Uchiha's personal opinion

Keiji Uchiha took a deep breath. "Tokumitsu-kun, they should be members of the Anbu training department managed by Danzo, and some of them don't have village identification."

"How can we verify that someone is a village ninja without identification? By intuition? Or should we simply feign weakness and ignore them?"

Uchiha Tokumitsu's stubbornness left Uchiha Keiji speechless.

“Deguang-kun, this will only deepen the rift between the family and the village.”

Would a lion care what a sheep think?

These arrogant words once again made Uchiha Nakagen and Uchiha Himon nod slightly, both agreeing with them.

"But our clan is, after all, a member of the village. Shouldn't we integrate into the village and treat the villagers of Konoha as equals?"

"Will Daming talk about equality with farmers?"

Uchiha Tokumitsu's question left Uchiha Keiji speechless.

As ninjas, they naturally wouldn't utter such nonsense as the daimyo being equal to farmers. By the same token, does that mean ninja clans are equal to commoners?

“Zhongxuan-jun, if this continues, it will only deepen the suspicion between the Hokage and our clan…”

Keiji Uchiha turned to Nakagen Uchiha and said.

Before Uchiha Nakagen could answer, Uchiha Tokumitsu interrupted, "The Hokage's suspicion is purely petty, which shows that he is an incompetent Hokage!"

"Lord Deguang, your idea is very dangerous! It will push the family into a dangerous situation!"

"As long as the clan remains strong, there will be absolutely no danger!" Uchiha Tokumitsu stared at Uchiha Keiji and said, word by word, "How many Jonin does the Hokage have? What gives him the right to talk about equality with the Uchiha? If we're talking about equality, shouldn't our clan be allowed to sit in the Hokage Building?"

"you……"

Uchiha Keiji was so angry he couldn't speak.

Uchiha Tokumitsu also didn't want to continue dealing with this naive appeasement faction.

Just then, someone knocked on the office door and came in, whispering a few words to Uchiha Nakagen.

After listening, Uchiha Nakagen dismissed them and addressed the group that had just finished arguing.

"The secret service has sent someone to take someone away. Let's go out and see."

After saying that, he stood up, and everyone else followed him out of the office.

In the police department lobby, three masked ninjas dressed in ANBU uniforms stood in the hall, unmoved by the stares of the Uchiha.

Judging from the patterns on the mask, it should be the so-called root.

Seeing Uchiha Nakagen come out, one of them walked forward.

"Captain Zhongxuan, please hand over the Dark Guard personnel who were accidentally injured!"

Upon hearing this, the expressions of everyone in the police department changed, and some even revealed their Sharingan, staring intently at the insolent speaker.

"Were those three suspects members of the secret service?"

Uchiha Nakagen's face was gloomy.

"They're not suspects, they're members of the Dark Guard's training department?"

"Then why is there no identification?"

"The identification documents of the Dark Division have nothing to do with your police department!"

These words enraged the Uchiha, and some of them used their thumbs to gently flick open the scabbards at their waists and slowly surrounded them.

"...So, you don't have any identification either?" Uchiha Tokumitsu asked.

Uchiha Nakagen's eyes narrowed. "And what about the Hokage's warrant?"

“The Dark Division is handling matters...no warrants are required!” The leader of the Dark Division, or rather the Root Division member, was momentarily speechless, but then spoke firmly again.

"hehe!"

Uchiha Nakagen sneered.

"So you mean you want to come to the police department to take someone away without the Hokage's warrant or identification?"

"Furthermore, we request the police department to punish the instigator of this incident and severely punish their actions that harmed the Dark Division!" The Root members remained firm.

Uchiha Nakagen grabbed him by the throat and unleashed a burst of lightning chakra, stunning him.

"Take down these madmen!"

"Yes!"

The Uchiha, who had long been annoyed by this, pounced on them like wolves. Keiji Uchiha tried to stop them, but they remained unmoved.

The so-called "roots" are actually a group of clandestine members, whose existence is not widely known in the village.

As unregistered ninjas, they knew what the others were all about. When given face, they possessed power equivalent to that of the Anbu; when not given face, they had no chance to save their lives.

Unfortunately, the Uchiha clan, especially the radical Uchiha, had no intention of giving them face.

Chapter 20 The Ninja Clan and the Hokage

If Konoha is likened to a towering tree, then the ninja clan must be its strongest branch.

Even though the Senju clan, one of the two founding clans of the village, has retired, the legacy of the powerful ninja clans, led by the Uchiha and Hyuga clans, which have been renowned for thousands of years, remains. They have contributed most of the Jonin to Konoha and laid the foundation for Konoha to become the number one of the five great ninja villages.

Even though the Hokage deeply resented the rise of the ninja clans, he could only suppress them covertly and strengthen the training at the Ninja Academy. However, ninja academy education was not something that could be achieved overnight, and the Uchiha clan had also managed to steal a piece of the pie through the so-called Police Department Preparatory Training Academy. Other ninja clans followed suit, so the ninja academy's influence didn't really take off, and the Hokage's faction didn't get many opportunities to brainwash the second-generation ninja clan members. In this world that values ​​lineage and bloodline, relying on ninja academies to cultivate talent from the common people who surpassed those born into ninja clans, like finding a needle in a haystack, was simply too inefficient.

After all, not every ordinary person is fortunate enough to be taken in as a successor to the Hokage, like Orochimaru and Jiraiya, two of the Hokage's three disciples.

Nearly an hour passed before the Hokage heard that the Uchiha had detained all the Root members who went to pick up the people and falsely accused them of being spies from an enemy country. However, there was nothing that could be done. Root wanted to pick up their own people, and no Anbu member was foolish enough to insist on following them. Moreover, the Uchiha Police Department was notoriously difficult to deal with, and they often embarrassed the Anbu if given the chance. So, it wasn't until the Anbu captain on duty noticed that the Anbu members who had gone to complete the formalities and ordered the Uchiha to severely punish the injured people had not returned and realized that something might be wrong, that he hurriedly sent someone to inquire.

After finding out the reason for the incident, even the battle-hardened and knowledgeable captain of the Anbu was dazzled by the arrogance of the Uchiha clan and the stupidity and ignorance of the Root ninjas.

To say that the Uchiha were arrogant and domineering is that they actually turned black into white in public, arresting members of Root as enemy agents. Even though those people were unregistered ninjas without Konoha identification, they were still members of the Anbu. The Uchiha just detained them like that?!

The Root ninjas were even more speechless. They were Uchiha, notorious for their arrogance and overbearing nature, relying on their strength. This time, they directly stormed into the Uchiha's headquarters, the police department, and caused trouble. How brave of them!

Even the Third Hokage, with his formidable courage and deep cunning, felt his head throb with increasing pain upon hearing this news. This wasn't just due to the Uchiha clan's unruly nature, but also to the incompetence of Danzo's Root subordinates. Moreover, based on his understanding of his old friend, he knew his position as Hokage was about to be thrown into turmoil...

"Sun Slayer!"

Before the people arrive, the sound comes first.

It's a familiar scene again.

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, waved for the Anbu captain to step down. Although the Anbu knew how he, as Hokage, interacted with his old friend, he still didn't want others to see him arguing with Danzo.

"Hiruzen, the Uchiha clan is so arrogant and domineering, they simply don't respect you, the Hokage, at all!"

Shimura Danzo stormed in, still looking furious.

"That arrogant and domineering red-eyed psychopath clan, who have no regard for the shadows of the enemy, actually dared to detain members of the Dark Guard. They are simply blind to the danger! The ringleader should be arrested, and the rest of the clan should be exiled to the border to serve as martyrs and atone for their sins!"

Hearing Shimura Danzo's loud, uninhibited, and mindless words, the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, laughed in anger.

Not only did they let a good opportunity to teach the Uchiha a lesson slip by, but they also messed things up due to their poor judgment and then brazenly turned the tables on him, which is quite rare.

"Danzo, how many Jonin does your Root have?"

The third generation leader gave a sarcastic reply, reminding him that actions should still be based on strength.

As a combat profession where great power originates from oneself, every strong ninja, especially a Jonin, is a person of unwavering will. Otherwise, they could not have achieved such profound training. Not to mention ninja clans, even ordinary Jonin from commoner backgrounds would still obey orders but not summons if the Hokage's actions did not meet their expectations. The Hokage could not do anything about it, otherwise, there would not have been a special Jonin team to mediate and manage. If ordinary Jonin are like this, let alone the Uchiha clan, who act domineeringly with their strength.

Those harsh words he just uttered to the Uchiha clan, if they reached the ears of other ninja clans, would only invite ridicule and weaken the prestige of Danzo and the Hokage standing behind him.

Although Danzo often acted foolishly in front of his old friend, the Hokage, he was actually a shrewd person. After a reminder, he realized that he had spoken too harshly. However, he was too embarrassed to admit his mistake directly, so he replied curtly, "Hiruzen, I'm doing this for your own good. The way the Uchiha acted was not only arrogant and unruly, but also showed that they didn't respect you, the Hokage!"

The third generation didn't give a direct reply. Since things had come to this point, there was no point in continuing to pursue the matter. He simply slowly filled another pipe, rubbed his fingers together to create a flame, and lit it carefully.

The movements were slow, but Danzo did not urge them on.

"Why did you send an unregistered Root member to negotiate with the police department again?"

The Third Hokage took a deep breath and blew a plume of smoke like an arrow towards Danzo, who was sitting upright for once.

Even amidst the swirling smoke, his tiger-like eyes remained sharp and gleaming.

Putting aside Danzo, even the Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was so enraged by the Uchiha's actions that he felt a tightness in his chest.

Regardless of their official status, the Anbu is the Anbu. As the Hokage's direct subordinate training unit of the Anbu, the Root organization is being treated like this, which is a disgrace to the Hokage.

"Root doesn't have many people to begin with, and most of them have already been sent out to gather intelligence on Amegakure and the Lands of Lightning and Earth..." Danzo hurriedly complained, "We are really short-handed. The few Jonin that Root has now were drawn from my Shimura clan, but reconnaissance at the front is difficult and we suffer heavy casualties. It's really hard to continue. If this continues, we'll run out of manpower. It would be better to select young children from the ninja clans to join Root and strengthen our reserves. I will definitely train them carefully..."

Taking advantage of the situation, Danzo veered the conversation towards how to capture ninja clan members and tie them up to serve as assassins for Root, becoming increasingly excited as he spoke.

“The ninja clan members are naturally more talented, and they can also weaken those less desirable ninja clans, especially the Uchiha. The culprit, Uchiha Tokumitsu, is said to be eight years old now. It would be perfect to have him join Root, which would also be a way for him to atone for the sins of that cursed clan…”

"Stop!"

Danzo's words became increasingly unreliable, and the Third Hokage grew increasingly displeased with them.

So the Konoha ninja clans are your Danzo's farm, something you can just harvest at will? Do you really think those ninja clans are easy to mess with? Especially the Uchiha, you can't even beat them openly, and you're thinking of using underhanded tricks? Aren't you just asking for trouble?

"The ninja clan is the foundation of Konoha's strength; this matter must never be mentioned again!"

"But those ninja clans are also parasites of Konoha! Especially the Uchiha, they are an untrustworthy clan! The teacher kept them in the police department to guard against them, but now those lunatics are acting more and more recklessly. If we don't deal with them sooner or later, they will cause a disaster! Hiruzen, have you forgotten the teacher's teachings?" Danzo shouted, his face flushed.

"Do you know how many Jonin the Uchiha clan has?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi stared at Danzo and said in a sinister tone.

"Leaving aside other things, just that brat Tokumitsu from the Uchiha clan, the ninja army that Setsuna the old geezer has given him now has 20 Jonin."

"How many Jonin do you have in your Root organization, plus your Shimura clan?"

"Moreover, this is only a part of the radical faction within the Uchiha clan."

The Third Generation's words were as biting as a polar winter.

Danzo Shimura was speechless.

Chapter 21 Hokage's Summoning

The Third Hokage's words were like a bucket of cold water poured over Danzo's head, bringing him to his senses.

As a classmate of the Third Hokage and a longtime friend of the Hokage, Danzo was usually arrogant and known in the ninja world for his ruthless and cold-blooded actions. Unexpectedly, he was taught a lesson by the Uchiha clan this time.

Moreover, the instigator was a mere eight-year-old Uchiha boy, and the boy's father had added insult to injury. What angered him most was that, as a high-ranking Konoha advisor and elder, he had fewer Jonin under his command than this Uchiha boy!

This is infuriating.