"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.
'Fuck no I don't know anything about that!' Hiruzen internally shouted as everyone else but Tsunade and Shiki froze in shock.
"I assure you Mito-sama, that there were no additional plans made." The Hokage quickly spoke.
"Interesting." The Uzumaki matriarch responded.
The words created a foreboding aura that filled the room.
"Despite being suspiciously close to Konoha, the interlopers were wearing Kumo uniforms." The redhead continued.
But just as Hiruzen thought he could use that to deny blame, at least in an official capacity, Mito crushed his hopes.
"Imagine my surprise however, when I recognised their chakra as shinobi of this village."
Silence again.
"Truly abhorrent don't you think?" The Uzumaki matriarch lightly questioned but somehow, a chilling sense of fear began creeping into the hearts of those present.
Was it fear of Mito's wrath?
Or maybe, it was recognition that one day, they might be the ones graced with a kunai in the back as recompense for their service of Konoha, blame pinned on whoever felt convenient at the time.
An example was the Hyuga Affair in the original series.
A delegation from Kumogakure came to Konoha for the discussion of terms for peace but their leader attempted to kidnap the princess of the Hyuga clan in the night which resulted in his death.
His village denied the man's actions and instead demanded recompense for his death, otherwise the war would continue.
What was demanded was the killer of their shinobi, the Hyuga Clan Head at the time, Hiashi, a crude attempt to get the Byakugan.
However, more than likely, Kumo had never expected Konoha to meet its demands and was merely trying to avoid taking responsibility for the failed kidnapping.
Regardless of Hiruzen's stance on war, there was simply no way he would cave to Kumo's demands just because of their threats.
Even if the Hokage wanted peace above all, showing such a weak stance would only goad Konoha's enemies into being more aggressive.
There was simply no benefit in meeting Kumo's demands.
Because of their actions, Konoha was in a stronger position at the negotiating table. All that was left was to put up a position of strength and force Kumo into peace, even if it meant not getting compensation for their kidnapping attempt.
That was the simplest and easiest path to peace even if it lowered some of the benefits Konoha could likely squeeze out of their enemies by dragging out the negotiations a bit longer.
And yet, claiming it was for peace and the good of the village, the Hyuga were forced into making a sacrifice by the village leadership.
If that was not a move to weaken the Hyuga, a perfect example of a knife being put into one's back, then Hiruzen's intelligence really should be questioned.
And right now, Fukutsu, whose Uchiha Clan already was butting heads with the Hokage faction, could only feel the chills creeping up his spine.
Despite their conflicts with the village leadership, the Uchiha still saw everyone involved as a part of Konoha and had yet to consider any drastic measures at this point.
But now?
Seeing how willing some of the higher ups were to backstab sinless Konoha shinobi, Fukutsu felt his views drastically shift.
His daughter Mei was even more shaken but it was Shinka who experienced the biggest upheaval.
Not having been fully brainwashed by the Root yet, she had the "Everything is for Konoha!" mentality perfectly down but the "Orders are absolute and only the leader knows what's best for the village!" part, had yet to sink in.
And so for Aburame Shinka who had been taught to sacrifice everything for her village since birth, she was finding out her superiors were instead, from her viewpoint at least, sacrificing the interests of the village for the sake of their own.
Even Tsunade was shaken though she already had some time to come to terms with Konoha's darkness which had been kept from her.
Only Inori, who served in the darkness and undertook some of the dirtiest missions from the village leadership, was completely unfazed.
'Business as usual.' Was the extent of her thoughts.
After this latest incident however . . .
'That sickening feeling of being dirty and unworthy of a good life . . . That horrible sensation that haunted me in the early days . . . I feel it creep back in.' The Violet Rose suppressed her shivers while crossing her arms, running her hands across them, seeking some sort of comfort.
"Nothing to say Monkey?" Mito's voice sounded out, bringing everyone's attention from their minds and back out to the moment at hand.
"May I ask what happened to these criminals?" Hiruzen cautiously inquired.
By using the word criminal, he was already implying they were not acting under orders from him or his advisors though everyone in the room, children included, had a hard time believing that.
The Hokage was also trying to understand if he had room to maneuver. After all, if the assailants were dead, then he could conjure up any number of claims and justifications with no one having them means to prove him wrong.
Mito considered goading Hiruzen into a trap, saying the assailants were dead despite still having them in custody but the Third Hokage still had plenty of support in the village and she had no interest in provoking a civil war by blindsiding him like so.
'The Monkey can just claim to have participated in the decision of setting up the test and we have no hard evidence to associate him with the more serious violations.' The Uzumaki matriarch deliberated.
'But we can target that kid Danzo, damaging the Monkey's credibility in the process while putting his competence in question.'
'Three birds in one stone. Directly reduce his power, damage internal relations within his faction since Danzo will essentially be turned into a fall guy and weaken his influence on the various more neutral clans.'
Having organized her thoughts at lightning speed, Mito casually responded.
"I currently have them detained so that the village's Interrogation Department can properly extract information from them."
'Tch, they are alive.' Hiruzen thought.
'Damn you Danzo! Running off while leaving me to clean your mess.'
"Yes, letting the interrogation department have them is indeed best." The Hokage agreed.
'This old woman no doubt extracted all the information she needed already. The Uzumaki and their fuinjutsu . . .' he internally grumbled.
'I can't play any tricks on this, only attempt to minimize the damage from the information extracted from Danzo's subordinates, based on his way of doing things, they can't know too much anyway.' Hiruzen deduced.
The rest was just meaningless official exchanges where much was said and nothing was meant.
Regardless, the fallout between Mito and the Hokage faction had officially begun, no more subtle distancing and pretending.
+++++
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 -