A damn four year old had successfully killed 11 Elite Chunin, 2 Regular Jonin and 1 Elite Jonin while leaving yet another Elite Jonin at death's door?
They did not know the details but even if little to no direct combat, where his opponents had the greatest advantage, had taken place, it was still a feat even an Elite Jonin could be proud of.
One often wondered why the shinobi world so readily employed child soldiers but although Shiki was a freak even by their standards, it was precisely because of such prodigies that showed such tremendous battlefield prowess that the young were sent into the battlefield.
After all, in the shinobi world where children with powerful chakra could mature mentally and physically at an accelerated rate, their contribution to their villages' war potential could not be ignored.
"Without that unthinkably great performance and Tsunade's help, the entirety of my ward's team would be dead." Mito reiterated.
"The enemy clearly knew Shiki and he was the mission's main target so explain to me if there is an alternative reasoning or did you actually intended to send my ward to die along with the rest of his team." She added.
"Certainly not! There was an intelligence leak!" Hiruzen immediately denied the accusation and revealed the truth.
"Kumo caught wind of Danzo's plan to use Kumo's habit of targeting young shinobi of other villages when the opportunity arises in order to set up the test so he released some information as bait." The Hokage did not hesitate in diverting responsibility towards his old friend.
'If you didn't want this to happen you shouldn't have ran from this.' Hiruzen thought.
"However, a spy discovered the truth and a counter-plan to eliminate our promising young shinobi was set up." He concluded his piece.
"I see . . . It seems there was no malicious intent." Mito calmly responded.
Hiruzen sighed with relief at managing to absolve himself while Fukutsu who was hoping for a harsher stance from Mito, one of the few people in the village that could almost ignore the Hokage's orders, had his already terrible mood drop even lower.
"It was simply a matter of gross incompetence." The Uzumaki matriarch coldly spoke, her chilling gaze piercing through Hiruzen's eyes, right into his soul.
"That-" The Hokage attempted to interject in order to defend his actions but Mito kept going without any regard.
"Not only was the decision to set up this kind of test without informing the kids' guardians so stupid it bordered on treasonous, the way it was handled proved itself even worse with its sloppiness." The redhead unhesitantly unloaded.
"I understand Mito-sama is grieving but while being outmaneuvered by Kumo was indeed unacceptable, the decision to set up the test itself was made under council and for the sake of the village." Hiruzen argued.
The Hokage was a wily fox indeed.
He immediately gave up trying to find excuses for the poor implementation of the test, giving a performance of fairness and understanding while putting forward that the idea of the test itself was not wrong for consideration.
Giving way first to take some ground after.
Only, the part he admitted fault, implementation, was Danzo's responsibility.
Meanwhile, the part where Hiruzen himself could not escape responsibility, the proposal of the test, the Hokage argued it was justified.
'Hmph!' The Uzumaki matriarch internally snorted at the blatant move.
Fukutsu was on the edge of crashing out the whole conversation and the Third Hokage's audaciousness did not help at all.
'He even threw in a comment about Mito being grieving in an attempt to devalue her judgement on the matter.' The Uchiha clan head thought in disbelief.
Shinka and Mei were not really equipped to understand the political games everyone was playing but the general hostility was impossible to miss and, based on the way things were going, it seemed to them that the Hokage was the one in the wrong.
This was especially shaking for Shinka who had been raised in the Root to always follow Danzo and the Hokage's orders to the letter as they were the only ones that always knew what was best for Konoha.
At this point in time, the Root was far from being Danzo's private army with Hiruzen still having nearly as much control over it.
Mei on the other hand, merely had the illusion of the Hokage's invincibility and wisdom crumble away so she was not nearly as affected.
The only one still calm and not at all surprised by Hiruzen's words and attitude was Inori who knew very well how the Konoha Council, made up of the Hokage and the three Elders, operated.
Her singular doubt was the fact no fire had been launched her way yet but she assumed Mito was just leaving her for later.
"So you think my judgement is clouded by grief?" The Uzumaki matriarch's cold voice took on a mocking undertone.
The Hokage let silence be his answer.
Hiruzen knew he could not back off here, he had to take every advantage he could get just in case Mito decided to speak up against him in a more official manner.
But his resolve was instantly shattered by the scene that followed.
Completely unhurried, like it was the most natural thing in the world, the supposedly dead Shiki walked into the room and sat down.
Mito's face remained stone cold but her gaze showed a mocking gleam like the understone in her previous question.
Tsunade, despite trying to be serious and being in the process of dealing with the feelings of disappointment and betrayal from her sensei's actions, still felt a perverse satisfaction at the sight of everyone's reactions.
'Ahh! The silence is so loud!' Shiki thought to himself with satisfaction at his perfectly timed entrance.
"Why so surprised Monkey?" Mito questioned, her mocking undertones becoming more and more pronounced.
Hiruzen quickly recomposed himself while mentally cursing.
'Can't believe they made pretend the kid was dead in order to tear down my position on this.' He thought.
But they had never announced Shiki's death and so, the Hokage could not really complain as he was the one to misunderstand the situation.
Sure, he could always nitpick that the boy, as a member of Team 6 and participant in the mission, should have his status be reported with all due haste to either his sensei or he himself since they were all back in the village already.
But considering how it was his side that fucked up first, Hiruzen could hardly fault them for that without looking real bad in the eyes of the public and other shinobi.
"I was under the impression that we had tragically lost the most outstanding prodigy the village has seen since its creation but I'm glad to be proven mistaken." The Hokage laid on the glaze, his sincerity being up for debate.
"Indeed. A small miracle that he was brought to me in time for me to save him." Mito replied, her tone and expression lacked the previous mocking but that only made the Hokage more cautious.
Nothing however, could have prepared him for what came next.
"Suspiciously however, there were a few highly skilled shinobi that attempted to stop my granddaughter from bringing Shiki back to Konoha right when she was nearing the village."
"You wouldn't happen to know anything about that right?" Mito spoke with threat in her voice.
Silence.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -