(T/N: Yep. Whatever unknown happens, Keep Calm and Blame Danzo)
Nightfall.
Uchiha Compound.
At the Uchiha residence, inside Fugaku's home…
Uchiha Itachi had just wrapped up another thrilling day of espionage, assassination, and dealing with co-workers who wore animal masks unironically.
His mother, Mikoto, had just finished preparing dinner, carefully laying out the dishes on the table with all the love and care of a woman who had no idea her roof was about to get obliterated.
"Fugaku, Itachi, Sasuke, dinner's ready!"
Ah, the simple joys of family dinner—where the only tension in the air should have been between Itachi and Sasuke over who got the last piece of tamagoyaki.
Unfortunately… fate had other plans.
BOOM!
The ceiling exploded.
Like, actually exploded.
The entire house shook as if it had just been personally drop-kicked by the First Hokage's ghost.
Chunks of debris rained down, peppering the dining table like some cursed seasoning from a particularly violent cooking show.
Mikoto, understandably, let out a very distressed scream.
Itachi, trained Anbu operative and master of composure, immediately grabbed Sasuke by the back of his collar and yanked him behind him.
His Sharingan flickered to life, spinning ominously as he locked onto the crumbling ceiling like it had personally insulted him.
"You all need to get outside—head to the courtyard where it's safe!"
Fugaku, meanwhile, had already activated his Sharingan and was assessing the situation like a true clan head.
After a quick "Nope, not dying in my own house today," he bolted out the window and landed on the roof.
(T/N: Unironically, he did end up dying in his own house.)
The moment he landed, his eyes widened.
A third of his roof was just... gone.
Like someone had decided, "Hey, what if we removed this entire section of the house with lightning?"
Faint blue sparks crackled within the destruction, flickering ominously like they had a personal vendetta against architecture.
A very, very bad feeling crept up Fugaku's spine.
He looked up at the night sky.
No storm clouds. No lightning.
Just a peaceful, cloudless night. A perfect evening to not have his house obliterated.
"There was no natural lightning… This was ninjutsu."
Analyzing the scene, Fugaku's brain went into overdrive.
"Who the hell uses Lightning Release at this level? Kumo?!"
He frowned.
Recently, Konoha had been negotiating a peace treaty with Kumogakure. The idea that Kumo would sabotage the talks with a random rooftop smiting seemed absurd, but then again…
Kumo did have a suspiciously high number of people who could casually toss lightning around like confetti.
Just then—
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The sound of approaching footsteps snapped him out of his thoughts.
Turning his head, he spotted Itachi and several young Uchiha clan members arriving at the scene, all looking like they had just woken up to find their entire living situation had changed.
"This was definitely Lightning Release," Itachi muttered, crouching down to examine the wreckage.
The level of destruction was impressive.
Like, really impressive.
Even for a jōnin-level attack, this was overkill. Whoever did this wasn't just strong—they were either incredibly strong, or incredibly stupid.
"But who would do this?"
Itachi narrowed his eyes.
"It doesn't make sense for Kumo to attack us now when they're trying to make peace with Konoha…"
His thoughts drifted toward a more troublesome possibility.
"Could this be… the Hokage's orders?"
Ever since the Nine-Tails' night, the Uchiha had been shoved to the outskirts of the village, treated with suspicion, and given the collective stink-eye by Konoha's leadership and civilians.
Tensions were rising.
Resentment was growing.
So the idea that Konoha's higher-ups might be sending some sort of "friendly warning" to the Uchiha wasn't entirely out of the question.
But something about it just didn't sit right.
Itachi frowned.
"No… That doesn't feel right either."
Itachi shook his head slightly.
He just couldn't see the Third Hokage pulling something like this.
Sure, the old man wasn't perfect, but he was more of a "talk things out over tea" kind of leader, not a "let's randomly smite people's houses with lightning" kind of guy.
"This doesn't seem like something he would do…"
Then, like a single brain cell finally connecting the dots, a name popped into his mind.
"It's Danzo."
(T/N: That's right. Just blame Danzo)
It all made too much sense.
Power-hungry? Check!
Obsessed with shadowy politics? Check!
Would 100% blow up a house just to send a vague, menacing message? Oh, you better believe that's a check!
Meanwhile, Uchiha Shisui had just arrived at the scene, drawn by the explosion and the growing crowd.
The moment he laid eyes on the destruction, he froze.
For a split second, his mind went completely blank, before it filled with one overwhelming thought:
'Oh no. This is bad. This is really, REALLY bad.'
His gaze flickered over the damage, analyzing every detail.
The lightning attack had carefully avoided any casualties.
But the target? Fugaku's house.
This wasn't a random attack.
This was a statement.
A warning.
'Don't cause trouble while the peace treaty is being signed.'
Shisui sucked in a sharp breath.
'Could this be… the Hokage?'
The thought barely had time to settle before he immediately rejected it.
The Hokage was actively trying to mend relations between Konoha and the Uchiha. He had been nothing but diplomatic.
'He wouldn't do this.'
(T/N: True, Monkey could never do this.)
Then, like a detective in a crime drama dramatically pulling off his sunglasses, Shisui's expression hardened.
'It's Danzo.'
Of course, it was Danzo.
Everything is and always will be Danzo's fault.
At this point, you could blame the guy for bad weather, and there'd still be a 90% chance you were right.
But before he could voice his suspicions, Fugaku—who was currently going through the five stages of grief over his ruined house—took charge.
"Lock down the compound. No one gets in or out. Whoever is responsible for this… we will find them."
The young Uchiha elites didn't hesitate.
"Yes, Clan Leader!"
With the discipline of trained shinobi, they vanished into the night like vengeful ghosts, ready to hunt down the culprit.
Meanwhile, inside his head, Fugaku was dealing with a full-blown crisis.
'The Uchiha are the strongest clan in the village. We're the police force, for Kami's sake! Our security is airtight—no one should have been able to sneak in!'
And yet, here they were.
Someone had breached the compound's defenses.
Someone had targeted his home.
And even though no one was hurt, one terrifying thought dominated his mind:
'What if they had gone after my sons instead?'
His fists clenched.
This wasn't just some random incident.
This was a deliberate attack.
And there was only one man in Konoha shady enough to pull something like this.
Fugaku's expression darkened.
'Could it really be… Danzo?'
Fugaku's mind immediately flashed to Danzo's face, his teeth clenched tightly.
This guy, okay, usually just suppressing the Uchiha clan was already pushing it...
But now he's really going all-in, huh?! Attacking directly?!
A light breeze swept through, helping Fugaku at least momentarily calm down.
"Wait… hold on."
After carefully analyzing the situation, Itachi suddenly had a revelation. By studying the explosion's range, he could figure out the trajectory of the jutsu.
Shisui and Fugaku immediately turned to Itachi.
"Itachi, stay here and protect Mikoto and Sasuke."
Fugaku thought for a second, worried something else might go wrong, and ordered Itachi to stay behind to protect the family.
Then, without a word, he and Shisui shared a look and zoomed off toward the trajectory of the jutsu like a pair of ninja rockets.
A little while later…
Shisui, with his Sharingan activated, noticed that one of the buildings now had a hole the size of a small crater, about four to five meters wide.
"Yep, that matches the Lightning Release perfectly."
"Shisui, careful."
Fugaku warned, pulling out a kunai from his ninja tool pouch.
"Got it."
Shisui nodded, then vanished in a blur with his Body Flicker Technique.
If this was an attack from Root, they'd better eliminate the threat.
And so, Shisui moved even faster, bursting into Kaze's house.
His Sharingan quickly scanned the room.
It was just Kaze, the newly minted Chūnin who seemed to confuse "training" with "destroying half the neighborhood." No sign of any Root or Anbu.
"Uh, Shisui…"
Kaze practically jumped out of his skin as the world-famous genius materialized in his home.
"Is it just you here?"
Shisui eyed him with suspicion. If Root was attacking, Kaze should be dead by now. Or at least looking terrified.
Before Kaze could answer…
Another figure crashed into the room.
It was Fugaku Uchiha, the head of the clan and apparently the local party crasher.
He glanced around, his eyes sharp and vigilant.
"You okay, Kaze?"
Fugaku whispered, checking if Kaze had been caught in the blast.
Kaze blinked a few times, looked at Shisui, and then at Fugaku. Finally, he sighed in defeat.
"Well, Clan Leader… funny story. I just developed a new Lightning Release technique, and, uh, long story short… I kind of blew up your roof."
Kaze said this in the most awkward voice, but he was so deadpan about it, it was almost impressive.
(T/N: Soo close, Danzo almost had another pot with his name on it. Well let me know if I created a mess here.)