Chinya openly mocked Hiruzen Sarutobi, but no matter what Chinya said, Hiruzen Sarutobi made no move.
Outside the main gates of Konoha, Yahiko and the others were watching closely—ready to attack Konoha at Chinya's single command.
And with the Uchiha Clan affair yet to be fully resolved, Hiruzen Sarutobi simply dared not act rashly.
If a battle broke out here between Hiruzen Sarutobi and Chinya, those remaining survivors among the Uchiha Clan might very well take action too.
Chinya shook his head. "Tobirama Senju must've been blind to choose you as Hokage—how utterly disappointing. Let me be honest—Danzo may be unpleasant, but he'd definitely make a better Hokage than you. At least his measures are strong. You've made Konoha into such a weak and cowardly place."
He gave him one last chance. "You still have a chance to act—I'm giving you the final opportunity. Right now, you can still send ninja after me—I'll wait. You still have a slight chance of capturing or even killing me."
Seeing that Hiruzen Sarutobi remained unmoved, Chinya scoffed. "Are you worried I'll reveal your hidden truths if those ninja come? If so, then why did you even show up here? Just for show, so the ignorant villagers see their Hokage tried to stop me and failed?"
"I gave you the chance, Hiruzen Sarutobi—you chose to throw it away. If you won't declare it, then I will. From this day forward, I have nothing more to do with Konoha. I, Chinya, hereby abandon Konoha. From today, I am a rogue ninja of Konoha!"
Chinya took out his Konoha forehead protector, drew his ninja sword, and carved a slash mark across it.
Then he put on the forehead protector—a piece he hadn't worn in a long time.
"Today will be remembered as my final mercy toward Konoha. The next time we meet, we will be enemies!"
With that, Chinya turned and walked toward the main gate of Konoha.
Hiruzen Sarutobi's aged face twitched, veins bulging—he desperately wanted to give the order to kill Chinya right there.
But he still clearly remembered how Chinya had once destroyed the Hokage Tower in a single strike, the godlike Susanoo still vivid in his mind.
And those mysterious ninja lurking outside Konoha certainly weren't simple opponents either.
The Uchiha Clan's rebellion had just ended, and that mess was far from cleaned up.
In the end, Hiruzen Sarutobi was simply too cautious—some might say too cowardly.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have tolerated Chinya disobeying orders all these years while staying in Konoha.
After watching Chinya leave, Hiruzen Sarutobi composed himself before turning to the Anbu ninja behind him and ordering, "Immediately notify all other shinobi: Chinya and Itachi Uchiha have betrayed Konoha. Together, they slaughtered the Uchiha Clan. We discovered this in time and managed to stop them, rescuing a few survivors.
Now Chinya and Itachi have fled Konoha. Gather our ninja and stand by, awaiting my orders. Be ready at any moment to pursue Chinya and Itachi Uchiha!"
Kakashi's facial expression, hidden behind his mask, turned mocking.
What a great liar.
Pursue them? If that were truly the case, he wouldn't have allowed Chinya to walk away freely.
"Waiting for my orders to begin pursuit"—in reality, they would wait until Chinya and Itachi were completely gone, then just go through the motions for appearances' sake.
Kakashi fully agreed with Chinya's words.
This current Konoha was rotten to its core.
Under Hiruzen Sarutobi's leadership, there was no future for Konoha at all.
...
Hiruzen Sarutobi had returned once again to the Uchiha Family Estate.
The issue he needed to resolve now concerned the Cursed Seals on the Uchiha clan members.
Standing before the gathered Uchiha survivors—those who had lost their loved ones and now stared blankly with tear-filled eyes—Hiruzen observed them solemnly.
He glanced toward Sasuke Uchiha, who remained unconscious.
As for Sasuke Uchiha, although Itachi had previously promised not to place a Cursed Seal on him, Itachi secretly allied himself with Chinya without informing Hiruzen. This greatly disappointed Hiruzen.
Therefore, whether or not to place a Cursed Seal upon Sasuke Uchiha left Hiruzen hesitant.
Looking at the Uchiha before him, Hiruzen decided to address this matter first.
Hiruzen spoke: "As Hokage, I deeply mourn what has happened within the Uchiha Clan—I bear responsibility for this tragedy.
I never thought Itachi could hate his own clan so much that he'd team up with Chinya and kill your loved ones.
Just now I learned Chinya claimed we gave the order. Let me make this clear—we would never do such a thing.
Everyone in Konoha knows about Chinya's feud with our leaders. Why on earth would we send someone like him to carry out such an order?
This is just another one of Chinya's schemes to create conflict between Konoha and the Uchiha Clan—please don't fall into his trap.
Secondly, regarding the fact that some Uchiha planned a violent coup—I already knew about it, though not all the details. The reason I hesitated to act was because I couldn't bear the thought of the Uchiha and Konoha growing apart. In my heart, the Uchiha have always been our comrades, our family.
I will overlook everything, and furthermore, will immediately improve your living conditions. However, to prevent such events from happening again in the future, we must take certain preventive measures.
That measure involves placing a Cursed Seal upon each of you—a seal meant to impose restraint. There is nothing to fear; the trigger mechanism for this seal remains in the hands of only a few individuals, and it will cause you absolutely no harm.
Those who agree to accept the Cursed Seal should step forward now. I'll make sure to take care of everything once it's placed."
The remaining Uchiha survivors looked at one another, their eyes filled with fear and uncertainty.
Accepting the Cursed Seal meant surrendering their freedom—it meant their every move could be monitored by men like Hiruzen.
Their leader, Fugaku Uchiha, was already dead, leaving those present completely lost and uncertain about what to do next.
Among them, a few Uchiha who clearly understood the situation realized that refusing the Seal would make life extremely difficult for them in Konoha from now on.
The coup had already failed before it even began—the Cursed Seal was nothing more than punishment for the Uchiha's rebellion.
They had now completely lost their power and influence. If they refused, life in Konoha would become nearly impossible.
An Uchiha clan member rose unsteadily to his feet: "I… I accept."
Once one had accepted, others would surely follow.
Seeing one Uchiha after another agree to accept the cursed seal, Hiruzen Sarutobi began to relax.
In the end, only nine Uchiha refused to accept the cursed seal—everyone else chose to comply.
Hiruzen Sarutobi spoke to those final nine Uchiha: "I understand your feelings. If you change your mind later, feel free to come find me anytime."
Hiruzen Sarutobi departed from the Uchiha Family Estate together with the Uchiha who had accepted the cursed seal and the corpses of those nine who had refused.
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