Ryu lifted his eyes from the council floor, exhaled, and spoke.
"This council is supposed to protect people," he said. "But have you?"
Everyone looked at Ryu.
"Once is a coincidence," Ryu said. "Twice...may not be. Thrice... it's a pattern. Tell me how many S-rank or potential S-rank ninjas this village has lost under the leadership of this council."
The clan leaders shifted in their seats, not from discomfort alone, but from recognition. Every clan at this table had lost someone to the elders' machine. The Aburame had lost Tatsuma to Root. The Yamanaka had seen promising minds vanish into Danzo's ranks, and others too. And most did not survive. Many that refused to join Root also died on missions; without proof, they could not put blame on anyone, but now that Ryu had called it out, they were thinking about it again.
The elders, at the head of the table, did not shift at all.
"Tell me?"
Nothing.
The clan leaders' silence was not empty. It was weighted with the names they had not spoken, the talents taken, and the missions that should never have been approved.
Koharu answered the only way she knew how.
"We have given everything for this village," she said, her voice carrying the practised weight of a woman who had delivered these words many times. "Sacrifice is the foundation of a shinobi's life. Even an S-rank ninja knows that his life is uncertain, that every mission could be his last. You cannot hold this council accountable for the realities of a shinobi's existence."
Ryu thought, "Yeah, right."
Ryu let the thought pass through him without touching his face. Koharu's script had not changed. It had not changed in all the years she had sat in this room, and it would not change now. She defended Danzo the same way, with the same appeal to a world where a ninja's life was cheap and the only currency that mattered was the village's stability – as if she had ever known what stability meant for anyone who was not an elder.
He looked at Koharu.
"Fine," Ryu said. "Sacrifice is sacrifice when you have lost something, not when others did. You gained power as the Hamura, the Hatake, the Kurama, and even the founding Senju declined under your leadership. That was their sacrifice, not yours. So don't take credit for it and preach about sacrifice. You have a lot to answer for – the mysterious deaths of too many ninjas."
She did not answer.
Ryu did not wait. " Lord First died in mysterious circumstances," he said. "Someone that powerful died – did you even investigate it?"
The room reacted before anyone could stop it. A clan leader's breath caught. A civilian ninja exchanged glances with his neighbour. The First Hokage's death had been accepted as fact for decades – no one had questioned it, because no one had dared.
Hiruzen closed his eyes.
It was investigated, he thought. At the time. There was no conclusion. We could not reach one. So we covered it up.
He did not say it aloud. He could not. The truth was worse than the lie – the council had known the investigation was inconclusive and had buried it anyway, because admitting they did not know how the God of Shinobi died was more dangerous than saying they did.
"We did investigate," she said. "He died of medical reasons."
"Medical reasons," Ryu repeated, tasting the words. "You wanted to believe it. Did you know the exact medical reason?"
Koharu's pause was barely a fraction of a second, but it was there.
"It was brain haemorrhaging."
Ryu let the silence stretch.
"Yeah, right." The words were flat, dismissive. "A ninja who can regenerate without any hand seals died like that."
The God of Shinobi. Brain haemorrhaging. Sure.
Who could have killed him if it was not natural?
Madara – no. That man does not have the balls after his last defeat. Also, he was physically connected to a tree.
Black Zetsu? Maybe. But it did not align with his plans – he wanted to awaken a Rinnegan, which had not been fulfilled at that point. That bastard wants to combine Indra and Ashura's powers and reach his own goals, not kill Hashirama.
Kara, or maybe another Otsutsuki. Whatever the case may be, it was not simple. Maybe memories are being manipulated at a global scale.
He did not say it aloud.
Not a single breath moved in the chamber. An eight-year-old had just called the official cause of the First Hokage's death a lie, and no one in the room had a rebuttal.
Ryu did not wait for the silence to settle. "Nawaki Senju. Lord First's grandson. Aunty Tsunade's brother died not far from the village. In peacetime. He died on a simple bandit-clearing mission. He paused. "I know suspicious when I see one."
He let the name land. Nawaki Senju – the weight of a legacy that had ended on a mission so routine it should not have killed a new chunin. In the room somewhere, Natsurama Senju, the current clan head, felt the words land like a blade between his ribs.
"You must have investigated that, right?" Ryu said.
Silence.
"Right."
The silence was the answer – the same answer it had always been when the question cut too deep.
Ryu let the silence hold for exactly the time it deserved. Then he moved on.
"Dan Kato." The name carried its own weight. "Sensor S-rank. He was using [Spirit Transformation] – his soul was outside his body. That's when they hit him. All S-ranks place contingencies for something like this. He must have had them. Someone must have stripped them. You didn't investigate, right?"
Behind him, Dan Hamura went still. Dan Kato, his cousin's son.
Homura spoke without shifting in his seat. "Dan Kato knew the risks of that jutsu," he said, his voice flat. "Lord Second himself avoided using Spirit Transformation for exactly that reason. The vulnerability was a known trade-off."
"Knowing the risk," Ryu said, "and someone stripping his contingencies are two different things. He knew the danger. That's exactly why he would have prepared for it. Or maybe someone leaked his location, and the contingency in place made sure he was killed easily. You think an S-rank ninja didn't know his own weakness? Or did someone make sure he couldn't use his contingency?"
Hiruzen had no answer.
"What about Sakumo Hatake?" Ryu said, pivoting before the last exchange could settle. "The White Fang. He failed a mission and was blamed for the prolonged war. Ostracised by his peers, he killed himself."
He paused.
"He fought legends. Third Kazekage. Raikage. Lived to tell the tale every time. But he met his end at his own home, by his own hand. Makes you wonder what else they covered up, doesn't it?"
The room had no answer for that either. The White Fang was a name that still carried weight, even years after his death. A man who had rivalled the Sannin, who had faced Kage-level opponents and walked away, driven to suicide by the same mechanism the elders used to control the village's narrative. Ostracism. Isolation. The slow death of a reputation.
"Tell me if you all have never failed a mission." Ryu asked, his voice flat.
Still nothing.
"No answer."
The silence was louder than any confession. It was the same silence that followed every question about the Second Hokage's death, about the war that followed, about the cracks in the foundation of the village they claimed to protect.
"Let's talk about that," Ryu said, turning his gaze to the trio of elders. "If my history lessons are right, you three were bodyguards of Lord Second."
Everyone was stunned with more personal attacks. now on all elders. He let the observation settle.
"He died under your watch."
Koharu opened her mouth. Homura raised a hand – a small, tired gesture.
"He chose to volunteer as a decoy," Homura said, his voice flat. "It was his decision."
Ryu met his eyes. "Lord Third... When a decoy was needed, I can only guess he raised his hand because he was the only one who did not freeze. That selflessness is probably why the Second chose him as Hokage and became a decoy himself."
He let the praise land. Then he turned to the other two.
"But the rest of you? I can only guess what you did while he volunteered. My guess is you stood frozen. And I think you know who I mean."
Hiruzen's defence was already crumbling before he finished speaking.
"He chose to—"
"But he did die under your watch," Ryu's voice did not rise. "It started the First Ninja War. Instead of saving himself, he chose to pass the torch to the next generation. But you never did. You kept pushing them, removing them from the equation and calling it a sacrifice. See the difference."
The weight of that single sentence pressed down on the room. The war that had reshaped the Elemental Nations had begun because the Second Hokage's bodyguards — the same three people sitting at this table — had failed to protect him.
"Sakumo Hatake's failure prolonged the war. That's what they say." Ryu's voice carried an edge now. "They blamed him for the losses that followed, stripped him of his reputation, and drove him to kill himself in his own home. But when you three failed your mission – when Lord Second died under your watch – what happened? Nothing. You started a war that lasted years, and no one blamed you."
He looked at each of them in turn.
"Makes you wonder how propaganda and narrative work, doesn't it?" His tone was conversational now, almost casual. "Someone out there knows how to shape a story. Point the finger at one man; make him the reason the war dragged on. Meanwhile, the people who actually failed – the people who let a Kage die – they walk away clean. Almost like someone fanned the gossip that buried the White Fang, while the real failures sat right here, untouched."
Koharu's face was stone. Hiruzen had no words. Homura had spoken his two pieces and returned to silence.
And Danzo sat composed, a man who had heard every accusation and showed nothing in return.
Ryu let the silence hold.
He was not finished. But for now, the room needed to sit with what it had heard – a body count of the village's best, laid at the feet of the people who were supposed to protect them.
A/N:
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