Chapter 14: A Snapped String... (Part One)
Mid-December, Konoha Year 44. In a tavern, the squad members who had been saved by Hatake Sakumo broke down and lashed out:
"I was never afraid of dying. I had already prepared myself to give my life."
"If our captain hadn't insisted on staying, none of this would have happened. I did not harm the village's interests."
If only one of them had said it, the damage might have stayed contained. Unfortunately, the other two members of the squad pointed the same finger at Hatake Sakumo:
"If sacrificing one of us could save more lives for the generation that follows, I would walk to my death without hesitation."
"I had already made my choice. As a chunin, dying for the village was always the best end I could have hoped for."
"..."
The idea took shape: three lives sacrificed could have let Hatake Sakumo save many more. The argument began spreading.
The Third Hokage had issued a gag order early on, and both the ANBU and the Uchiha Military Police had stepped up their efforts to contain it. That only made more ninja pay attention. The more it was suppressed, the wider it spread.
Without access to the mission's actual details, the number of ninja openly questioning the White Fang kept climbing.
Students at the Academy had no way of sensing the undercurrent. Genin caught only vague fragments of rumor. But the Third Hokage, for all his authority, was fighting a battle against what felt like a leak inside the ANBU itself, and the rumors refused to die.
That pushed the ninja who supported Hatake Sakumo to start turning on the three squad members directly. Some jonin picked sides and joined in. Attacking the White Fang meant picking a fight with everyone, as far as they were concerned.
Nobody wanted a teammate who put the mission above everything else. And nobody wanted that attitude of blame-shifting to take root in the village.
...
The second jonin assembly of the month. The Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen sat at the head of the room, with advisors Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado on either side.
The jonin, who normally held strictly to protocol, had split into two obvious camps. When Hatake Sakumo's situation came up again, voices from both sides rose at once:
"Why is Sakumo being blamed? The intelligence failure still hasn't been investigated. What exactly is the intel division doing?"
"An S-rank mission ended in failure on a critical decision. Even the White Fang of Konoha should face consequences. No one gets to walk away from responsibility."
"..."
People kept talking. Sarutobi Hiruzen's expression stayed flat, but he was listening closely, and he could feel someone was deliberately steering the room. After a while he let his voice drop low:
"Enough."
Everyone bowed their heads at once, a gesture of respect for the Hokage. Behind the three at the front, Danzo Shimura watched and let his eye narrow.
This was what it meant to be Hokage.
"The village's budget allocation for next year will not be affected in any way."
"Remember that we are Leaf ninja. At a moment when localized conflicts are intensifying, what matters most is preparing for the war that may be coming."
"The relevant personnel in the intelligence division have been suspended and punished. Going forward, Jiraiya will be taking over that work. Sunagakure and Iwagakure will answer for what they did, and soon."
"Sir!"
Every jonin in the room bowed their heads and responded in unison. Many of the commoner-background ninja visibly relaxed. The Hokage's position was clear. He stood with Hatake Sakumo.
The White Fang would receive only a symbolic punishment. That was the treatment a strong ninja deserved. A portion of the hardliners were quietly unsatisfied. On this matter, they felt the Hokage was being too lenient.
Danzo waited until the meeting had ended before appearing in front of the three of them without expression. The leader of the Root said nothing about the mission itself. His tone was flat and serious:
"We need to track the movements of Sunagakure's and Iwagakure's jinchuriki. If war breaks out, we must be prepared to deploy jinchuriki in combat."
"Surveillance on Kumogakure and Kirigakure cannot be relaxed either. We need more personnel assigned."
"Hiruzen, the village has been far too conservative in its approach to the Nine-Tails jinchuriki. A weapon must be fully under our control. And we must remain vigilant about the Uchiha clan at all times."
Mentioning the Nine-Tails and then the Uchiha in the same breath, Sarutobi Hiruzen went quiet. The two advisors, however, were very much in agreement. Homura Mitokado pressed harder:
"Complaints about the Military Police from within the village have been mounting. Hiruzen, we all know what happens when that kind of resentment builds up against the Uchiha."
"Homura is right. Our teacher established the Military Police in the first place to keep the Uchiha away from the center of power. We cannot afford to become complacent."
Sarutobi Hiruzen tamped fresh tobacco into his pipe, heard Koharu's addition, and didn't respond immediately. He smoked in silence, then set the pipe against the ash tray and spoke with deliberate weight:
"The Uchiha are members of this village. I trust them completely."
"Intelligence work will be handled by Jiraiya. He will take care of everything. As for jinchuriki deployment, I will give due consideration to Homura-dono's concerns."
"Hiruzen."
"If problems arise, I will bear responsibility as Hokage. The Root is to cooperate fully with Jiraiya's work for the foreseeable future."
His old friend's words left Danzo silent again. Fully weaponizing the jinchuriki to increase the village's strength had been his long-held ambition. Blocked from reaching it, he simply stood and left:
"I hope you won't regret the decision you made today."
Thud.
The door closed. Sarutobi Hiruzen kept smoking. Control over the jinchuriki ultimately came down to sealing techniques. He would not let Danzo get his hands on that.
* * *
The new year was approaching, and the unrest inside the village continued. What had begun as a dispute over a mission had shifted into something closer to a debate about the Hokage himself.
The "easy living" faction, mostly commoner-background jonin, hoped Hatake Sakumo would one day become Hokage and channel more resources toward ninja of ordinary birth.
The hardliners kept up their attacks, quietly grumbling about certain decisions the Third Hokage had made. Some of them openly wanted war, hoping it would produce a new Hokage through the pressure of battle.
With things at that pitch, chunin who had been watching from the sidelines started weighing in too. Nobody was actually talking about the original mission anymore. The whole conversation had shifted.
Ninja could get into political arguments just as intensely as anyone else. Put two ninja with different views in a room and the outcome was far more explosive than the civilian equivalent, and it had a way of ending with kunai drawn.
At Training Ground 36, Might Guy tugged at his green jumpsuit. Even someone as naturally oblivious as he was had picked up that something felt wrong:
"What are all those adults arguing about? And Kakashi, why have you been getting into fights every single day?"
Treating minor injuries with the Mystical Palm was easy work by now. Furukawa Osamu looked at the silent Kakashi beside him and spoke with quiet firmness:
"Don't think about those three. They're just deflecting blame."
"You can't change what adults have already decided to think. You'll get nothing out of arguing with them."
Might Guy spun in agitated circles, scratching his head. As a genin he didn't have many sources of information, but seeing the change in Kakashi was enough to make him add his own encouragement:
"Kakashi, trust the Hokage. The village will sort everything out."
The mask hid most of what Kakashi was feeling. Since the three squad members had spoken out against Hatake Sakumo, he had watched his father's mood gradually sink.
Unable to tolerate anyone questioning the person he admired most, and unable to win those arguments with words, Kakashi had eventually settled for winning them with his fists.
Having spent that frustration fully, and now hearing the two of them speak, Kakashi let out a long breath and gave a heavy nod:
"I know. Osamu, Guy, thank you."