"Paying our respects, Lady Mito!"
Uzumaki Mito turned her head at the voices behind her.
"I didn't expect anyone to still recognize me. If I remember right… you're that little brat who used to trail behind Tobirama back then, aren't you?"
"Yes," Akimichi Torifu answered.
The pressure rolling off Mito—her terrifying chakra and the killing intent saturating the air—had sweat pouring down his back.
They'd all seen the fight from outside. If this "true authority" of Konoha wanted them dead, none of them would be walking away.
"Lady Mito… what is happening right now? Why…?"
"Why did I lay hands on him?" Mito let out a soft chuckle, turning her gaze toward Hiruzen Sarutobi. "Then I'll explain it properly."
The Nine Masked Beasts all moved, interposing themselves between Hiruzen and everyone else. Mito spoke lightly, almost gently:
"It starts with the Land of Whirlpools…"
At that moment, Hiruzen's pupils shrank to needle points. A wordless dread surged up his spine—his mind buzzed, blanking out as if it had crashed.
---
Elsewhere, Tsunade and the others were locked in a vicious struggle with Garaga.
The only one who could truly injure Garaga was Tsunade. Manda and Orochimaru fought while taking damage themselves, creating openings for her again and again.
After a while, Garaga's body was riddled with dents. Many scales had cracked like spiderwebbed glass—
But the reverse scale beneath his neck remained completely unscathed.
Every time their attacks angled toward it, Garaga would rather take a devastating hit elsewhere than let that spot be touched.
Thanks to Katsuyu's long-range healing from afar, Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Manda recovered quickly. Garaga, on the other hand, only grew fiercer as the battle dragged on—but as his injuries piled up, his strength and speed began to dip.
"The opening's here, Tsunade," Orochimaru said.
His Earth Style barely managed to pin Garaga in place. Manda coiled around Garaga's upper body, clamping his fangs onto Garaga's lower jaw and forcing the reverse scale into the open.
Tsunade came crashing down from above.
"Die!"
No matter how violently Garaga struggled, no matter how furious his resistance—
It was useless.
But the instant Tsunade's kick dropped—
Garaga suddenly exploded into white smoke and vanished.
Her kick couldn't be pulled back in time.
It slammed straight into Manda.
Manda didn't have Garaga's armor-like scales. The moment her foot connected, a scream tore from his throat. To break that reverse scale, Tsunade had put one hundred and twenty percent into that strike.
"Garaga, you bastard!"
Garaga hadn't fled.
The summoning time had simply ended at the worst possible moment.
After all, he'd been summoned using a scroll and the contractor's blood—not by the contractor personally. Without the summoner's chakra supply, a summon couldn't stay long before being forcibly returned.
"He vanished?" Orochimaru narrowed his eyes. He didn't believe that snake would retreat. "The contract time ran out."
Manda was shaking with rage. "Hey, Orochimaru—how are you going to compensate me this time?!"
Orochimaru gestured toward the distant Suna ninja.
"Why not go chew on some 'side dishes' to cool off?"
Manda rolled his eyes. "This time you maintain the summoning. I don't care how much chakra you've got left—just make sure I eat my fill!"
"No problem," Orochimaru replied. "Go ahead. There should be enough Sand shinobi over there to fill you up."
Then he turned to Tsunade.
"You lead the troops in first. I'll catch up."
"Fine." Tsunade nodded.
Katsuyu had already dispersed into the haze, flowing back toward the Konoha forces.
---
"I… I can't believe it… The Hokage would do something like that…"
A ring of Konoha shinobi around Hiruzen stared in disbelief. Even the people standing near Mito were pale.
"Hiruzen… is this true?" Akimichi Torifu's face trembled.
Beside him, the Nara clan head, Nara Shikabayashi—was far calmer.
"I… I didn't know," Hiruzen said, face bloodless. "Those things were carried out by Danzō."
He had to shove the blame somewhere if he wanted to protect his reputation. Even if he had buried the evidence, if someone investigated properly, the threads would eventually surface.
"These accusations are enormous," the Nara clan head said evenly. "We need a full investigation before conclusions are made. But until then, Lady Mito… please wait."
Then he looked straight at Hiruzen.
"And Lord Hokage, you will cooperate with the investigation."
The Kurama clan head spoke up from the side.
"Lady Mito… have you considered becoming the Fourth Hokage? The Third has already said he'll step down after the war."
"With your strength and your status, the seat would be yours without question."
For a split second, the entire crowd went silent.
Everyone had seen her power. And as the First Hokage's wife, her legitimacy was undeniable.
"Don't be ridiculous," Mito said, shaking her head. "Have you forgotten my age?"
"And I don't feel any loyalty to Konoha anymore. Drop it."
"I'd rather see how you plan to handle this."
"Hashirama and Tobirama entrusted Konoha to you. Now I want to see what you do with it."
Everyone felt their scalp tighten.
On one side stood the First Hokage's wife—overwhelming strength, absolute authority.
On the other stood the sitting Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Shikabayashi's gaze landed on Hiruzen.
"Lord Hokage, I'll ask you one last time, do you truly not know?"
That slight blink in Shikabayashi's eyes told Hiruzen it was his final chance.
"…I knew," Hiruzen admitted at last, voice shaking. "But I only learned after the fact. There was no way to undo anything."
"These matters don't just damage the Hokage's reputation—they damage Konoha itself. I couldn't allow them to spread, so I covered it up."
"If those truths get out, Konoha's allies…"
His hands trembled.
"It's my fault. I… I plead guilty…"
A pin could have dropped and been heard.
"Lord Hokage," Shikabayashi pressed, staring him down. "Are you certain you gave none of the orders? None of it came from you?"
"Yes," Hiruzen said hoarsely. "I swear I never issued such commands."
"Some of it—I only learned after ANBU reports reached me."
"But those scandals couldn't be exposed… and they were battlefield commanders—heroes. I had no grounds to punish them without tearing the village apart…"
...
"Lady Mito, please wait."
"Lord Hokage, we must reach a conclusion tonight, or no one will accept it," Shikabayashi said.
"I'm going to place you under genjutsu. Do not resist. It will confirm your answers."
Yamanaka interrogation wasn't an option here. In this situation, only he could act.
"I understand. Do it," Hiruzen nodded.
Shikabayashi's chakra slipped into Hiruzen's mind, and Hiruzen's eyes quickly lost focus under the genjutsu.
"I ask you: Did you order action against the Land of Whirlpools? Who carried it out?"
"No," Hiruzen muttered blankly. "I never ordered an attack on Uzushio. Danzō acted on his own."
"And the Senju clan—did you order that?"
"I did not," Hiruzen replied, eyes glassy.
...
Minutes later, Shikabayashi released the genjutsu.
He deliberately skirted the most fatal questions—
Whether Hiruzen had hinted, whether he'd known Danzō would move, whether silence itself was complicity.
He knew Mito had already lost faith in Konoha. And the war was still raging—Hiruzen, as Third Hokage, held the entire machine together. If he died, Konoha would spiral into chaos.
Suna could function with a strong administrator like Ebizō handling much of the village.
Konoha couldn't. The Hokage and the advisors controlled everything—even ANBU.
If Hiruzen died tonight, Konoha would collapse into disorder.
Still, Shikabayashi didn't let the key questions go unanswered:
Did he give direct orders? Who, exactly, did it?
When the genjutsu questioning ended, more than half the crowd looked at Hiruzen with something like pity—
He'd become the fall guy cleaning up everyone else's mess.
The interrogation itself wasn't false: Hiruzen truly hadn't ordered Uzushio's destruction. Danzō had acted privately.
And the Senju weren't directly killed by Hiruzen either—many "battlefield accidents," many "command decisions"… and most of those commanders were Danzō's people.
Shikabayashi had guided the outcome masterfully.
In the end, Hiruzen became the scapegoat who covered for others.
"I'm sorry, Lord Hokage," Shikabayashi said quietly. "Your indulgence of Danzō has brought us here."
"You let emotion outweigh reason. Because of your bond as fellow students, you spared him far too many times."
But it couldn't end there.
Even with most blame shoved onto Danzō, Hiruzen still had to be punished for incompetence and inaction.
The problem was: the war still needed him. Aside from Mito, he was Konoha's only remaining Kage-level pillar.
They needed a penalty that looked severe, but didn't draw blood—and protected both Konoha and the clans' interests.
Shikabayashi exhaled.
"This is beyond my authority now. By Konoha's rules, there will be a vote tomorrow to decide whether you continue as Hokage. Your failures will also be judged tomorrow."
One night was enough time for Hiruzen to make arrangements. If he couldn't manage that, then he had no right to sit in the chair.
The crowd nodded. It felt "fair." The Hokage's seat mattered too much to be treated lightly.
A surprising number even sympathized with the "fall guy" in front of them.
Mito only shook her head.
This village was no longer what Hashirama had dreamed of.
The village they had built had been eaten through by private ambition.
At seventy-plus years old, she could see it clearly.
Maybe the other clans… had wanted the Senju to fade away all along.
She turned and walked toward the Senju compound, her voice drifting back like ice.
"Uzushio is gone. And Konoha… played a part."
"So the old alliance with Konoha means nothing anymore."
"From this day forward, the Uzumaki will never return to Konoha… and we will never fight for Konoha again."
"And I will take Uzumaki Kushina and leave."
The terrifying Nine Masked Beasts blocked the road. The air, saturated with killing intent, made everyone hesitate—no one dared step forward.
Kushina was dragged out of sleep.
"Grandma… what's wrong?"
Mito had already packed. Everything was sealed into scrolls. Over the years, she had managed the Senju's remaining wealth—she'd left some for Tsunade, and took the rest with her.
She answered Kushina with a gentle smile.
"Kushina, get up. We're leaving Konoha tonight."
"W-What?! Why?" Kushina jolted fully awake.
Mito only patted her head without explanation, then took her hand and led her out.
After circling the Senju compound once, she placed a seal on a single building.
"The once-glorious Senju… ends like this…"
"Then I'll be the one to draw the final line."
Outside the Senju compound, the streets were packed with people.
An elderly man stepped forward, trying to stop her.
"Lady Mito… please calm down. That traitor Danzō will be brought back soon, so please—"
His answer was the golden chakra that erupted around her—
Nine-Tails Chakra Mode.
"So warm…" Kushina thought, holding Mito's hand. It felt like grasping a living furnace.
Mito leaned close and whispered.
"Close your eyes. Just for a moment."
Then she placed two layers of soundproofing seals over Kushina's ears.
"Rasen Ring."
A pitch-black sphere condensed in her palm, dark as ink.
She threw it into the Senju compound.
A white flash—
A thunderous boom—
And the Senju compound vanished in the blast.
Only one house remained standing, lonely amid the ruin—
Tsunade's house.
The shockwave rolled outward, choking the air with dust. The crowd stumbled back in panic.
Before, they had only witnessed this technique through a barrier.
Now that they felt it firsthand, they understood its horror.
Even those who'd tried to persuade her fell silent.
"That bastard Sarutobi…" someone muttered, trembling. "He had a monster like this in the village—and he still forced her into rebellion."
Even Shikabayashi had meant to persuade her.
He'd saved Hiruzen earlier because Konoha needed him for the war—because for the Ino–Shika–Chō alliance, too much power and too many interests were tied to Hiruzen.
Mito looked young, but her life was at its end. Even if she anchored Konoha, she wouldn't last more than a few years.
Still, the shockwave's lingering tremor left Shikabayashi shivering.
For the first time, he understood power differently.
"Is this… even something a human should have?"
A vast Senju compound—gone in an instant.
Mito's voice carried through the dust.
"The Nine-Tails was Hashirama's spoils after he defeated Madara."
"The Five Kage Summit never spoke of distributing the Nine-Tails."
"The Nine-Tails has always belonged to the Senju—not to Konoha."
"Today I'm taking the Nine-Tails. It has nothing to do with Konoha. Understood?"
Who would dare argue?
Everyone nodded frantically, terrified she'd wipe them out too.
Mito removed the seal from Kushina's ears and led her through Konoha's gates.
"Anyone who dares follow—dies."
Nine beasts burst from the halo behind her.
The Nine Masked Beasts appeared once more, and their soaring killing intent made her resolve unmistakable.
"Hiruzen…" From the top of the Hokage Tower, Hiruzen stood with the two advisors, hearing every word.
"Don't throw your life away," one of them rasped. "We deal with tomorrow first."
In only a few hours, white strands had already appeared in Hiruzen's hair.
"No one can stop her…"
Outside the village, Kushina asked innocently, wide-eyed—this was her first time leaving Konoha since arriving.
"Grandma… where are we going?"
Mito's gaze turned toward the darkness ahead.
"Amegakure. There should be… one of our clansmen there."
----------------------------------///
Advance Chapters on Patreon!
p(a)treon(.)com/HudaLin
-Remove the parenthesis to access patreon normally
Thanks for the Support!