a dull voice.
One shocking atrocity after another came from his mouth.
Embezzling compensation payments.
Secretly murdering political enemies within the clan.
Selling off clan orphans.
Then seizing the assets of households whose bloodlines had been extinguished.
The sheer range of his crimes left everyone stunned.
Uchiha Setsuna truly deserved to be called a villain.
And not just an ordinary one.
He was an elite villain who had been sent to prison during the Second Hokage's era and spent ten years "studying" there.
Many of the things he had done were crimes the shinobi present had never even heard of.
One after another, they stared in stunned silence.
Setsuna completely exposed the filth buried within the Uchiha clan.
Uchiha Fugaku's face turned bright red from shame.
He wished he could find a hole in the ground and crawl inside.
But the Uchiha clan was not the only one being humiliated.
Many of Setsuna's crimes could not have been accomplished alone.
So he had frequently partnered with Danzō.
Whenever Root stole children from within the village, Uchiha Setsuna had even stood guard for them.
When the topic reached the trafficking of children from orphanages, Jiraiya's expression changed drastically.
His eyes filled with fury.
Tsunade clenched her fists tightly and stared at Setsuna, looking as if she wanted to punch him to death on the spot.
The Konoha Sannin had never imagined that such darkness existed inside their own village.
Even Orochimaru, who prided himself on having ventured deep into the darkness, couldn't help frowning.
He had never expected Danzō to commit so many disgusting acts.
In truth, both Shimura Danzō and Uchiha Setsuna had once been hot-blooded young men.
At least during the Second Hokage's era, their personalities had merely been somewhat extreme.
Neither had been truly malicious.
Back then, what occupied their minds had been the Uchiha clan and Konoha.
But one had sunk into prison.
The other had styled himself as the embodiment of darkness and established Root.
Both spent far too long immersed in dark environments.
Corroded by negative emotions, they gradually fell without even realizing it.
Even though they continued saying things like—
"Everything is for the clan."
"Everything I do is for Konoha."
Their actual actions had become nothing more than ruthless pursuit of personal interests, even at the expense of the clan and village they claimed to protect.
Uchiha Fugaku finally couldn't take it anymore.
He weakly shouted,
"Enough!"
"That's enough!"
"Make him shut up!"
Uchiha Yoru had not expected Uchiha Setsuna to have fallen this far either.
His anger had already reached the edge of eruption.
Hearing Fugaku's request, he coldly replied,
"Fine."
The golden Susanoo raised one foot.
It came down directly on Uchiha Setsuna's head.
The Uchiha elder was instantly crushed into a meat patty.
Then the golden foot ground down hard.
It pulverized what remained and pressed the flesh into the earth.
Not even an intact corpse remained.
Such a brutal death made everyone's hearts jump.
And yet—
They also found it strangely satisfying.
A wicked man deserved a miserable death.
But seeing the person who possessed the greatest violence use such a brutal method of killing also left everyone somewhat uneasy.
Uchiha Yoru sighed.
"Since Danzō is involved…"
"Let's call him here too."
Orochimaru chuckled.
"Yoru-kun, when did you prepare a sample of his flesh?"
Yoru didn't answer.
He created a shadow clone.
The clone carried a test tube to the completely hypnotized remains used for the ritual and performed Edo Tensei.
Shimura Danzō was dragged back from the Pure Land.
Before his eyes even opened, he let out a terrified scream.
"Ah!"
"I died!"
"How could I die?!"
"I haven't become Hokage yet!"
Clearly, not only had he died without understanding what happened—
After death, he had been frozen directly in the Pure Land.
He had received none of the treatment the Senju brothers enjoyed, where they could occasionally remain conscious and exchange information.
But Danzō was ultimately a Kage-level shinobi.
He quickly realized that something was wrong and stopped shouting.
His expression turned sinister.
He scanned everyone around him before rapidly focusing his gaze on Uchiha Yoru's shadow clone.
It wasn't because he recognized the man as his killer.
Rather—
He identified the clone as the "weakest" person present, as well as the shinobi with the lowest status.
According to Danzō's usual habits, his next step would naturally be to pressure that person and use him as a foothold to regain initiative.
But in the next instant—
He saw a pair of Mangekyō Sharingan.
Just like Uchiha Setsuna, Danzō fell into the deepest hypnosis.
He began recounting the bad things he had done.
But incredibly—
His account contained almost no truly vicious acts.
At most, he mentioned disliking certain Root shinobi and assigning them especially difficult missions.
That was completely inconsistent with everyone's impression of the so-called "Darkness of the Shinobi."
The Konoha Sannin exchanged glances.
Even Uchiha Yoru and Uchiha Fugaku were baffled.
No one understood what was happening.
Until a flash of insight suddenly crossed Uchiha Yoru's mind.
He clapped his hands together, stopping Danzō's endless muttering.
Then he changed the instruction.
"Danzō."
"Tell us what contributions you have made to Konoha."
Even under the deepest hypnosis—
Even in an Edo Tensei body—
Shimura Danzō's face somehow became flushed with pride.
A trace of smug satisfaction could even be heard in his voice.
"I eliminated Konoha's greatest threat—Uchiha Kagami."
"I removed the greatest danger the evil Uchiha posed to Konoha."
Far away—
Senju Tobirama exploded in fury!
"I used only a few simple rumors to make that foolish idiot Sakumo Hatake commit suicide."
"In doing so, I preserved the Hokage's authority."
Beside Tobirama—
Sakumo Hatake's white hair stood on end.
"When I went to reinforce the Land of Whirlpools, I successfully transported every single piece of sealing-technique documentation back to Konoha."
"Not one was lost."
"Because of me, Konoha's Sealing Team and Barrier Team greatly increased their strength."
Senju Hashirama recalled what they had heard earlier—
That the rescue force had failed to save even a single member of the Uzumaki clan.
The expression of the famously kind First Hokage darkened.
"I oversaw the Hashirama-cell transplantation experiments."
"We successfully produced one Wood Release seedling."
"I gave Konoha hope of regaining its former glory."
Orochimaru extended his tongue and licked his cheek.
He clicked his tongue in amazement.
"So Danzō already knew the experiment had succeeded."
"He deliberately hid it from me."
"I joined forces with Hanzō and eliminated the newly rising 'Akatsuki' organization in the Land of Rain."
"I removed the possibility that Amegakure would rise and become a threat to Konoha!"
Jiraiya looked as if he had been struck by lightning.
He abruptly stood up.
His voice trembled.
"What did you say?"
The deeply hypnotized Shimura Danzō did not answer Jiraiya.
He merely continued narrating his own "achievements."
Compared to Uchiha Setsuna—
Danzō's list of "great accomplishments" was on an entirely different level.
Far away, Senju Tobirama had gone beyond anger.
All that remained was heartbroken disbelief.
Danzō's achievements nearly drove the Second Hokage insane.
Every single action had struck precisely at one of Konoha's vital foundations.
For twenty years, he had been systematically dismantling the village's core.
The fact that Konoha had survived twenty years of being ravaged by him without collapsing was practically a miracle of fortune.
Generation after generation of astonishing geniuses had emerged.
They had used their lives and efforts to preserve Konoha's existence.
"Shimura Danzō deserves to die!"
The Second Hokage trembled from head to toe.
His face twisted with hatred.
"He should die ten thousand times!"
"Ten thousand times!"
Then Tobirama suddenly thought of something.
"He's an Edo Tensei body…"
"That's actually wonderful."
Senju Tobirama ground his teeth.
"I'm genuinely glad I invented Edo Tensei."
"This way, he really can die ten thousand times."
Even though Uchiha Yoru had already anticipated many things about Danzō—
Hearing them laid out like this still made him deeply uncomfortable.
The golden Susanoo turned its head toward one direction.
Yoru questioned,
"Third Hokage—Hiruzen Sarutobi."
"How do you feel now?"
The Third Hokage stepped forward.
His face was hidden in shadow.
He defended himself in a muffled voice.
"Danzō did all those things behind my back."
Uchiha Yoru continued,
"No."
"That isn't what I asked."
"I'm asking whether you learned about all of it afterward."
Hiruzen Sarutobi did not answer.
What appeared to be a perfectly ordinary question was now a trap.
Either answer would condemn him.
If Hiruzen knew—
Then why had he continued indulging Shimura Danzō and allowing him to commit so many atrocities?
If Hiruzen did not know—
Then what kind of Hokage remained completely ignorant of what his own subordinate was doing?
The Sarutobi clan ANBU standing behind them instinctively took a step backward.
This was the first time they had heard any of these things.
Every one of them looked shocked.
Many even appeared frightened and uneasy.
Subconsciously, they wanted to distance themselves from the two village elders.
Uchiha Yoru asked again.
Then again.
Three times in succession.
The Third Hokage and Homura Mitokado remained expressionless.
Neither said a word.
When Yoru asked for the fifth time—
Homura Mitokado finally couldn't endure it anymore.
He coldly said,
"You're merely a jōnin."
"You have no right to question the Hokage about anything."
Uchiha Yoru narrowed his eyes.
He asked calmly,
"Then who does have the right?"
"Does the Jōnin Council?"
Homura Mitokado coldly replied,
"The Hokage is the leader of Konoha."
"No one has the right to question the Hokage."
The Third Hokage said nothing.
But his expression made his stance perfectly clear.
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