At the gates of Konoha, Danzo Shimura was still imprisoned, exposed like a spectacle.
Passersby glanced at him with mixed expressions—curiosity, scorn, disbelief.
Is that Danzo?
Why is he being held like this?
Is this how Konoha treats its elders?
Every day, Danzo endured these silent questions, each glance a blade to his pride.
His face was ashen, eyes filled with humiliation.
He—once the head of Root, the shadow of Konoha—was now bound within a one-meter barrier crafted by Uchiha Byakuya himself.
A prison with no walls, no privacy, no escape.
Even his most basic needs were ignored.
Danzo hadn't been allowed to relieve himself in days, and the discomfort gnawed at his body as much as the disgrace did his mind.
All he could do was grit his teeth and curse Byakuya in his heart.
Then, in the midst of his suffering, a familiar figure approached—bloodied, panicked.
"Inoue…?" Danzo's tired eyes widened. "Why are you here?"
Shimura Inoue, a Root operative and member of the Shimura clan, knelt before him.
"Lord Danzo… something terrible has happened!"
Danzo tensed.
"The Uchiha... they destroyed Root... and the entire Shimura compound… Everything is gone!"
"What!?" Danzo's voice trembled with disbelief.
He slammed his fist into the ground—but without chakra, the blow was nothing but an act of frustration.
The pain shot through his hand, a reminder of how far he'd fallen.
"All my work… years of building Root… the legacy of the Shimura clan… Gone! Damn that Uchiha Byakuya!"
Then, a voice interrupted them.
"There he is!"
Uchiha En arrived with several clan members, eyes cold and merciless.
"That's a Shimura ninja! Capture him!"
"No—wait!" Inoue tried to flee, but the Uchiha were faster.
Within moments, Inoue was slammed to the ground and restrained.
"Agh!"
Danzo struggled against his barrier. "Stop! What are you doing to my clansman!?"
Uchiha En sneered. "Relax, Danzo-sama… Your turn will come soon enough."
With a motion, they dragged the struggling Inoue away.
"DAMN YOU! You'll pay for this! I swear I'll destroy the Uchiha clan if it's the last thing I do!"
Danzo's roar echoed through the village gate… but it was nothing more than a dying gasp from a man with no power left.
Meanwhile, in a sealed room within the Hokage Building...
Sarutobi Hiruzen sat in silence, puffing his pipe, eyes grim.
Utane Koharu and Mitokado Homura stood nearby. The tension in the room was suffocating.
"The Shimura clan has been dismantled," Homura reported. "The Uchiha have labeled their survivors as traitors and are rounding them up."
Hiruzen didn't speak.
"They're out of control," Koharu added sharply. "They destroyed an entire clan—within the village!"
"If the Uchiha can erase the Shimura today, what's stopping them from doing the same to the rest of us tomorrow?" Homura muttered.
"…No, we can't allow this to continue." Koharu's voice was low, bitter.
Hiruzen exhaled slowly, smoke coiling around his furrowed brow.
"…I was a fool to think the balance would hold."
This time, the two of them were truly terrified of the Uchiha clan.
The Utatane and Mitokado clans—families to which Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura respectively belonged—were almost on par with the Shimura clan in terms of influence within Konoha.
Now that the Uchiha had completely wiped out the Shimura clan, it was clear that destroying their families would be just as easy.
The thought that the clans they had worked so hard to maintain might be reduced to ashes by the Uchiha left them filled with dread.
To prevent that fate, they knew they had to act.
"…You're right," Sarutobi Hiruzen muttered after a moment of silent reflection.
"We can't allow the Uchiha to continue acting so arrogantly."
"Gather the shinobi from your respective clans immediately… We're going to deal with the Uchiha once and for all."
Although Hiruzen was known for his indecisiveness and pacifism—mockingly referred to by some as the "Konoha Coward"—he now found himself with no choice.
He understood better than anyone that a direct conflict with the Uchiha could lead to devastating losses for the entire village.
Originally, Hiruzen had intended to weaken the Uchiha slowly, using political maneuvering and subtle manipulation, eventually forcing their collapse from within.
But none of it worked.
Uchiha Byakuya refused to play along. Every scheme Sarutobi crafted was crushed with ease.
And now, the Uchiha had gone so far as to destroy the Shimura clan outright, without hesitation or consequence.
Such blatant defiance posed a direct threat to his authority—and to the village's power structure.
With a grim resolve, Hiruzen made his decision: he would use force.
"Understood. We'll mobilize our clans immediately,"
"We must not leave a single Uchiha alive this time," Koharu and Homura replied, determination clouding their fear as they turned to leave.
Standing alone by the window, Hiruzen gazed down at the bustling streets of Konoha.
With a heavy heart and a self-justifying whisper, he said:
"…This is all for Konoha."
"For the Will of Fire… the Uchiha must be eliminated."
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