One day later, inside the Hokage's office, Uchiha Yuan gave Minato Namikaze a detailed account of his experience in the Hidden Rain Village. After listening, Minato furrowed his brows—he hadn't expected that Hanzo the Salamander would actually join forces with Danzo to target Jiraiya-sensei's three disciples.
"Hokage-sama, that's not even the worst part. Root is far more troublesome than we imagined."
"More troublesome? Are there particularly strong individuals among Root's shinobi?" Minato asked urgently.
"Individually, Root shinobi aren't especially powerful, but their coordination and discipline are far superior to the ANBU. Moreover, Root includes members from various secret technique clans. When they cooperate, even a Kage-level shinobi could suffer a loss if caught off guard."
Upon hearing Uchiha Yuan's report, Minato's expression turned grim.
He hadn't realized Root had grown to such a degree.
What was even more outrageous was that the Third Hokage had seemingly done nothing about it.
"Yuan, do you think the Third Hokage is aware of Root's expansion? Or was he deliberately allowing it?" Minato asked after thinking for a long time.
Uchiha Yuan considered, then gave his answer: "I think he knows something. Without the Third Hokage's tacit approval, Root couldn't have grown like this. It's just that the Third Hokage underestimated Danzo's ambition. With his silent permission, Root expanded beyond even his own control."
Uchiha Yuan's view coincided with Minato's own thoughts. After a brief hesitation, Minato turned to his guards and said, "Go notify all of Konoha's senior officials. There will be a high-level meeting tonight."
Minato's guards immediately took action upon receiving the Hokage's order.
Uchiha Yuan also took his leave and teleported to Orochimaru's laboratory.
Over the past few days, Orochimaru had already begun human experimentation on the children.
Uchiha Yuan arrived on the second floor of the lab and happened to see Orochimaru staring excitedly at Yamato inside a glass container.
From Orochimaru's expression, Uchiha Yuan could tell that things were progressing in a positive direction.
"How's Yamato doing?" Uchiha Yuan asked Hyuga Asana, who was recording data beside Orochimaru.
"This child's condition is surprisingly good. He's already passed the most difficult stage—resisting the devouring effect of the First Hokage's cells.
From the strong vitality radiating from his body, it looks like he's already begun to merge with the cells.
As long as nothing goes wrong during the fusion process, he'll likely be the first to successfully merge with the First Hokage's cells."
After listening to Asana's explanation, Uchiha Yuan activated his Sharingan and examined Yamato.
Yamato currently looked as if he were merely asleep—his body, consciousness, and even the First Hokage's cells inside him had all entered a dormant state.
Yet during this slumber, Yamato's physique was gradually transforming to fully adapt to the First Hokage's cells. However, the process was very slow—it would probably take about a year to complete.
After that, Uchiha Yuan looked at the other children. Their conditions were completely different from Yamato's. They were all still stuck at the stage of resisting cell devouring and hadn't even begun the fusion process.
Orochimaru had clearly lost interest in them. All his attention was now focused on Yamato.
Uchiha Yuan then brought up the matter of Danzo and casually informed Orochimaru about the upcoming high-level meeting.
Orochimaru didn't show much reaction—he simply nodded to acknowledge it.
That evening, Uchiha Yuan and Orochimaru left the lab together and headed to the Hokage building.
Since Uchiha Yuan had executed the mission, he naturally had to attend this high-level meeting.
Orochimaru timed his arrival precisely. By the time the two entered, everyone else was already present.
Once all were seated, the meeting formally began.
It was Uchiha Yuan's first time participating in Konoha's high-level meeting. At first, he felt somewhat excited—but after a while, he began yawning.
The meeting was incredibly boring. It started with trivial matters about the village's daily affairs and dragged on for over half an hour.
Just as Uchiha Yuan was about to doze off, Minato finally shifted the topic to the Land of Rain.
The moment the Land of Rain was mentioned, Danzo's expression grew uglier. Before coming to the meeting, he had already sensed that tonight's gathering might be aimed at him—and now, that seemed to be confirmed.
Minato recounted to the high council some of what had transpired in the Land of Rain, directly pointing out that someone had collaborated with Hanzo the Salamander to meddle in the Land of Rain's internal affairs.
"Hokage-sama, do you know who this person is?" Uchiha Fugaku took the lead in asking.
With Fugaku setting the tone, others followed suit—everyone wanted to know who had colluded with Hanzo.
Hearing this, Danzo's face darkened like a scorched pot. Minato clearly intended to push him into a corner.
Sitting not far from Danzo, the Third Hokage saw Danzo's grim face and immediately realized this matter almost certainly involved him.
The Third Hokage sighed. As Danzo's old comrade-in-arms, he still decided to lend him a hand.
"Minato, you've said quite a bit already. Do you have any proof?" The Third Hokage, experienced and cunning from his years in power, struck right at Minato's weak point with one sentence.
The previously noisy meeting room fell silent the moment the Third posed that question. All eyes turned to Minato, waiting to see his evidence.
But Minato didn't actually have any—everything had come from Uchiha Yuan's verbal report.
Minato had called this meeting to pressure Danzo alongside Yuan and make him slip up. They had nearly succeeded—until the Third suddenly stepped in to protect Danzo.
"I have the evidence!" Uchiha Yuan produced a sealing scroll.
"Lord Third, I carried out the mission in the Land of Rain. During it, I encountered some unexpected situations and began investigating. That's how I collected this evidence." As he spoke, Uchiha Yuan prepared to open the scroll.
The Third Hokage's expression changed and he quickly intervened. "Yuan, wait! I think this matter still needs to be thoroughly verified. Revealing the evidence too early could cause problems."
"Lord Third, you were the one who asked for the evidence. Why don't you want to see it now?" Uchiha Yuan asked with a half-smile.
The other high-ranking officials also noticed the Third's strange behavior. None of them were fools—they all realized he was shielding the person who had colluded with Hanzo.
"Hehe, Yuan, you misunderstood. I merely asked if there was evidence—I didn't say I wanted to see it. Put it away," the Third Hokage said with a smile.
"Is that so? But isn't evidence meant to be shown? There's no harm in revealing it early. After all, we already—"
"Yuan, that's enough! Sit down!" Uchiha Fugaku suddenly interrupted.
Uchiha Yuan frowned, wanting to say more, but Minato also intervened, "Yuan, sit down for now. The Third is right."
Uchiha Yuan snorted coldly and put the sealing scroll away. The Third Hokage and Danzo both let out a sigh of relief.
At this point, the meeting was basically over. Everyone now understood that someone among Konoha's top ranks had indeed colluded with Hanzo, and that the Third most likely knew who it was—otherwise, he wouldn't have protected him.
And there were only a few people the Third would openly protect.
Thus, all eyes naturally turned toward Danzo and the two elder advisors.
(To Be Continued...)