Hokage Office.

Sandaime sat on his chair with a grim expression on his face, and the room was filled with smoke. ​​

Uchiha Itachi silently stood on the side not minding the tobacco smoke.

At this time, the door of the office was pushed open and several figures walked in.

The first one was none other than Shimura Danzo followed by Utatane Koharu and finally Mitokado Homura.

With the arrival of the three elder consultants, Hiruzen put down his tobacco pipe and said, "Uchiha Itachi, explain the situation to the three consultants!"

Itachi nodded courteously and without any delay, he relayed all the information including his own understanding of the matter regarding the kidnapping of Uchiha Hideki by Amatsukami in detail.

When he heard that Amatsukami again dared to cause trouble in Konohagakure, Danzo was furious, "What courage do they have! What do they think of Konoha, their personal playground?"

Utatane Koharu was also angry, "They can't be allowed to do whatever they wish in the village!"

Although Mitokado Homura did not voice out his opinion, he still nodded with the other two, he was also in favor to put an end to these bounty ninjas.

Even if it was a shinobi of the Uchiha Clan to be attacked and kidnapped, the action itself was like a resounding slap in the faces of the senior management of Konoha.

It isn't wrong to say that once this news spread, the already falling prestige of Konoha will be heavily damaged, and this will also incite other bounty ninjas to have the courage to soon follow suit in the footsteps of Amatsukami and Akatsuki.

Sandaime asked Danzo, "How has the investigation been going?"

Being the leader of the Root unit of the Anbu department, Shimura Danzo is also responsible for collecting all sorts of secret intelligence, the Root has its spies planted in other major villages that regularly transfer all the intel they could, as such Sandaime appointed him to collect all the intelligence about these bounty-nin organizations to have a better understanding of who they were dealing with.

Danzo had a frowned expression and said, "The information about Amatsukami is very limited, I personally speculate that this organization has recently come into existence, probably not more than one or two years, and none of the identities we could think of matches with those mask wearers, other than what you speculated that Uchiha Shinichi being 'Homusubi,' these people seem to pop out of seemingly nowhere, giving them a mysterious vibe.

As for… As for Akatsuki Organization, due to the short period and lack of personnel because of Uchiha Shinichi's actions, any useful information about Akatsuki has not been obtained as of yet, aside from the fact that Akatsuki seems to be a Mercenary Organization willing to work in cooperation with other Shinobi Villages."

Undoubtedly Danzo did not reveal all the intelligence he had about Akatsuki Organization.

Shimura Danzo may not have collected useful intelligence about Amatsukami but that's not the case when it comes to Akatsuki.

It wouldn't even be wrong to say that at this point in time, Shimura Danzo is second only to Hyuga Kuroto in Konohagakure to have the understanding of the Akatsuki.

After all, the previous leader of Akatsuki, during its first iteration, died because of Danzo.

Ever since then, the real Akatsuki that worked to bring peace during the leadership of Yahiko has transitioned into a Mercenary organization under the frontal leadership of Nagato, with the secret goal of reviving the Juubi.

Danzo and Hanzo may have thought that with the death of Yahiko, the Akatsuki would soon disappear, but unfortunately, that didn't happen, and he never expected that Akatsuki would not only not disappear but even start recruiting S-Class nuke-nin from all the villages into it.

This discovery has been troubling Danzo.

After all, many individuals with monstrous strength have joined Akatsuki, and because of what he did, the Akatsuki would obviously harbor hatred towards Konoha, so he dare not mention this matter in the high-level meeting.

Besides, he still doesn't know what would happen if Jiraiya finds out about this matter!

Although Sandaime had some doubts he nodded nonetheless, 'It seems I will have to organize further investigation about Akatsuki, once the matter of Amatsukami is resolved!'

Thinking so, his gaze turned towards Koharu, "Has there been any response from Kumogakure?"

Koharu nodded, "At present, Raikage only asked for a formal explanation detailing all the circumstances, and a request for a formal apology including some compensation because of the lack of sincerity on our part, as for what compensation they desire, Raikage has yet to state his terms."

The sudden exposure of two such powerful organization made Kumogakure quite careful, so before they find all the information about the two organization, Kumogakure would not carelessly launch a full-scale war against Konoha or threaten to do so, and without the confidence to start a war, Raikage would naturally not pressure Konoha too much.

Sandaime breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this news, and immediately said, "if that's the case, call Jiraiya from the front line."

Koharu nodded and began to write the message to be sent.

The lack of trustworthy high-level combat power has been the major cause of all the trouble, so recalling Jiraiya is very necessary as they do not have many options to choose from.

Hearing Sandaime's words, Danzo's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, he was thinking something.

After some more discussion, Sandaime ordered, "Aside from Anbu, recruit elites from the major clans including Hyuga, Sarutobi, Nara, Yamanaka, Inuzuka, and other, Danzo, you will serve as the commander and Jiraiya will be the deputy commander, the objective is to search and eliminate Amatsukami as well as the rescue of Uchiha Hideki!"

Danzo sighed in relief after hearing that Hiruzen gave him the command.

Among the high-level, the only people who can compare with him are Sandaime himself, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura, and finally, there is Jiraiya of the Sannin.

Therefore, when Sandaime ordered Jiraiya to be called back, Danzo was worried that Hiruzen will give the command to Jiraiya over him for the task of hunting down Amatsukami, but Sandaime chose him which greatly pleased him.

In the eyes of Sarutobi Hiruzen, Shimura Danzo who is accustomed to doing such tasks is best for circling and hunting down Amatsukami.

After everything was decided, the meeting was concluded and the three elder consultants left the Hokage office.

At this time Sandaime turned his gaze towards Uchiha Itachi and said, "You can go back now and explain the result of the meeting to Uchiha Patriarch!"

The reason Sandaime allowed Itachi to be the witness of the meeting was to show goodwill and sincerity to the Uchiha Clan and appease them, preventing them from launching the Coup, there was also the intention of assessing Uchiha Itachi's thinking process but it was not that important for now.

Itachi nodded in understanding towards Sandaime, he may not be very old, but he is mature enough to understand Sandaime's intentions.

After a courteous greeting to Sandaime-sama, Itachi left the Hokage office and made his way towards the Uchiha Clan.

With the conclusion of the Elder Consultant's meeting, a Root Anbu conveyed the order of Sandaime to the elite shinobi among the common folks.

At the same time, the Patriarchs of all the major clans also received the summons in the name of Hokage to organize a hunting operation.

The Patriarchs of the major clans were obviously a bit uncomfortable by Sandaime's orders.

The numbers of elites are rare even in these major clans, and with the events ongoing for the past decade, the elites have only decreased, so the patriarchs were a bit uncomfortable sending their newly grown outstanding shinobi, afraid that they will end up dying…

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Read up to Chapter - 424 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. Page: p-atreon.com/Milta_translations