ANBU squads arrived quickly.
Chaos churned across the plaza before the Police Department. Shouts and curses overlapped. More than thirty Root operatives had sealed the entrance and were pressing forward, clearly ready to storm the building.
Inside the first-floor lobby, the police had thrown up a defensive line, kunai and shuriken in hand, poised to clash.
In the middle of the crowd, Uchiha Fugaku stood with a dark face. Several elite clansmen ringed him, all visibly agitated.
Meanwhile, the great clans—alerted by word of the standoff—had begun to arrive one after another, watching from rooftops and alley corners. Villagers gathered at a distance, craning to see.
"Stop the clash, now! Separate both sides!" At Kakashi's command, he burst into the open.
His team followed, figures flickering in to plant themselves between the two camps.
The Root line moved as if they hadn't heard, completely ignoring ANBU and continuing to advance on the Uchiha.
The standoff held—no blows thrown yet—but the air stretched tight. Tenzō and the others eyed the intruding Root with real caution, unwilling to be the first to strike, glancing to Kakashi for a call.
Then Eiya, who had been silent at the rear, gave a cold snort and strode forward.
"Back off."
They acted as if deaf and kept coming.
Eiya's gaze chilled. "Didn't you hear me?"
Two sharp cracks split the air.
The two Root men on point screamed and flew sideways, tumbling across the ground for meters before coming to a stop. Most hadn't even seen Eiya move.
The sudden shock froze the entire plaza.
Inside the lobby, the tense Uchiha line stirred and turned toward the doors. That voice—familiar—made Uchiha Yashiro, Inabi, and Uchiha Izumi brighten.
Silence lasted only a heartbeat. A masked man stepped from Root's ranks. "ANBU intends to interfere with Root operations?"
Eiya knew the public fiction: Root was framed as ANBU's training branch, tasked to scout and cultivate talent. Under Shimura Danzō—with the Hokage's tacit leave—Root had grown ever more secretive and high-handed, darker than ANBU itself.
Kakashi moved up to stand beside Eiya, eyes flat on the speaker. "Right and wrong will be decided by the Hokage. If you stand down now, it's not too late. Otherwise, ANBU will arrest you on suspicion of inciting a riot."
"Is that so?" the man chuckled, slowly pulling off his gloves. Dark violet bled across his bare palms.
Kakashi's pupil tightened. His face changed, and he slid up the protector over his left eye.
As the sides were about to explode—
"Stand down, all of you!"
The thunder of a commanding voice crashed over the square.
A figure blurred into being between the lines.
The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, in Hokage robes and hat, swept the crowd with a face of iron. A mountain of pressure dropped over the plaza. Everyone froze.
His sharp eyes cut first across Fugaku's stony face, then snapped to the other side. "Danzō! Explain yourself. Why are your men forcing their way into Police headquarters?"
From the shadows of a street corner, Shimura Danzō hobbled out with his cane, a Root bodyguard at his side. His expression didn't shift under the Hokage's question.
"You're just in time, Hiruzen," he said, voice low.
"I received credible intelligence: the Police high command is implicated in the murder of a Konoha villager and tried to abuse their authority to shield the killer and bury key evidence. I sent Root to collect evidence and was met with violent resistance."
He paused, letting his gaze pass over the gathered faces.
"The Police should uphold Konoha's laws. Instead they break them and shelter criminals. How can such a body be trusted with its charge?"
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes but didn't reply at once.
Danzō raised his voice and pointed toward the corner of the street. "Come out. Tell the Hokage and everyone here exactly what you saw and heard."
A young man in a Police uniform crept from the crowd. At the sight of him, gasps rose from the Uchiha side; faces blanched. Glares stabbed the youth like knives.
A flash of cold triumph passed through Danzō's eyes.
Head down, the young policeman stopped beside the Hokage and began to speak, voice trembling. "This morning… I was passing by the Police office and overheard Yashiro-senpai and Izumi-senpai arguing inside…"
He swallowed and forced steadiness into his tone.
"Uchiha Izumi was loud, angry—she insisted on a full investigation to uphold fairness and justice. But Yashiro-senpai was strongly opposed," he said haltingly. "He said if we dug deeper it would inevitably implicate the clan. It had to be handled internally and suppressed."
When the plant finished his script in one breath, Danzō boomed on cue, "The quarrel grew heated. In the end, Uchiha Yashiro persuaded Uchiha Izumi to hide the case files and evidence in the second locked cabinet in the archives, planning to dispose of it all along with the victim's body tonight."
An uproar swept the square.
Fugaku and the clansmen went livid with rage. Yashiro, Inabi, and the rest shook with fury, longing to tear the traitor apart.
Danzō's eyes glittered. He slashed his hand down. "Search, and the truth will be plain!"
He didn't even look to the Hokage, but barked at his operatives. "What are you waiting for? Go in there and bring it out. Anyone who obstructs will be treated as an accomplice."
"Yes!" A dozen Root elites lunged like wolves for the Police lobby line.
"Impudence! Try it!" Yashiro, Inabi, and the others roared and surged forward with kunai to block.
As the clash was about to erupt again, Hiruzen's voice cut like a whip. "Stand down! If you have nothing to hide, why bar the search? Fugaku, pull your people back."
Under the Hokage's wrath, the Uchiha dared not defy him. Chest heaving, Fugaku motioned his clansmen aside, choking down his anger as Root rushed into the building.
Moments later, a Root ninja ran out of the lobby with a stack of files, dropping to one knee before Danzō. "Lord Danzō, we located the records."
"Good, Kaze." Danzō's eyes narrowed in a pleased smile as he flipped through them. "And the physical evidence?"
"Forgive me… we did not find it."
"No matter." Danzō's tone didn't waver. "This is enough."
He turned to face the grim Hokage and the watching clan envoys, assuming the righteous mask of a man sick at heart.
"The last scandal hasn't cooled, and now the Uchiha are exposed again—murdering villagers," he declared. "The Police flout the law they're sworn to uphold, abuse their power, and—just to shield their own—coordinate a cover-up, destroying evidence and concealing the truth."
He swung back on Hiruzen, pressing hard. "Hiruzen, how long will you indulge them? I propose we immediately reorganize the Police and conduct a thorough investigation of every Uchiha."
Whispers rippled among the clan heads; doubtful, guarded looks fell on the Uchiha.
Out among the villagers the murmurs swelled to shouts.
"Punish the killers!"
"Investigate the Police!"
"Bring down the Uchiha!"
The wave of voices rolled and broke, again and again.
Accusation and hostility crashed over the Uchiha like hammers, thudding into every chest.
Many Uchiha had gone pale.
Danzō stood, pleased with himself, like a victor looking down from a height.
Hiruzen's face was iron, his eyes fixed on the Uchiha with anger and disappointment.
And in that suffocating, desperate lull…