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"Find them. I want every last person who started this. No one gets away with it."
Hiruzen refused to let this filth stick to him. He barked orders to crush the rumor immediately, but it was already too late. The story had legs. People remembered how Hiruzen had talked about stepping down before the war—handing the seat to the next generation. The war delayed it. Then the war ended and nothing changed. He was still sitting in the Hokage chair.
That detail made the rumor feel real.
"Hiruzen's been saying he'd retire for years. Now we know why—he never planned to."
"Could it actually be true?"
"Compared to the Uchiha, Hiruzen knew the Nine-Tails best. He had the power to pull it off."
The sudden rumor swallowed every other theory. Blame on the Uchiha faded overnight. Sunagakure's rumor team had done their job perfectly. Ebizo's people knew exactly how to push a story until it became the only story anyone talked about.
Sunagakure. Kazekage Tower.
"First Iwagakure, now Konoha. The war's over but they still won't leave Sunagakure alone. Probing teams keep coming. They die and more show up anyway. Fine. Time to return the favor."
Rasa stared northeast toward the Land of Fire.
"The Nine-Tails disaster is perfect. We hit Konoha hard, create the fifth rumor, and farm points at the same time. While they're busy putting out fires, they won't have the manpower to keep sniffing around the Sun Disk."
Kumogakure.
"What do you think, Killer B?"
Killer B hesitated. "Doesn't feel right. Without Minato, Hiruzen still has Orochimaru. He'd have to give up the seat eventually. No one in the Sarutobi clan is strong enough to take it."
The Fourth Raikage nodded. "You're right. Konoha lost Minato, but they still have Orochimaru and real depth. Even after the Nine-Tails, they're still a proper great village. Stronger than the Mist ever was."
Iwagakure.
Ōnoki didn't believe Hiruzen would actually kill Minato, but watching the old rival squirm made him smile. Still, a cold worry crept in.
"People are saying Hiruzen refused to step down because he's greedy for power—wants the seat to stay in the Sarutobi family forever. What if someone starts the same rumor about me? That I'm clinging to the Tsuchikage seat out of pure selfishness?"
He'd never considered it before. Now he had to. Hiruzen had a solid reputation in Konoha and the Land of Fire. If even he could get hit like this, Ōnoki wasn't safe. The thought of his own legacy getting dragged through the mud made his stomach turn.
"This rumor is vicious. It attacks the one thing old men care about most—reputation. At our age, what else is left? Once your name is ruined, what's the point of living?"
Ōnoki made his decision.
"I won't let this happen to me. I'll hand the Tsuchikage title to someone else. I can still run everything from behind the scenes. An empty shell position. Real power stays with me, the village stays stable, and this kind of rumor loses all its teeth."
Names started cycling through his mind.
Konoha.
Hiruzen couldn't eat. Every time someone opened their mouth he wondered if they were mocking him. ANBU teams hunted the rumor's source under his direct orders, but Ebizo's people were too good. The trail stayed cold.
"Who the hell is doing this to me?"
"Slandering an old man like this—don't they fear divine punishment?"
"Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting."
In a dark corner, Danzo smiled.
"Hiruzen… you finally get to feel what it's like to be falsely accused. You and the others spent years pinning things on me. Feels good, doesn't it? This rumor is perfect. Hiruzen won't be able to cling to the seat anymore. Orochimaru will become Hokage soon. And then I'll be the one calling the shots in Konoha."
Shisui stood frozen, staring at the Hokage Rock.
"Could the rumor be true? Did Hiruzen really engineer all of this just to kill Minato and keep the seat in his family? Is power really that addictive? If it is… then this ninja world is even more terrifying than I thought."
Shisui didn't fully believe it, but something inside him had already started to shift. The village he thought he knew—the one built on the Will of Fire, where leaves danced and the flame never died—felt different now. Was all that talk just manipulation? Did the people at the top really put the village above family, power, and status? Or was it all just pretty words to control the ones below?
Rasa looked at the list of names spread across his desk. Ebizo's team was delivering points fast, but it still wasn't enough.
"Who should we interview next to make this rumor hit even harder?"