In Konoha's dark underground space, the leader of Root, Danzo Shimura, was reading through all the information on the previous battle in the Land of Wind. Before he had even finished reading this material, he had confirmed several facts…
First, he would definitely not be able to get back the Wood Release ninja "Tenzo" who originated from Root. The Third Hokage would keep this ninja firmly in his grasp. Second, both Habara and Tenzo's growth rate and status elevation speed were far beyond expectations. At this point, even he couldn't casually take action against these two.
Or rather, even if Danzo wanted to do something, he would at least have to wait until the limelight on certain people had passed. Otherwise, it would be too disrespectful to the Third Hokage.
See, this was Danzo's worldview. When encountering such major events, he always prioritized calculating his own petty schemes, and easily ignored the larger impact of the event… As a high-ranking member of Konoha, shouldn't he prioritize considering peace matters at this time and strive to think about how to handle the relationship with Sunagakure after the war?
To put it bluntly, Habara and his team might have made more contributions to Konoha in these few days than Danzo had in his entire life. For older people like Danzo Shimura, people often use the phrase "even if they have no merit, they have hard work" to describe them. But where was Danzo's merit? Where was his hard work? Did killing Yahiko but not killing Nagato count?
However, Danzo Shimura was also suffering. At this time, Danzo was also confused about his future. His ideal was to become Hokage and implement his own "Will of Fire." However, now the Third Hokage was still alive and well, and the younger generation of Konoha ninjas was also growing very well. So, at present, it seemed that Danzo had no chance of becoming Hokage in this lifetime… Okay, his judgment of himself was still too optimistic. If he were smarter, he would understand that from the moment the Second Hokage chose Hiruzen Sarutobi, he had no chance.
When one is poor, one thinks of change. In short, what should Danzo do next?
...
After the Nine-Tails incident and the Kazekage incident, Habara seemed to have only obtained the status of a jonin. But in fact, Konoha now had a considerably high level of trust in him. Objectively speaking, this level of trust was no different from that of ninjas born in the village.
With this level of trust, Habara could naturally act more freely within Konoha. At this point, no one could casually identify him as a spy from somewhere else.
At this point, the western battlefield of Konoha had settled, but the Third Shinobi World War had not yet ended. And the victory over Sunagakure could not change Konoha's previous combat plan… For the sake of "righteousness" and "justice," Konoha had to clash with Kumogakure again, no matter what. Konoha even had to demand that Kumogakure hand over the culprit who caused the Nine-Tails incident, and of course, Kumogakure couldn't hand over anything, and wouldn't hand over anything.
Under these circumstances, an elite combat force like Habara might be sent to the battlefield again at any time. So before that, he had to hurry up and start implementing his plan… With numerous achievements under his belt, Habara could finally make some slightly outrageous moves.
At this time, Habara was preparing to meet with Kushina Uzumaki again to discuss some matters. But before that, he needed to do something else…
It was approaching noon, in Konoha's Uchiha residential area.
Young Shisui Uchiha, after finishing his morning training, was planning to return home from the training ground. However, someone suddenly called out to him.
"Shisui Uchiha… Come with me."
Habara had been hiding nearby, waiting for about an hour, before he finally caught Shisui Uchiha… It had to be said, because Habara was an ANBU and had performed certain special missions, he was very familiar with the Uchiha area.
Shisui Uchiha certainly remembered Habara, but they had only briefly interacted twice. They were far from familiar, so he was somewhat puzzled by Habara's sudden appearance before him. However, because Habara had previously defeated Shisui, and Shisui had also heard of Habara's subsequent actions and achievements, Shisui knew that this ninja was not an ordinary person, and he had a trace of respect for him…
Why would such a person come looking for him? Shisui was a little curious, so he followed behind Habara.
Habara didn't intend to take Shisui Uchiha anywhere. He just came to a deserted corner and stopped.
"Shisui Uchiha, what do you think of the Fourth Hokage?" After stopping, Habara didn't turn around, but just asked this question, facing away from Shisui.
"The Fourth Hokage?" Shisui Uchiha was stunned for a moment. He didn't know why Habara would ask such a question, but he still gave an obvious answer, "He is the object of admiration, worship, and respect for all Konoha ninjas."
Habara nodded. Minato Namikaze had an exceptionally strong influence among the younger generation of Konoha ninjas. Even Shisui Uchiha, who was from the Uchiha clan, couldn't avoid this influence.
"Then, what do you know about the truth of the Fourth Hokage's death?" Habara then asked.
"The invader from Kumogakure caused the Nine-Tails rampage, and the Fourth Hokage sacrificed himself to reseal the Nine-Tails…" Shisui Uchiha first gave Konoha's official statement, but then he seemed to understand what Habara was really asking.
So after a short silence, he still spoke, "Besides that, there is another rumor that the culprit came from the Uchiha clan, but…"
"It's the truth."
"…"
"The latter, the 'rumor' you mentioned, is the truth of the matter. Whether it was the Nine-Tails being controlled by the Sharingan, or the mysterious enemy with the Sharingan, I fought both of them that day, so I can confirm his identity," Habara said.
It wasn't difficult to understand that there would be rumors in Konoha that the Uchiha were the culprits behind the Nine-Tails incident, after all, some old schemers were dissatisfied with the Third Hokage's handling of the situation, so they took matters into their own hands again. However, this kind of rumor was "hearsay" and of course couldn't affect Konoha's official verdict.
But now Habara was telling Shisui Uchiha that the hearsay was the truth. It was an Uchiha culprit who caused the death of the Fourth Hokage. How could Shisui accept such a thing in a short time?
However, Habara had really come into contact with the culprit. Did he have any reason to lie? Why would he lie?
"But the Third Hokage announced that the culprit of the incident was Kumogakure, and Konoha is also preparing for war…"
"That's because some big shots didn't want Konoha to fall into civil strife because of this, so they covered up for the Uchiha clan."
"Big shots? Who?"
"The Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, who was harmed by the Uchiha, and the Hokage's widow, Kushina Uzumaki… Do you understand? It doesn't matter if you don't want to believe these things. If you have the opportunity in the future, you can directly ask the Third Hokage what the truth of the matter is."
After saying this, Habara was about to leave, but Shisui Uchiha called out to him.
"Wait, even if what you said is true, why are you telling me this?"
Habara finally turned around. He looked at Shisui Uchiha and said seriously:
"You are different from other Uchiha clan members… You know, after the incident, some high-ranking members of Konoha strongly demanded sanctions against the Uchiha, but Lady Kushina Uzumaki prevented all of this. That is to say, the reason why the current Uchiha clan can still talk big in Konoha and pride themselves on being the number one ninja clan is all thanks to Lady Kushina Uzumaki. The specific identity of the mysterious person is still unknown. Although I also oppose attributing the sins of one person to the entire clan, but… having received such kindness, at least remember it in your heart. Do you understand, Shisui Uchiha?"
"…"
Shisui Uchiha slowly clenched his fists. The midday sun couldn't make him feel a trace of warmth. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that what Habara said was likely the truth. Thinking carefully, the day after the incident, the saying that Kumogakure was the culprit behind the incident began to spread widely throughout Konoha. Such confidential information leaked so quickly, which was too unreasonable. It was as if someone was trying to create a "fait accompli" before another truth could emerge.
After struggling for a long time, Shisui Uchiha raised his head and wanted to ask something more, but at this time, Habara's figure was nowhere to be seen… Habara's style of doing things was always to kill but not to bury. Could he be expected to stay and provide psychological counseling to Shisui?
After talking a bunch of nonsense and then leaving, did this scene seem to have happened somewhere before?
Yes, of course it had happened. Kakashi would definitely understand Shisui Uchiha's feelings, because this was…
Shock therapy, again.
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