After Team Eleven's three members left the Hokage's office, Danzo stood up, leaning on his cane, and slowly walked to the Hokage's desk. With a stern look in his eyes, he fixed his gaze on the Third Hokage. "Hiruzen, it's time to make a decision!"
The Third Hokage shook his head. "Things haven't reached the point of no return."
"Have you considered what kind of damage the village might suffer if they strike first?" Danzo paused slightly, then pressed further. "Leave it to me. I'll minimize the losses."
The Third Hokage took a long draw from his pipe. "Isn't the chaos in Kirigakure a deep enough lesson? From now on, I'll personally handle the Uchiha situation. Stay out of it."
Mentioning Kirigakure's turmoil rendered Danzo momentarily speechless. The recent upheaval had nearly shattered Kirigakure's reputation as one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages. Not only was the village's strength severely diminished, but the entire Land of Water had fallen into unrest.
Everyone understood clearly—such a tragedy must never happen in Konoha.
After some thought, Danzo said again, "Shisui Uchiha must not remain in the ANBU. His strength has already surpassed ours. If he fully sides with the Uchiha, you'll be in grave danger."
The Third Hokage nodded.
His earlier agreement to Danzo's suggestion to suspend all of Team Eleven was partly due to this concern about Shisui. Shisui had vouched for Hyuga Kagami's achievements during the battle in the valley, leading both Hiruzen and Danzo to overestimate his abilities. Combined with Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan and Kotoamatsukami, his threat level was re-evaluated several tiers higher.
At this point, neither the Third Hokage nor Danzo could confidently overpower Shisui one-on-one.
ANBU, directly under the Hokage, had unrestricted access to the Hokage's residence. If Shisui harbored any disloyalty, the Third Hokage could easily fall victim to a fatal ambush.
Although Hiruzen didn't believe Shisui would betray the village, as Hokage, he couldn't take the risk.
A week later, Hyuga Kagami returned to the village openly, just before his two-month leave was up.
Upon returning, he discovered he had been suspended. This didn't surprise him—in fact, the ANBU position no longer held much value to him.
From the beginning, he had never planned to remain in ANBU for long. Even if the Hokage hadn't suspended him, he would've looked for the right opportunity to resign.
He had already acquired everything he needed: sealing techniques from the Uzumaki lineage, the internal layout of the Hokage building, security details of the classified archives, and even files on ANBU members. His official record now also listed him as a former member of the Hokage's direct ANBU unit. There was no need to linger.
While ANBU did offer many privileges, it also came with significant restrictions. Ordinary Konoha ninja could accept missions at will unless assigned a mandatory one, and thus could leave the village freely.
Not so for ANBU—every mission was directly assigned by the Hokage, and every move had to be reported. There was no freedom.
That might be fine for a typical Konoha shinobi, but it was a huge constraint for someone like Hyuga Kagami. At this point, the disadvantages far outweighed the benefits.
"But why suspend all of Team Eleven?"
The thought gave Hyuga Kagami pause. It seemed the higher-ups might not be targeting him specifically. They might just be using the incident involving the death of a Root ninja as an excuse to go after someone else in Team Eleven.
And that someone was clearly Shisui.
After pondering it for a while, Hyuga Kagami set the issue aside.
As long as the peace talks with Kumogakure hadn't been finalized, the Uchiha wouldn't be touched. What Hyuga Kagami needed to do now was not stir up trouble but seize this moment—when everyone else was distracted—to improve his strength.
In the ninja world, power is everything.
Over the next few days, Hyuga Kagami met with Team Eleven's other members and visited around the clan to make sure people knew he was back in the village. Then, he secluded himself at home and didn't go anywhere.
Danzo hadn't sent anyone to monitor him recently, but Hyuga Kagami didn't bother questioning the reason.
On the seventh day after returning to the village, once everything was ready, he officially began the artificial Tailed Beast project.
The first step: crafting a vessel for his artificial Tailed Beast.
The material would be the purple clay recorded in the scroll on artificial Tailed Beasts. Over the past few days, he had tested it privately and found that it indeed had strong chakra-insulating properties, making it ideal for crafting the shell of the beast.
As for the technique, he had already memorized every inscription from the scroll. The chance of an error was nearly zero.
"Byakugan—Activate!"
After scanning the area to confirm no one was watching, Hyuga Kagami took out the scroll containing the purple clay and released all of it.
Gazing at the valuable clay before him, he thought for a moment and decided to mold the artificial beast's shell into a simple sphere.
The decision wasn't for convenience. The simpler the shape, the more stable the structure.
After all, the artificial Tailed Beast was just a "battery" to him. Making it flashy at the cost of stability would be counterproductive.
With that resolved, he began etching the technique onto the purple clay, bit by bit.
The process had to be completed in one go—no pauses, no mistakes.
A minor flaw would leave a weakness in the shell. A major one could cause the shell to explode while containing a chakra source.
Because this step was critical, Hyuga Kagami activated his Tenseigan. With its unparalleled clarity and precise chakra control, he raised the accuracy of his etching to its highest possible level.
When deeply focused, time passed quickly.
As morning light crept through the window, Hyuga Kagami deactivated his Tenseigan.
After an entire night of uninterrupted work, he had finally completed the molding of the artificial Tailed Beast's shell. Thankfully, he had chosen a simple sphere. Even with the Tenseigan's help, a more complex shape wouldn't have been doable in a single night.
He resealed the completed shell into the scroll, slowly stood up, and stretched long under the soft glow of the morning sun...