Chapter 188: Konoha Villagers’ Hokage Conspiracy Theory
Under this tense atmosphere, many Anbu Ninjas turned their gazes to Sarutobi Hiruzen’s not particularly tall back.
They had all actually witnessed this Hokage’s weak and hesitant attitude when facing Uchiha Ikeizumi.
But this did not mean they did not hope Sarutobi Hiruzen would stand up for them.
The opponent had already clearly targeted Konoha’s Anbu, so should the Hokage continue to be weak and hesitant?
Sarutobi Hiruzen naturally could also feel their gazes.
“Yamada Keiyuno.” At this time, Uchiha Ikeizumi had already begun naming one after another, his voice still as flat and emotionless as ever, yet enough to make the named person’s heart suddenly tighten: “Inoue Yuto, Inuzuka Take ya…”
And after hearing those names, Sarutobi Hiruzen could not help but draw in a cold breath in his heart.
These were all elite ninjas in the Anbu, and all of them were the people Sarutobi Hiruzen trusted the most.
These people had also carried out many missions he Sarutobi Hiruzen had issued, and all completed them perfectly; they were all heroes of Konoha.
The most crucial point was…
Sarutobi Hiruzen actually knew the way these people acted; they would selectively turn cold-blooded when carrying out missions. And once Anbu Ninjas turned cold, they would likely cause some unnecessary casualties outside of the mission.
Regarding this, the former Sarutobi Hiruzen had turned a blind eye, after all, as long as they perfectly completed the missions he issued, that was fine.
As long as it did not harm the safety of the village, that was fine.
And in the past, no one would pursue the wrongs these people committed.
This led Sarutobi Hiruzen to almost forget about this matter.
Until now…
The moment the “crisis” arrived.
He finally remembered.
“It seems they have no intention of surrendering.” Seeing no one step forward, Uchiha Ikeizumi coldly issued the order: “Police Force, listen up—take down all the Anbu Ninjas whose names I called! Bring them to the Police Force Interrogation Room, then notify Yamanaka Clan Ninjas to come and search this group’s memories.”
“Yes! Lord Ikeizumi!”
Uchiha Ikeizumi’s tough attitude immediately excited many Police Force Ninjas.
How many years had it been since their Uchiha Clan had been this tough?
They had even forgotten.
Especially after Uchiha Fugaku took power, the entire Uchiha Clan, under the village’s constant pressure, kept retreating and bowing their heads, almost trained into a dog by Konoha.
Now…
They could finally hold their heads high!
When he saw a group of Police Force Ninjas pressing forward, Sarutobi Hiruzen gritted his teeth and immediately said: “Ikeizumi! I believe their behavior has no errors! And the Police Force has no authority to take away Konoha’s Anbu adults! Anbu is the Hokage’s secret elite force, not under the Police Force’s jurisdiction. During mission execution, they are also not restricted by the law!”
“This farce should end!”
Sarutobi Hiruzen ultimately decided to protect Anbu to the death, because this was the foundation for him Sarutobi Hiruzen to steadily hold the Hokage position.
In the situation where the Sarutobi Clan had gradually grown cold toward him, Anbu was the only blade left in his hand.
As for Root?
The Root controlled by Koharu Utatane was so useless that Sarutobi Hiruzen could not bear to look at it; he had selectively ignored Root.
……
The confrontation between Anbu Ninjas and Police Force, plus Uchiha Ikeizumi and Sarutobi Hiruzen, these two major figures in the village all present.
Naturally, it attracted the onlookes of many bold Konoha villagers.
And whether Uchiha Ikeizumi or Sarutobi Hiruzen, both sides spoke loudly enough that they all heard the conversation.
This made the gathered Konoha villagers whisper among themselves.
“Why can Anbu Ninjas not be under Police Force jurisdiction, not restricted by the law? Why must we ordinary ninjas be managed by the Police Force? Is this fair? Aren’t we all ninjas? Aren’t we all Konoha villagers? Why are these mask-wearing Anbu Ninjas so special?”
A Konoha Genin muttered discontentedly.
Clearly, he was quite dissatisfied with the Anbu Ninjas.
After all, sometimes the Anbu Ninjas’ behavior in the village was indeed quite overbearing and unreasonable.
They would take you away for investigation without giving you a chance to explain. While the Uchiha Ninjas of the Police Force at least could cite legal articles to leave you speechless.
“Didn’t you hear the Hokage say Anbu is his secret force? They must enjoy special privileges from the Hokage. In that case, they naturally are a cut above.”
A Konoha Chunin who was watching the excitement and not minding the trouble also chimed in.
If someone looked carefully, they would see the Nara Clan emblem embroidered on his clothes.
“If they have a clear conscience, why not let the Yamanaka Clan investigate their memories?” The Nara Clan Chunin smiled and continued: “They must have broken the law knowingly and are feeling guilty.”
He did not lower his voice when speaking, and it naturally reached Sarutobi Hiruzen… and the ears of many Anbu Ninjas.
“This guy…” An Anbu Ninja frowned and looked at the Nara Clan Chunin: “He’s from the Nara Clan…”
In the eyes of the Anbu Ninjas, the pig, deer, and butterfly ninja clans had almost become running dogs of Absolute Justice.
And…
Actually, there were still ninjas from the Ino-Shika-Cho clans in the current Anbu.
This made this Anbu Ninja unable to help shifting his gaze to a few of his colleagues from the Ino-Shika-Cho families.
He found those colleagues standing at the edge of the crowd, seemingly adopting a stance of minding their own business.
“Tch…” The Anbu Ninja muttered lowly: “Even after joining Anbu, they still choose to stand on the opposite side of the Hokage? Training them was the Hokage’s worst decision.”
But what this Anbu Ninja did not expect was that the nearby Konoha civilians seemed to have been swayed by that Nara Clan Chunin’s words.
“Yeah!” A civilian suddenly realized: “These mask-wearing ninjas have the Hokage protecting them. Even if they really did something wrong, they can still get away unscathed. No wonder so many people want to become ninjas; turns out ninjas have such privileges.”
“Hey, don’t talk nonsense! We ordinary ninjas don’t have such privileges. They are Konoha Anbu Ninjas, the elite among ninjas, so naturally they have privileges.”
“How can the Hokage do this… As Hokage, he shouldn’t favor any side, especially the wrong side.”
“Shh, the Hokage is right in front; are you tired of living by slandering the Hokage here?”
“What’s there to it… In the past, we even called Uchiha Ikeizumi the Plague God, and Uchiha Ikeizumi did nothing to us. Would the Hokage do something to us?”
“Hard to say.”
“…”
When the villagers’ whispers reached Sarutobi Hiruzen’s ears, the wrinkles on his old face twitched.
This was bad.
If these villagers kept gossiping, his reputation as the Third Hokage would plummet.
“Lord Ikeizumi! Why not have you list out the crimes of the Anbu Ninjas you named, so everyone in the village can hear what unspeakable evil deeds they have done? Let everyone see the true faces of these Anbu Ninjas who refuse to surrender!”
The Nara Clan Chunin’s sudden loud shout made even many Police Force Ninjas glance at him.
“This guy…”
A Police Force Jonin raised an eyebrow: “As expected of the Nara Clan; this shout… directly puts the Third Hokage on the roasting spit. Did Nara Shikahisa instruct him, or is he acting on his own to cooperate with Lord Ikeizumi?”
Another Police Force Ninja said: “Probably spontaneously cooperating. With Nara Shikahisa’s personality, he would only help in the shadows, not openly send clan members to provoke the Hokage.”
Uchiha Ikeizumi glanced at the shouting Nara Clan Ninja.
Sarutobi Hiruzen inwardly thought “this is bad.”
“Yamada Keiyuno, Anbu Ninja.” But it was already too late to stop, and impossible to stop anyway. Uchiha Ikeizumi’s cold voice had already slowly sounded.
“Ten years ago, during a certain Anbu mission, he was witnessed. To avoid the operation being leaked, he used an Illusion Technique to hypnotize the witness. However, unaware that the witness was just an ordinary person, the Illusion Technique caused the witness to go mentally deranged, unable to care for himself afterward, suffering discrimination. The witness lived only three more years before committing suicide.”
“The witness’s wife had passed away early, leaving two children. After successively losing their mother and father, one child followed the father, and the other became autistic for years, starving to death at home.”
As Uchiha Ikeizumi’s voice kept sounding, the surroundings seemed to quiet down, leaving only faint breathing sounds.
“Inoue Yuto, Anbu Ninja. Seven years ago…”
Uchiha Ikeizumi did not stop; he detailed word by word the evil deeds committed by each named Anbu Ninja.
And the series of consequences caused by their evil deeds.
“This… why does it sound so familiar?” A Konoha civilian in the crowd murmured in shock: “Why does it sound just like my neighbor? He had two children, and he went mentally deranged and committed suicide years ago; his two children also died…”
Many people found that the victims of the series of consequences from the Anbu Ninjas’ evil deeds…
They actually knew them! Even the events happened right beside them!
Some were their neighbors, some were their friends.
Some were even their relatives.
And without exception… the consequences of these evil deeds had not caused much public outcry in Konoha at the time; they seemed to be suppressed by an invisible force shortly after occurring.
So who suppressed them? And who had such invisible power?
The Konoha civilians who were very fond of conspiracy theories immediately came up with an answer in their minds.
—The Hokage!!!
Since Anbu was the Hokage’s secret force, the one who could quell public opinion for Anbu and keep covering for Anbu could only be the Hokage!
Even if not the Hokage himself, it was the Hokage’s right-hand man, or other Konoha higher-ups!
That made sense…
How could such big shots be as “pure and clean” as they appeared?
The Konoha civilians who suddenly realized the logic of the conspiracy theory was reasonable.
Immediately felt some dissatisfaction, anger, and gossipy mentality rising in their hearts.
The dissatisfaction and anger purely because the Hokage had practically written “shielding” openly. Why shield these Anbu Ninjas? While they, the ordinary people diligently working to contribute to Konoha, were managed so strictly?
The gossip was because they hoped to uncover more inside stories to perfect the conspiracy theory logic they had imagined.
The whispering voices had become extremely chaotic.
The noise was so loud it was almost drowning out Uchiha Ikeizumi’s voice.
Sarutobi Hiruzen was already breaking out in cold sweat on his forehead.
He found many Konoha civilians starting to turn the spearhead of public opinion toward him, the Konoha Third Hokage. Starting to blame all the wrongs on him Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Was he wrong?
This…
Sarutobi Hiruzen wanted to defend himself inwardly. But he found all defenses seemed pale and powerless.
Suddenly!
Sarutobi Hiruzen was shocked to find a hand on his shoulder; turning his head, he saw the owner was a Police Force Uchiha Ninja.
No!
He was the Hokage!
Did he understand hierarchy?
Immediately after, the force from that hand pushed Sarutobi Hiruzen to stumble, involuntarily making him step aside.
What followed was that Police Force Ninja’s voice: “Hokage, please do not block Lord Ikeizumi’s path. Unless the Hokage is determined to shield these criminals. So… Hokage, do you want to stand on the opposite side of justice?”
“…” After reacting, Sarutobi Hiruzen’s old face flushed slightly red with anger, nearly biting his old teeth to pieces.
He had a good temper, but that did not mean he had no temper.
Uchiha Ikeizumi’s attitude was one thing, but a subordinate of Uchiha Ikeizumi daring to show this attitude toward him!
However…
Under the watchful eyes of the numerous villagers, Sarutobi Hiruzen found he could not lose his temper, because he was not in the right.
Or rather, in these ordinary people’s values.
His Sarutobi Hiruzen’s “right” was not the “right” in the Konoha civilians’ eyes.
The Police Force’s “right” was the “right” they recognized.
If he Sarutobi Hiruzen dared to continue blocking now, he could resign as Konoha Hokage on the spot. Because the popular support was completely lost, no one would respect him anymore.
This made Sarutobi Hiruzen’s body stiffen in place.
Shortly after.
He locked his gaze dead on Uchiha Ikeizumi, no longer caring how weird and dangerous the other’s eyes were.
“Ikeizumi…”
As one Police Force Ninja after another aggressively passed him toward the rear Anbu Ninjas, Sarutobi Hiruzen clenched his teeth and said: “What a good show! This is a scheme you’ve planned for a long time, specifically targeting me, right?”
……
……
