Chapter 58: Cleaned Up Nicely

"Lord Hokage, last night my Anbu team received a highly classified mission. The mission was completed this morning, and the handover was made tonight, but then I realized that there might be some problems with this mission."

On the rooftop of the Hokage's office building, Habara began to explain his experiences today to the Fourth Hokage, who was gazing at the night view of Konoha.

"A classified mission… What classified mission?"

The Fourth Hokage began to carefully recall whether he had assigned any important missions to the Anbu in the past two days.

Then Habara's next words immediately made him tense up.

"A mission to secretly arrest a certain Uchiha Jonin."

"Hmm… Hmm?!"

The Fourth Hokage abruptly turned his head, his eyes urgently fixed on Habara's face… When had he ever given an order to arrest an Uchiha?

"Explain the situation in detail. I never gave such an order."

Then Habara explained the whole thing from beginning to end, and after he finished summarizing the events, he added two final sentences,

"Lord Hokage, since you didn't give the order, there's bad news and two pieces of good news… The bad news is that the Uchiha has already been handed over to who-knows-who, and it's uncertain whether he can be successfully retrieved. The good news is that I've already captured the captain, Takajo, who falsely relayed the order."

"You were vigilant, able to react in time and report the matter to me. This is commendable," the Fourth Hokage praised Habara, then continued, "What's the other good news?"

"The other good news is that the mission was carried out very discreetly. The Uchiha clan certainly won't be able to find any evidence that the Anbu targeted them."

Fourth Hokage: "…"

This… Well, in the grand scheme of things, this was indeed good news.

"Where is that Anbu captain?"

"I tied him up downstairs."

"…"

Afterward, the Fourth Hokage dispatched his most trusted Anbu ninjas. They followed Habara and found the Anbu captain who was tied up downstairs, and then they immediately sent him to the Interrogation Department.

After issuing an order to complete the interrogation as quickly as possible, the Fourth Hokage immediately left the Hokage's office building. He went to the Sarutobi clan's residence to discuss this matter with the Third Hokage… Namikaze Minato, who had just taken office, wasn't sure how the Uchiha would react, so he had to consult with the old veteran.

Habara, as a participant in the event, also temporarily remained in the Interrogation Department.

To be honest, at first, Habara hadn't suspected this matter because he had taken some things for granted. He thought that the disappearance of an Uchiha ninja wasn't a big deal, because in his impression, after the Uchiha's top combatant, Shisui, "disappeared" later on, the Uchiha clan's reaction was still to hold back, to hold back for a long time.

Although it could be concluded after the fact that Uchiha Shisui's disappearance was the trigger for the Uchiha clan's rebellion, at the time, the Uchiha's reaction was very delayed.

If Uchiha Shisui was treated like this, let alone ordinary Uchiha ninjas.

But the Uchiha clan's reaction not being too intense and the Hokage directly issuing an order targeting the Uchiha clan were completely different things. There was no causal relationship between the two; it wasn't that because the Uchiha clan wouldn't easily explode, the newly appointed Fourth Hokage would act recklessly to provoke them.

After realizing the contradiction, Habara naturally discovered the various problems in this mission.

......

After an overnight rush interrogation, at dawn, in the Hokage's office.

At this time, only the Third Hokage, the Fourth Hokage, Habara (the person involved), and Yamanaka Inoichi (responsible for the interrogation) were present.

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio were direct subordinates of the Hokage, so there were no problems with their confidentiality and loyalty… At this time, certain black hands hadn't stretched that far. (This refers to Danzo's influence).

"Third Hokage, Fourth Hokage, the interrogation results are in."

Yamanaka Inoichi, holding a document, began to explain the results of the rush interrogation: "Takajo is a ninja cultivated by Root, and the mission to capture the Uchiha ninja did indeed exist. The capture process was similar to the information I obtained before, but… as to who gave him such an order, and who ultimately took over this Uchiha ninja, this crucial information in his mind has been blocked, it's completely impossible to find out."

This result was somewhat unexpected. Although everyone could guess who the "culprit" was, without clear evidence, no one could do anything to him, because that person could completely deny it.

In a sense, this was also a clean sweep.

The Third Hokage started to smoke his pipe gloomily because he knew that Shimura Danzo wouldn't even give him face.

"Capturing an Uchiha Jonin alive, what's the purpose… Uchiha Tetsu, I seem to have heard that name," the Fourth Hokage asked.

Yamanaka Inoichi said, "We couldn't find any effective clues about this from that Anbu captain, but Uchiha Tetsu's identity is very clear… He is the grandson of the Uchiha clan's great-great-grandfather's generation clan head."

"In other words, this Uchiha Tetsu is a core ninja of the Uchiha clan? A core ninja, captured alive…" The Third Hokage became thoughtful, "It seems someone is still particularly wary of the Uchiha."

In terms of his attitude towards the Uchiha clan, Shimura Danzo was the true disciple of the Second Hokage.

The current conversation and Uchiha Tetsu's identity made Habara's mind stir; he seemed to remember something.

Shimura Danzo targeting such an Uchiha ninja was most likely for the Uchiha's various secrets. He wanted not only the Sharingan, but also the "secret techniques" of the Sharingan.

Remember, the later Shimura Danzo was able to use "Izanagi," an Uchiha clan forbidden technique. It had been abused in the past, so later this technique was hidden. Even ordinary Uchiha clansmen wouldn't know this technique, so how did Danzo know?

Did he hear about it from his former teammate Uchiha Kagami? This possibility was low. Would Uchiha Kagami, out of the blue, introduce the Uchiha clan's forbidden techniques to Danzo, who didn't have the Sharingan?

Look at Danzo's face, his character, would his former teammates be so close and intimate with him, confiding everything?

A bit far-fetched.

So, the most likely possibility was that Danzo himself mastered such secrets through some method.

Even if such information came from the research of the Second Hokage, who was extremely wary of the Uchiha, after Shimura Danzo discovered this research, he still needed to verify the authenticity of the Uchiha secret techniques…

So, were these speculations related to what was happening now?

But regardless, Shimura Danzo was truly insidious. Using Anbu ninjas to carry out such a mission, even if something went wrong, this matter would become the Hokage's problem… Don't expect the Uchiha to distinguish between the Anbu and Root. To the Uchiha, Anbu was Anbu.

After thinking of this speculation, Habara didn't dwell too much on whether it was true or not, because whether it was true or not had nothing to do with him.

The Uchiha ninja he disliked?

He fell into Shimura Danzo's hands.

The Anbu captain who used him?

He was backstabbed by him.

In this incident, who made a contribution?

Of course, it was him, Habara.

So, was this matter good or bad?

Uh, were there any downsides?

"His injuries were too severe, which prevented us from using more extensive interrogation techniques."

Yamanaka Inoichi slightly excused himself. He hadn't played much of a role this time, partly because the interrogation subject was on his last breath.

As he spoke, he couldn't help but glance at Habara…

Habara returned a smile, but unfortunately, he was wearing a mask, so Yamanaka Inoichi couldn't see his expression, otherwise, he would have been even angrier.

"I'll go talk to Danzo," the Third Hokage said.

This matter had to be resolved no matter what.

Honestly, in Habara's view, Shimura Danzo could jump around as much as he wanted. He quite liked Danzo jumping around, because…

If Konoha could tolerate Danzo's Root acting so freely, then Konoha had no reason not to tolerate the existence of other, more moderate organizations that were more beneficial to Konoha's development.