As three Uchiha ninja passed by an alley, they overheard some conversation.
"Those Uchiha guys' days of glory are finally over. I just saw the faces of those patrolling Uchiha ninja—they looked so miserable I wanted to laugh."
"Yeah, they looked like scaredy-cat dogs with their tails between their legs. Their pitiful sight was oddly satisfying."
"I think with Chinya around, the Uchiha Clan is finally going to fall into ruin."
"Wish they'd fall already! The Uchiha are Konoha's poison—we should've dealt with them long ago!"
The three Uchiha ninja listening in became furious. In an instant, they dashed into the alley and surrounded the chatting villagers.
When the villagers saw the Uchiha ninja, they all looked terrified.
"Just now, who said he wanted to laugh? Go ahead—laugh for me now!"
"Our Uchiha Clan remains the top ninja clan in Konoha!"
"You lot dared to badmouth our Uchiha Clan right here—do you want to die?"
"Hey, apologize immediately, or today will show you..."
Suddenly, the three Uchiha ninja were grabbed by the neck and slammed forcefully onto the ground.
Struggling, the Uchiha ninja turned their heads and saw three emotionless faces.
These three were Root Division ninjas patrolling nearby.
Two more Anbu stood behind them.
Both Anbu were stunned.
They actually took action right away?!
One Uchiha ninja shouted, "What are you doing?! Let us go!"
A Root ninja announced coldly, "You three are suspected of attempting to commit a crime. You're under arrest!"
The Uchiha ninja were confused—how had they suddenly become suspects?
They desperately struggled. "Hey, don't falsely accuse us! We didn't do anything!"
A Root ninja turned to the villagers and asked, "Did they threaten you earlier?"
One villager immediately responded, "Yes! He just threatened us and even asked if we wanted to die!"
The Root ninja declared once again, "The evidence is conclusive. You three are under arrest. If you resist, we will use force immediately!"
One Uchiha ninja refused to believe it and tried to break free.
But the Root ninja wasted no time—he twisted the ninja's arm until it broke.
"Ahh!"
The sharp pain caused the Uchiha ninja to cry out loudly.
His scream drew onlookers to gather around.
Seeing their comrade's arm broken, the other two Uchiha ninja had already broken into a cold sweat and dared not resist anymore.
The three Root ninjas took away the three Uchiha ninja.
Meanwhile, the two Anbu could only stand aside helplessly watching everything unfold.
There simply wasn't any opportunity to interfere.
They also hadn't expected that this Root ninja would be so quick to twist the other's arm.
The gathered crowd pointed fingers at the Uchiha trio, whispering among themselves.
None of them had ever seen anything like this before.
In the past, people had only seen Uchiha ninja escorting others. This was the first time anyone had seen someone else arresting an Uchiha ninja.
Once everyone else left, a crowd quickly gathered around the villagers involved to ask what exactly had happened.
The villagers who were directly involved exaggerated wildly as they retold the story.
After hearing the exaggerated stories, the surrounding onlookers began voicing their thoughts one by one.
"Looks like the Konoha Defense Unit treats all ninja equally. They won't look the other way, not even for an Uchiha breaking the rules."
"Now that the Konoha Defense Unit is here, we don't have to live in fear of the Uchiha clan anymore."
"After all, it's Chinya's Konoha Defense Unit. If the Uchiha ever bully us again, we can go straight to the Konoha Defense Unit and report them!"
...
It was only the beginning, yet it had already started to dispel some of the villagers' fear of the Uchiha clan.
Half an hour later,
Inside the Root Base,
Nine individuals knelt on one knee before Danzo.
Among these nine, four were clearly the villagers from earlier.
The other five were those who had spoken out in the crowd earlier.
A moment later, smoke swirled around the nine figures as they reverted to their true forms.
"Lord Danzo, our mission has been completed."
Danzo nodded slightly.
This wasn't the only group he had sent out—several other teams had staged similar scenes throughout Konoha village.
On the very first day alone, fifteen Uchiha ninja were captured, and half of them were injured.
Most of those injuries happened when the Uchiha ninja tried to fight back during the arrests.
Inside Root's prison,
Each Uchiha ninja was filled with intense fear.
They were locked in cramped, airless cells so small they couldn't even sit down. Darkness surrounded them completely, not a single ray of light seeped through, and they could not sense the passing of time.
But they could hear eerie sounds—occasional strange noises echoing through the darkness.
In these conditions, their fear grew uncontrollably, feeding on itself endlessly.
Not long after being locked up, some Uchiha ninja began showing signs of mental breakdown.
Back at the Konoha Defense Unit headquarters,
Shisui Uchiha stormed into the office and confronted Chinya.
"What exactly are you trying to do? Are you using the Konoha Defense Unit to randomly capture Uchiha ninja?!"
Chinya smirked slightly as he set his teacup down on the table. "I've already said this—if you think I did something wrong, go report me to The Fourth. Since you came directly to me, I assume you still haven't found any concrete evidence?"
Shisui clenched his teeth and replied bitterly, "It was you, wasn't it? Suddenly today, many voices across the village started slandering the Uchiha clan. And every time an Uchiha tried to defend themselves, your ninjas showed up just in time to arrest them under the charge of attempted crime! That can't possibly be a coincidence!"
Chinya smiled faintly before asking, "Then where's your proof? As deputy commander of the Konoha Defense Unit, shouldn't you at least bring some evidence when questioning my actions?"
"You should know better than anyone that the villagers of Konoha have long held a deep grudge against your Uchiha Clan. Maybe it's because the villagers now trust our Konoha Defense Unit and don't fear the Uchiha anymore — so they think they can say whatever they want?"
"Your clan did plenty of bad stuff in the past. Can't you take a few harsh words from the villagers now? Are Uchiha people really that weak-willed?"
Anger twisted Shisui Uchiha's expression.
But he had no evidence. He had already investigated before coming to Chinya — those captured were merely ninja from the Uchiha Clan who had verbally threatened villagers criticizing the Uchiha.
And such verbal threats could be considered criminal intent.
Shisui barked, "Where did you take those Uchiha ninja?"
"The Root prison."
"What?!"
Shisui stared at Chinya in shock. He couldn't believe it — Chinya had actually locked up the captured Uchiha ninja in the Root prison.
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