Meanwhile, at the Oasis Fortress—Konoha's temporary headquarters and primary staging ground deep within the Land of Wind—a tense, stagnant quiet hung over the encampment. Uchiha Naori, along with the First Division and remnants of the Second Division, remained stationed alongside Shimura Danzō and the rest of the main Konoha forces. Nominally, they were allies. In reality, Danzō spent every waking hour monitoring the remaining Uchiha like a hawk watching a nest of vipers.
Inside the dimly lit commander's tent, the simmering friction finally boiled over.
"What is the true purpose of Konoha and the new Third Hokage?" Naori asked, breaking the silence first. She stood tall across from the strategy table, her voice steady but laced with a profound frustration. Like many of the Uchiha and Konoha shinobi who had followed Kagami throughout the grueling war, she was trapped in a labyrinth of confusion. The orders coming from the top no longer made sense.
Danzō didn't answer right away. He spoke in slow, meticulous circles, dodging her questions and offering empty platitudes about wartime security and the chain of command. He spoke at length without answering anything thoroughly at all.
Before Naori could press him further, the heavy flap of the tent parted. An Anbu operative slipped inside, moving like a ghost, and handed a sealed scroll directly to Danzō before vanishing.
Naori's brow furrowed. She watched closely as Danzō broke the seal and read through the contents. His expression barely shifted, but his eyes flicked upward, landing squarely on her with a meaningful, heavy gaze. Neither of them spoke. For a long, suffocating moment, the two simply stared at each other, a silent battle of wills as each waited for the other to give in first.
Ultimately, Naori cracked first. "Are we not all Konoha shinobi?" she questioned, slamming a hand lightly on the map table. "Why do you refuse to share any intelligence with us?"
Danzō remained silent, observing her. 'Just as Genshiro-sama's intel suggested,' he mused inwardly. 'Uchiha Naori is cut from the same cloth as Kagami. She prefers stability and balance over taking risks or escalating conflicts. But, as an Uchiha who possesses the Mangekyō Sharingan, this must be the bare minimum she can tolerate before snapping.'
Turning away from her, Danzō finally chose to relay the situation. "Sunagakure has deployed a massive detachment of roughly one thousand shinobi toward the south," he informed her flatly. "While their exact destination remains unconfirmed, the most probable target is wherever Kagami led the Kyūbi."
Naori's eyes widened slightly. "Then we need to reinforce them immediately! Every second we waste here puts them in jeopardy!"
Danzō hardened his gaze. 'Reinforce them?' he thought, a cold cynicism washing over him. 'How can we ever trust the Uchiha after what Kagami has done?' In his eyes, Kagami's actions—spanning from the incident in Kumo to hijacking Uzumaki Mito with the Mangekyō Sharingan and staging an unauthorized war against Suna just to avenge their sensei, Senju Tobirama—had shattered any illusion of loyalty. Yet, a traitorous part of Danzō was somewhat thankful for the retaliation; Kagami had completed the vengeance in their stead, all the while gracefully carrying the political consequences away with him.
Realizing Danzō had no intention of moving the main army, Naori scoffed, her disgust unhidden. "It is people like you who sicken me, Danzō," she said softly. "The Uchiha and the Military Police Force hold total autonomy over our own operations. We will take our leave now."
Danzō sneered. "An autonomy within Konoha, Naori. Not outside of it."
"So, what are you going to do about it?" Naori asked. She offered him a kind, gentle smile, but her eyes remained utterly frozen. In the next heartbeat, her eyelids fluttered open wider, revealing the intricate, lethal pattern of her Mangekyō Sharingan glaring directly into his soul.
Danzō felt the sudden, oppressive weight of her sharingan coercion. He slowly shook his head, choosing to ignore her blatant defiance rather than provoke a bloodbath inside the command tent. He stood by, passive, as she turned her back and initiated the Uchiha's immediate departure.
A short while later, Danzō stood at the edge of the Oasis Fortress, meaningfully staring at the horizon as the Uchiha forces marched away, their figures slowly dissolving into the shimmering desert heat.
"The unseen ones who support the light from the darkness," Danzō murmured, his voice a low whisper to the wind. "Having no name. Having no feelings. No past. No future. Bearing only the mission. The ninja world is an ascetic world, and to remain anonymous is a source of pride... was that how it went?"
He looked up into the blazing desert sky. The glaring sun stung his eyes, forcing him to squint against the blinding radiance.
'Self-sacrifice... that is what epitomizes a true shinobi,' he thought, a conviction he had held close within his heart ever since his father's and grandfather's passing. 'Never seeing the light of day, toiling endlessly in the shadows. Isn't that the ultimate form of devotion? The way of a true shinobi?'
He stretched his right hand out, blocking the oppressive sunlight from his eyes, and slowly tightened his fingers into a rigid, unyielding fist.
'This world cannot function on fragile ideals and pleasantries. It is thanks to the cold pragmatism and sacrifices of people like sensei and Genshiro-sama that peace can actually be maintained. Since Hiruzen is destined to be the light... I will be the darkness that supports him from the shadows.'
Danzō turned around, taking long, determined strides back toward the command tent. His path was clear now. He was fully prepared to accept the Senju Grand Elder's tutelage, eager to learn exactly how to govern and preserve world peace from the shadows.
Now, his immediate task was to finalize the peace treaty with Sunagakure. As for the Kyūbi and the Jinchūriki? He was certain that Genshiro-sama had prepared proper countermeasures to secure Mito-sama safely. After all, Hiruzen had assigned nearly half of the village's Anbu to this specific front at Genshiro-sama's strong suggestion.
That amounted to more than two thousand Anbu operatives, currently tracking Kenji from a distance, waiting to strike whenever necessary.