Naruto - Minato Namikaze SI - Chapter 255 - The Movement of Shadows in Konoha.

[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.] Third Person POV Konoha, Year 42. ... ... Time went by and, soon, days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into

[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Konoha, Year 42.
...

...

Time went by and, soon, days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months.
The village's atmosphere continued to flow with the same gloomy tone, but no one knew exactly what that meant, even as time passed.

But some things became quite visible.
The Uchiha clan began to receive various sanctions from the village, taxes started to increase on the clan, while missions to investigate them were being conducted all the time.

The Uchihas weren’t idiots; they noticed the village’s advance on their affairs, and how it seemed the village was spying on them.
Many questions began to be raised. Even the Uchihas began to act more hostile while patrolling the village, causing people to feel even more negative emotions toward them — much more than they already had before, turning it into a massive snowball.

At the same time, Minato, being an official student of Sakumo Hatake, quickly became public knowledge, while people were surprised to learn that Minato Namikaze — who was still referred to as a war hero — had become a swordsman in the Hatake style, something not even his son seemed willing to learn after the fallout with his father.

The gossip began among ninjas and civilians, since Minato’s reputation hadn’t been destroyed — although he knew that, on his missions, they were becoming slightly more sensitive to any mistakes, seeming like the elders were also waiting for the perfect opportunity for him to slip up so they could try to bring him down publicly like they did with Sakumo.

Minato was quite clever regarding any movement of his team, while Hiruzen and Danzou assumed he didn’t know they had infiltrated people there to try to monitor or act against him.
What they expected was that Minato wouldn’t think twice about abandoning members like those from ROOT, as had already happened before. Since they were just Danzou’s dogs, he didn’t mind seeing them die, pretending he tried to save them or even preferring to choose the mission over saving them — something similar to what happened with Sakumo, but Minato didn’t care about seeing them die in front of him.

Members had already died in his team, at least three from ROOT, including one who was killed by one of the Uchihas.
Hiruzen even commented that he was surprised by the fatality rate occurring in his team — considering that Minato had been quite exemplary managing Camp 12 during the end of the war, with zero deaths.

Minato simply said it happened and that he felt sorry for the dead ninjas.
He ended that subject while Hiruzen continued assigning him missions.

Today, in particular, he had a mission: he had to investigate the surroundings of the Uchiha clan, trying to find any resemblance linking the two Uchihas he faced at the border of the Land of Waterfalls, trying to connect them so that, if they were traitors, they could be identified before Danzou had the power to decide something drastic.

The mission was simple. They stayed for a week, every night, observing entries and exits, from afar using binoculars.
The Uchihas were already suspicious, as they always looked around, with some even activating their Sharingan to search for nearby chakra.

Meanwhile, Minato and his team remained at a distance. As Minato’s team behaved fluidly, he didn’t mind being detected, with his haki alerting him if they were seen, but not all ambush teams were so efficient — since the Uchihas wouldn’t be so suspicious if they hadn’t already noticed or caught someone from the village spying on them.

In the end, they were sent back to the western border in search of the Uchiha ninjas and even to carry out missions inside the Land of Waterfalls, looking for any trace, while he could feel the White Zetsus watching them from underground — especially him — already identifying him, furious that he had ended up with two Mangekyō Sharingans.
But Minato didn’t care. If they came out seeking revenge, it would be an opportunity for Minato to destroy the entire team himself.

He finished the mission a week later, and when he returned to Konoha, he went to the hidden area of the Senju clan, with Nawaki by his side again, while a figure appeared holding his kunai. It was Mazu Uchiha, who looked at the two in front of him with narrowed eyes.
"Mikoto told me you have answers. About why the village is acting strange and investigating us, pressuring my clan?" Mazu said, looking at Minato.
"Yes. I called you here because you've also become a target of part of the village leadership," Minato said, finding that the perfect moment to bring the Uchihas in, despite their last confrontation not having made him very liked among them. Even so, Mazu remained cautious.

"What do you mean? Why are they acting like this?" Mazu asked. He didn’t understand the village’s shift and got no answers even when confronting the Hokage directly in one of their meetings.
"I found two Uchihas who were supposed to be dead at the western border," Minato began to explain the situation, while Mazu raised an eyebrow, stunned.
"Mangekyō Sharingan? They had those eyes, being two Uchihas who were supposed to be dead or missing!?" Mazu couldn’t be more surprised by that.
"Exactly. The village suspects you're planning something, and they believe you have some connection with those two Uchihas," Minato said, omitting that he had taken one of the pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan. Then he continued.

"Either way, you should know the Second Hokage never looked kindly upon your clan. That carried over to his students, who now lead the village. Naturally, things wouldn’t be good for the Uchihas. At the first opportunity they get, they’ll back you into a corner," Minato said, while Mazu seemed thoughtful, before looking at him with a serious glint in his eyes.
"Why are you telling me this? What do you want? You know you're not someone liked by our clan," he said.
"No, I’m not," Minato said. "And I don’t regret that, if you ask me. Either way, we have a common enemy, and we have to stop the village leadership before they start committing atrocities."

Minato began to expose the whole situation of the Uzumaki to the leader of the Uchiha clan, who listened attentively, also surprised by it.
"When the time comes, I want the support of many clans to pressure the Hokage about aiding our allies. That will give us a chance to weaken the elders. Because the way they’re treating your clan is unfair, and I’m sure those two Uchihas have nothing to do with you," he said.
"You want to overthrow the Hokage?" Mazu asked, in a low voice.
Minato shook his head. "There’s no way to do that now... but it’s possible to apply pressure. However, the worst enemy you could have is Danzou. Him, yes — we can take down once and for all," he said in a serious tone.

Mazu nodded, saying he would think about it, as he returned to the clan after Minato teleported him again.

"Well, that's it for now. Let's call our next guest," Minato said, while Nawaki nodded.
"She must be furious after waiting this long," he muttered, as Minato formed hand seals to bring in the next person.

Tsunade appeared with a not-so-friendly look, placing her hand on her hip and glaring at Nawaki and Minato.
"You made me wait an hour! Even Shizune thinks I'm going crazy — she saw me awake with a kunai in my hand in the middle of the room!" she said, visibly dissatisfied.
"Well, anyway, Tsunade, let’s start the plan," Minato said, while Nawaki swallowed hard.
"So, you've gathered all the allies?" she asked, but Minato shook his head.
"I never said I’d gather them. I only said I’d make everyone see what’s happening in the village. Now, whether they’ll help us or not is another story. Anyway, we have almost all the major clans — except the Hyuuga — aware of the situation, and none of them have reported us to the elders, which makes me think they’re willing to take our side," Minato explained.
"Why weren’t the Hyuuga called?"
"Well, you know about the incidents... Minato put most of their elders in the hospital, so I don’t think it would be a good idea to approach them right now," Nawaki replied for Minato.
"Whatever... let’s begin the transplant of Nawaki’s arm," she said, staring at them.
"Yes. Soon, everything will be quite chaotic. So it’s good that we’re at full strength," Minato said, while Nawaki nodded. His arm had been ready for months. Tsunade had achieved what many hadn’t even tried, like Danzou. He was getting desperate not being able to replicate mokuton to make an arm for himself, even while having Nawaki’s original arm.

"Besides that, I need to ask for something you both won’t like. But it’ll be necessary to use as proof against Danzou. You want justice for what he’s done, and this will help." Minato spoke and began to explain what he intended, with neither of them liking the idea due to what he was suggesting.

In the following days, Minato left on his missions, and Nawaki had also departed. Tsunade went to visit her mother outside the village, while the Senju clan was left only with Kushina Namikaze, surrounded by her ANBU teams.

And everything seemed normal on a certain night, until, suddenly, a battle broke out within the clan, with explosions and the sounds of fighting making all the ANBU guarding Kushina rush to the scene.
They found Hashirama’s grave half-open and two fallen ninjas on the ground, wearing cloaks, with exploded paper bombs and many kunai scattered on the floor.
"What is this?" one of them murmured.
"Quick, we must inform the Hokage!"
With that, someone went to alert the Hokage. Hiruzen immediately appeared at the location, with Kushina on the balcony of her house, watching the commotion. The Hokage simply ordered them to take the bodies of the two dead ninjas.

They were taken to a secret area of the village, where no one else saw them, with the Hokage stating he would investigate, placing the bodies under the care of very trusted individuals while Hiruzen analyzed them, noticing perfect cuts on their necks. After a brief kunai fight, their opponents had been extremely fast. He wondered who had done that.

It was then that Danzou appeared in the hallway, approaching him, with Hiruzen giving him an unfriendly look.
"Explain yourself now!" Hiruzen ordered in the next moment, as Danzou came near him.

Defiling the First Hokage’s grave was beyond the things Hiruzen imagined Danzou capable of.
"I'm doing this for research. The arm I took during the war wasn’t enough to access the real source of Mokuton. Don’t you understand this is the only way to create a powerful force using the power of the First Hokage," he said, already knowing Hiruzen was about to punish him.
And the arm he was referring to was Nawaki’s own, which made everything even more serious, but Hiruzen seemed to have allowed it.

"Danzou, this has gone too far. I won’t allow you to keep carrying out missions as ROOT pleases. I want reports now on all your activities. You’re lucky we caught this before anyone else did, because if this went public, it would be a scandal," Hiruzen said, clearly furious.

Danzou said nothing, despite the rage visible in the gleam of his eyes, as his gaze returned to the fallen bodies.
"Who did this?" he asked, but Hiruzen shook his head.
"We don’t know. When we found the bodies, they were already dead. Only a few sounds of fighting were heard by the team guarding the Nine-Tails' Jinchuuriki," Hiruzen explained.

But Danzou had an even narrower gaze.
"Be aware that there were three ROOT ninjas sent to retrieve Hashirama’s body, not two. One is missing… and I can’t find him," Danzou said, with a sharp look, as Hiruzen’s eyes widened in surprise at that.