Naruto: I am Uchiha Shirou-Chapter 337: Naruto: I am Uchiha Shirou []

Konoha.

As night gradually fell, it was clear that something major had happened in Konoha these past few days. Some sharp-nosed ninja had already sensed something was off.

Recently, all ninjas in the village were permitted to enter but not leave. Only special teams carrying orders from the Hokage herself could come and go.

After the many ninjas from the Sarutobi, Mitokado, and Koharu clans returned, none of them went out again. This was exactly what they wanted.

Inside a house—

"Homura, Tsunade doesn't want us to send any message to Danzo. She wants him dead!" Koharu's face was dark. In their view, Tsunade's recent actions were a trap, waiting for Shimura Danzo to come back and fall into her net.

Mitokado Homura nodded grimly as well.

"We can't get any information out. Why did Danzo have to leave at this time? Now he's back, what can he even do? Root is gone! Even the research inside the Root base has been exposed by Tsunade. Danzo is finished!"

"Even if Danzo doesn't want to leave, Tsunade will surely lure him out. This whole thing is a setup!"

With heavy expressions, Homura and Koharu were convinced that the removal of Danzo, the lockdown of Konoha, and the power grab were all part of Tsunade's premeditated plan.

But they didn't know: if Danzo had still been in Konoha, Tsunade wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble.

"We've reached the point of no return," Koharu said. "All the elites of the Sarutobi clan are back. With their strength, combined with ours, we can completely change Konoha!"

"Homura! Don't hesitate. Danzo has no chance to be Hokage anymore, but isn't that perfect? If he got on top, we'd have headaches. We just sent Tsunade off, and then Danzo would take her place!"

Koharu was afraid of supporting Danzo to the top. After all, the fate of the Shimura clan showed that if Danzo took power, the next day he'd start attacking the families of his old friends.

Maybe others would just threaten, but Danzo dared to do it.

Homura frowned, finally sighing helplessly and nodding.

"We have no other choice. We don't want to do a coup, but Tsunade is forcing our hand. Since she's preparing to arrest Danzo, she must have made preparations ahead of time. The elite within the village have probably already been redeployed these past two days!"

"You mean—!?" Koharu seemed to realize something, her expression tense. This was a coup, after all!

Homura's face hardened. He gritted his teeth.

"We can't turn back now. The longer we wait, the more unpredictable things get. Tomorrow night, we start the coup! As long as our three clans work together, our ninja corps will surround the Hokage building. At that moment, we'll push Jiraiya to the top!"

"Jiraiya!? Is he up to it? He's Tsunade's companion!"

"Hmph! Don't worry about Jiraiya's character. For the sake of the village's stability, he'll have no choice but to accept. We'll exile Tsunade, forbid her from ever returning to Konoha, and Jiraiya will have no reason not to accept!"

"Fine! That's the plan! After we exile Tsunade, we'll leak the information to Akatsuki. Hmph! Konoha doesn't need this kind of instability!"

Homura and Koharu exchanged glances, both showing cold, determined faces.

This was all Tsunade's fault!

Logically, they had accurately grasped Jiraiya's mentality, but the information gap between both sides led to a world of difference.

That very night, Homura and Koharu secretly summoned several high-level members of the three clans to discuss the coup for the next day.

But under the dark night, a shadow quietly slipped away, heading toward the Hokage building.

...

Hokage Office.

The ninja who returned after completing the mission to capture the S-rank rogue ninja Shimura Danzo all looked grim and tense—none relaxed.

Though they only captured his corpse, that was enough.

His pale arm of Wood Release cells and the horrifying Sharingan—all this shocked everyone in the Hokage's office, making the jōnin's faces look extremely grim.

"Everyone! The evidence is irrefutable. All the proof is here! The previous three generations of Hokage's advisers have already betrayed the village and the Will of Fire!" ƒreewebɳovel.com

Tsunade slammed the table in anger. Danzo's corpse was right in front of everyone, along with all the scrolls found in Root.

Even if these weren't enough evidence, Danzo's human experiments alone sealed the fate of the third Hokage's advisers.

Could Danzo have done all this alone?

Without collaborators, without collusion, how could Root have become so large? Is it possible the third Hokage knew nothing about these inhumane experiments?

No one was a fool. If Danzo had done all this by himself, Konoha would have changed rulers long ago.

Though the Fifth Hokage Tsunade didn't mention the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen by name, every word pointed to him.

The three Hokage advisers had secretly researched the First Hokage's cells and the village's bloodlines—they had betrayed the village! This was already an ironclad fact.

Just then, someone burst into the Hokage office and instantly met with the grave gazes of hundreds of jōnin.

"Hokage-sama!"

The ninja cried out. Tsunade frowned, waved her hand, and barked:

"Speak! Everyone here is loyal to the village. No need to hide anything! Let's all see what these three bloodsucking parasites and their clans are really up to!"

Tsunade slammed the desk angrily. She had already received some information over the past few days: the three clans were plotting a coup.

"Hokage-sama! We have confirmation: the previous advisers, Mitokado Homura and Koharu, secretly gathered the three clans' leaders tonight. They've decided to launch a coup tomorrow night! They'll surround the Hokage building and install Jiraiya as the Sixth Hokage!"

Damn!

Jiraiya was right there among the crowd. Hearing this, his face instantly turned green, his eyes wide.

"Tsunade! I didn't—! Everyone! I've always been with you all!"

At this point, Jiraiya felt so wronged and stifled! He had nothing to do with this—how did he suddenly get dragged in?

The reporting ninja awkwardly continued:

"This has nothing to do with Jiraiya-sama. It was the decision of the two former advisers... They said that given Jiraiya-sama's personality, he wouldn't refuse for the village's sake.

On the surface, they promised Jiraiya-sama wouldn't do anything extreme to Tsunade-sama, just exile her from Konoha. Jiraiya-sama would have to accept, and then they'd secretly leak Tsunade-sama's whereabouts to Akatsuki..."

All the jōnin in the office looked thunderstruck.

Such a meticulous plan—even the post-coup cleanup was flawless. These two old foxes might not be great in war, but when it comes to internal strife, they're masters.

But if it weren't for outside intervention, Tsunade would have been stuck between a rock and a hard place. These two were indeed adept at dealing with their own.

Jiraiya's expression changed drastically upon hearing of the coup, and when he heard about the plan to betray Tsunade to Akatsuki, his face darkened.

"I don't care anymore! Tsunade, handle this however you want!"

Jiraiya was livid, throwing up his hands in frustration—he was done.

He'd originally thought that with Danzo's corpse on display, the three clans would recognize reality, but before they even learned of Danzo's death, they'd already set their sights on him.

"Everyone!"

"Hokage-sama!"

Tsunade's face was extremely grim, and the jōnin all looked at her, equally grave.

"The Sarutobi, Mitokado, and Koharu clans are conspiring a coup. The evidence is conclusive!"

When Tsunade slammed the table and brought the issue into the open, everyone knew this couldn't end peacefully.

Since the other side already started an armed coup, if the Fifth Hokage Tsunade didn't strike back, she'd be a fool.

"The Hyuga clan is willing to follow the Fifth Hokage's orders and suppress the rebellion!"

Hyuga Hiashi shouted. The Hyuga clan had boarded Tsunade's ship and there was no turning back.

The three clans had no more chance.

"Hatake Kakashi is willing to help the Hokage suppress the rebellion!"

"Might Guy, willing..."

"The Yamanaka clan..."

"The Nara clan..."

As one after another, the clans and jōnin in the office loudly pledged to suppress the rebellion, Tsunade's grim expression eased just slightly.

But Tsunade's anger still burned. How long had it been? These old geezers already treated Konoha as their personal property.

She knew Konoha had been founded by her grandfather! Maybe she could understand outsiders, but these old men were just heartless.

Or rather—too greedy for power!

"Tonight! While the three clans' leaders are meeting, we can't wait any longer! We attack tonight!"

Tsunade was more furious than ever. These old fools thought they could rebel against her. Did they think her reputation was just talk?

"Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi, you're responsible for... The Hyuga clan is responsible for..."

As Tsunade issued her orders forcefully, the ninjas present all looked grave.

Yamanaka Inoichi, Nara Shikaku, and Akimichi Choza wore bitter, helpless smiles—they felt stifled.

Homura and Koharu were just too greedy, even daring to plan a coup!

Before, it was just a power struggle between the old and new Hokage, and Tsunade wouldn't have gone after them afterward.

But they just couldn't accept losing power.

Even at their age, they still dared to plot a coup, wanting to become Konoha's shadow Hokage.

"Yes! Nara, Yamanaka, and Akimichi accept the mission!"

The three gathered their complicated feelings. This was their chance—if they served as the vanguard to suppress the rebellion, all would be forgiven.

"ANBU, follow me! We strike tonight—catch them off guard and end this rebellion!"

Tsunade waved her hand decisively, determined to personally lead the ANBU.

This wasn't like the Uchiha, who had talked about a coup for years and never acted.

But the three clans had delivered hard evidence of their coup attempt—who could they blame?

The next moment, the brightly lit Hokage building was filled with prepared jōnin, and the ANBU entered full combat readiness.

Meanwhile, across the night, many off-duty elite ninjas were awakened and received secret missions from the ANBU.

Some were tasked with covertly safeguarding Konoha's security.

Some were given orders without knowing what for, simply told to report to certain locations.

All medical ninjas in the hospital were summoned to full readiness!

In less than half an hour, the whole of Konoha was at its highest alert, while countless villagers still slept, unaware of the turmoil outside.

All over Konoha's rooftops under the night sky, ninja flickered and leaped about.

On the power pole of the Sarutobi clan, a dark shadow appeared, revealing a bewitching Mangekyō Sharingan under the moonlight.

"Sasuke!"

From the darkness emerged Uchiha Itachi, who saw the figure crouched on the pole.

This familiar scene seemed to take him back to that blood-soaked night when he couldn't sleep.

"Itachi!"

Seeing Itachi appear, Sasuke gave a cold smile. The roles of the Uchiha had reversed tonight!

"This village twisted the Will of Fire. The people who forced the Uchiha into ugliness will see their blood tonight—but none of this excuses your crimes, Itachi!"

"Tonight, you'll see with your own eyes the ugly demise of the clans you once saw as Konoha's foundation and abandoned your own for!"

Sasuke's Mangekyō spun rapidly, his gaze tinged with madness.

"Itachi! If you and Shisui had joined forces with Father back then, Konoha wouldn't have dared to touch our clan!

This village was built by our clan and the Senju—what are they compared to us Uchiha..."

Sasuke's hoarse voice was filled with endless rage.

All of this was the fault of those rotten old men, but Itachi was guilty too!

He wouldn't forgive just because Itachi was his brother—not like Naruto would.

He was a sane Uchiha!

"Sasuke!"

Itachi's eyes dimmed. Seeing Sasuke's anger, he felt only guilt.

These years, he dreamed of that bloody night—he'd been lost and wondered if he had been wrong.

He shouldn't have planned Sasuke's life or the clan's future!

But it was all too late. Fortunately, Sasuke had returned to Konoha, and for that, Itachi was grateful.

"The operation begins! Itachi, after tonight's bloodshed, it'll be your turn to atone for the Uchiha!"

Sasuke gave Itachi a cold look and disappeared from the pole. Itachi seemed to understand and nodded slightly.

"Sasuke! I'll be waiting for you at the Uchiha compound!"

In that instant, the Uchiha brothers parted ways, yet their shadows overlapped.

PS: Poor table...