"Sensei… what happened?"
Seeing how haggard the Third Hokage looked, his spirit clearly shaken, Orochimaru did not mince words and asked directly.
"..."
The Third Hokage opened his mouth, yet no sound came out.
It was as though he had suddenly lost the ability to speak.
"Hokage-sama?"
Beside him, Minato also looked on in alarm. It had only been a few minutes since they last saw him, yet now the Hokage appeared utterly drained. If Minato could not still sense the strong vitality within him, he might have suspected that the Hokage was on the verge of death.
An ominous feeling rose in his heart.
The previously noisy crowd quieted completely.
Of the Konoha ninja still present, nine out of ten were sharp veterans, and the remaining one was sharper still. Everyone could tell something was terribly wrong with the Third Hokage's state of mind. One by one, they fell silent, suppressing their presence as much as possible, afraid of accidentally provoking the Hokage at such a moment.
At this time,
The only ones who dared to speak were Orochimaru, the Hokage's favored disciple, and Minato, who feared neither blame nor anger so long as it was for the sake of the village.
Of course,
The Uchiha jōnin were never lacking in fearless hotheads, but their clan head, Fugaku Uchiha, was a man with good judgment. Whatever his flaws of temperament might be, he knew better than to let his clansmen step forward to question the Hokage now.
After all, this was the Hokage.
And the Hokage who had served the longest.
"…Minato!"
After taking several deep breaths, the Third Hokage finally managed to force out a voice, calling Minato by name.
"I'm here, Hokage-sama," Minato replied at once.
"Minato, you… you take a team. Bring more people. Follow the clues Saru and the others left behind and pursue—"
The Third Hokage's voice came out broken and unsteady. Anyone could see just how poor his mental state was. Yet no one dared interrupt him. Everyone held their breath, listening intently.
However,
He suddenly stopped.
His gaze landed on Fugaku Uchiha, and on the Uchiha jōnin behind him, their brows filled with defiance.
"…Orochimaru, Minato. Come with me."
He called their names.
Then,
He led the two of them upstairs, into a private room.
Inside, he raised a barrier, completely cutting off any possibility of eavesdropping.
Seeing this, Minato's brow tightened sharply, the sense of dread in his heart growing stronger. Even Orochimaru wiped away the faint, habitual smile from his face, looking solemnly at his teacher, whose boundless grief was now impossible to hide.
"Sensei… did something happen to Takeo?"
Orochimaru asked.
Based on his understanding of Sarutobi Hiruzen, if it were merely a failed pursuit of Mizushiro or an unsuccessful attempt to rescue Uchiha Tsuruha, his teacher would feel frustrated, not grief-stricken. For him to be this devastated…
The most likely explanation was that Sarutobi Takeo, code-named Saru, had met with disaster.
"Takeo?"
Minato did not react immediately when he heard the name.
Then—
He remembered that the Hokage's eldest son was indeed named Sarutobi Takeo.
"Saru… no, Takeo. Takeo and his team…"
The Third Hokage closed his eyes, tears spilling uncontrollably from the corners.
"…they were all killed."
The moment his eldest son's death truly sank in,
The crushing grief nearly suffocated him.
To lose one's father in youth, and one's child in old age—two of the three greatest tragedies a person could suffer in a lifetime had already befallen him.
"..."
Orochimaru watched his teacher weep.
Silent.
He felt no overwhelming sorrow himself. Whatever capacity for grief he once had had likely been exhausted long ago, in the countless deaths he had witnessed. Moreover, his relationship with the Hokage's sons had been unremarkable; there was no deep bond. This was nothing like the pain he felt at the deaths of his close friend Dan Katō or his disciple Nawaki.
At this moment,
What he felt once again was the fragility of life.
Indeed—
Only by mastering immortality, by erasing this fatal weakness of life itself, could one avoid being assaulted by grief.
"..."
Minato was also speechless.
But unlike Orochimaru's warped line of thought, his reaction was pure shock.
Only now did he understand that the ANBU operative known as Saru was the Hokage's eldest son, Sarutobi Takeo.
And then—
Wiped out?
Takeo's entire unit annihilated?
What kind of enemy could possibly accomplish that?
Though Minato had arrived late and never met Saru in person, he had heard from the Third Hokage just how formidable that ANBU unit was. Within the borders of the Land of Fire…
He could not imagine anyone capable of erasing them completely.
"Sensei… what exactly happened? Who killed Takeo and the others?"
It was Orochimaru who finally broke the heavy silence.
"…The perpetrator's identity is unknown."
The Third Hokage took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his grief as he answered, then continued with a detailed explanation.
"Takeo left behind final words. Mizushiro was indeed a spy planted in Kirigakure by Kumogakure. Kumogakure dispatched two jōnin to rendezvous with him. This time, the Kiri was used as a pawn by the Kumo."
Orochimaru and Minato both frowned.
Could Mizushiro and two Kumogakure jōnin really wipe out Saru's entire team?
Unless—
One of those jōnin was the Fourth Raikage himself.
But that was clearly impossible.
Before their thoughts could wander further, the Third Hokage continued,
"However, the Kumo underestimated us. Takeo and the others gained the upper hand in their battle with Mizushiro's group. But Mizushiro was ruthless—seeing escape was impossible, he chose to self-detonate, taking Uchiha Tsuruha with him!!!"
At this,
Neither Orochimaru nor Minato showed much reaction.
Once it was known that Saru's team had been annihilated, the fate of the Uchiha child, Tsuruha, was already sealed. Even if he had survived, he would have been taken back by Kumogakure and used as breeding stock…
Death, for that child, might not have been a worse outcome.
Still—
If that was the case, then the ones who wiped out Saru's unit were not the Kumo ninja?
So who was it?
"After Mizushiro self-detonated with Uchiha Tsuruha… an unidentified Uchiha suddenly entered the battlefield. He first killed the two Kumogakure jōnin, then turned on Takeo and the others. Takeo only managed to pass on his final words to me through Enma before he was slain."
Although Enma did not witness Sarutobi Takeo's death with his own eyes,
The Sarutobi clan and Takeo were bound by a summoning contract. There were ways to determine whether a contractor lived or died.
And the result was unmistakable—
Sarutobi Takeo was dead, beyond any doubt.
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