"Lord Haseo."
"Where is the Third?"
"Up ahead."
"Did you find any important clues?"
"I wouldn't say it's particularly significant. We simply located that 'decoy.'"
The Anbu ninja stepped aside, making way for Haseo to enter this sealed-off area. Soon after, he reached the scene and saw the Third Hokage standing beside a corpse.
"Hokage-sama, I heard we found the decoy... Is this him?"
Haseo asked while walking up beside the Third Hokage.
The body on the ground had an identical physique to Nawaki's, although its face was severely damaged. Still, it was basically identifiable as the double who had impersonated Nawaki for over a month. Unfortunately, he was now dead.
Either he had committed suicide, or someone had silenced him.
"Yes, it should be," the Third Hokage nodded before continuing, "Back then, when the First Hokage passed away, in order to maintain stability within Konoha and the ninja world, the Second Hokage once considered concealing the news of his death and using a substitute to act in his place... However, due to various circumstances, this plan was never ultimately executed."
"Takeda Shingen...?"
"Huh?"
How would the Third Hokage know what Haseo was talking about? This guy always spouted nonsense.
"Nothing, nothing. I just meant, sure enough, the Second truly was resourceful beyond compare, cunning like a fox, despicable and underhanded..." Haseo assigned a series of "positive adjectives" to describe the Second Hokage.
Looking back at that time, it was indeed understandable for the Second Hokage to want to stage a "Death of Takeda Shingen" play of his own.
Shaking his head dismissively, the Third Hokage ignored Haseo's slander against the Second, saying, "Although that plan wasn't implemented back then, the method for creating a substitute was preserved. After all, it's really just a minor trick. Nobody expected Senju would use this trick in such a situation."
Without the current incident, the Third Hokage himself probably wouldn't have recalled these related matters.
Changing someone's physical structure to mimic another person's behavior and act as a substitute wasn't all that complex. Yet... Haseo glanced sideways at the Third, thinking to himself, Didn't you get tricked again later by Orochimaru's Face Copying Technique?
"What about the chakra characteristics?"
"It mimicked Nawaki's chakra well enough… but before this happened, no one thought to check if it really was him by analyzing his chakra traits in detail," said the Third Hokage.
Konoha focused more on Nawaki's connection with Senju; as for Nawaki himself... To be honest, he just wasn't strong enough to justify that level of suspicion.
"Take this corpse back to the Anbu for further study. Let's see if we can obtain any valuable intelligence from him."
Though he spoke thus, even the Third Hokage himself had little hope.
Then, the Third Hokage changed tone, shifting his gaze outward toward the Earth Release statue outside and the blazing inferno still burning beneath it.
"Haseo, that should be Sage Art, right? Have you already achieved the 'Sage Mode' like the First Hokage did?"
"Ah, I'd say it's nearly complete. However, even though we both refer to it as 'Sage Mode,' my Sage Art still pales in comparison to the First's techniques. The Third, who grew up following the First closely, should understand this difference very well... My techniques are just minor tricks at best," Haseo remarked.
As for Sage Arts, there was no reason to hide anything from the Third Hokage.
The Third Hokage fixed his gaze on the distant horizon, thinking to himself, can this really be considered just a minor trick?
"Certainly, yours isn't exactly like the First's—but that guy was one-of-a-kind; your Sage Art is already impressive enough... Please don't use such overwhelming techniques again. Many villagers were frightened by what happened."
"I get it. It won't happen again."
"So then... Rope truly used Wood Release? Part of the First's cellular samples, which the village had been strictly safeguarding, has definitely gone missing. I'm currently tracking how they disappeared."
"It was definitely Wood Release—I witnessed both the [Wooden Construct Technique] and [Birth of a World of Forests]. But from what I saw, those techniques only resembled their true forms superficially and didn't possess much actual power... Or to put it another way, their strength fell far short of my expectations regarding Wood Release."
Haseo wasn't optimistic about the Third Hokage's investigation yielding meaningful results. All blame would surely end up directed toward Senju.
"Even so feeble a form of Wood Release would still severely hinder our pursuit of Rope."
Dealing with Rope's Wood Release looked easy for Haseo, but that didn't mean others could handle it just as easily.
"Tracking Rope is one thing, but there's something else the Third Hokage should pay attention to... Don't let Wood Release spread around carelessly. This isn't a good development." Haseo said nonchalantly.
"I've always said before that all those dangerous things left behind by the First and Second should have been destroyed entirely—otherwise, they'll only cause increasing troubles."
"...When did you ever say that?"
"Didn't I say it? Well then, if I did say it, would those items actually get destroyed?"
"How could anyone destroy them just on someone's say-so? Although many techniques are double-edged swords capable of harming their users as well, they're also the fundamental powers supporting Konoha itself. How could anyone simply destroy them on someone's words alone?" The Third Hokage shook his head as he spoke. Who would take down their own walls just because someone said so?
"There you go. Whether I spoke or not, the result remains unchanged anyway, so just assume I did say it."
"..."
"Tsunade-sama... I heard something came up here."
Just as the Third Hokage pondered how to respond to Haseo's remarks, a new voice arrived from outside—the sound of Tsunade approaching.
She had clearly received the news very quickly.
Without delay, the Third gave Haseo a meaningful glance, signaling him to handle matters.
Haseo immediately moved toward the direction of the voice and spotted Tsunade walking toward them. He quickly stepped forward and grabbed her arm.
"Haseo..."
"It's fine to go check it out, but let me make something clear first—you shouldn't get your hopes up... That side is just a decoy pretending to be Nawaki. You should've figured that out by now. The real Nawaki hasn't appeared at all in the past month—only a decoy was active.
The one who died over there was just this decoy—nothing more than a copy."
Tsunade wouldn't feel assured unless she personally went to confirm with her own eyes.
"I understand, Haseo."
Although Tsunade spoke as if mentally prepared, when she finally saw the corpse itself, her face rapidly turned pale and drained of blood.
After all, the decoy looked almost exactly like the real one.
...
Three days later, Jiraiya, who had hurriedly returned from the Land of Rain upon hearing news of the disturbance in Konoha, caught sight of half a strange, gnarled hunk of wood from quite a distance away.
"What kind of thing is this?
A wooden statue with both legs amputated from the waist down?
And it's this huge?"
Well, let me say a few words here.
When readers engage with a novel, they become immersed in the story, while fan fiction naturally grants them an omniscient perspective.
Some friends have been helping me defend myself. I'm very grateful, although it's unnecessary—you really don't need to try convincing people online.
One group accuses me of dragging things out and being painfully slow, another criticizes my lack of groundwork and limited writing ability, yet another sees every plot twist coming immediately, some support me wholeheartedly, while the majority ignore me completely.
Interestingly, there are always insightful individuals predicting how this book will turn out—how it would fail unless done their way—and they enthusiastically offer advice as if giving instructions.
I thought to myself: what generous souls indeed! At the very least, they must've given me a subscription...
But they didn't.
Criticism's totally fair game, but straight-up mockery? That's uncalled for.
Some of you may recall I posted several chapters under anti-piracy protection months ago. Looking back now, on the same day, protected chapters earned 5,000 subscriptions whereas unprotected ones received only 4,000. Within a sea of chapters scoring 4,000 or fewer reads, those hitting 5,000 stood out alone... This demonstrates there are indeed readers willing to pay for continuity in plots even under anti-piracy measures.
Let's generously refer to fanfiction as creative works too—who, then, bears responsibility for such works?
Certainly, anyone could guess this segment's developments because things were set up this way from the beginning. Based on the initial outline, the storyline has already passed its halfway point.
To all patient readers: please keep reading onward.
Thank you sincerely.
(The End)
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