Chapter 105: Sarutobi, You're the Hokage!
Kakashi stood dazedly in front of the library for quite a while before barely collecting his chaotic emotions. He looked around but still couldn't stop feeling lost and at a loss, completely unsure what to do.
Of course he knew that nine times out of ten, rumors were false—all made-up fabrications.
But—this matter involved his teacher's reputation, involved his own... father's death. He had no way to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to this!
Coincidentally, because of Rin's matter, enormous pressure and dissatisfaction had accumulated in his heart during this time.
His pressure came from his sense of responsibility for Rin's future. He'd promised Obito he would absolutely protect Rin well. That's why he'd been searching like finding a needle in a haystack in this library for methods that might not even exist.
His dissatisfaction came from the village still not giving a clear response and explanation about them being betrayed before, even now.
He glanced at the bright sun in the sky. It was so brilliant he didn't dare look directly at it, couldn't look directly at it. He turned back into the library, continuing what he'd originally planned to do—seeking in this vast library for possibilities that might not even exist.
Time flew by in a flash. The library's closing time arrived!
Kakashi quietly exited the library with the crowd, standing on the street outside. It was already nine o'clock at night. The pale blue moon was slowly climbing toward the sky's zenith. Many shop lights along both sides of the street had already lit up, releasing dazzling, enchanting radiance.
An autumn breeze blew, carrying some chill that drilled into people's bones, but also mixed with the fragrant aromas of takoyaki, yakitori skewers and other foods, causing his empty stomach to make gurgling sounds.
Only then did he belatedly realize he hadn't even eaten dinner.
Following the direction the aroma came from, Kakashi stopped before a semi-outdoor yakitori shop beside the market. Though it hadn't been open long, there were quite a few customers. The grilled meat's aroma continuously spread in all directions.
Though this aroma was indeed quite enticing, what truly made Kakashi choose to stop and stay here was the customers eating skewers, drinking, and loudly holding forth.
"...If you ask me, White Fang back then really might have been forced to death. I remember very clearly—at that time, many people thought White Fang would definitely be the Fourth Hokage."
"You're talking complete nonsense, right? The Ho— cough cough, would those people really need to force White Fang to death over something like that?"
"Why wouldn't they? Someone like you who's never tasted power's flavor naturally doesn't understand how intoxicating power truly is, especially that kind of absolute authority..."
"You talk as though you're some big shot."
"Can't claim to be a big shot, but I did wear official robes for a few days. Unfortunately, my luck was bad—I offended a bigwig I couldn't afford to offend. Otherwise, you think I'd be here drinking with you lot?"
This speaker looked somewhat down and out. From the sound of it, he'd been somebody before.
Kakashi casually ordered food and picked a seat relatively close to this group of loudly discoursing customers. The stall owner brought over a brazier with charcoal below and a grill above, also asking if Kakashi wanted alcohol, though clearly Kakashi looked like a youth.
Could only say these small vendors truly walked the edge between legal and illegal, only caring whether they could make money, not caring what kinds of people their customers were, much less what the customers said.
Kakashi refused the alcohol and carefully inspected the skewers the owner brought. Fortunately, though this owner might completely lack legal awareness, at least he understood causing customer health problems would bring trouble. These skewers' quality wasn't particularly good, but were still some distance from spoiled.
He sat alone in the corner, quietly grilling and eating skewers, drinking the free barley tea, listening to customers at surrounding tables chat and discourse.
Because customers eating at this kind of small stall were basically all middle-aged men, the topics they discussed were nothing more than women and politics.
Kakashi had no interest in topics about women—in one ear, out the other. But involving politics, the rumors he'd heard before were indeed repeatedly brought up.
Summarizing, currently the three most mentioned topics were: first, the village's attitude toward outsiders was too weak. Despite defeating Sand and Rock ninja, they'd abandoned the right to demand compensation, causing war's heavy burden to only be borne by the village—or rather, the villagers. Many complained greatly about this, cursing quite uncleanly when mentioning the village leadership who made these decisions.
Second was whether the war with Mist ninja was triggered because of Yellow Flash and his student's fault. They argued endlessly over this. When things got heated, they nearly grabbed bottles to brawl, but fortunately didn't fight after others pulled them apart. But one could hear quite a few people truly believed this obviously fake rhetoric, thinking the war erupting with Mist ninja was entirely Yellow Flash's fault.
Third was the old matter of White Fang's suicide. The reason this already much-chewed-over old matter could become a hot topic again was supposedly because new intelligence was extracted through interrogating a captured Mist ninja spy, saying something about village leadership fearing White Fang's achievements threatening their authority, using rumors to force White Fang into a desperate situation. White Fang, forced into a corner with no retreat, ultimately made a deal with the leadership—he used his suicide to exchange for the opportunity for his son to take Yellow Flash as his teacher.
Must say, these topics were described with vivid detail, sounding as though they truly happened.
Kakashi didn't believe this because he knew very clearly the Mist ninja invasion had no connection whatsoever to Minato-sensei. This rumor was truly making something out of nothing.
However, he also remembered his father's tormented, painful appearance during that period before his suicide. He'd thought he'd long forgotten all this, but now recalling it, he discovered everything was so clear.
Night deepened. The yakitori shop closed.
Kakashi returned home but didn't go to bed. Instead, he sat on the roof, gazing at the sky.
While Kakashi suffered sleeplessly, the Hokage Building was brightly lit for another night. Even Kakashi could notice the rumors spreading throughout the village—if Sarutobi Hiruzen the Third Hokage still knew nothing, his position as Hokage would truly be finished.
In fact, yesterday he'd already known someone played a trick of adding fuel to the fire, releasing new rumors on top of Danzo's original rumors. Not only did this directly sabotage Danzo's intention in releasing rumors, it also forcibly dragged Minato into the water.
This made Sarutobi Hiruzen extraordinarily furious.
"Still haven't traced these rumors' source?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen sat behind his desk, holding his pipe and constantly puffing smoke. Gray-white smoke swirled around. Combined with the insufficient brightness of the overhead lamp, it was hard to see his expression clearly.
However, the ANBU kneeling on one knee before the desk didn't dare raise his head to look directly at Lord Hokage. He simply heard disappointment and dissatisfaction from that voice alone.
This made this ANBU squad captain's waist bend even lower. He answered with difficulty: "We've already traced that the first to spread rumors were two men. The day before yesterday, they first appeared at a small tavern. The two loudly argued. Everyone in the tavern at that time heard their nonsense. After that, they appeared at a yakiniku restaurant, also spreading rumors through loud arguing. Then another tavern, a yakitori shop... appearing multiple times at multiple places where idle people gathered, all within about one day."
"Two men? Have you identified them?"
"That... we haven't. We've questioned almost everyone who saw those two men, but not even one person recognized them. We suspect those two probably used Transformation Technique, and also used some kind of medicinal powder to mask their scent. Moreover, every location they appeared lacked nearby sensory ninja..."
"Transformation Technique? Scent-masking powder? Didn't encounter sensory ninja—meaning the investigation can't continue?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen's voice rose slightly.
"That's correct."
The ANBU squad captain struggled to give an affirmative answer.
This kind of premeditated case with extremely thorough preparation was hardest to investigate. These past two days, he'd truly exerted maximum effort investigating, even requesting Aburame Clan, Inuzuka Clan, and Yamanaka Clan experts to assist.
However, the culprit spreading rumors was simply too well-prepared, or rather, understood Konoha ninja investigation methods too well. From the very beginning, they'd taken precautions against clans like Aburame, Inuzuka, and Yamanaka who specialized in tracking and investigation. They even clearly knew the situation within Konoha Village at that time, accurately avoiding locations with sensory ninja present while successfully spreading rumors.
In fact, from these preparations alone, one could already see that nine out of ten, the mastermind behind this was one of their own, and not just anyone—otherwise they wouldn't have the capability to do these things.
In short, after investigating to this point, there was no way to continue. They couldn't find the mastermind at all.
Just like after White Fang's suicide back then, they'd also investigated who spread the news about White Fang abandoning his mission and choosing to save comrades. Reasonably speaking, White Fang's missions were all top-secret—whether successful or failed, they absolutely couldn't be made public.
Yet the matter got out at that time. The current squad captain was then just an ordinary ANBU member. They'd rushed around the village investigating for half a month but ultimately found nothing.
Since then, he'd understood—no matter how skilled at investigating cases he was, some cases truly couldn't be solved.
"Dismissed!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't vent his anger on him.
He simply indicated the ANBU could withdraw.
The ANBU squad captain hastily retreated, leaving only Sarutobi Hiruzen alone sitting in the office, silently inhaling and exhaling smoke.
Moments later, the unlocked office door was quite rudely pushed open. Shimura Danzo, leaning on his cane, strode in with large steps. His expression was dark and fierce, like a wolf choosing people to devour.
"Sarutobi, what have you discovered on your end?"
Danzo stood before the desk and questioned.
"Nothing at all."
"Really?"
"When have I ever joked with you?"
"My side similarly discovered nothing."
Danzo's expression grew increasingly dark and ugly. He said in a heavy voice: "Since neither you nor I can catch any evidence, it must be that little brat from the Hyuga Clan who did it!"
He made this violent assertion without any basis.
Regarding this, Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't deny it. He only sighed: "The key is there's no evidence! Don't forget Hyuga Ritsu is still on the road back to the village!"
"That little brat is absolutely deliberately dawdling and wasting time, manufacturing an alibi. Walking for a whole week and still hasn't returned!"
"These words can be said but can't become evidence."
Sarutobi Hiruzen said.
With ninja speed and stamina, rushing back to the village from the eastern coastal region would take two or three days if fast, four or five days if slow. The Mist ninja diplomatic envoy was entirely composed of ninja without a single non-ninja civilian—there was no issue of dragging down the journey.
In other words, Ritsu and his group should have returned to the village long ago.
Yet reality was they'd walked for a full week and still hadn't returned. The reason Ritsu gave was also impeccable—to ensure the Mist ninja diplomatic envoy's safety, they didn't dare travel for long periods and had to constantly maintain optimal condition to handle unexpected situations.
But in Sarutobi Hiruzen and Danzo's view, this was clearly deliberately manufacturing an alibi.
The rumors currently in the village were absolutely connected to Ritsu.
After all, if not Ritsu, they couldn't think of anyone else who would do such things.
"Then what do you think should be done now? Let rumors continue spreading like this? White Fang's matter isn't important, and slandering Minato is impossible, but the rumors accusing you of foreign policy weakness are quite troublesome."
"Tomorrow I'll order the Military Police Force to stop the rumors from spreading."
Sarutobi Hiruzen wasn't panicked. He took a puff of smoke and looked at Danzo: "Stopping rumor spread isn't difficult. The key is that after this disruption, your methods for dealing with Hyuga Ritsu are wasted. What's your next plan?"
"What plan is needed now? Just insist they researched forbidden techniques without permission. Ritsu mastered Shikotsumyaku, Hiruko publicly displayed Ice Release—this master-disciple pair themselves are the greatest evidence. Just have the Mist ninja make accusations, then you directly order the arrest of Ritsu and Hiruko!"
"Too crude!"
"Crudeness is required. Sarutobi, you're the Hokage! You have sufficient authority to do what you want to do." Danzo said loudly.
Sarutobi Hiruzen frowned slightly.
He cherished his reputation greatly and didn't like forcibly using the Hokage's supreme authority to achieve objectives. In his view, this was the most inferior method because doing so would greatly consume his prestige.
Moreover, the key difference from White Fang was that Ritsu wasn't alone and helpless—he was the Hyuga Clan head.
"The Hyuga Clan cannot be thrown into chaos."
Sarutobi Hiruzen muttered, his heart still unable to completely make up its mind.
So he stared at Danzo and asked first: "Let's not discuss this yet. Danzo, why haven't you cleaned up your mess even now? I told you—the matter of Team Kakashi's intelligence being betrayed must have an explanation!"
"The one who sold Team Kakashi's intelligence was someone else. Torune and the others were uninvolved—they were also schemed against."
Bringing up this matter, Danzo also had a bellyful of anger.
After Aburame Torune and the others returned, they'd already undergone extremely rigorous examination. Investigation found that indeed one of Torune's subordinates had sold Team Kakashi's intelligence to the Mist ninja. But the key was when this subordinate was discovered, he died on the spot—both his head and heart destroyed by embedded curse seals.
Undoubtedly, having hunted geese all these years, this year he'd instead been pecked in the eye by some little goose from who knows where.
"Regardless of whether they were schemed against, the current point is this matter must have an explanation. Otherwise it won't make sense."
Sarutobi Hiruzen said decisively.
Danzo's face turned dark.