Chapter 239: Hiruko's Defection
Hiruko offered a polite, almost theatrical sweep of his arm, gesturing for her to follow him into the shadows.
Instantly, Kakashi and Obito stepped in front of Stelle, their stances shifting into rigid defensive guards.
"A-Mu, you can't go with him," Obito warned, his voice tight with anxiety. "Look at the guy. He looks like an absolute lunatic."
Kakashi's hand hovered over his kunai pouch, his sharp eyes locked onto the strange, pale man.
Stelle didn't hesitate. Before either boy could draw a weapon or weave a single hand sign, she shifted her weight. A blur of motion, a precise strike to the back of their necks—thwack, thwack. Kakashi and Obito crumpled to the dirt, completely unconscious before they even realized they had been hit.
Hiruko hadn't twitched a single muscle during the exchange, but Stelle's instincts hummed with warning. The man's chakra felt dense, twisted, and extremely dangerous. If she wasted time arguing with her teammates, Hiruko might decide to eliminate the nuisances himself, and keeping these two alive was far more important than playing hero. Besides, dropping her carefully crafted 'A-Mu' persona to unleash her full, overpowered arsenal right now would ruin everything.
Protecting her oblivious companions by knocking them out was simply the most efficient tactical choice.
Meanwhile, deep within the heart of Konohagakure, Hiruzen Sarutobi was drowning in a sea of paperwork.
Every morning, the Hokage opened his eyes to an endless mountain of administrative scrolls, budget reports, and mission logs. Day after day, the crushing weight of the village's bureaucracy pressed down on him. He wasn't entirely an old man yet, but the sheer volume of desk work made his bones ache with a deep, soul-deep exhaustion.
It wasn't that he was a tyrant, clinging to power and refusing to delegate authority to his advisors, Homura Mitokado and Utatane Koharu.
He simply didn't dare trust them with the fine details.
The previous Hokage possessed the overwhelming strength and natural charisma to delegate matters big and small. They let their subordinates handle the minutiae while they focused on the grand vision, absolutely confident that they could maintain control of the village regardless of what happened.
Their leadership philosophy essentially boiled down to: 'I am invincible; do as you please.'
Hiruzen, however, lacked that carefree luxury. He was plagued by constant paranoia, forever worried that a single overlooked detail or a minor administrative error would spiral into an irreparable catastrophe for the Leaf.
Therefore, he fretted over every single scroll. He micromanaged, handling matters personally until his eyes burned. Only by keeping Konoha under his direct, careful control could he find any semblance of peace.
Occasionally, Danzo Shimura would step out of the shadows to shoulder some of the burden, but the Root leader only offered his assistance when Hiruzen was on the verge of physical collapse.
Lately, the sudden emergence of the enigmatic Root operative, Uchiha Kou, had made Danzo exceedingly cautious. The war-hawk was too busy managing his own secretive affairs to help his old friend for more than a few days at a time.
Consequently, the overly cautious Lord Third was left to work himself to the bone like a common beast of burden.
He rubbed his temples, pondering how exactly he was supposed to cultivate a proper successor and finally hand over the damn hat.
After finally sorting the morning's urgent missives, Hiruzen pulled a sealed folder from his lower desk drawer. It was an intelligence report compiled a few days prior—an ongoing investigation into the Jonin researcher, Hiruko.
The contents were deeply disturbing. The report suggested that Hiruko was actively abducting civilians from the outskirts of the Land of Fire for human experimentation, and had recently escalated to targeting ordinary, low-ranking shinobi.
To be entirely honest, when the Anbu first reported the link between the missing persons and Hiruko, Hiruzen thought his hearing was failing him.
After all, Hiruko was known as a fanatic supporter of the Fourth Hokage. The man's mind seemed entirely consumed by two singular ideologies. First: to conduct new research that would make Konoha an unstoppable military superpower. Second: a deeply ingrained belief that the Leaf was the absolute pinnacle of the shinobi world, and all other hidden villages were worthless trash.
How could a man so fiercely patriotic commit such heinous atrocities against his own people? Hiruzen had genuinely suspected that Hiruko was being framed, an unfortunate scapegoat for some darker, unseen faction.
Hoping to clear his old friend's name, the Hokage had dispatched two elite Anbu tracking squads to quietly investigate the matter and suppress any rumors before a panic could spread.
Setting the file down on his mahogany desk, Hiruzen let out a long, weary sigh.
His head was throbbing again, a familiar migraine blooming behind his eyes.
Taking advantage of a rare, fleeting moment of peace, he reached into a locked cabinet and pulled out a freshly printed magazine he had discreetly purchased from a local bookstore. A faint blush crept across his weathered cheeks as he flipped through the glossy pages. He occasionally dabbed at his nose, double-checking for any treacherous nosebleeds before safely lowering his hand.
Just as he was fully immersing himself in the vibrant, two-dimensional world of scantily clad beauties, the heavy oak doors of his office burst open with a deafening bang.
The intruder was in such a frantic hurry that the door slammed violently against the wall, rattling the framed portraits of the previous Hokage. The visitor didn't even flinch at the noise.
Hiruzen's eye twitched. Who is it this time? Has the entire village forgotten how to knock? Is it truly a crime for an old man to enjoy ten minutes of reading?
His face contorted as he desperately suppressed his bubbling irritation. Moving with the speed of a seasoned Kage, Hiruzen shoved the scandalous magazine into his desk drawer, slamming it shut just before looking up.
The man who had barged in was none other than his eldest son, the Anbu Squad Commander, Shinnosuke Sarutobi.
Hiruzen's expression darkened instantly. He slammed his palm against the desk.
"Remember to knock next time!" he barked. "Do not think you can bypass basic protocol just because you are my son."
Adjusting his robes, he crossed his legs and picked up his porcelain teacup, projecting the absolute, suffocating authority of a stern patriarch.
Shinnosuke completely ignored his father's reprimand. His chest heaved as he delivered the catastrophic news. "Father, Hiruko has defected. He fled Konoha alongside his loyal subordinates, taking highly classified experimental data with him. The Anbu squads assigned to investigate him... they have been completely wiped out."
Hiruzen violently choked on his hot tea, coughing as the scalding liquid burned his throat.
"What did you just say?" The Hokage slammed his cup down, tea splashing across his pristine desk. "Hiruko defected? And he slaughtered a pursuit squad? Since when does he possess that kind of combat strength?"
"It is true, Father," Shinnosuke replied, his tone grim. "Two entire Anbu squads were annihilated. If they hadn't managed to trigger a desperate distress signal in their final moments, we wouldn't have even discovered the massacre this quickly., the Angkor Fortress has vanished from the research sector."
The color drained from Hiruzen's face. If Hiruko had fled on his own initiative, violently breaking through village security, then the horrific allegations were true. The missing-nin was undoubtedly the mastermind behind the civilian abductions. The Anbu must have stumbled upon his gruesome human experiments, forcing Hiruko to silence them and abandon the village.
Sensing the rapidly escalating gravity of the situation, Hiruzen's demeanor shifted. He issued rapid, decisive orders. "Deploy Tora immediately. Have him assemble our most elite Anbu tracking unit and pursue Hiruko without delay."
He paused, his brow furrowing. "Where is Orochimaru? He is the head of the Research Facility. A crisis of this magnitude occurs right under his nose, and he hasn't even come to report it?"
Shinnosuke offered a helpless, frustrated sigh. "According to the personnel at the facility, Lord Orochimaru's current project has reached a critical bottleneck. He is refusing all visitors and has activated the highest-tier defensive barrier around his personal laboratory. No one can get inside."
"Is he still obsessing over that autonomous Mecha Puppet project?" Hiruzen groaned, rubbing his temples. "He hasn't given up on that absurd concept after all these years?"
Hiruzen harbored massive doubts about the viability of Orochimaru's mechanical monstrosities. But, as fate would have it, the Fourth Hokage had officially approved the project and heavily funded it with his own private money. If Orochimaru wanted to lock himself away to tinker with gears and chakra batteries, Hiruzen had no legal grounds to force the door open.
Originally, the Hokage had fully intended to dump this entire Hiruko mess into Orochimaru's lap, forcing the Research Facility to clean up its own rogue elements.
Now, he had to manage the fallout himself.
A bitter wave of frustration washed over him. Why couldn't any of his three brilliant disciples simply share his administrative burden? Instead, they were all somehow busier than he was.
Jiraiya was the worst offender. The toad sage had spent years wandering the continent, desperately searching for the legendary Rinnegan. And the most infuriating part? The Rinnegan had been sitting right here in Konoha for the past two years, yet Jiraiya still hadn't returned from his wild goose chase.
Truly wretched disciples, every single one of them, Hiruzen thought bitterly.
He had briefly considered pulling Minato Namikaze off the front lines to assist, but ever since Sakumo Hatake stepped down from the Anbu Captaincy, the village's most critical S-rank missions fell squarely on Minato's shoulders. If Minato was grounded for desk duty, there would be no one capable of handling the high-risk field operations.
It frustrated Hiruzen so deeply that he genuinely wished he could slice Minato in half—leaving one clone to stamp paperwork while the original slaughtered enemies on the battlefield.
"Hiruzen. Leave this matter to me. I will handle the pursuit personally."
The cold, raspy voice echoed through the office before the door even fully opened. Danzo stepped out of the shadows, his lone visible eye gleaming with calculated intent. "However, I expect that once Hiruko is apprehended, custody of the traitor will be transferred directly to me."
Hiruko was, without a doubt, Danzo's favorite asset in Konoha's scientific community. Ever since Orochimaru became hyper-fixated on the Edo Tensei and his bizarre Mecha Puppets, the primary labs hadn't produced any practical, mass-deployable weapons. It was Hiruko's ruthless, boundary-pushing research that consistently brought in results and bolstered the finance department.
To Danzo, true genius was a rare commodity. What did it matter if a visionary scientist conducted a few unsavory human experiments in the dark?
As long as the blood spilled paved the way for Konoha's absolute supremacy, such sacrifices were not just acceptable—they were necessary.
Thus, the Root leader had already decided: once Hiruko was dragged back in chains, Danzo would shield him from execution.
"Let us focus on catching him first," Hiruzen replied smoothly, his tone guarded. "We will discuss jurisdiction after the investigation yields clear answers. For now, initiate a total information blackout. Do not let news of this defection spread."
Hiruzen knew his old war-hawk companion too well. He refused to agree to Danzo's demands, offering only an ambiguous, non-committal delay.
Danzo scoffed, a harsh, grating sound. He turned on his heel and swept out of the office. By the time the door clicked shut behind him, Danzo had already formulated a hundred different political maneuvers to ensure Hiruko's survival.
Hiruzen shook his head, exhaling a plume of smoke. Danzo wasn't even attempting to hide his blatant favoritism anymore.
The Hokage lit his pipe, taking a long, deep drag. The rich tobacco usually calmed his nerves, but today, an icy flutter of unease settled in his chest. It felt like the calm before a devastating storm. He mentally reviewed every single document, order, and deployment he had authorized that day. Finding no obvious tactical errors, he allowed himself a brief, tense moment of relaxation.
Exactly two hours later, the heavy oak doors were thrown open once again.
Uchiha Kiyokazu sprinted into the Hokage's office, his chest heaving from a dead sprint. He didn't even bother with a formal salute.
"Hokage-sama!" Kiyokazu gasped, panic lacing his usually stoic voice. "It's A-Mu! Her Rinnegan... it was discovered by Hiruko! She has been abducted by him during his escape from the village!"
Silence descended upon the room, thick and suffocating.
Hiruzen's hand tightened involuntarily.
Snap.
The expensive wooden pipe shattered perfectly in two, burning embers and ash spilling across the Hokage's desk.
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