"What?!"
Koharu Utatane practically shouted, staring wide-eyed in disbelief. The news she'd just heard from Hiruzen Sarutobi had hit her like a truck.
She froze for a moment, her mind spinning. It took her a good five seconds to fully process what he had just said.
She abruptly stood up, her tone sharp and incredulous.
"Hiruzen! Are you telling me you just stood there and watched the daimyo's second son get killed by someone like Uchiha Chizumi?"
"Do you have any idea what that means for Konoha? The kind of storm this is going to unleash?"
Before Hiruzen could respond, she was already pacing back and forth in frustration.
Her face tensed with disbelief.
"I knew letting that envoy team cross paths with Chizumi would be a disaster. But I didn't expect it to actually happen."
She had already ordered her people to warn the daimyo's delegation to steer clear of certain parts of the village—areas where Uchiha Chizumi was known to linger.
But of course, Chizumi wasn't one to follow patterns.
He'd acted completely out of character today—he hadn't shown up in any of his usual haunts.
Koharu began to suspect this wasn't a coincidence at all.
Did he purposely seek them out? Did he somehow know they were coming?
"By the time I got there, the boy was already dead."
Hiruzen let out a deep breath, glancing at the restless Koharu.
He moved behind the Hokage's desk and sat down heavily, his expression unreadable.
Koharu stopped pacing and glared at him.
"What about Chizumi? Did you have him arrested?"
Hiruzen looked at her.
She stared right back.
Neither said a word, but the silence said everything.
"What the hell are you thinking, Hiruzen?!"
Koharu's voice cracked with frustration. She was so worked up her face had flushed red.
"You've let Chizumi off the hook so many times! What exactly are you tolerating him for? Did you forget your own son, Shinnosuke, died at his hands? Or what happened to Danzō? Or how many times Chizumi has openly disobeyed you in public?"
"And now he kills the daimyo's son, and you're still going to protect him?! Just because his presence scares a few criminals in the village? That gives him the right to murder royalty and get away with it?!"
"I don't get it, Hiruzen!"
Hiruzen remained silent. And that silence only made Koharu angrier.
Her breathing grew erratic.
Mitokado Homura finally chimed in.
"Hiruzen's worried about what would happen if we went to war with Chizumi."
Koharu's frown deepened.
Hiruzen clenched the armrest of his chair, his eyes lowered. His grip was so tight the wood cracked under his fingers. His face twisted with frustration and suppressed rage.
He took several deep breaths before speaking.
"I'm doing this for Konoha's stability. If Chizumi snaps, he could be just as dangerous as the Nine-Tails incident."
He looked directly at Koharu.
"Do you want another tragedy like that in the village?"
"Besides..."
The exhaustion on Hiruzen's face was obvious.
"After what happened last night, Chizumi's probably become a symbol for the younger, more radical members of the Uchiha clan. If we move against him now, we risk provoking all of them."
"Sure, Fugaku and Itachi support us, but they alone aren't enough to keep the clan in check."
Koharu opened her mouth, but didn't speak. She fell silent, too.
Homura sighed.
"Instead of arguing, we need to figure out how Konoha is going to face the daimyo's fury…"
"Even if we don't want to fix the mess Chizumi created, we'll have to."
…
Meanwhile...
"Ugh, I'm dead tired..."
Naruto plopped down onto someone's front steps, panting from exhaustion.
He glanced around carefully. Aside from a few villagers giving him weird looks, no one suspicious was in sight.
"Okay, just a quick break..."
Of course, in Naruto's mind, "suspicious person" meant one person only:
Uchiha Chizumi.
But then—
Out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly spotted a familiar figure.
When he turned to confirm, he almost forgot how to breathe. His heart skipped a beat.
"Ghh—!"
The figure met his gaze with an intense stare. Naruto instantly jumped to his feet.
He grabbed a broom and started pretending to sweep in a panic.
"Ten more days,"
a cold voice said right next to him.
Naruto froze. He whipped his head around—Uchiha Chizumi, who had been way down the street just seconds ago, was now right beside him.
He nearly burst into tears.
"How am I supposed to survive like this...?!"
Little did he know, someone else was having an even worse day—his assigned Anbu bodyguard, who was hiding nearby.
"Why is Chizumi here again?!"
The Anbu was tempted to intervene, to separate Naruto from him. The Hokage had explicitly ordered them to keep Naruto away from the Uchiha.
But... something stopped him.
If he stepped out now, Chizumi wouldn't give him an ounce of respect. And if it came to a fight—he'd lose.
He hesitated.
Surely a little discretion in interpreting the Hokage's orders couldn't hurt?
For now, the Anbu decided to do nothing.
After all, Chizumi didn't seem like he was trying to manipulate the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki. He always preached "Absolute Justice," didn't he?
And a true believer in justice wouldn't cause another Nine-Tails catastrophe... right?
…
Elsewhere...
Naruto's eyes landed on a few drops of blood staining the hem of Chizumi's cloak. A hint of unease flashed across his face.
Then he heard a cheerful voice calling from behind.
"Wait for me, senpai!"
He turned to look and saw a beautiful girl with long black hair running toward them. Sitting on her shoulder was a very fat orange cat.
"Meow~ Chizumi-sama took out over a dozen scumbags today. That should keep the criminals quiet for a while."
...The cat just talked?!
Naruto's brain nearly exploded.
Wait—wait a second...
His eyes went wide. His face turned pale. His gaze returned to the blood on Chizumi's robe.
"Over a dozen scumbags"...
That line echoed in Naruto's mind again and again.
His legs gave out.
"Please don't kill me!!"
"I'm sorry!! I was wrong!!"
The blonde kid dropped to the ground in a dramatic dogeza, forehead pressed to the dirt, practically begging for his life.
The orange cat tilted its head.
"Uh... what's wrong with this kid?"
The girl rubbed her chin.
"Looks like he misunderstood something... But still..."
She eyed Naruto's skinny frame.
"Senpai, this kid doesn't look very healthy. Is it really okay to make him do hard labor?"
She honestly thought he might drop dead sweeping the street.
Chizumi replied flatly:
"He's the Nine-Tails jinchūriki. This is nothing to him."
"...Wait, what—? Nine-Tails jinchūriki?!"
She froze.
The cat explained:
"Chizumi-sama told me the kid has the Nine-Tails sealed inside him—the same one from the Nine-Tails attack. As its host, Naruto is the Nine-Tails jinchūriki."
"!!!"
The girl stared at Naruto in disbelief.
The Nine-Tails. The demon fox.
She had awakened her Sharingan the night of that attack.
Her father had died at the claws of the beast.
"Senpai... does that mean he's—?"
Her voice trembled.
Chizumi answered calmly:
"He's just a vessel. And he was forced into it. He became a jinchūriki the day he was born. He never had a choice."
The cat added,
"Meow. The real culprit behind the Nine-Tails incident was Uchiha Obito. He used the Mangekyō Sharingan to control the beast and started the whole thing."
"In other words—"
The cat paused for a moment, then continued,
"The one who killed your father wasn't this kid. He was just a baby back then."
The girl took a deep breath, and engraved the name in her heart:
Uchiha Obito.
They weren't even trying to hide what they were saying—everything was spoken clearly in front of Naruto.
Still kneeling on the ground, Naruto was completely stunned.
I'm... the Nine-Tails jinchūriki?
I'm the container of the demon fox?
That thing... is inside me?
That scary guy... he wasn't lying, was he?
In that moment, Naruto finally understood why people sometimes muttered behind his back—calling him a "demon fox brat," or a "walking disaster."
"...I... I'm sorry..."
His voice was barely a whisper. Tears hit the ground as he trembled, overwhelmed and lost, unsure of what to do or think.
…
There's no such thing as a secret that lasts forever.
Before dying, the daimyo's envoy and his men shouted enough to reveal who they were.
And the news—"The daimyo's envoy has been killed"—spread through Konoha like wildfire.
Just when things had barely begun to settle after the chaos from the night before, another massive incident exploded—less than half a day later.
And once again—
The one behind it all was Uchiha Chizumi.
…
Konoha – Anbu Base
"Naumu..."
Sarutobi Asuma, cigarette in mouth, stared down at the lifeless, blood-soaked corpse of his fellow Guardian Ninja. Beheaded. Brutal.
Asuma took a long drag and exhaled a heavy cloud of smoke.
The only thing in his heart was rage.
The Guardian Twelve were complicated.
Not all of them were loyal to the daimyo.
Like the Uchiha, they were split—Asuma led the moderates; Kazuma led the hardliners.
The moderates wanted to maintain the balance between the daimyo and the Hokage.
The radicals believed there was no need for a Hokage at all—ninja should serve the daimyo directly.
Nauma had been a moderate. And Asuma's friend.
Now, he was just another corpse.
Asuma leaned down and closed Nauma's still-wide eyes.
His face, hidden behind his beard, was clouded in sorrow.
"Two times now, old man… How much longer are you going to let this go on?"
"You're the Hokage. When did you become so spineless?"
"Is Uchiha Chizumi really worth all this trouble?"
He spoke softly to himself.
He'd never forgotten how his older brother had died—at Chizumi's hand.
Every time he visited the grave, every time he saw that grieving expression—hatred would rise again.
He looked around the room.
More than a dozen bodies lay here, all beheaded. Among them—
Goen'in Kyūsuke, the daimyo's second son.
That one stood out the most, and made Asuma's expression darken further.
His death would enrage the daimyo.
Kyūsuke had been his favorite.
The relationship between the Land of Fire and Konoha was now hanging by a thread.
And the radical faction in the Guardian Twelve?
They were probably waiting for this exact moment.
They'd push the daimyo to act—maybe even use this to push for abolishing the Hokage system entirely.
"Old man… you're the Hokage. Can't you see that?"
Asuma bit clean through his cigarette. Alone, he muttered:
"Uchiha Chizumi is more danger than benefit to the village. And I know you know that better than anyone. So why the hell are you still protecting him?"
"My brother—killed by him."
"Nauma—killed by him."
"Now the daimyo's son—didn't stand a chance either."
Asuma believed the Land of Fire's prosperity was built on a delicate balance between the daimyo and the Hokage.
And Chizumi's actions had shattered it.
Once that balance was gone—
The Land of Fire...
Konoha...
Neither would know peace.
He lit another cigarette.
"Old man... allow me to disagree with you one more time—Uchiha Chizumi is a threat to the village now. But I guess you're used to me rebelling by now."
~~~
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