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Prince of Tennis: Ninja of Tennis
"This is slander—pure slander!"
"The Fourth Raikage is lying through his teeth!"
"A man in the Raikage's position doing something this disgraceful is beneath contempt. I, Hiruzen Sarutobi, swear on my life that everything the Raikage said is false. I will now explain the full truth of the Hyuga incident."
"If even one word of what I say is a lie, may lightning strike me dead and let me die a miserable death!"
Hiruzen had no other choice.
The Fourth Raikage had used his position to frame him, and combined with all the previous rumors and suspicious points, even inside Konoha the public opinion had flipped. Positive voices were now barely holding on.
Outside Konoha, negative opinions dominated completely.
"Cloud's envoy team came to Konoha under the pretense of cooperation talks, but they were plotting something shady the whole time."
"I had no idea they planned to infiltrate the Hyuga compound."
"They never even admitted it. All they said was that one of their people died and they wanted blood for blood."
"The Hyuga clan didn't keep any evidence of the Cloud ninja breaking in. Instead they let Cloud get proof that they killed one of their men. Even though I knew something was wrong, there was nothing I could do."
"That's why Hyuga Hizashi ended up dead."
"The Hyuga clan decided among themselves to send Hizashi in place of Hiashi to pay with his life. But Cloud saw through it, which led to Hyuga Sōchō's death as well."
"I, Hiruzen Sarutobi, can say with a clear conscience that I did nothing wrong."
"Tell me—facing the situation I was in, what else could I have done?"
Hiruzen's official statement pushed the blame onto two targets.
First: Cloud Village.
Everything bad that happened was Cloud's fault. It had nothing to do with him.
Second: the Hyuga clan.
The Hyuga were idiots. They failed to keep evidence of the Cloud ninja infiltrating their compound, and they let Cloud get proof that they'd killed one of their people.
That gave Cloud the perfect opening to make a huge scene.
Otherwise there never would've been any "blood for blood" demand.
The second mistake: they took it upon themselves to send a branch family member to die in the main family's place. Cloud saw through the switch and the Hyuga clan paid an even heavier price.
Some people bought Hiruzen's version.
"Lord Hokage is probably telling the truth. He even swore on his life. The Raikage must be trying to ruin Lord Hokage's reputation. Cloud Village has never been trustworthy."
"Back when they invited the Second Hokage to Cloud for peace talks, they suddenly attacked and killed both the Second Hokage and Uchiha Kagami. A bunch of backstabbing liars."
"You can't believe a word they say."
One Konoha ninja turned on Sunagakure.
"Sunagakure went too far. They brag about the Ninja World Big Events Weekly being fair and credible, but they didn't even check if the Raikage was telling the truth before printing it."
"What kind of credibility is that?"
A Sand ninja fired back.
"Fact-check the Raikage's words? How? You come do it then. And why do you assume the Raikage is lying instead of your Hokage?"
"Our Weekly guarantees those were the Raikage's exact words. Isn't that enough?"
Some people quietly pushed the narrative inside Konoha.
"This is all Cloud's conspiracy. They just don't want to see Konoha doing well, so they're saying this on purpose."
"We absolutely cannot fall for it!"
"If we do, Cloud gets exactly what they want."
Others started blaming the Hyuga clan.
"It's all the Hyuga's fault. They gave Cloud the opening. If they'd handled things properly back then, none of this would've happened."
"Three chances and the Hyuga clan blew every single one."
"They didn't keep proof of the Cloud ninja infiltrating their compound."
"They killed someone and let Cloud get the evidence."
"Then they tried to send a branch family member to die in the main family's place and made everything worse."
"Complete idiots!"
"The Hyuga clan created an unsolvable problem for Lord Hokage! This is their sin!"
"Blame the Hyuga main family."
"Every problem traces back to the main family!"
Inside Konoha the finger-pointing turned squarely on the Hyuga main family.
Under that kind of public pressure, the branch family members—who were already unhappy with the main family—became even more resentful. Some even started sneak attacks on main family members.
But the Caged Bird Seal was too powerful.
One thought from a main family member and a branch family member would drop in agony.
It was like the Tightening Spell from the old stories.
No—it was worse.
It could take their life with a single thought.
The rumors spread like wildfire.
...
Iwagakure.
Ōnoki heard the news and his mood brightened a little.
His own pain hurt like hell.
Other people's pain? That was satisfying.
Especially since Ōnoki still suspected Konoha and Sunagakure had worked together to screw Iwagakure over. Even if they hadn't officially teamed up, Konoha definitely hadn't played fair in this whole mess.
"Hiruzen Sarutobi is getting exactly what he deserves!"
"That little Raikage punk is ruthless. He went straight for the interview and landed a heavy blow on Hiruzen."
"Even if Hiruzen puts out a statement right away, how much good is it really going to do?"
"At best he can change a few minds inside Konoha."
"Outside the village? Nobody's going to believe him."
Ōnoki almost heard someone ask:
"Father, who do you think is telling the truth?"
He answered without thinking.
"Does it even matter who's telling the truth…"
Then he stopped.
There was no one standing across from him.
His foolish son was gone.
Ōnoki fell into silence.
A long silence.
"Kitsuchi…"
"Was I too hard on you? You had a chance to run that day, but you chose to fight to the death instead. Were you afraid I'd blame you?"
"But the truth is… I wanted to see you alive more than I wanted to see you become perfect and never make mistakes."
"Why did the heavens do this to me?"
"The Third Raikage's son has already taken the Raikage seat."
"Hiruzen Sarutobi's two sons are both alive and well."
Kumogakure.
The Fourth Raikage read Hiruzen's statement and let out a cold laugh.
"You can make all the statements you want. What good does it do?"
"How many people are actually going to believe you? You're just trying to fool the people inside Konoha."
"And you just handed me the perfect excuse to attack."
The Fourth Raikage called everyone together.
"Everyone, that old dog Hiruzen insulted Cloud Village. How can we let that slide?"
"Assemble the army. We're marching into the Land of Fire!"
"We're going to crush Konoha and capture that old dog Hiruzen alive!"