The Hokage's office glowed softly in the night. Hiruzen Sarutobi stood with his pipe in hand, gazing out over the sea of lights that was Konoha village.
Behind him, a masked ANBU knelt on one knee, quietly delivering a report.
"Lord Third, Fugaku Uchiha left the village after requesting leave from the Konoha Police Force."
"What about Teuchi?" Hiruzen asked, not turning around.
"Teuchi returned to Ichiraku Ramen. Everything's normal."
At that, Hiruzen finally exhaled, a long breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. What he feared most was that Rinjin kid stirring up trouble.
The village was still at war. The economy was down, resources stretched thin, and every bit of fighting strength mattered. And on top of that, Danzo was being his usual pain in the neck.
Recently, those two bastards—Danzo and the Uchiha clan head—had been at each other's throats, neither willing to play nice. The Root organization claimed they were running infiltration missions in other villages, but in reality, they were just stirring up chaos right here at home.
And the Uchiha weren't any better. Besides their secret dealings with Danzo, they kept using the war as an excuse to demand more positions for the Konoha Police Force. If that was all, it might have been manageable. But then they refused to actually send people to help the village.
What really got under his skin was how some of the more radical Uchiha never shut up about Uchiha Kagami. Always going on about how a powerhouse like Kagami died "under mysterious circumstances" on the battlefield. For those in the know, that "mysterious" was a loaded word—one that carried all sorts of ugly implications.
If Rinjin started making waves now, with the village already on edge, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Few people truly understood what Rinjin was capable of—Hiruzen was one of them. The Third Raikage had fought the Eight-Tails for three days and nights, ending in a draw, even leaving a palm print on his own chest. But Rinjin? He'd made the Eight-Tails run home with its tails between its legs in a single night. And if the intel was right, he'd probably given the Two-Tails a beating, too.
Damn it! Does this kid just beat up everyone he runs into?
Suppressing another sigh, Hiruzen sat back down in the Hokage's chair, his face stern. After a moment's hesitation, he issued his orders: "Send Hatake Sakumo to sound out Rinjin. And tell him to hurry up and send those Nara, Akimichi, and Yamanaka brats back home!"
The ANBU's expression, hidden behind the mask, clearly soured. "Lord Third, Hatake Sakumo is on a mission in the Land of Rivers."
"Then send Danzo!"
Seeing the look on Hiruzen's face, the ANBU quickly nodded and disappeared.
More than half an hour later, deep within Root's underground base—
"Sir, Lord Third wants you to find... Rinjin. He wants your thoughts on Nawaki's death."
"My thoughts?" The reply came in a voice dripping with sarcasm.
Danzo was pressing a boiled egg to his eye socket, his expression twisted and strange as he glared at his subordinate.
"Hiruzen wants me to go? Why doesn't he go himself?! Tell him I'm not going! If someone has to go, let it be anyone but me!"
He barked the words, then turned his back and muttered under his breath, "Damn you, Hiruzen Sarutobi. My eye just stopped swelling..."
…
While Hiruzen Sarutobi and Shimura Danzo were busy passing the buck, things were unfolding elsewhere.
At Rinjin's house, Rie burst into the living room, eyes wide and animated. She pointed toward the bedroom, winking at Rinjin.
"Hey, big bro! Tsunade-nee… she's awake. You should go check on her—I think something's off!"
Hearing this, Rinjin, who'd been hunched over the low table scribbling notes, immediately stood up and followed Rie toward the bedroom.
He pushed open the door.
Tsunade was leaning against the headboard, a thin blanket draped over her. Her beautiful face, though still pale, was expressionless, eyes fixed on the ceiling.
When Rinjin entered, Tsunade turned her head slightly. Her lips twitched, as if she wanted to smile, but she just couldn't manage it.
"How long was I out?"
"Not long. Just a day and a night."
Rinjin sat down by the bed, his dark eyes carefully studying Tsunade's complexion. She still looked lost, but at least she wasn't as shattered as before. Some color had returned to her cheeks—a sign that rest was doing its work.
As silence settled between them, the room grew heavy and still.
After a long while, a single crystal tear slid from the corner of Tsunade's eye.
She didn't want to cry.
But in front of Rinjin, she couldn't hold it back.
If she hadn't brought Rinjin home, she'd probably have bottled everything up and tried to tough it out alone. But home wasn't an escape, either. Grandma Mito was old and frail—she couldn't let herself break down and add to her sorrow. So all that pain just had to stay locked away inside.
Maybe that's why, even unconscious with grief, she'd insisted on bringing Rinjin back.
After all, she was only twenty. She'd been to war, seen comrades die—but those weren't her own flesh and blood.
Silent tears traced down her cheeks, falling one by one onto her pale hands.
Just then, a clean handkerchief appeared in her blurred vision.
Head bowed, face hidden in shadow, Tsunade took the handkerchief and pressed it to her face.
"Rinjin… Nawaki's death… was it… normal?"
Her voice trembled, heavy with barely restrained sobs.
Rinjin fell silent, a strange light flickering in his pitch-black eyes.
Normal?
He didn't know.
But whether it was normal or not, he'd decided to treat it as anything but.
Suspects? He didn't care to guess anymore. Everyone was a suspect, anyone could be involved—so why bother playing their game? Why let others lead him by the nose?
Screw it. He'd treat them all as criminals. As long as his net was tight enough, he'd drag up every last shrimp, crab, dragon, and clam and throw them all in the pot.
And if it turned out to be enemy agents from another village? Didn't matter. He'd toss them in and stew them, too.
…
With that thought, Rinjin decided to give Tsunade a little warning.
"Not sure. But I'm pretty certain someone's been meddling behind the scenes. At least, that's how it looks to me. Nawaki's… internal organs were blown away on the spot. But according to Orochimaru, there weren't any organ remains at the scene."
He hesitated for a moment, then deliberately kept things vague.
"Could be a personal grudge, could be internal politics, maybe even outside forces stirring things up…"
He left it hanging, the message clear: he didn't want Tsunade getting involved.
But Tsunade wasn't stupid. The moment she heard "internal politics," her body tensed, and her eyes grew even more vacant.
She'd been born into the Senju clan, raised around the First and Second Hokage—she'd grown up surrounded by the tangled web of politics. There was no way she didn't understand.
Politics wasn't really that complicated, after all—it was just the art of making deals. What made it confusing for kids from civilian families was their lack of access to the hidden information. Limited knowledge bred uncertainty, and uncertainty mixed with frustration eventually turned into conspiracy theories.
If all the cards were laid on the table, very few people wouldn't get it. The real difference came down to perspective and the choices people made.
That's the kind of game Hiruzen Sarutobi, Shimura Danzo, and their ilk loved to play.
If they wanted you to walk a certain path, they'd only let you see the information that benefited them. Just like what they'd done to Hatake Sakumo.
Didn't Sakumo have achievements? Of course he did. But why didn't anyone talk about them? Because they'd been buried. His achievements hidden, his mistakes magnified.
They'd forced him into an impossible choice: his teammates' lives, or the mission. Sakumo chose his teammates, so the mission failed. And that failure could be spun to connect with the villagers' interests—like the village's reputation, something invisible but vital to everyone.
Don't think it's all smoke and mirrors—when Konoha's political manipulators got nasty, they had no bottom line.
Once it touched the villagers' interests, and with a bit of careful steering, all of Hatake Sakumo's merits would be conveniently forgotten.
So, in Rinjin's eyes, people like Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't be judged by whether they were righteous or not—only by whether they were useful.
And right now, as far as Rinjin was concerned, Hiruzen Sarutobi was useless.
On the other hand, Danzo… well, Danzo might just be useful after all.
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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