"What? Artificially creating the Wood Release kekkei genkai?"
"Where did they get the First Hokage's cells? Don't tell me they actually dug up the First Hokage's grave?"
"So Orochimaru's forbidden experiments were about this all along?"
"Lord Hokage, is this true?"
…
Everyone present, apart from a few who already knew, was visibly shaken.
So Orochimaru's defection had such a hidden truth behind it?
They were shocked at Orochimaru's audacity and deeply dissatisfied that the Third Hokage and Shimura Danzo had kept this matter a secret.
The First Hokage was a figure they all respected. The reason their clans had once chosen to join Konoha was precisely because of the First Hokage's charisma and ideals.
Yet now, they learned that after his death, his body had been desecrated like this.
His corpse was exhumed and used in inhumane human experiments. The missing children from their clans back then… had died in these very same experiments.
"This is indeed true," the Third Hokage admitted, his face stiff. "We sealed the information at the time to avoid mass panic."
He hadn't expected such a tightly kept secret to be exposed like this.
And now, doubts swirled in his heart—every trace of the experiment had been destroyed, and all information had been classified. How had Uchiha Fugaku found out?
Could there be a spy from the Uchiha clan within the ANBU?
Or was it possible that Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Itachi, who had pretended to be fully brainwashed by him, had actually been acting as double agents for the Uchiha clan all along?
"Could this powerful enemy with the Wood Release be a result of those experiments?" asked Nara Shikaku grimly.
He hadn't imagined that Orochimaru's experiments had crossed such unforgivable boundaries. It was downright monstrous.
"That's very likely," Fugaku said calmly. "From what I've learned, there were some successful cases in Orochimaru's experiments. This enemy who has the Wood Release kekkei genkai may very well be a product of those experiments, conducted after Orochimaru defected from the village."
Although he knew that the Hashirama cells implanted in Obito had nothing to do with Orochimaru, Fugaku deliberately steered the narrative this way—to implicate the Third Hokage, who had intentionally let Orochimaru escape back then.
The Third bore undeniable responsibility for this mess.
"Even this got out? Damn it… It must've leaked from Hiruzen's side."
Danzo's face darkened.
The existence of a surviving experiment subject from Orochimaru's tests was a top-level secret. Even the Third Hokage had only recently learned of it.
For Fugaku to know even this, there had to be a leak from within. Danzo couldn't believe otherwise.
His Root agents were all bound by the "Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal." There was no way they could have leaked anything.
The only possible source of the leak… was from the ANBU. And the likeliest suspects were Shisui and Itachi.
Danzo had once asked the Third Hokage to hand those two over to him so he could place the same seal on them, but Hiruzen had refused.
Now, that decision was coming back to haunt him.
"So this person is one of Orochimaru's test subjects? Then Orochimaru is the true culprit behind all of this!"
"Damn him! Digging up the First Hokage's grave like that—what blasphemy!"
"We should've never let him go back then!"
…
In the conference room, many looked visibly disturbed.
They were either clan heads or elite jonin from civilian backgrounds. Anyone qualified to sit here was no fool.
It was obvious that the Third Hokage had intentionally let Orochimaru escape. The pursuit back then had been half-hearted at best.
If Orochimaru had been stopped, this current threat with the Wood Release wouldn't even exist.
While this revelation might not fully shatter their perception of the Third Hokage, it definitely tarnished his once-pristine image.
After the meeting, Uchiha Fugaku walked out in a good mood.
This had been his counterattack.
A direct response to the years of suppression the Uchiha clan had suffered at the hands of the Third Hokage.
Though he couldn't bring down Hiruzen completely, he had managed to chip away at the man's authority.
The reactions of the attendees were proof enough of that.
There was another benefit, too—sowing seeds of doubt.
Let the Third Hokage suspect that someone in his ranks was leaking information to the Uchiha clan.
Let him grow paranoid.
—
In a hidden underground space, crawling with White Zetsu clones…
"We've identified the person you fought. His name is Uchiha Shisui. Though he's a member of the Uchiha clan, he didn't join the Konoha Police Force. Instead, he was placed in the ANBU directly under Sarutobi Hiruzen," said the black half of Zetsu.
"He didn't join the Police Force and went straight into the Third Hokage's ANBU?" Uchiha Obito, wearing his spiral mask, sounded surprised.
The Police Force had been created specifically to isolate the Uchiha, keeping them away from the rest of the village.
He didn't expect this Uchiha Shisui to have bypassed that and joined ANBU.
"He's not the only one. Another Uchiha, Itachi, also joined the ANBU under Hiruzen's direct command," said the white half of Zetsu.
"There's another?" Obito's surprise deepened.
Hiruzen's decision to place Uchiha members in ANBU went against the original purpose of the Police Force.
"This is the brilliance of Sarutobi Hiruzen," the black half chuckled darkly.
"According to my investigation, both Shisui and Itachi are among the most gifted in the Uchiha clan. By pulling them into ANBU, Hiruzen essentially stole the clan's brightest prospects."
"And the Uchiha allowed that?" Obito frowned.
"They thought breaking through Konoha's barriers this way would be beneficial. They assumed that with blood ties, those two would remain loyal to the clan," the black half explained. "But they miscalculated. Once inside, both were brainwashed by Hiruzen and are now fully loyal to the ANBU."
"That Shisui… He's clearly extremely talented. He's awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. Could he be the one who killed Kakuzu?" Obito asked.
"Very possible," said the white half. "Not far from the location of Kakuzu's death, Nagato had run into a team of Konoha ANBU. Based on that, it's more likely Kakuzu was killed by Shisui, not Fugaku."
"A Mangekyō Sharingan wielder would be a valuable asset. Is there any chance we can recruit Uchiha Shisui?" Obito asked.
"You might be able to, if you approach him as Uchiha Madara," the black half replied.
PS: Read Advance Chapters at https://www.patreon.com/c/XenTronix