บท 326: Action.

In the evening, Sakumo made the order, and the Anbu lurking in the village immediately began to act.

First, there was the 3rd. Since his retirement, and especially after Minato's death, this man wouldn't go out unless there's a large conference or if he was invited by Sakumo.

Most of his time was spent around Konohamaru. He was rather fond with his grandchild.

Therefore, he would only get information through his Anbu, who were now isolated by Sakumo's. Their structure was already figured out by Kakashi, and all those who were responsible for intelligence were detained temporarily by Sakumo.

Then, the Yamanaka clan helped Sakumo's Anbu get the memories and methods of the 3rd's Anbu, which helped him solidify their state of ignorance. Now the 3rd would only get the information Sakumo wanted him to get.

On top of that, Sakumo ordered Shisui to guard the 3rd's house: "If anyone tried to get to the Sandaime, detain them. If they put up too much resistance, kill them!"

The rest of the Anbu were led by Kakashi, disguised as thugs with the Transformation Jutsu to start harassing the villagers the next day.

The next day, people found themselves with no money in their pockets to pay for breakfast, sellers found their goods disappearing, and many villagers found that their hard earned funds disappeared!

This lasted for three days before the villagers couldn't help but contact the Hokage who seemingly wasn't doing anything about this.

The people chose a 70 years old civilian, a highly respected old man, to lead a group that delivered a letter that they agreed upon to the Hokage.

Sakumo looked at the report letter on his table, looked back at the villagers, and pretended to sigh.

Seeing that, these people had their eyes wide open and they asked with concern: "Hokage sama, is the village unable to deal with these problems?"

"Well, actually, these matters had always been dealt with in the village through the Uchiha clan, but they had disaster strike them a few days ago. That, along with the villager's dissatisfaction with the clan made them disheartened, and they have resigned from the duty of preserving security. I couldn't refuse their resignation, given the circumstances, and now, I cannot think of a way to deal with this!"

Sakumo's words revealed this heavy dilemma to the villagers, and everyone listening had rather complicated feelings. They had always thought that the guards from the Uchiha clan weren't of much use, just harassing them while being all high and mighty for nothing.

Now however, after all that happened, they understood the important role of the Uchiha in the stability of the village.

Slowly, their feelings of hatred began to be mixed with frustration. However, Sakumo knew that hatred was too strong, and that frustration could be directed towards anyone. Therefore, he had Aoki, a member of the Anbu that had always been disguised as a civilian, come with these people.

To hit the iron while it's hot, Aoki said what Sakumo told him to say at this point: "Hokage sama, perhaps the Uchiha should get their old role back in the Security department. We might be…"

"Enough, Aoki!" The oldest of the villagers interrupted Aoki, and then bid farewell to Sakumo: "I am sorry to bother you, Hokage sama. You must have many things to do; please excuse us!"

"You're excused! I still have to think about this dilemma."

The old man bowed and left with the rest of the villagers.

As they were walking out, Aoki asked the old man: "Uncle, why didn't you let me continue?"

The old man glanced at Aoki and said: "We need to keep face, kid! Just a few days ago, we were celebrating the Uchiha's demise, and now we go back to them asking for help?"

"But uncle, the Uchiha are also Ninjas of Konoha; protecting us is their duty!" Aoki whispered…

"I've lived 70 years, son, and I've witnessed 5 Hokages so far. The most memorable of them to me is the 1st; do you know why?"

Aoki didn't know what to say and shook his head. He really had no answer, and no idea why the old man brought this up now."

"It's because during his era, the feelings of the people in the village towards each other were the warmest. Back then, everyone coexisted in peace and worked together for the future of Konoha. After his death however, when his brother became Hokage, everything change. The people turned jealous of the Uchiha bit by bit, and the Nidaime's disciples were all arrogant and despised the Uchiha. After his death, Danzo, Homura and Koharu san all inherited those feelings. What I want to say is, the Uchiha we despise today, the Uchiha we've celebrated when disaster stuck them, they were born out of the Nidaime's policies, and we are all accomplices!" The old man's voice showed more and more pain.

"Uncle, the Uchiha are filled with hatred, they're known for that, and we have nothing to do with it!" said another young man.

The old man shook his head and said: "Their hatred has everything to do with us. I just told you, they haven't been this way back in the day; their hatred is born out of our own! The Uchiha have long had their disputes with the top echelon of Konoha's elders, and these elders are likely to use our hatred to make them disappeared. Their slaughtering, which we celebrated, we all know it happened, but have we ever wondered who was behind it? No one knows for sure, and no one is bothering to ask!"

Aoki was shocked upon hearing all of this. He never expected this old man to have such deep insight, far exceeding all of the Anbu that he had ever worked with. His task was to get similar thoughts into the villagers' minds, but with the wisdom of this old man, this was no longer necessary. Now, he only needed to find a way to spread that Danzo had dug out many of the Uchiha's eyes, and this old man should do everything necessary.

Thinking about this, he continued to ask: "Uncle… this question…. It's too hard for me to find a suspect!"

The old man glanced at him, with a smile of bitterness on his face: "A family as large as the Uchiha, how could they be killed off so quietly? Even the Anbu did not intervene; don't you feel that this is a bit strange? The answer is clear, kid: Some of the village's top executives are behind this!"