Chapter 70: The Dark Underbelly of Konoha
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[VIP Highlight: Tobirama Senju - "Explain. NOW."]
Tobirama Senju (VIP5): Sakumo becomes the Fourth Hokage? Clarify. The Fourth Hokage is Minato.
Ren Arakawa (subvocalizing): Ask Minato yourself. If Sakumo hadn't taken his own life that day, would the Yellow Flash have ever worn the hat?
Tobirama Senju: Fourth Hokage. Report.
Minato Namikaze (VIP1): Clears throat awkwardly. Well, theoretically... given Captain Sakumo's standing, reputation, and record of service... yes. He was the presumed successor. I was... a contingency plan.
As the topic of Sakumo Hatake's suicide unfolded, other Konoha ghosts emerged from the digital woodwork.
Hyuga Hizashi (VIP1): I can attest. Captain Sakumo, "Konoha's White Fang," was a legend. His power surpassed most kage. Even the Sannin accorded him respect. His war record was impeccable. The village saw him as the only choice for Fourth. Then... he was found at home.
Yuhi Shinku (Regular Viewer): I went through three packs of cigarettes that week trying to make sense of it. The mission he abandoned was a routine scout. The backlash was... disproportionate. And the man he saved turning on him? It didn't add up.
Tobirama Senju: Strength beyond kage. Exemplary service. Anbu Commander. Popular acclaim. He met every qualification. Sakumo, your choice was an overreaction. The village lost a strategic asset.
Sakumo Hatake (Regular Viewer): Lord Second... you think too cleanly. Had I not chosen that path, there were those in the village who would have chosen it for me. And my son might have paid the price.
Tobirama Senju: ...
Uchiha Izuna (Regular Viewer): Ho ho! Smells like a political hit! Konoha's internal dramas are better than theater!
Ren Arakawa: It's not complicated.
Tobirama Senju: You possess further intelligence.
Ren Arakawa: Some. But one thing is clear: his glory threatened the throne.
Uchiha Izuna: There it is! Village politics! Never gets old!
Tobirama Senju: Izuna, silence. Are you implicating my student? Sarutobi?
Ren Arakawa: To be precise, the Konoha F4.
Tobirama Senju: The... what?
Ren Arakawa: Your four star pupils: Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzō Shimura, Homura Mitokado, Koharu Utatane. The ruling council. The "F4."
Uchiha Fugaku (VIP1): The village's highest authority. It seems the White Fang was in their way, much like my clan later.
Tobirama Senju: Obstruct him? A village hero of his caliber should be nurtured! Why obstruct?
Ren Arakawa: Lord Second, you're being idealistic. Post-war, Sakumo's prestige was astronomical. He was the people's choice. That inadvertently stepped on toes. The F4 never intended for him to be Fourth. Their first picks were the Sannin—all Sarutobi's direct students. Minato was a compromise when the Sannin declined.
Minato Namikaze: Ren, that's... brutally honest.
Tobirama Senju: Fourth, be quiet. Boy, continue. Why would my students block a qualified successor?
Ren Arakawa: Because he wasn't their man. The Sannin are Sarutobi's legacy. Minato is Jiraiya's student, part of that lineage. Sakumo Hatake was independent. A power center not under their control. Think about it.
Tobirama Senju: A low, dangerous growl. Are you suggesting they sought to monopolize the Hokage's office? Fourth, confirm or deny.
Minato Namikaze: I... I was Hokage for barely a year before I died! I was figuring it out!
Ren Arakawa: Minato was a figurehead. A talented, beloved figurehead. Ask the source.
Minato Namikaze: I feel... used. And also defended? It's confusing.
Tobirama Senju: The source. Sakumo. Speak.
Before Tobirama could fully demand it, Sakumo's voice returned, calm now, emptied of the old pain by decades of death.
Sakumo Hatake: Since the boy has laid it bare... I will tell you, Lord Second.
He narrated it like a mission debrief: the orchestrated campaign after the "failed" mission. The planted rumors of treason. The engineered public outcry. The deliberate destruction of a reputation built on blood and loyalty.
And the twist: the "saved" subordinate was a plant. The "classified" mission was a setup. All engineered by the Council to remove a political rival.
Sakumo Hatake: The most galling part was their final visit. After they'd turned the village against me, they came personally. They made it clear: if I did not write a confession of weakness and take my life, my son, Kakashi... would meet with an accident. So I wrote. And I died. A coward's death, by my own hand, to protect the only thing I had left.
The silence in the stream was a physical weight.
Uchiha Fugaku: A bitter, knowing laugh. The same playbook they used on my clan. Isolate. Demonize. Destroy. Konoha's leadership has a signature style.
Tobirama Senju: Rage, cold and pure, vibrated through his spectral form. Those... wretched... I entrusted them with my brother's dream...
Hashirama Senju (Regular Viewer): A sound of profound grief. The village I built with Madara... what have they done to it?
Uchiha Madara (VIP1): I told you, Hashirama! Your "Will of Fire" is a cancer that consumes its own! A single meteor would solve this corruption!
Ren Arakawa: Easy, Madara-sama. Pass me the Tengai Shinsei technique first, and I'll handle the cleanup. Just... let me evacuate the civilian population and the kunoichi first. Priorities.
Uchiha Madara: Insolent brat!
Yuhi Shinku: Now it makes sense. During the Kyūbi attack, the Third Hokage with his staff, directing from the rear, sending us into the beast's path... he was culling the ranks. Thinning out powerful clans not under his thumb.
Hyuga Hizashi: Reflecting... my own death during the peace talks... was that also convenient for the Council?
Might Dai (Regular Viewer): I chose a simpler path. A happy, low-rank existence. The village's politics are a swamp best observed from solid ground.
The full, ugly truth of Sakumo Hatake's fall lay exposed. Not a tragedy of honor, but a political assassination via social engineering and paternal coercion.
Tobirama Senju was incandescent with a fury that transcended death. His four hand-picked successors, the guardians of his brother's legacy, had poisoned the well.
And through this revelation, every ghost watching—the loyal shinobi, the disgraced heroes, the rival clan leaders—saw Konoha not as the shining village on the hill, but as a place where light cast very deep, very dark shadows.
The idyllic image of Konoha, the "Will of Fire," now had a visible, rotting core.
In the Forest of Death, Ren watched Team 7 celebrate their passage, oblivious to the seismic revelations occurring in the afterlife. He felt the shift in the stream's atmosphere—the disillusionment, the anger, the grim satisfaction of mysteries solved.
Ren Arakawa (subvocalizing): And the seeds of distrust are sown. The dead now question the living rulers. And I... I hold the watering can.
He glanced at Yamato, who was watching the celebrating genin with an unreadable expression. A man shaped by Danzō's darkness, now serving the Hokage's will. How much do you know, Captain? How much did you suspect?
The game had just expanded from personal power and romantic entanglements to the very soul of Konoha. And Ren, with his connection to the dead and his growing arsenal, was now uniquely positioned to influence which version of that soul survived.
Interesting times, he thought, a predatory smile hidden behind his fox mask. Very interesting times indeed.