The twilight pressed down on Konoha like a heavy lump of lead.
The title of 'Number One Shinobi Village', once unparalleled in the shinobi world, still hung high, but its inner glory as the 'sole superpower' had long since faded.
The gazes of Sunagakure, Kirigakure, Iwagakure, and Kumogakure were like tangible blades, cutting away at Konoha's former majesty.
That overwhelming deterrent force that could silence the entire Shinobi World had already vanished without a trace.
Among them, Kumogakure, relying on its formidable strength and this diplomatic 'victory', grew increasingly arrogant. They pressed forward step by step, fangs bared, not even concealing their ambition to pull Konoha down from the Shinobi World's throne.
Anyone with clear eyes could see that if Konoha's F4 continued this style of governance, adept at internal strife, incompetent in external conflicts, and without a major turning point, or the birth of a 'God of Shinobi' like the Shodaime Hokage who could sweep across the world, or a 'Asura of the Shinobi World' as despair-inducing as Uchiha Madara...
Then Kumogakure's overall strength surpassing Konoha's would merely be a matter of time.
Within Konoha, the ancient clans possessing Kekkei Genkai had witnessed the entire process of the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, handling the abduction of Uchiha Makoto and Kumogakure's blackmail.
Their reaction was not one of angry clamor, but a heart-palpitating, stagnant-water-like silence.
This was not acceptance, it was the ultimate indifference born of disappointment accumulated to a freezing point.
The various Clan Heads either shut their doors tightly, their clan's compounds filled with the oppressive atmosphere of an impending storm, or sat in high-level meetings with faces as dark as water, their eyes sharp as knives.
Hiruzen's prestige was collapsing and disintegrating at an unprecedented rate within the hearts of these helmsmen who held Konoha's core power.
Few who could sit firmly in the position of Clan Head were fools.
The sordid calculations of the Konoha higher-ups, of 'wanting to prevent the Uchiha bloodline from leaking out, yet not daring to break openly with Kumogakure and go to war', were already glaringly obvious.
The lack of a large-scale, public rescue effort simply meant they were preparing to let Makoto 'disappear' permanently and completely within Kumogakure.
Konoha at this moment was like a volcano suppressed to its limit. Silent magma surged beneath a thick crust of rock, accumulating energy sufficient to incinerate everything, waiting for the opportunity to erupt.
…
Hyuga Clan's Compound.
Hiashi stood alone in his plain white kimono under the long corridor. The afterglow of the setting sun stretched his tall figure long, but it could not dispel the desolation and heaviness in his eyes.
The ones who suffered the most severe losses in this incident were undoubtedly the Hyuga Clan. The blood of Hyuga Clan's Branch Family's Shinobi had stained the land of the Land of Hot Water.
And that venomous snake, Shimura Danzo, was still using the death of the Kumogakure's leader as a pretext to continuously subject the Hyuga Clan to bone-gnawing, marrow-sucking 'pressure'.
His gaze pierced through layers upon layers of ancient buildings, finally settling on the enormous Hokage Rock on the distant mountainside.
The stone-carved face of the Sandaime Hokage was indistinct in the twilight, but within the depths of Hiashi's Byakugan, extremely complex emotions now churned.
Anger at Hiruzen's tacit approval of Danzo's suppression of them, bone-deep disappointment at the incompetence of the Konoha's leadership, and... a strong sense of 'if the rabbit dies, the fox mourns', the chilling cold of shared peril when lips are gone and teeth are exposed.
He never would have thought that Kumogakure's brazen, bandit-like plunder of the core clans' Kekkei Genkai in Konoha could be so heinously vile!
And that Sarutobi Hiruzen, as Hokage, would only mount a grand but starting strong but finishing weak 'Land of Hot Water Operation', using the lives of their Hyuga Clan's Branch Family's Shinobi to fill the gap, and then... there was nothing more.
Hiruzen's so-called 'Will of Fire', that legacy of protection and sacrifice extolled by countless people, in the face of naked interest balancing and cowardly appeasement, appeared so pale and powerless, so fragile and vulnerable.
Hiashi slowly, heavily shook his head.
This subtle movement contained his complete rejection of the Sandaime Hokage. Hiashi withdrew his gaze from the Hokage Rock.
His line of sight turned towards the direction of the Uchiha Clan's compound, lingering there for a long time, his eyes deep, lost in thought.
Finally, he turned, his gaze falling deep into the courtyard.
In the corner under the corridor, Hinata still clung tightly to the scarf Makoto had given her that night.
She sat in the same spot every day at the same time, her small body curled up, her pure white pupils unblinking, stubbornly gazing in the direction of the clan's compound's main gate.
Those large, clear eyes were filled with expectation untainted by any impurity, as if in the next moment, that half-grown boy with black hair and black eyes would push the gate open and walk in with his familiar smile.
Looking at his daughter's innocent yet stubborn profile, Hiashi took a deep breath of the cool evening air and made a decision he deemed 'necessary'.
The fact that the boy named Uchiha Makoto... would never return, must absolutely not be told to Hinata.
He could not bear to see his daughter's heartbroken expression.
Let this hopeless wait, with the passage of time, slowly fade within her young heart... even though the thought itself carried a cruel, dull ache.
The setting sun completely sank, the last trace of daylight swallowed by the heavy evening haze. Konoha village sank into a murky shadow.
Beneath the seemingly tranquil night, silent fissures were wildly growing and spreading under the fragile facade of 'peace'.
…
These past few days felt as long as several years, even decades, to Itachi.
He stood on a roof at the edge of the Uchiha Clan's compound, his cool gaze piercing through the night, tightly fixed on the direction of the Hokage Tower.
It was brightly lit, but no effective methods for a forceful rescue of Makoto had ever been announced. The signal he waited for had never lit up.
The young man's handsome face now held no expression, only those pitch-black eyes churning with a complexity and heaviness far beyond his years.
At this moment, because of Hiruzen's inaction, Makoto's words, spoken partly in jest yet utterly serious, echoed in his mind like a curse, repeating over and over.
'Itachi, remember, if one day I 'suicided', or 'disappeared', Konoha will definitely not take action, because they are inevitably involved.'
Remembering Danzo's figure from a few days ago, a deep complexity flashed in Itachi's eyes, along with Makoto's subsequent, suggestive whisper.
"If you truly want to see how pure the Sandaime old fogey's Will of Fire is, when you have time, you might as well quietly take a trip to the Sarutobi Clan's compound. The answer is there."
Itachi had not dared to think in this direction before. But now, having personally witnessed the Konoha's leadership's cold and indifferent handling of the abduction of his younger brother, Uchiha Makoto...
The extreme pain in his heart forced him to think in this direction.
Once the seed of distrust was completely sown, it frantically absorbed the nutrients of reality, taking root and sprouting.
Not long ago, they had tried to help Orochimaru ascend to the position of Godaime Hokage.
He hadn't trusted Orochimaru from the start, but Makoto had vouched for Orochimaru using 'the Sandaime Hokage's lofty reputation in his heart'.
Then, not long after, Orochimaru defected. At that time, he had felt some doubt towards the Sandaime Hokage, but he hadn't dared to think deeply about the possible oversight or tacit approval behind it.
Moreover, afterwards, Makoto had told him an even more chilling piece of news.
Makoto said that through his inquiries in various places, he discovered that the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, had actually known about Orochimaru's forbidden research all along.
The darkness of the Konoha's leadership was far deeper and thicker than the shadows under the sun.
These two events were like two huge explosions, violently striking the pristine statue named 'Sandaime Hokage' in Itachi's heart.
Cracks spread, fragments fell rustling. His trust in the Konoha leadership, his pure faith in the Will of Fire, was shaken unprecedentedly.
The young man's cool figure stood in the night wind for a long time. Finally, he moved slightly, like a light leaf.
Silently merging into the darkness, he went to find Shisui, so they could go together to the Sarutobi Clan's compound to see the 'truth' Makoto spoke of!