Chapter 56 Meeting

On December 7th of the 42nd year of the Konoha calendar, just three months after Ye Shan developed his unique training method, an extremely grand meeting was about to be held in the large conference room inside Yingyan.

The participants included not only the leaders of all the ninja clans in the village, but also the senior ninjas who had no missions. It was a super large meeting with more than 200 people.

The reason why there were so many people was not because the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen wanted to make a democratic decision on a whim, but because the things that happened were so big or small that they required a show of hands to vote, and Sarutobi Hiruzen could not act arbitrarily.

Early in the morning, Ye Shan dressed neatly and came to the outside of the Uchiha clan's territory, waiting for Uchiha Shinichi and Uchiha Fugaku. There was a strong murderous look on his face, which was very different from his usual cold and calm appearance. The reason was that the topic of the meeting was how to deal with Hatake Sakumo's abandonment of the mission.

Even though Hatake Sakumo disliked Ye Shan, the gratitude between the two was indelible, and Ye Shan always remembered who taught him the secret technique of Thunder Release, which allowed his strength to soar in a short period of time.

Without the careful teaching of Hatake Sakumo, Baiyun Yeshan would not have the strength to rival the elite jonin. Yeshan is a mediocre person. The interests of the village and the country are just a bunch of shit in his eyes. He only cares about the safety of those who are good to him, and everything else is put in the back.

The actions of the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen made Ye Shan very angry. In his opinion, it was just a failure in this mission. There was no need to convene a jonin conference. Just give a punishment notice and that would be the end of it. What a bullshit meeting. It was all a dirty deal.

Not long after, Uchiha Shinichi led Uchiha Fugaku out of the clan territory and naturally discovered Ye Shan standing under the tree with murderous aura. They couldn't help but look at each other, both revealing a hint of admiration.

Last night, Ye Shan visited Uchiha Shinichi overnight, with the purpose of persuading him to mobilize the power of the Uchiha clan and try to protect Hatake Sakumo at the meeting. At first, Uchiha Shinichi refused, but after Ye Shan's eloquent analysis, he agreed to it.

According to Yeshan's conjecture, the reason why the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen convened a meeting with great fanfare was not to discuss the gains and losses of the mission and punish Hatake Sakumo, but to kick him out of the queue of Hokage candidates and pave the way for his three apprentices to become Hokage.

There are only four candidates in the village who are expected to become the next Hokage: Hatake Sakumo, Orochimaru, Senju Tsunade, and Jiraiya. After the Senju clan retired, Senju Tsunade was the first to lose the qualification, and Orochimaru and Jiraiya's prestige is not enough at present, far less than Hatake Sakumo, who is known as Konoha's White Fang. Sarutobi Hiruzen must want to help his apprentice to the throne of Hokage, so as to completely break his faction's fantasy of wanting to get involved in Hokage.

If Orochimaru or Jiraiya becomes Hokage, it means that other factions will lose the qualification to become Hokage. At that time, the position of Hokage will be completely passed down from master to apprentice, and no one else can even think about it.

Uchiha Shinichi cursed inwardly at what Hayama said. When the village was built, Hashirama Senju promised that the first generation would be Senju and the second generation would be Uchiha. This promise is still recorded in the family's annals. Hashirama Senju's promise is so good that Uchiha Shinichi still fantasizes about helping his son become the Hokage. And the ultimate purpose of Sarutobi Hiruzen's meeting is to completely determine the inheritance system of the Hokage. How can Uchiha Shinichi not be angry?

Uchiha Shinichi stated on the spot that the Uchiha clan would do its best to exonerate Hatake Sakumo at the meeting, and even sent messengers overnight to unite many small clans affiliated with the Uchiha clan to work together tomorrow. This is why Ye Shan made a special detour to wait here early in the morning.

Uchiha Shinichi and Uchiha Fugaku admired Yeshan not for his political sense, but for his unremitting efforts for Hatake Sakumo. Every powerful ninja in the village knew that Baiyun Yeshan was completely abandoned by the civilian ninja group represented by Hatake Sakumo, but when Hatake Sakumo was suffering, Yeshan was able to abandon his small hatred and repay his great kindness, which made the Uchiha father and son very happy.

This incident is enough to prove that Baiyun Yeshan is not an ungrateful ninja. If he treats Hatake Sakumo like this, then the Uchiha clan, who has done him a greater favor, will receive a lifetime of repayment.

"Yeshan, put away your murderous aura." Uchiha Shinichi rarely showed a warm smile on his cold face. He patted Yeshan on the shoulder and said.

"I am extremely sorry, Patriarch."

"You and Fugaku are brothers, so you can just call me uncle in private. There's no need to be so distant."

Ye Shan was stunned for a moment, then reacted: "Uncle!"

Uchiha Shinichi nodded in satisfaction. The more he looked at Ye Shan, the more he liked him. If it weren't for the bloodline family rules, he would have even thought of marrying him. Judging from the potential Ye Shan showed, when he retired in the future, he would undoubtedly become Uchiha Fugaku's right-hand man.

Looking at the anxiety that was vaguely visible on Ye Shan's face, Uchiha Fugaku comforted him, "Don't worry, Ye Shan. The forces of the Uchiha clan will completely stand on the side of Lord Sakumo. The situation won't be that bad."

Ye Shan expressed his gratitude and the three of them headed towards the Hokage Rock.

Konoha Village is neither small nor big, and soon, Yeshan and the other two arrived at the Hokage Rock. The Anbu who received them took them to the conference room.

As they arrived early, the conference room was not full yet, with only a few dozen ninjas sitting sparsely. When they saw Uchiha Shinichi walk in, several ninjas immediately stood up respectfully to greet him. They were obviously ninjas from a small family that was affiliated with the Uchiha clan.

"Yayama, this is the chief of the Morino clan, Morino Kouta, and this is the chief of the Gekko clan, Gekko Naoto. You two can get closer to each other in private." Uchiha Shinichi introduced with a smile.

Ye Shan hurriedly greeted several people, and always regarded himself as a junior in his words, which made several people feel quite favorable towards him.

"Master clan leader, your seat is here." Morino Kouta said to Uchiha Shinichi.

Uchiha Shinji nodded and walked to his seat. The others also returned to their seats and sat down, quietly waiting for the meeting to begin.

Ye Shan's seat was in the fourth row from the bottom, right next to the door of the conference room. He sat upright in his seat, squinting his eyes as he looked at the increasing number of ninjas in the conference room.

On the surface, the number of jonins belonging to the Uchiha clan is second only to the Hokage clan, and they are the well-deserved second in command in the village. However, in terms of ninja positions, they are not even as good as the Sarutobi clan. Except for Uchiha Shinichi, who is the head of the security department, no one else, including Hayama, has a position.

It seems that the exclusion of the Uchiha clan is more serious than Ye Shan imagined. If they have strength but no say, they will be played to death by the upper echelons sooner or later.

At ten o'clock in the morning, Sarutobi Hiruzen was the first to walk into the conference room from the side door, followed by Shimura Danzo, Hatake Sakumo, Utane Koharu, and Mito Kado En. These five people were the top leaders who ruled the Konohagakure.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, wearing the Hokage's divine robe and a hat with the word "fire" on it, stood in the middle of the room, looking at the crowd, a warm smile flashed across his face, and he said, "Now I declare that today's meeting has begun!"

Afterwards, the five of them sat down. Sarutobi Hiruzen took off his hat and placed it on the table. He said with a smile, "Don't be nervous. Today's meeting won't contain much content and won't take up much of your time."

Some ninjas chuckled, sweeping away the tense and serious atmosphere in the meeting room, while Yeshan stared at Hatake Sakumo who was sitting in front of him with an expressionless face.

After Sarutobi Hiruzen successfully livened up the atmosphere in the venue with a few witty remarks, he gave the chance to speak to Shimura Danzo.

Shimura Danzo, who looked grim, narrowed his eyes and scanned the ninjas sitting below the stage, and said, "Today we have only one thing to discuss, and that is about Hatake Sakumo's arbitrarily abandoning the mission, causing losses to the village and the entire Land of Fire. Now let Hatake Sakumo describe the mission in detail."

Ye Shan suddenly realized that on such a grand occasion today, Hatake Sakumo was not wearing the Konoha headguard, and his heart sank.

Hatake Sakumo stood up and recounted the details of the mission in a steady voice. In fact, there was no need to repeat it again, as all the ninjas who were going to attend the meeting knew what happened last night.

It was simply that when Hatake Sakumo led a team to relocate the residents of Akihabara, which belonged to the former Kingdom of Wind, they encountered a double siege from Amegakure and Sunagakure. In order to avoid the destruction of the team, Hatake Sakumo had to abandon tens of thousands of people and hand them over to Sunagakure.

Did Konoha Village suffer any losses in this mission? Not at all. Hatake Sakumo's compromise in avoiding the battle saved the village's precious jonin combat power in time. Otherwise, after a battle, the village would have lost dozens of jonin.

The Fire Nation did suffer losses in this mission, but the losses were the agricultural and commercial taxes brought by tens of thousands of people, and that was all. On the other hand, Akihabara was originally the territory of the Wind Nation, and was only temporarily ceded to the Fire Nation, so it was not a big loss.

That is the situation, so there is no need to hold this meeting at all. It is just the product of the selfish motives of Sarutobi Hiruzen and others.