Naruto: My Progress in Konoha.

Chapter 1223 Roll Call
With a sullen face, Fugaku Uchiha walked straight to the conference table in front and sat down.

Gradually, the meeting room fell silent.

Fugaku Uchiha's gaze swept across the scene, lingering briefly on Aomine and Shisui Uchiha beside him, before dropping a bombshell.

He said in a chilling tone, "Just now, I received news that Itachi has gone missing!"

As the son of the head of the Uchiha clan, one of the most prestigious clans in Konoha, and a renowned genius, his sudden disappearance, especially during peacetime, is indeed a major piece of news.

Inside the meeting room, the Uchiha ninjas who heard the news all showed expressions of shock and astonishment.

Amidst the cacophony of voices asking, "What's going on? Where did the news come from? What was the exact time of the disappearance? Why did they disappear? Was it the village's doing?"

The first few questions were relatively normal, but then came the last one.
Qingming turned his head and looked in the direction from which the sound came.

As expected, the question was raised by some elderly ninjas who had retired to the second line.

These people's mindset has long been entrenched, and they don't care about the current relationship between their family and the village. When problems arise, their first thought is always that the village is at fault.

Well.
Although the village hadn't done anything good in the past, it's a bit stubborn to try to pin the blame on the village right now when nothing is clear yet.

Not only did Qingming turn his gaze to these people, but Uchiha Shisui, who was sitting next to him, did the same.

Even Qingming could faintly sense a killing intent emanating from the other party.

If there's one person in the Uchiha clan who least wanted to see the clan and village split apart, then Uchiha Shisui is undoubtedly number one.

That's why the other party gets so angry when they encounter someone who's causing trouble.

However, this murderous aura came and went quickly; if he hadn't been so close, he probably wouldn't have noticed it.

Seeing the meeting room gradually descend into chaos, Fugaku Uchiha slammed his fist on the table with a grim face.

slap~
When everyone saw him get angry, they immediately shut their mouths.

Then, Fugaku Uchiha continued, "The news came from the Fourth Hokage."

Not long ago, Itachi led a team of ANBU ninja on a mission to investigate Orochimaru's whereabouts. Just two hours ago, they sent an urgent contact signal, and then he disappeared.

"What? Orochimaru?!"

Upon hearing this news, everyone immediately gasped in surprise.

They, as Jonin, had heard this name quite often recently.

After all, everyone here has more or less accepted the task of protecting the younger generation of their clans, and knows that Orochimaru may be targeting their clan's Sharingan users.

They originally thought that three months would pass peacefully and the matter would be over, but they never expected that three months later, the clan chief's son would simply disappear.

The situation is now quite clear. Since Itachi disappeared while investigating Orochimaru, the person who did it is most likely Orochimaru himself, so it's no wonder everyone is surprised.

After the initial shock, they discussed what to do. Whether for public or private reasons, they could not ignore the matter.

However, everyone knew how powerful Orochimaru was as one of the Legendary Sannin, and no one wanted to be the first to go up as cannon fodder, so a plan of action was not finalized for a while.

Seeing everyone arguing fiercely, Qingming couldn't help but chuckle to himself.

It is said that the Uchiha clan ninjas are reckless and impulsive, and his past life memories also told him that the Uchiha clan ninjas do indeed often act on impulse.

But people are complex. The higher one's position, the more things one has to think about—family, relatives, what happens after death, and so on. All of these things force them to think. And the more they think, the further they naturally stray from the stereotypes people have of them.

And this is the real world.

Just as Qingming was lost in thought, another loud slamming sound came from ahead.

He looked up and saw that Uchiha Fugaku's face was as black as the bottom of a pot.

Without waiting for everyone to come up with a solution, he directly called out, "Uchiha Qingming, Uchiha Shisui, Uchiha Tekka, and Uchiha Yasaka, the four of you will form a team, with Uchiha Yasaka as the captain. Immediately join forces with the Anbu to investigate the whole story."

When Qingming heard that he had been called out, he hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not raise any objections.

He also wanted to find out whether Orochimaru had cooperated with the Akatsuki organization and how far his research on the Sharingan had progressed.

In addition, although he has accepted the five-day rest frequency, his training speed is much slower than before. If he could get a few more Impure World Reincarnation bodies from Orochimaru, he might be able to secretly extract more Pure Land chakra.

In this way, his cultivation speed can be accelerated considerably.

With that in mind, Qingming acquiesced to Uchiha Fugaku's arrangement.

As for the captain's position
Uchiha Hachimoku had long held an important position in the Konoha Police Department and was a staunch confidant of Uchiha Fugaku. He was twenty years older than Fugaku and had no interest in competing for the position with an "old man".

Besides, they couldn't win the competition.

Fugaku Uchiha wanted to find his son, so he naturally needed to arrange a trusted leader. It was better for him, an outsider who was not very obedient, to not play the role of a clown.

Moreover, the so-called captain position is just so-so; when real danger comes, it still comes down to one's own strength.

In Qingming's view, although the four people in the team were all Jonin, only he and Uchiha Shisui had the ability to directly confront danger; the others were at most just going through the motions and helping out.

It's just unknown which personnel the Anbu, or rather Minato Namikaze, will send this time.

According to Fugaku Uchiha, this time they are working together with the Anbu and need to cooperate. Knowing their teammates' information can save them a lot of trouble.

However, Fugaku Uchiha didn't say much, he just told them to go and prepare.

As for others.
It wasn't easy either.

They were either assigned by Fugaku Uchiha to patrol the clan, guard some clan secret areas, or go out to meet Uchiha clan members who were on or had completed their missions.

In short, everyone is busy.

The reason the other party made this arrangement was because they were worried about being lured away from their base.

Qingming was also satisfied with Fugaku Uchiha's arrangement. The fact that the other party had considered this showed that he had not been blinded by his son's disappearance and had not lost his composure.

To be honest, he didn't want to return from a mission to find the Uchiha clan wiped out.

This will definitely cause him a lot of trouble.

Of course, given the current situation in Konoha, this possibility is almost nonexistent, but Qingming couldn't help but think about the convergence of the timeline.

Shaking his head inwardly, Qingming stopped thinking about it. He got up and followed Uchiha Shisui out of the underground conference room.

(End of this chapter)