The results came out quickly.
The person who had confessed in public was only brought to the Police Force for questioning and was soon released, which made many people who had been worried breathe a sigh of relief. If that guy was fine, then they would probably be fine too.
However, because of the prior wave of public opinion, almost no one believed that Hiruzen was being magnanimous. After all, it was a fact that he had flown into a rage and screamed furiously in the Hokage's office. So many people thought he was just putting on a show by releasing the person, trying to silence the public.
It was just that no one said it out loud. But in many people's hearts, their perception of him had fundamentally changed.
As Hiruzen listened to the updates from the ANBU, he grew more and more despondent. He truly hated this feeling of having no privacy. Every word he said, every action he took, someone would spread it, and not just spread it, but with malicious intent. But in the next moment, his eyes suddenly flashed with a fierce gleam.
"Fukuyama, is it? You're quite something! Even if I'm no longer Hokage, I will never let you live in peace."
---
Meanwhile, the completely unaware Fukuyama was in a great mood, because Shin had arrived.
At that moment, they were sitting across from each other in a secret chamber in his home.
"Shin, try this tea," he said with a beaming smile. "I specially had it shipped from the Land of Tea through a unique channel. I'm the only one in all of Konoha who has it, not even the Hyūga clan gets to drink this."
Shin took a sip, but didn't find it any different from the tea he usually drank. He cut straight to the point. "You had someone secretly contact Tsunade to arrange this meeting with me, what's the reason?"
"I'm here to apologize," Fukuyama said sincerely. "About what happened back then... I'm truly sorry."
"Oh?" Shin said. "The head of the Uchiha clan apologizing to someone who was cast out? That's unexpected."
"I mean it from the bottom of my heart. Back then, I was actually firmly against it, you can verify that. Really. If the order had come from the Hokage, I would never have gone along with it. After all, the Uchiha clan doesn't let people trample on us so easily. But at the time, Kagami insisted he had seen you steal the Sharingan from a fallen ninja, and he made a huge fuss about it. And..."
"And you did find a pair of Sharingan in my home during the search."
"Right..." Fukuyama looked ashamed. "The truth is, I knew you were being framed. Someone planted those eyes in your house. But Kagami wouldn't let it go. I had no choice. I've kept this matter a secret all these years. Aside from a few elders, no one else in the clan knows. And normally, when a ninja is exiled from the clan, we strip their surname. But we didn't do that with you. That was our way of showing where we stood."
"So I should be grateful, huh?"
"No, how could you think that? We wronged you, how could we possibly accept your gratitude?" Fukuyama could clearly hear the sarcasm in Shin's tone and rushed to explain. "And all these years, I've actually been keeping tabs on you. Even protected you in secret."
"And then what?"
"Uh..." Fukuyama paused. So... there really was no chance?
"What would it take for you to consider forgiving the clan?" he asked, abandoning pretense. "I know I have no right to ask, but... what would it take?"
After all, the threat of a clan's annihilation loomed, he had no choice but to humble himself.
"I haven't decided yet. But let's leave the future for the future. Did you really ask me here today just to say all this?"
Did Shin bear a grudge against the Uchiha clan?
Yes, but it was nowhere near as intense as the hatred he feels toward the Konoha Council, especially after the death of Kagami.
Because the truth was as Fukuyama described: it was the dovish faction led by Kagami that framed him. As an elder, Kagami applied pressure and used the "evidence" that had been discovered to force Fukuyama to compromise.
In this matter, Fukuyama truly hadn't wanted to go along with it, he had even nearly come to blows with Kagami.
Over the years, aside from that fool Hanma, the Uchiha clan had never given Shin a hard time.
When he left the clan, Fukuyama had even given him a large sum of money.
For the first few years, members of the Uchiha clan would often patrol near his house under the pretense of protection, but really to signal to the higher-ups in Konoha where they stood. Eventually, as time went on, that practice faded.
Ever since Shin demonstrated his mastery of the Flying Thunder God Technique, Fukuyama had been constantly extending olive branches. One could say that he was a man of great wisdom, his careful maneuvering left Shin unsure of how to even respond.
Would he return to the Uchiha clan? Absolutely not.
But would he personally destroy the Uchiha clan? That, he honestly wasn't sure he could bring himself to do, and perhaps it wasn't even necessary.
Taking out the dovish faction that had betrayed him to curry favor with Konoha's leadership, that would be enough. Even this trap he had set might have been partly aimed at shaking up the Uchiha clan. But even he hadn't expected that Fukuyama would so openly and directly support Tsunade, going all in, and siding with him.
It caught him off guard.
Seeing Shin cut straight to the point, Fukuyama sat upright and solemnly recounted everything that had happened today, including his confrontation with Hiruzen.
Shin was surprised by what he heard, but his expression remained unreadable as he replied:
"Offending Hiruzen so directly is not what I'd call a wise move."
"Alas..." Fukuyama sighed helplessly. "If I had a choice, do you think I would've done it? But the Uchiha clan is headed for destruction, I have nothing left to hold back."
"Isn't that a bit alarmist?" Shin's expression didn't change. "The Uchiha are the largest and most powerful clan in Konoha. Where is this talk of annihilation coming from?"
"I know you're no ordinary man," Fukuyama said urgently, seeing that Shin was still unmoved. "Others may not see the crisis facing the Uchiha clan, but you surely do. Our situation has been getting worse with every passing year. And I have every reason to believe this is exactly the outcome Hiruzen wants. Let me tell you something, and you'll understand. Do you know why the people of Konoha dislike and exclude the Uchiha? The Police Force is a factor, but not even the main one. When the Second Hokage founded the Police Force, it was done in haste. Many of the original systems were immature and had to be refined over time."
"Given the Second Hokage's intellect, he would have recognized these issues and proposed reforms, he certainly did so in many other areas of Konoha's governance. But then the First Great Ninja War broke out, leaving him no time to handle internal reforms. And with his sudden death, all those efforts were left unfinished. For years now, the flaws in the Police Force's structure have become increasingly obvious, many of them are plain to see. Fixing them would only improve things. Yet every single one of the reforms I've proposed to Hiruzen has been rejected without exception. Hiruzen even used the Second Hokage's name to pressure me, saying that modifying the Police Force's system without permission was disrespecting the Second. Does he truly not see the issues? Or... is he intentionally using this as a means to suppress our Uchiha clan?"