Hearing the Kumo shinobi's question, Naoki's eyebrow twitched slightly. He then smiled slightly and said, "What kind of explanation do you want from me? What proof do you have that I killed your leader?"
"Ha! Who else in Konoha can possess such a level of lightning elemental techniques besides you?" the Kumo jonin snorted coldly.
"There are enough jonin like that in Konoha. Your words alone are not enough. The Hokage will definitely investigate this matter. There is no point in asking me about it, I have no answers," Naoki shook his head and fell silent.
This group simply wants to squeeze as much benefit out of Konoha as possible. Of course, it's possible that they really want to start a war. After all, Konoha is, one might say, in decline right now: the Fourth Hokage is dead, the Nine-Tailed Jinchuriki has fallen, and there's no one strong enough to put pressure on them.
All the Sannin have left Konoha, and it will be impossible to return them to the village in the near future.
If Hidden Cloud Village were to start a war against Konoha at this time, it would definitely not end well, so threatening the Third Hokage to provoke a war was an excellent deterrent.
Naoki understood this very well, but if war really did break out, he only needed to preserve his identity as a Konoha jonin. As for the rest, he had no intention of interfering too much.
Therefore, although Naoki had encountered difficulties, he still remained unperturbed. With his current strength, if he was careful, he would be able to protect himself without any problem even if a war broke out between the two villages.
Seeing that Naoki didn't seem panicked at all, the Kumo ninja decided that he wouldn't get anything out of that guy, so he pointed at Hyuga Hiashi. After all, Hiashi was more important to Kumo than some ordinary jonin.
So, just like in the original, the Kumo shinobi insisted that Konoha killed their delegation leader and they should pay the same price and give them the body of Hyuga Hiashi.
Their excuse was simple, the leader of their delegation had a very special status and according to them, he was as important a figure in their village as the Raikage. As for the fact that they kidnapped Hinata, not only did they deny it, but they even said that it was just a show put on by Konoha.
And there weren't really any options, Konoha's current overall strength was really insufficient, especially when the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki hadn't grown up yet, and the Third Hokage was already far from his peak.
In the end, Hiashi's brother, Hyuga Hizashi, decided to die in his brother's place to save the day.
Hearing this, the Third Hokage and the advisors felt humiliated, but secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Although they all belonged to the same village, there were also hidden tensions between the different factions. Especially the Konoha clans, they least wanted a war, because in that case, they would suffer the greatest losses and could end up losing some power.
Now that Konoha's fighting strength was in decline, the major clans would have to suffer even greater losses to save the village, so it would be better if the war didn't happen.
Moreover, the Hyuga clan and the Uchiha clan are the two great clans of Konoha. Although Hizashi's death is a great loss to the entire village, it means little to those clans. On the contrary, it may also weaken the Hyuga clan.
Seeing how Hizashi chose to sacrifice himself and the leaders of the major clans chose to tolerate it in order to avoid a war, the Third was helpless. After all, even though he was the Hokage, he also had to consider the wishes of the village's major clans. Otherwise, if he went to war with Kumo at any cost to save Hizashi, he might not get the support of the others.
Yeah, being Hokage is definitely tough...
If the Fourth was still here, he would definitely be able to use his authority on Kumo. At this point, the Third only lamented once again that he no longer had the courage and strength he once had, and it made him sad.
Watching all this, Naoki felt helpless. Konoha was truly in decline. Without a strong leader, it was impossible to even suppress the village's mid-sized clans. Naoki wasn't strong enough, nor was he stupid enough to stand out.
Hizashi's sudden sacrifice also caught Kumo off guard. They originally wanted Hiashi to live. But Hizashi was Hiashi's brother, and his status was second only to the clan head. They had no particular arguments to dispute this decision, they could not back down from it. Otherwise, Konoha would rather start a war than endure it any longer, which would not be beneficial for Kumo.
However, even though all the conditions had been agreed upon, they were still dissatisfied. The Kumo shinobi turned around, suddenly looked at Naoki, and said to the Third Hokage, "Sandaime, we have settled this matter, but I still have a personal request, I hope you will agree!"
"Oh? What else do you want?" Hiruzen frowned.
"Our leader died at the hands of Naoki. Even though he doesn't admit it, I'm sure it was him. So I hope to fight him to the death so I can avenge my commander!" the Kumo shinobi shouted.
As soon as those words were spoken, the faces of the Konoha shinobi couldn't help but change.