Koharu Utatane still found it hard to believe, "Do you think Uchiha Sasuke could pull off something like this?"
Danzo snorted coldly, "If he can subdue the Nine Tails, controlling one of my subordinates isn't anything surprising."
Koharu stared at Danzo. "But why would he take such a huge risk to infiltrate your base and even go as far as attacking Naruto Uzumaki? You should know that this isn't something he could do alone!"
"Because he wanted to steal back his fath—"
Danzo abruptly stopped mid-sentence.
His suspicion of Sasuke was not without reason.
From Sasuke's actions, willing to risk so much just to infiltrate the Root base, Danzo suspected that Uchiha Fugaku's Sharingan was far from ordinary.
But considering this, he didn't reveal the full truth.
Koharu could see that Danzo was hiding something, and her expression showed her displeasure.
Danzo turned to the Third Hokage and demanded, "Hand Sasuke over to me! Whatever his motives, whatever his secrets, I will make him confess them!"
The Third Hokage shook his head. "Sasuke will not be handed over to you."
Danzo glared at the Third for a moment, then turned and left the Hokage's office without another word.
Once outside the Hokage building, Danzo gave orders to his subordinates, "Keep Uchiha Sasuke under 24-hour surveillance. I want to know everything about him!"
"Yes, sir!"
The two Root shinobi nodded quickly.
One of them suddenly remembered something and asked, "Danzo-sama, should we continue the surveillance on Uchiha Shinji?"
Danzo replied coldly, "No need."
An eight-year-old who could master the C-rank Great Fireball Jutsu was certainly impressive, but there were other talents like that in the village.
But a seven-year-old who had awakened the Sharingan, and not just any Sharingan but a two-tomoe one, with enough power to subdue the rampaging Nine Tails—this was not an ordinary person.
Such a dangerous Uchiha—if he couldn't be controlled—needed to be eliminated as soon as possible!
...
In the apartment.
Staring out the window, Uchiha Shinji was lost in thought.
Hidden Leaf was far from calm under the cover of night. The streets were filled with shinobi and villagers cleaning up damaged buildings and tending to the wounded.
Luckily, this chaos had ended quickly.
Although the destructive power of the Nine Tails was terrifying, thanks to Shinji's timely intervention, the village had only suffered minor damage, limited to the area near the small river.
As a result, the casualties were minimal, with the most severe losses being the Leaf shinobi who had rushed to the scene unprepared.
Who exactly attacked Naruto?
This question lingered in Shinji's mind.
In the original timeline, no such event had occurred, so he felt that the current situation in the shinobi world was becoming more and more unpredictable.
Still, when considering the motives.
The only ones with both the strength and the desire would be other shinobi villages.
So his first suspicion fell on the Hidden Mist Village, who had previously plotted to cause a rampage of the Three Tails in Hidden Leaf, aiming to destroy the village with a rampaging tailed beast. After all, they had a history of such actions.
However, precisely because the Hidden Mist Village was the most likely culprit, it couldn't be ruled out that another village might be framing them, trying to provoke a conflict between Hidden Leaf and Hidden Mist.
Ugh, such a headache!
Lacking sufficient information, Shinji couldn't figure out the truth just yet.
He pushed his thoughts aside, closed the window, and drew the curtains.
Earlier, while observing the rescue efforts outside, he had double-checked and confirmed that no one was watching him.
Given the major event that had occurred tonight, it seemed unlikely that anyone would be paying attention to someone like him for a while.
Entering the bathroom, just in case, Shinji turned on the faucet to create some noise.
Then, as the sound of running water filled the room, he bit his fingertip, formed a series of hand seals, and performed the Summoning Jutsu.
Poof.
A small puff of smoke rose, and Coalball cautiously emerged from it.
Shinji, feeling anxious, asked, "Well, did you get it?"
After checking the area for safety, Coalball straightened up proudly and replied, "What kind of joke is this? I'm the great Yūki—the Night's Favored Child, the Moonlight Spirit, the Ghost, the Master of Shadows—Maru from Cat Fortress! How could I possibly fail?"
"The item?"
Shinji's eyes lit up.
Coalball pulled a small package from the bag on its back and handed it to Shinji. "Here, it's all in this."
Shinji quickly grabbed the package, staring intently at the small container filled with nutrient fluid inside, which held a pair of floating eyeballs.
Perhaps because Uchiha Fugaku hadn't activated his Sharingan before death, the pupils of the eyeballs were ordinary black, looking just like regular eyes.
If you didn't know better, you'd never guess these were Mangekyō Sharingan.
In fact, determining whether removed Sharingan are Mangekyō isn't as easy as one might think.
Even after transplantation, it's not always immediately clear.
For example, Kakashi's left eye had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan at the same time as Obito's right eye, but he didn't realize it until much later. He had assumed it was just a regular three-tomoe Sharingan.
In the original timeline, it wasn't until years later—when Naruto was training with Jiraiya—that Kakashi finally realized his left eye had awakened the Mangekyō and mastered the Mangekyō technique, "Kamui."
So it made perfect sense that Danzo hadn't discovered the secret of Fugaku's Sharingan.
"Finally, I have it!"
At this moment, Shinji felt that all the days of careful planning and the risks he'd taken had been worth it.
While grooming himself, Coalball remarked, "You have no idea how intense it was. Danzo's vault was full of display cases packed with Sharingan. It took me forever to find this pair. I almost got caught!"
Shinji, overjoyed, patted Coalball on the head. "You've really worked hard!"
Coalball swatted Shinji's hand away with a paw. "Don't touch my head! It'll stunt my growth!"
Shinji laughed heartily, then pulled out 10,000 yen. "5,000 for the payment, and the rest is a reward for you!"
Coalball happily stashed the money in its little pouch. "By the way, Shinji, you've already awakened the Sharingan, right? So why go to such lengths to steal Fugaku's eyes from Danzo?"
"These eyes will be very useful to me."
Shinji didn't elaborate further.
Coalball knew Shinji had awakened the Sharingan during the mission, but since Shinji had been wearing a mask, Coalball, hidden in his shadow, hadn't noticed that his Sharingan was actually a Mangekyō Sharingan.
Shinji wasn't avoiding the explanation out of distrust for Coalball.
He simply didn't want to complicate matters.
After all, awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan at his age was extraordinary, and if word got out, it would cause a massive stir within the village.