Part of the reason Hiruzen Sarutobi was so enraged was that the rumor involved him directly.
By their logic, no matter how one looked at it, he had wronged Uchiha Kagami.
Either he had stolen the credit for being the first to volunteer as rearguard and pinned that merit onto himself—
Or he was a hypocrite whose words did not match his actions, someone who had stolen the Hokage position that should have belonged to Uchiha Kagami.
Utter nonsense.
He had been the first to volunteer to stay behind.
And the position of Hokage had been personally entrusted to him by Teacher Tobirama.
Everyone knew that.
So who was the shameless bastard spreading such a rumor?
It took Hiruzen quite a while to calm himself down.
Only then did he look toward the ANBU shinobi below him.
"And what about Uchiha Yamakaku's side?"
"Hokage-sama, Uchiha Yamakaku did not blindly believe the rumor. He even had Uchiha Fugaku suppress it within the clan. Otherwise, the situation could have become much worse."
Only after hearing that did Hiruzen's expression ease somewhat.
"Uchiha Yamakaku and Uchiha Fugaku still have at least a little sense. Good. Then it's only those troublemaking Uchiha, yes? There aren't more of them?"
The ANBU ninja shook his head.
"No."
Hiruzen thought for a moment.
"Then leave them alone for now. As long as the rumor doesn't continue to spread, it won't cause greater damage. As for those people… once the war is over, I'll deal with them."
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
Just then—
Bang. Bang. Bang.
A knock sounded at the door.
Hiruzen gestured to the ANBU shinobi. Only after the man departed did he look toward the entrance.
"Who is it?"
"Hiruzen. It's me."
"Come in."
A figure cloaked in a gloomy, oppressive aura stepped inside.
The moment he entered, he walked straight up to Hiruzen's desk and looked down at him from across it.
"Hiruzen, how do you intend to deal with those Uchiha?"
"At a critical time like this, they ignored the village's orders and missions because of a mere rumor. That kind of behavior must be punished severely. Otherwise, everyone will follow their example."
"Leave it to me. What do you say?"
Hiruzen glanced at Danzo and said flatly,
"I've already made my decision on this matter. There's no need for you to trouble yourself over it."
Danzo frowned.
"You're not planning to let them off, are you? People like that must be punished immediately to serve as a warning. Those Uchiha are all the same—not one of them is any good."
"Your indecision is only encouraging them."
Hiruzen cast him a cold look.
"I've already decided. Right now, we're at a critical stage in the war with Iwagakure. Under Uchiha Yamakaku's control, this matter will not spread any further."
"That is enough."
"Or do you think we should deliberately escalate the conflict right now and make the problem even worse? If it affects the main battlefield, can you take responsibility for that? Once the war is over, I'll deal with them myself."
Danzo was unconvinced.
"If you indulge them like this, that's what will really affect the main battlefield. If everyone starts ignoring discipline like they did, how do you expect this war to be fought? If you're afraid, then hand it over to me."
"I'll take responsibility."
Hiruzen's voice turned cold.
"Danzo. I said, I have already decided."
"But—"
"That's enough. I am the Hokage."
Danzo fell silent for a long moment. Then he took a step back and settled for less.
"If you insist, Hiruzen, then I'll investigate whoever is spreading the rumor and cut off its source. That should at least help the village recover some control—and serve as a warning to the Uchiha."
Hiruzen waved a hand.
"Go, then. If you catch the one spreading the rumor, bring them back alive. I want the Yamanaka clan to interrogate them."
Danzo nodded, said nothing more, and turned to leave the Hokage's office.
Hiruzen watched his retreating back and slowly shook his head.
…
…
[Forged Suicide Note (Kumogakure Genin Edition)]
—You may fabricate a single line of suicide-note content. After using [Forged Suicide Note (Kumogakure Genin Edition)], the note will complete itself automatically and later appear under the name of a random Kumogakure genin.
Rasa's expression turned subtle.
"If used properly, this could be extremely effective."
A knock sounded at the door.
Rasa returned to his desk and sat down, casually tossing the one tael of gold into a drawer.
"Come in."
A moment later, Ebizo pushed open the door and entered.
"Kazekage-sama."
"Ebizo. How are things?"
Ebizo replied, "Kazekage-sama, regarding the rumor about Uchiha Kagami—some members of the Uchiha really have believed it. They've even begun raising their own doubts about what happened back then."
"And more than a dozen Uchiha have gone on strike to express their dissatisfaction."
"However, Uchiha Yamakaku has suppressed the rumor within the clan and kept its influence from spreading further. It's still confined to those dozen or so people."
"And Konoha has not taken action against them either."
"The situation has been brought under control."
Rasa was not surprised.
After all, this was only the first step. Achieving this much already counted as a decent result.
"Then let's move on to the next step."
"Yes, Kazekage-sama."
The second step had two parts.
The first was to spread the rumor among Iwagakure's ninja.
Rasa could already imagine it.
Given the Uchiha temperament, if an Iwa shinobi brought up that rumor during battle and mocked an Uchiha to his face, the effect would be excellent.
The second was to deliberately create a few cases in which Uchiha clan members were betrayed by other Konoha shinobi—
But ensure that the betrayed Uchiha survived.
With Uchiha pride and temperament, any survivor of such betrayal would never let the matter go.
He would make trouble.
That was exactly what Rasa wanted.
If the Uchiha made enough noise—big enough noise—Konoha would inevitably have to divert manpower and attention to handle them. And once that happened, they would no longer have spare ninja to station along the Land of Wind's borders and scheme against Sunagakure.
That would ease Sunagakure's crisis, even if only a little.
"And there's also this."
Rasa's thoughts stirred.
At once, a slightly yellowed sheet of paper appeared before him.
[Forged Suicide Note (Kumogakure Genin Edition)]
Rasa picked up his brush and wrote:
—I personally saw Senju Tobirama and Hiruzen Sarutobi abandon Uchiha Kagami.
As soon as he finished writing, the yellowed paper slowly turned transparent.
"This time… Uchiha Yamakaku won't be able to keep a lid on it."
Yamakaku was indeed the head of the Uchiha clan.
But not everyone in the Uchiha listened obediently to their clan head.
For example—
Uchiha Setsuna had secretly stirred up the clan against Senju Tobirama behind the clan head's back.
Uchiha Shisui had once intended to use Kotoamatsukami on Uchiha Fugaku, his own clan head.
And Uchiha Itachi had slaughtered everyone in the Uchiha compound by himself, sparing only Uchiha Sasuke.
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