It was night.
The Uchiha clan had grown quiet, as the night was always serene. A door to a house opened noiselessly, and a figure stepped out. He cautiously observed his surroundings, and after confirming there were no issues, he quickly closed the door. When the lock gave a soft "click," the figure had already vanished from the doorstep.
Body Flicker Shisui.
The Anbu headquarters sat right next to the Hokage Residence. As the Hokage's direct combat force, the building's location was partly intended to serve as a guard for the Hokage himself. Unlike the Hokage Residence, which was dark and empty at this late hour, the Anbu side was clearly more active.
Hiruzen was not extremely old, but he certainly wasn't young either; calling him an "old man" was appropriate. Consequently, he rarely worked through the night unless there was a truly insurmountable backlog of tasks.
As the Hokage's direct unit, the Anbu wielded immense power, and thus, the affairs they governed and the responsibilities they bore were equally vast. Their workload was perpetually heavy.
The Anbu was a relatively independent department with a massive internal hierarchy that had little overlap with other divisions. For instance, while Konoha had a dedicated Intelligence Division for gathering international intel, the Anbu maintained its own internal intelligence wing. They even had their own strategic planning staff. In essence, while Konoha was a large, complete system, the Anbu was a smaller, fully self-contained system within it.
It was this mature, self-sustaining structure that gave the Hokage his confidence. With such a system at his disposal, the Hokage could bypass the village high councils and implement his will directly.
Of course, from a more "modern" perspective, one might find the Anbu's power excessive, a malformation in the development of the village's hierarchy. In any mature system, the period when a secret service or special enforcement agency is at its zenith often signifies a distortion in growth. Simultaneously, it indicates a high concentration of centralized power.
Historically, when organizations like the NKVD or the Gestapo reached their peak, it reflected that state authority was at its most absolute. In Konoha, at least during Hiruzen's tenure, he succeeded in making the position of Hokage the center of nearly all village power. This was centralization.
In short, the Anbu was still operating at full tilt, showing no signs of slowing down despite the late hour.
Shinnosuke, the eldest son of the Third Hokage and the recognized heir to the Sarutobi clan, was currently the Commander of the Anbu. He was Hiruzen's most trusted right-hand man; his own son, after all. Naturally, he held the reins of the Anbu's power.
Yet, Shinnosuke was a low-profile man. Curiously, despite being the head of the Hokage's secret service, he was remarkably well-liked among the village elite. People usually spoke of him with praise. This was a unique phenomenon in Anbu history. Usually, as the Hokage's "claws and fangs," a commander cannot get too close to the "prey," or they risk losing their master's trust. When a Hokage no longer trusts an Anbu Commander, that commander's career, or life, is over.
Shinnosuke was the exception. Beyond his rank, he was Hiruzen's son; that trust was insurmountable. No matter how he operated, that bond remained unshaken. He was an anomaly in the Anbu.
As the Hokage's son and the head of the Anbu, Shinnosuke didn't technically need to push himself so hard. Simply avoiding mistakes would have been a high standard of performance. Yet, he was incredibly grounded and perpetually busy, a man with a massive drive for his career.
He had even married a colleague within the Anbu. They commuted together and worked the same grueling hours. This resulted in their son, Konohamaru, having a rather lonely childhood. His parents were rarely home, and since Anbu work was top-secret, they couldn't share details with a child prone to slipping up. Thus, despite being the grandson of the Third Hokage and the son of the Anbu Chief, Konohamaru lived like an orphan. His grandfather was buried in work, and his parents were ghosts. It was absurd.
Inside Shinnosuke's office, the lights burned bright. He held a document in his hand, a half-cup of cold tea sat on his desk, and his brow was furrowed as if facing a grave dilemma.
A knock came at the door. Shinnosuke looked up. "Come in."
The door opened slowly, and Shisui appeared. Seeing him, Shinnosuke's frown deepened into an expression of suppressed helplessness.
Over the past few years, Shisui and Shinnosuke had developed a strong rapport. Shinnosuke had intended to win Shisui over, and Shisui was indeed an Uchiha who loved the village, with direct ties to Kagami. Both professionally and personally, they clicked. Compared to five years ago, Shisui was much more relaxed around Shinnosuke, lacking the stiff formality one usually showed a superior.
"What? You look miserable the moment you see me," Shisui joked. However, his smile was forced; he, too, looked burdened.
"Miserable is an understatement. To be honest, my head starts throbbing the moment I see you... because your appearance invariably brings news I don't want to hear. And at this moment in time, that news could bring catastrophe to the village," Shinnosuke said wearily.
Shisui paused. He was a bright man and immediately caught the subtext. "Is the situation that bad?"
"Calling it 'bad' is conservative. 'Disastrous' is more accurate," Shinnosuke replied.
After a moment, Shinnosuke handed the document to Shisui, completely ignoring the security clearance level, a testament to his absolute trust in Shisui.
"See for yourself. Over the last two or three months, we've intercepted four or five infiltration attempts by hostile forces at the border. Based on the clues left behind, we've deduced their identity."
"Kumogakure!?" Shisui's eyes widened as he scanned the file.
"Yes, the Hidden Cloud. That village is dominated by hawks; they never let us rest. The First Ninja World War and the Third Ninja World War were both initiated by them. I'm deeply worried," Shinnosuke said.
Kumogakure, one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, was indeed volatile. After Hashirama passed away, it was Kumo that first challenged Konoha, leading to the First War. That war ended in the complete fragmentation of the five villages because four of the five Kage were killed... sowing deep-seated hatred that fueled the Second and Third Wars.
The Second War was sparked by Hanzo the Salamander, but the Hidden Cloud was the first to "respond" to the call of battle, leading to a global free-for-all. The Third War, which ended only a few years ago, began when the Third Kazekage disappeared; the Cloud immediately invaded the Hidden Sand, triggering a total war.
From this, one could see the reputation Kumogakure held. To other nations, they were the birthplace of hawks and war-mongers.
This was Shinnosuke's headache. Peace had only lasted a few years, and while the nations had recovered some strength, there was no logical reason for a new war to break out; everyone was supposed to be downsizing their militaries. Yet, the Hidden Cloud kept poking around in the shadows, making Shinnosuke suspect a conspiracy.
What if the Cloud was downsizing on the surface while maintaining their strength in secret, waiting for other villages to disarm before launching a surprise attack to restart the war machine? Perhaps their constant scouting of Konoha was to gauge the village's true strength?
With any other village, Shinnosuke wouldn't be this distressed. But with Kumogakure's track record, even if a move seemed irrational, it remained highly probable.
"...Now you know why I didn't want to see you visit at midnight? The village might be on the brink of a war crisis, and your arrival likely confirms that our internal conflicts are about to explode. Shisui, you understand the consequences, don't you?" Shinnosuke said with profound helplessness.
The volatile Hidden Cloud might start a new war, and Konoha wasn't ready. If the Uchiha Clan chose this moment to stir up trouble from within, Konoha, the long-standing leader of the five villages, might actually collapse.
Internal strife and external threats, that was the current reality.
What worried Shinnosuke even more was the timing. Was the Uchiha's unrest a coincidence... or did they have some secret understanding with Kumogakure? A coincidence would be one thing, but the latter would be an absolute disaster.
Shinnosuke didn't know yet that Kumogakure was actually downsizing as well, because they too couldn't afford a massive standing army anymore. Their current behavior was actually a new strategy by the Fourth Raikage, A.
In simple terms, it was "war blackmail."
The Fourth Raikage realized that the other nations viewed the Hidden Cloud as an unstable, dangerous factor likely to spark another war. It was a historical precedent. Kumogakure had been the instigator so often that the image was burned into everyone's mind. A decided to weaponize this reputation to extort benefits from other villages.
In the original timeline, they used this war blackmail to try and obtain the Byakugan from Konoha, ultimately leading to the death of Neji's father, Hizashi. That event happened around this very time.
Coincidentally, the relationship between the Uchiha and Konoha was also at its most precarious. Looking at the big picture, these events were all inextricably linked.