That night, in the Uchiha clan shrine, under the priest's lengthy prayers, the nine Sharingan eyes taken from Danzo's arm were returned to the innermost sanctum in the presence of all the clan members.
Once the ritual ended, the crowd gradually dispersed. Seiryu made his way back to the interrogation room.
The three Shimura members, tortured all day, barely had any strength left. Only the newly captured Shimura Hiroshi kept cursing when he saw Seiryu.
Seiryu just dug at his ear, pretending not to hear.
The Uchiha chunin interrogating Hiroshi responded by hitting him even harder.
Seiryu walked straight to the cell holding the Wood Release ninja—who, at this point, still hadn't been named "Yamato" by the Third Hokage.
Since he'd decided to hand this one over to Kakashi for credit, Seiryu didn't make things difficult for him. Aside from a day of beatings, he'd been held alone since then.
Of course, Seiryu had personally inscribed a sealing jutsu on him. After all, even if he was far weaker than the First Hokage, a Wood Release user couldn't be handled by ordinary chunin.
In the corner of the cell, "A" (Yamato's codename at the time) heard movement and sat up abruptly.
Seiryu entered and switched on the light, and the sudden brightness made "A" squint.
He tried to move, but the clanking chains and the pain from Seiryu's seal reminded him of his position.
"Let's talk," Seiryu said, pulling up a chair.
"I won't say anything."
"By the way, how much did Danzo pay you? You're loyal," Seiryu laughed.
"We followed Lord Danzo for the sake of Konoha! How could money measure such loyalty?" "A" declared righteously.
"So, you didn't even get paid. What are you risking your life for?" Seiryu chuckled.
"You evil Uchiha would never understand Lord Danzo's devotion to the village!" "A" replied fanatically, making Seiryu shake his head.
"You're talking about people like Yamanaka Fu, right? At least they had clans and weaknesses, but you—an orphan—why bother?" Seiryu had food brought in and handed some to "A".
"A" glared at Seiryu.
"Tell me, how did you get your Wood Release? Your crimes aren't that severe. We know you were ordered to assassinate the Third Hokage, but Lord Hokage probably won't pursue it. As for the rest, Kakashi pleaded for you, so I won't dig deeper. If you explain everything, you can go free."
"I'll never betray Lord Danzo!" "A" growled.
"It's not hard to guess—it was Orochimaru, right?" Seiryu said. "The artificial Wood Release project wasn't a secret among ninja clans. The Senju clan got tricked and lost most of their strength, and the project was canceled due to huge losses and no results. But Danzo kept researching in secret, with Orochimaru as his partner—and you're the only successful result, right?"
Seeing "A"'s shocked eyes, Seiryu smiled. "Don't look at me like that. I'm not stupid. Kids going missing from the orphanage are on record at the Police Force. When Danzo was around, we couldn't dig too deep, but right before Orochimaru defected, there was a spike in missing orphans; after he left, the numbers plummeted. Given your age, it's not hard to figure out."
"A"'s eyes flickered, and Seiryu pressed his advantage. "You were made into a tool by Danzo—why be so loyal? You should serve the Hokage and the Will of Fire."
"You have two options: confess and live as a normal ninja or resist and die for someone who only saw you as a tool. The Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal is already broken. Don't waste the chance Kakashi got for you." Leaving food and water, Seiryu left the cell.
Seiryu didn't expect to win over Yamato. He knew he didn't have Naruto's "Talk no Jutsu." He won subordinates with tangible benefits, and from the start, he knew Yamato wasn't someone the Uchiha could keep. As a Wood Release user, once Hiruzen Sarutobi came to his senses, he'd surely demand him back.
So Seiryu decided to use him as credit for Kakashi's promotion, making it clear he was only letting him go for Kakashi's sake.
...
Meanwhile, in the Hokage's office, Hiruzen Sarutobi smoked in silence, while the two advisors glared at him after being rebuffed by Seiryu.
"Hiruzen, we can't let Seiryu continue. He's just using this investigation as an excuse to purge his enemies," Homura Mitokado broke the silence. "He even dared arrest the Shimura clan leader! If this continues, even we might end up in the Police Force."
"Seiryu wouldn't do that," Hiruzen said after a pause. He still feared Seiryu's Kotoamatsukami, and with Danzo's gruesome corpse still fresh in everyone's mind, it would look bad to order the Uchiha to halt their investigation now.
"Hiruzen! You can't hesitate any longer—have you forgotten the Second Hokage's teachings?" Koharu reminded him.
"Fine, but we can't stop the Uchiha without cause." Since she had invoked Tobirama, Hiruzen relented a little. "Kakashi, go to the Uchiha clan and have Seiryu report on the progress of the Danzo investigation tomorrow."
"Yes." Kakashi stepped from the shadows, took the order, and disappeared again.