Chapter 57: Punishing the Sarutobi Criminals — Social Death + Bankruptcy + Slow Torture
"Clan Head! This is bad! They've activated a barrier around the clan grounds… The barrier has completely covered the entire area! We can't get out!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi closed his eyes and frowned slightly: "I understand."
He slowly walked outside and discovered that the Koharu clan grounds on the left and the Mitokado clan grounds on the right had also been enclosed by barriers.
This was not part of the previous agreement.
Hiruzen Sarutobi walked to the entrance of the clan grounds and roared in anger: "Uchiha! Are you going back on your word?!"
Uchiha Sanpō sat in a chair with his legs crossed: "You may take your money with you. However, according to the rules, kunai, explosive tags, and other ninja tools are strategic materials and are prohibited from being taken out of the village privately. Any non-Sarutobi secret techniques are the village's shared property and must have their memories sealed after review."
(Deliberately allowing them to take money to lure them into exposing their embezzled wealth, forcing social death, then seizing the money and slowly torturing them to death.)
With the current situation where the enemy was strong and they were weak, Hiruzen Sarutobi could only swallow his rage: "We have a lot of assets. We need storage scrolls to transport the supplies!"
Uchiha Sanpō remained merciless: "No. If we discover you carrying storage scrolls, they will all be confiscated. However, I will allow your clansmen to make multiple trips. Remember, after today, everything inside no longer belongs to your Sarutobi clan."
Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice was eerily calm: "Uchiha Sanpō, we have already admitted defeat. Why must you push us so far?"
Uchiha Sanpō snapped his fingers. More than twenty Uchiha ninjas immediately stepped forward, their eyes shining with three tomoe.
Beside them were more than twenty Hyūga clansmen with their Byakugan activated.
"We Uchiha, along with the Hyūga clansmen, will assist you… in inventorying your assets… So don't try to hide anything… Anything you shouldn't carry will be confiscated!"
Upon hearing this, Hiruzen Sarutobi's face instantly turned deathly pale.
He finally understood how vicious the Uchiha's plan was. They not only wanted to force them out of Konoha, but also to expose all their dirty wealth under the public eye.
Damn it, damn it. These evil Uchiha — my teacher was right about them!
Cursing inwardly countless times, Hiruzen Sarutobi returned to his secret room and looked at the mountain of banknotes and gold and silver.
He bit his finger and slammed it on the ground: "Summoning Technique!"
Unfortunately, there was no response at all.
At that moment, he remembered the black patterns on the barrier surrounding the clan grounds — they were contract seals.
Hiruzen Sarutobi cursed again in his heart: Damn it, damn it. They added contract seals to the barrier. No wonder even the Summoning Technique doesn't work.
Suddenly, a Sarutobi clansman shouted frantically outside the door: "Clan Head! This is bad! The secret passage has been discovered by the Hyūga clansmen. They used Gentle Fist to collapse the entire tunnel!"
With all escape routes blocked, commotion broke out inside the Sarutobi clan grounds.
Seeing Hiruzen Sarutobi return, Hiruzen Shinobu quickly stepped forward: "Father, we tried everything. Even the Summoning Technique doesn't work. What should we do now?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi clenched his fists inside his sleeves, nails digging deep into his palms: "First, let some civilian clansmen leave Konoha with their assets and test the waters. See if they will really let people go!"
The Sarutobi clan still had 1,590 ninjas and 1,808 civilians, so the numbers were quite large.
Uchiha Sanpō flicked his fingers. Twenty openings appeared in the barrier.
Twenty Sarutobi civilians carrying bundles walked out nervously.
The twenty-plus Hyūga clansmen immediately activated their Byakugan to inspect whether they were hiding anything. After confirming nothing was amiss, Hyūga Hizashi nodded slightly.
Then, twenty Uchiha clansmen activated their Three Tomoe Sharingan and used genjutsu to interrogate them, checking for any illegal activities.
In this era that revered martial power, even the civilian members of the Sarutobi clan lived rather difficult lives.
After they spilled some information, the twenty people were easily allowed to leave.
After several hundred Sarutobi civilians successfully departed, Hiruzen Sarutobi's tense heart gradually relaxed.
Not long after, they tried to have Sarutobi civilians carry storage scrolls to sneak them out, but they were all discovered by the Hyūga. The final result was that the people were allowed to leave, but the storage scrolls were confiscated!
Inside the Sarutobi clan grounds, only a large group of ninjas remained.
Hiruzen Sarutobi thought for a moment and selected twenty ninjas with relatively clean backgrounds for another test. They walked out of the Sarutobi clan grounds with difficulty!
The interrogation of the lower-rank and mid-rank ninjas passed quickly. The three jōnin were slower.
Uchiha Tetsuka read aloud in a loud voice: "Registrant: Sarutobi Gōken, jōnin, carrying 430 million ryō in cash and various gold and silver jewelry…"
The surrounding crowd immediately exploded.
"430 million? How can a jōnin possibly have so much money? I couldn't earn even a fraction of that in my entire life doing missions!"
Sarutobi Gōken raised his head, trying to maintain his last bit of dignity: "This is all money I earned over twenty years of risking my life on missions!"
Uchiha Ryūka activated his Three Tomoe Sharingan and used genjutsu to interrogate: "How did you earn this money? Did you use any improper means?"
The dazed Sarutobi Gōken answered honestly: "I earned it from missions over twenty years! There are people from our Sarutobi clan at the mission assignment office. Every time I completed a mission, I gave him money, so he would always leave the safer, higher-reward missions for me!"
Uchiha Ryūka continued: "Have you learned any non-Sarutobi clan techniques?"
The dazed Sarutobi Gōken replied: "I know Fire Release: Great Flame Technique, Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet, Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall, Earth Release: Earth Flow River, Shadow Clone Technique!"
After the interrogation, knowing he had learned several techniques that did not belong to the Sarutobi clan, he was taken aside for memory sealing.
In the end, he was still allowed to leave with his 430 million ryō, but because the amount was too large, he had to make multiple trips!
"Registrant: Sarutobi Miyagi, 29 years old, jōnin, carrying 345 million ryō in cash…"
Under genjutsu, Sarutobi Miyagi honestly confessed: "Embezzled logistics supplies three times… hid twenty thousand explosive tags… secretly learned the Uchiha clan's Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique…"
The Uchiha ninja responsible for recording quickly wrote everything down. When he heard "Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique," two Yamanaka clansmen immediately stepped forward and dragged the dazed Sarutobi Miyagi to the sealing platform nearby.
Yamanaka Haiichi formed seals: "Hold his temples. Mind Body Switch: Memory Seal!"
Sarutobi Miyagi let out a painful scream, veins bulging on his forehead.
Three minutes later, he collapsed to the ground like a pile of mud, drooling.
"Registrant: Sarutobi Yoshiko, 20 years old, jōnin, carrying 224 million ryō in cash…"
Sarutobi Yoshiko's eyes became empty: "Through fake marriages… seized the assets of seven fallen jōnin…"
The surrounding villagers immediately erupted in an uproar!
"Even a woman is so greedy! I've seen the earrings she's wearing — they're worth 2.3 million ryō! The necklace she's wearing is worth twelve million ryō…"
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