The next day.
A piece of news spread throughout Konoha.
The Shimura clan had been attacked by an unknown assailant using explosive tags. Two jōnin were killed, five chūnin were injured, and Elder Danzō was wounded…
An elder of Konoha had actually been attacked inside the village?
Damn it, this Police Force really was far inferior to the Uchiha!
This time, the Third Hokage was truly furious. Before, it could still be said that the Police Force had only been deliberately negligent under Danzō's orders.
But now, this incident proved something else entirely—
they were genuinely incompetent!
Without hesitation, the Third Hokage directly ordered the ANBU to take over.
Unfortunately, even the ANBU couldn't uncover anything.
After all, dropping a box was simply too easy. Catch a hawk from the Forest of Death, control it with genjutsu, have it carry the box over Danzō's place and drop it.
If the timing of the explosion was well controlled, no ninja would need to show themselves at all. There would be nothing to trace.
"Investigate the source of the explosive tags!" the Third Hokage roared. "That many were used in the bombing this time—I refuse to believe we can't find out who did it!"
All of Konoha's intelligence departments sprang into action.
But…
They still found nothing.
"As if they ever could," Uchiha Kuro thought to himself. "Because what I used wasn't explosive tags at all."
"It was gunpowder."
As a weapon of ninja warfare, explosive tags were incredibly powerful, comparable to an ordinary B-rank ninjutsu.
They were military supplies, so every major village tightly controlled their production and sale. Ninja monitored the entire process.
Using explosive tags would have made it impossible to hide the truth.
So Uchiha Kuro used gunpowder instead.
The technological development of the Naruto world was rather strange. They had electric lights, movies, and in the future would even have all sorts of bizarre chakra weapons.
Yet they had no gunpowder.
Even mining operations relied on expensive explosive tags.
As the owner of "mines of his own," Uchiha Kuro only needed to casually gather some mining byproducts to easily produce a large quantity of gunpowder.
He stored part of it away and used some of it to set traps.
This had always been one of Uchiha Kuro's backup plans—something prepared in case he was attacked in Konoha, to pitfall and kill his enemies.
And as a veteran of countless battles, the reason Danzō hadn't realized what was wrong with the box at first was because the sound of a burning gunpowder fuse was different from the sound of an ignited explosive tag.
No matter what, though, the incompetence of Konoha's Police Force had now been made known to everyone.
The villagers of Konoha were even angrier. They felt that having such a useless Police Force was a disgrace to Konoha.
One after another, they brought up the performance of the Uchiha in years past and used it as a comparison, condemning the current force and berating these mediocrities.
At the same time, they sighed with nostalgia over the old days of Uchiha management.
For a while, missing the Uchiha became part of everyday life for Konoha's villagers.
…
The matter only kept growing bigger.
Neither Danzō nor Hiruzen Sarutobi suspected this was Uchiha Kuro's retaliation. After all, Uchiha Kuro was only a mere chūnin, and only now was he being considered for a politically motivated promotion to jōnin.
How could he possibly have done something like this?
The ones they suspected were people within Konoha—those familiar with the village's intelligence system!
That's right: the ninja clans.
The Uchiha had just been attacked by Danzō. It would be perfectly natural for the clans, feeling the fear of "when the rabbit dies, the fox grieves," to issue a warning.
So they began suppressing the clans.
The clans, in turn, instinctively struck back, loudly publicizing the good things about the Uchiha of years past, defending the prestige of the ninja clans, and undermining the authority of Danzō and the Third Hokage.
The public opinion storm grew bigger and bigger.
It became so intense that even the students at the Ninja Academy understood what was going on.
"Sasuke, I didn't realize your Uchiha clan was that amazing before!" Sakura said in surprise. "With you gone, Konoha's public safety really has dropped a lot!"
"Of course the Uchiha were amazing—that's Sasuke's clan!" Ino proudly lifted her chin. "If it weren't for that one traitor, Konoha wouldn't need to worry about public order at all."
Hearing this, Sasuke felt a little hurt inside.
In the end, the Uchiha clan really had been exterminated. Only he and Uchiha Kuro remained—and whether those babies could grow up and become outstanding Uchiha was still uncertain.
But mixed in with the pain, there was also some happiness.
"Of course the Uchiha are the strongest!" he said proudly, lifting his head. "In the future, I'll restore the Uchiha clan's prestige and truly bring about its revival!"
Sakura and the other girls immediately clapped and nodded frantically.
They weren't stupid. They knew that currying favor with Sasuke now might secure them a spot as his future girlfriend.
But they were still young, and as they kept talking, the conversation somehow drifted toward the thing they cared about most.
"Sasuke, didn't that Uchiha Kuro from your family say that if you want to revive the Uchiha, you absolutely have to have a wife… What do you think of me?"
"Get lost! I'm the strongest female ninja in the academy—I'm the one who suits Sasuke best!"
"No! What the Uchiha need is a wife who can take care of children, and I'm the best at that! I've even changed my little cousin's diapers before. Can any of you do that?"
The girls immediately broke into noisy argument.
Meanwhile, Sakura said worriedly, "Sasuke, I heard that Uchiha Kuro from your family married several wives… You absolutely can't become that kind of playboy."
"He's not a good person. What normal man marries that many women?"
"I heard he completely gave up a ninja's honor and became obsessed with spending time with girls… Sasuke, you absolutely can't become like him!"
The moment he heard Sakura's words, Sasuke—who had all but been ignoring the girls around him—suddenly exploded in fury.
"Sakura, what do you know?!" Sasuke shouted angrily. "You have no idea how much Brother Uchiha Kuro has sacrificed so that I can train with all my strength, and for the growth of the Uchiha clan!"
"Do you know that I've personally seen him struggle in bitter battle every single day until midnight before he can barely go to sleep?!"
"Do you know that even while enduring mockery from other clans' ninja, Brother Uchiha Kuro still has no choice but to keep taking wives and concubines, no choice but to stick close to a crowd of women, living a life he never truly wanted?!"
"Do you know that this year, our Uchiha clan has grown from only two members to seventeen? Every bit of that is the result of Brother Uchiha Kuro's efforts!"
Just thinking about the noisy girls chattering nonstop around him was enough to irritate Sasuke.
He simply couldn't imagine what would happen if Uchiha Kuro weren't there.
If that were the case, then in the future, for the sake of reviving the Uchiha, Sasuke himself would have to live together with a whole group of girls.
How unbearably annoying would that be?
It felt worse than death!
Sasuke glared at Sakura.
"Sakura, do you even understand? The reason I'm able to live peacefully in the Ninja Academy…"
"…is because Brother Uchiha Kuro is carrying this burden for me!"
"What right do you have to talk about him like that!"