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Chapter 80N
🕑 Added 2025-07-02 15:24:26 +0000 UTCChapter 80N
An emaciated corpse remained on the wooden bed, untouched. The severed head had not been taken; it lay discarded like trash in the corner of the room. Even the two ANBU buried in the ground outside the cell were still trapped in genjutsu. Because the Fifth Acting Hokage and all the clan leaders had come to personally investigate, everything was preserved exactly as it had been. The guards who arrived early had shifted from investigation to securing the scene.
"Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu?" Akimichi Torifu immediately recognized the jutsu used on the two buried ANBU.
"They are still alive. It seems this unidentified intruder had a very clear target." Hyūga Hiashi scanned the unfortunate shinobi and frowned. "But this is genjutsu? It seems more like—"
"It is dōjutsu." Rēn finished the sentence. His eyelids flickered. This was unexpected.
Before they arrived, they had been speculating about the intruder’s identity. They wondered who could be allowed free rein by Hiashi and Aburame Shibi. Could it be someone in the clan defying his orders and aiming to kill Shimura Danzō or Sarutobi Hiruzen, and could Hiashi and Shibi have mistaken him for the culprit and covered for him?
Rēn crouched and pried open the eyelids of the two ANBU for a closer look.
"This definitely looks like Sharingan, but something is off." Rēn felt puzzled. The intruder did use Sharingan-based genjutsu to subdue the ANBU, but the execution was crude. It felt as if a mid-ranking or lower ninja who had not mastered Uchiha genjutsu finesse had performed it—simply using raw dōjutsu power to drag targets into an illusion.
"Release." Rēn performed a single hand seal to free them from the genjutsu. It was faster to question the shinobi directly than to guess the intruder’s identity.
Shaken, the two ANBU struggled to recall details of their brief encounter. "The intruder’s Earth Release was strong. We were dragged underground instantly with no chance to resist..."
"It seemed there was only one person. We did not see another."
"...Sharingan, yes, I saw the Sharingan... but strangely, it seemed like only one eye?"
"It was definitely only one Sharingan."
Their answers provided new insight. Only one Sharingan? This immediately sparked a thought in Rēn’s mind. Perhaps the intruder was not Uchiha at all. Konoha did have one non-Uchiha who possessed a Sharingan under unusual circumstances.
"Could it be Kakashi Hatake?" Torifu recalled the name. "Hatake... Sakumo’s son. This is truly a difficult case." He felt a headache coming on. He was not involved in the White Fang’s suicide, but he was not blind or deaf, and the insight from the Nara clan helped piece together what had happened.
In his view, the responsibility for Sakumo’s death lay roughly sixty percent with Danzō’s manipulations, thirty percent with Hiruzen’s inaction, and ten percent with Sakumo’s uncharacteristic fragility—he had been broken by rumor without seeking advice, choosing suicide as his final act. Sakumo’s death marked a turning point for Konoha’s descent.
Losing such a pillar triggered a cascade of losses. Tsunade’s hemophobia became unbearable, Orochimaru defected, Jiraiya left on his journey, and the Fourth Hokage died young. The new generation of leadership had been nearly wiped out. The village was being propped up by elderly veterans—a bleak image that Torifu had sighed at more than once.
If only Sakumo had not died. Even with Tsunade’s trauma, having Sakumo as a seasoned fighter during the Third Shinobi War could have prevented much bloodshed. Konoha might have won without needing to make concessions to the Land of Earth. Forced into concession, they felt like losers instead of winners. It filled Torifu with disappointment toward Hiruzen and Danzō.
"Kakashi Hatake does indeed have one Sharingan," Rēn stated. "But honestly, even the Uchiha cannot be certain that no other Sharingan were lost. Many clan members died without their bodies recovered. We need to investigate further to ensure we identify the intruder correctly."
Rēn was confident the intruder was Kakashi. Obito also had one Sharingan, but Obito had controlled the Nine-Tails. His genjutsu would never have been so crude. And if it were Obito, he would not have left survivors. Kakashi’s care for the prisoners, combined with the rough genjutsu application, made more sense than Obito’s involvement.
Still, what he thought and what he said were not the same. Whether Hiruzen died at the hands of Jūzō Biwa or Kakashi did not matter, what mattered was that he must die. Until the matter was resolved, Rēn’s job was to buy time and prevent interference with the ongoing battle.
"That’s a valid point," Hiashi added. "They saw only one Sharingan. Concluding it was Kakashi without more evidence might be hasty. To avoid falsely accusing someone, we should investigate thoroughly. Hokage-sama, your thoughts?"
Hiashi nodded in agreement with Rēn and looked to Torifu for confirmation. Torifu only shook his head; he had no strong objections to Kakashi’s possible revenge.
"A delayed vengeance, perhaps?" Torifu paused before responding, "In that case, let’s investigate properly."
With that, everyone’s attention returned to the corpse in the cell. As for whether Kakashi could have faced Hiruzen in battle, that remained open to debate. Hiruzen’s strength was undoubted. He was able to make Danzō obediently act as his pawn—did anyone really think Danzō did it willingly? It was because he couldn’t defeat him that Danzō was able to be kept in check and follow Hiruzen’s orders.
Kakashi, on the other hand, wasn’t weak either. He achieved jōnin status at twelve and was now nineteen, he could hold his own against Hiruzen. It wouldn’t be a one-sided defeat.
And if Kakashi did die, it could have been spun as Hiruzen murdering the son of the White Fang. That would have severely damaged Hiruzen’s reputation. Many elders who had lamented Sakumo’s death would sympathize deeply. Although Kakashi seemed friendless, his legacy still moved many of his generation.
