Konoha.
In a cold, dim prison cell beneath the Hokage building.
"Danzo! You… you admit this was deliberate?"
"You schemed to rescue me, and yet—was it truly just to stab me in the back?"
"You handed me a token—was it a trap all along?"
"Why did your Root agents strike at my men?!"
"Say something, Danzo!"
Sarutobi's voice trembled with rage. His normally composed demeanor had cracked. His palm landed hard across Danzo's cheek—an instinctual outburst of pent-up fury.
He struck me.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, the one I've stood by for decades—actually hit me.
Danzo didn't answer immediately. He stared up, hand still pressed to his cheek, stunned—not by pain, but by betrayal. For a moment, all that ambition, all those years of shadowy loyalty, faltered.
"...I truly was trying to help you, Hiruzen."
"My Root agents were acting on your behalf too. If they deviated, it wasn't by my command."
"You offended someone… someone outside our calculation. I don't know who. But it wasn't me."
He gestured weakly. The once-determined leader of Root now seemed diminished. That night's chaos—the infiltration, the rebellion, the carnage—had taken its toll.
Danzo slumped to the side of his cell. His voice was quieter now.
"I'm tired, Hiruzen. Leave."
He turned his face away, retreating into silence. The man who had once been willing to stain his hands for the sake of the village now looked like a hollowed relic.
But behind his silence, a new emotion brewed. The once-misunderstood loyalty turned to bitter resentment.
Sarutobi didn't notice.
He muttered curses, paced in circles, and eventually stormed out, unaware that his slap may have just ignited the final spark in Danzo's cold heart.
---
Outside the prison, Sarutobi's brow furrowed deeply as he walked toward the main courtyard.
Where had things gone wrong?
The Root division's behavior last night had been… unstable.
If Danzo wasn't behind it, who was?
His words echoed in Sarutobi's mind. "You offended someone."
Uchiha Bai Ye…?
Impossible. Bai Ye was loud, flamboyant—never one for shadows or subtlety. Besides, his guards were still stationed in Yunjie Mountain. He would've attacked openly if it were him.
Then… who?
Sarutobi rubbed his temple. His sleep-deprived mind couldn't settle.
Those masked intruders… they looked vaguely familiar. Not their faces, but their movements. Their chakra signatures. Was it an inside job?
"Clan Lord!"
A voice pulled him back. A wrinkled man jogged toward him—Sarutobi Ritian, a respected elder of the Sarutobi clan and Hiruzen's cousin.
He bowed slightly. "The clan is stabilized, but there's an issue…"
Sarutobi nodded wearily. "Go on."
"It's the demon fox child…"
Ah. That.
Ever since Minato's death sealing the Nine Tails into his own son, the truth had been buried. The public believed the entire Namikaze family perished. Few knew that the current Jinchūriki—Uzumaki Naruto—was Minato's son.
Only Sarutobi and a handful of confidants were aware. As a result, Naruto was treated coldly, even abusively, by villagers and caretakers who believed he was the Nine Tails.
Sarutobi waved his hand. "Ensure his meals are delivered. Watch him from a distance. Do not interfere."
It was a minor issue to him. Naruto, in his view, was a living vessel—an unfortunate necessity to contain the beast. The house Sarutobi had assigned was small, but livable. The boy was clever and already learning to survive alone.
How would Kushina feel, knowing her son lived like this?
Sarutobi never thought about that.
He sent Ritian away and wandered toward the central square. A commotion was growing.
More villagers had gathered.
More unrest.
More anger.
They want answers.
As he stepped up to the platform, the pressure hit him like a wave. The murmurs turned to calls.
"Lord Hokage! Bring back Lord Bai Ye!"
"Konoha needs the Guards! We need him!"
"You can't protect the village alone, Lord Hokage!"
Sarutobi froze.
He had expected frustration, maybe questions—but not this. Not a unified plea to bring that man back.
He opened his mouth to speak, but the chants surged louder.
Bai Ye's name echoed louder than his own.
"Lord Hokage!"
One desperate woman shouted from the crowd.
"What happens next time there's an attack? We need Bai Ye! Your subordinates failed us!"
A man added, "We nearly died last night! If Bai Ye had been here—!"
Sarutobi's face twitched.
Failed? His ANBU were elite. His men were trusted. Were their deaths now just... statistics?
He didn't see that his own blind trust in Danzo and the systematic removal of Bai Ye's influence had left the village vulnerable.
He blamed the assailants.
Not himself.
He stood tall, trying to project calm. "Everyone—"
"Lord Bai Ye must return!" someone yelled again.
Even Mitarashi Anko stepped forward. "If no one else will, I'll go to Yunjie Mountain myself!"
What?!
Panic stirred in Sarutobi's gut. If Anko went to retrieve Bai Ye under the villagers' support, it would be an open declaration: Konoha's safety depended on someone else.
That couldn't happen.
Not while he was Hokage.
"Don't go!"
His voice boomed across the square.
"The guards are on well-earned leave. They've fought all year. The old man will handle things."
The crowd quieted for a moment. Sarutobi sighed with relief.
But only for a moment.
Someone whispered, "If he could handle it, last night wouldn't have happened."
Another laughed. "Hokage-sama was strong once… but even his Summoning beast abandoned him mid-battle!"
More voices joined in.
"Old and out of touch."
"Summoned Enma and still lost."
"Hokage-sama's power is all talk now."
Sarutobi clenched his fists.
Yes, he was old. Yes, his chakra was weakening. He could no longer maintain large-scale jutsu like in the past. He wasn't in his Prime like during the Second Shinobi War.
He wasn't an Edo Tensei reanimated monster. He was flesh and bone—and age was catching up.
His last fight left him using barely a third of his power.
The whispers stung worse than kunai.
Before he could salvage the situation, a loud voice cut through the tension.
A young shinobi sprinted through the crowd, panting hard. His eyes were wide with urgency.
"Lord Hokage! News—news about Lord Bai Ye!"
Every head turned.
Even Sarutobi froze.
Could it be? Was Bai Ye…?
He waved the young man over. "Speak!"
JOIN MY PATREON TO READ ADVANCE 30+ CHAPTERS
patreon.com/Prince209