Back in Root, Danzo's office was a mess. Scrolls were shredded and papers fluttered from broken shelves. Danzo Shimura paced with a dark face.
"Kisuke! Sarutobi Hiruzen!" he roared. "You two are worthy of death!"
A nervous agent hovered by the door, clutching a stack of documents. He'd been tasked with delivering them earlier but had hesitated—Danzo was deep in one of his infamous moods. The door guards acted blind and deaf.
Finally, summoning what courage he had left, the agent knocked.
Danzo whirled, his voice dripping with malice. "Enter!"
The ninja stepped forward, and handed over the stack. Danzo tore open the top one, scanning files on the Academy's talented students. His scorn was immediate.
"Trash… trash… trash…" he muttered, flipping page after page. He paused on a single sheet. "Looks promising…" A dark smirk twisted his lips. "traumatize him."
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Konoha, Kisuke strolled casually through the streets with Koharu and Homura.
"You know, Koharu," he said, nudging her gently, "you and Homura remind me of that Beauty and the Beast book I wrote long ago."
Koharu rolled her eyes, yet a tiny, familiar flutter stirred in her chest, even after decades of that same line. "Don't even try, Kisuke. Not a single ryō will you get from me for nonsense like that."
Homura, fully immune to Kisuke's antics, straightened and wagged a finger. "Almost sixty, and you still act like a child. Tsk. Despicable."
Kisuke merely tipped his straw hat, completely unfazed.
Koharu huffed, muttering under her breath, while Homura gave him the sternest glare he could muster.
They turned onto one of Konoha's narrower streets and stumbled upon a commotion.
A man in once-expensive, now-stained clothes was barking at a group of homeless people huddled near a crackling fire of broken crates.
"Oi! Look at the state o' ye! Crawlin' about like rats in my village!"
"Please… we're not bothering anyone," one of the homeless men muttered, barely looking up.
The first kick landed. WHACK.
The drunk man laughed, his boot slamming into ribs. "Not botherin' anyone?" He kicked again, harder. WHACK.
"Ye bother me. Ye stain the streets. Immigrants, beggars, leeches—always wantin' somethin' for nothin'." He swung his boot into the nearest man's side. The crack of ribs echoed off the stone walls. WHACK. CRACK!
"Get a job!" he shouted, punctuating it with another kick. "Oh wait—can't! Too busy freeloadin'!"
A woman screamed. He grabbed her by the collar and shoved her against the wall.
"This village was better before trash like you showed up!"
The drunk man raised his fist, about to smack her, but it never came down.
A hand shot out, catching his wrist mid-air with crushing force. The arm bent unnaturally, followed by a sharp CRACK of bone. He howled in raw agony.
A woman with blazing red eyes—a Sharingan user—delivered a precise punch to his jaw that sent teeth flying. He staggered backward, blood dripping from his mouth.
"Enough of this trash," a cold, arrogant voice snapped. The Uchiha Captain stepped forward. He didn't bother kneeling; instead, he drove his boot down hard onto the struggling man's ribs. "You soil our streets."
Another Uchiha smirked, leaning in, swinging his boot into the man's side repeatedly. "Feel that? Lesson one: don't cause trouble in our Konoha."
WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!
From the wall, a third Uchiha leaned lazily, arms crossed, indifferent. "Pathetic," he muttered, his eyes half-lidded.
Boots struck ribs. A knee crushed the man's shoulder. "AHHHHHHHH!"
The fourth Uchiha moved calmly, twisting the man's broken arm further behind his back.
"Please! I didn't—let me go!" the drunk man begged, spitting blood and tears.
CRACK! The sound of another joint giving way was sickening.
"AHHHHHHHH!"
The red-eyed woman straightened, her expression one of cold disdain. She stared down at him. "You will serve as an example. You'll think twice before disturbing the peace again."
Koharu sucked in a sharp breath, her eyes wide with outrage. "They haven't even restrained him! They're torturing him!"
"They are enforcing order," Homura defended quickly. "This is the Uchiha Police; we must trust their methods—"
Koharu rounded fiercely on the Uchihas, her face etched with institutional fury. "Is this how you uphold the law?! Beating a man in the street to this degree?! Are you trying to rebel?!"
The Uchiha Captain stood his ground, his Sharingan blazing with defiance. "We are protecting Konoha's civilians. We are dealing with a threat efficiently."
"By lynching someone?" she shot back, stepping dangerously close.
Kisuke said nothing. He only smiled gently, but the motion seemed forced, cracking the veneer of his usual cheer. A deep, crawling pressure intensified the feeling in his skull.
"I'm smiling," he said quietly, his lips curling wide and unnatural. "Because if I stop smiling right now, I might tear the five of you limb from limb."
The temperature in the alley dropped instantly. Homura stumbled backward.
Kisuke moved.
He appeared between the Uchihas in a blur, the smile never leaving his face. "Enough."
The Captain spun, his Sharingan flaring wide, reacting instinctively. Kisuke's elbow slammed into his chest, breaking bone, CRACK.
A black mark appeared on the injured captain where he was attacked that paralyzed his body.
The Uchiha woman, her face twisted with fury, quickly gathered chakra. She inhaled deeply, and a searing plume of orange-red fire erupted from her mouth—a powerful Great Fireball Jutsu.
Kisuke's smile widened. He didn't move his body an inch against the oncoming fire. Instead, he channeled wind chakra, focusing it to a razor-thin point on the tip of his index finger.
"So predictable," he murmured.
As the fiery sphere hurtled towards him, Kisuke casually extended his hand and flicked his finger. The invisible, pressurized edge of wind sliced through the core of the kāton sphere as though it were smoke. The fireball split instantly, two massive halves roaring past Kisuke's shoulders and incinerating the stone walls behind him.
The woman was stunned by the casual negation. She had only a fraction of a second to react before Kisuke vanished.
She didn't see the movement. To her, he simply ceased to exist.
WHUMP.
A sound like a heavy sack hitting the ground echoed as Kisuke reappeared directly behind her. His hand was clamped over her shoulder, pressing down with force. The Uchiha woman's knee joints buckled instantly under the sudden, immense downward pressure, and she dropped face-first onto the cobblestones.
She scrambled desperately to draw a kunai. Kisuke instantly knocked her out.
A younger Uchiha lunged, fury overriding. Kisuke sidestepped, hooked his ankle, and dropped him face-first onto the stone then kicked the back of his neck cracking it. CRACK.
Another charged. Kisuke executed a swift, precise strike to his throat. He collapsed. WHACK.
Koharu stared while Homura was no where to be seen. Probably rushing to Hiruzen.
Kisuke turned away from them and knelt beside the drunk man.
The man was shaking now, eyes glassy, all bravado gone. "They—they attacked me…"
Kisuke smiled gently and pulled a white flower from his sleeve.
"I'm so sorry," he said, placing it in the man's trembling hand. "What those Uchiha did was unforgivable."
The homeless woman stared at him, disbelief etched into her face.
Koharu exploded. "Kisuke! He was beating civilians!"
The drunk man sniffed, clutching the flower. "Someone finally understands. This village needs order. Needs strength." He coughed, then grinned crookedly. "Danzo should be Hokage. He's the only one who'll make Konoha great again."
The name echoed in the sudden silence.
Kisuke's hand moved on its own.
SMACK.
The drunk crumpled instantly, unconscious before he hit the ground.
Koharu screamed. "KISUKE!"
Kisuke dropped beside him, his arms shaking. He pulled the man close, tears spilling freely.
"Poor guy," Kisuke sobbed. "It's probably because of the Uchiha attack… they traumatized him…"
Kisuke rocked back and forth, crying harder. "Look what they did to him… this poor, innocent man…"
The Uchihas stared up at the sky, teeth clenched, knowing exactly how this would be reported to the Hokage.