From undercover in Konoha, to I am the Hokage!

Chapter 45: The Heart of the People (5k)

The mahjong hall riot that day seemed to be just the beginning.

Since that day, more and more people gathered in this deserted village, but were promptly dispersed by the Anbu and Uchiha Guards who were under strict surveillance.

However, both the civilians and the ordinary ninjas of civilian origin seemed to have lost their fear of the once-famous Anbu and others, and the sounds of gathering and conflict could be heard in the village almost every day.

"boom--"

Looking at the damage report on the table, Sarutobi Hiruzen slammed his fist on the table.

The veins on this middle-aged man's forehead were taut and his expression was extremely serious.

"They are struggling in the front, and there are people struggling in the back."

"How dare you, a disciple, come and cause trouble for me, your teacher?"

This granddaughter of Sensei Tobirama is his most beloved disciple since childhood, no other than him.

However, in Sarutobi Hiruzen's heart, Tsunade was like stabbing him in the back.

Yes.

In Sarutobi Hiruzen's mind, all the organizations that suddenly emerged from every nook and cranny like mushrooms after rain, such as the Disabled Ninja Association, Konoha Renaissance Association, Civilian Ninja Federation, Civilian and Ninja Friendship Association, etc., were just Tsunade's "eye drops" for him.

Since she does not have a direct armed force like the Root, she can only obtain strength from other channels.

At least, that's what Sarutobi Hiruzen thought.

However, in Sarutobi Hiruzen's opinion, Tsunade should never confront him as the Hokage directly, nor should she undermine his dignity as the Hokage with those messy remarks.

The Will of Fire spent more than ten years painstakingly constructing the theoretical foundation. Now you have destroyed these theories in an instant, causing so many people to turn around and follow you. Doesn't that make him seem incompetent as a Hokage?

No matter how excessive what Shimura Danzo did, he did not touch the sphere of influence of himself as the Hokage, right?

As a mature politician, he has a very clear understanding of the rules of the game.

"Humph."

Shimura Danzo, who was sitting next to him, looked at his headache and sneered in a low voice: "Now you finally realize the threat of that stupid woman?"

"I told you, you're going to regret this, Hiruzen."

"Now, the business of several ninja clans is almost unable to continue, so they came to me."

"Tell me, why do you have to do this?"

Shimura Danzo's smile grew more smug.

Beiliuhu's strategy was extremely successful as he implemented it by any means necessary.

In his opinion, both the ninjas and the civilians were people who did not know the difference between respect and inferiority.

If you don't show your strength in front of them, there will always be those blind guys who will suddenly jump out and cause trouble at the critical moment.

As for Tsunade's resistance, it was extremely ridiculous.

What kind of trouble can a few civilian ninjas cause in front of a real strong man?
Hearing his smug laughter, Sarutobi Hiruzen seemed to suddenly realize something, he suddenly raised his head and looked at him, saying coldly:

"Danzo, I advise you to put away those little thoughts."

"Do you think I care about the small matter of a few shops being smashed?"

"laugh."

Shimura Danzo now had the attitude of a complete winner, and sneered disdainfully:
"Don't worry."

"Those few mediocre Chunin-level people won't cause any major problems even on the battlefield."

Just by hearing these words, Sarutobi Hiruzen knew that Danzo had no idea of ​​the seriousness of the problem.

He turned his head and said to his old friend in a low voice: "Have you ever thought about whose interests our so-called Hokage family represents?"

"If Tsunade is supported by those people, then are we still part of the Hokage family?"

"Just relying on those civilian ninjas?" Danzo instinctively felt that this bastard Hiruzen was probably fooling him again.

"It's up to them."

However, Sarutobi Hiruzen's voice was more resolute than ever before: "——So, no matter what, you can't attack those people."

Danzo immediately frowned.

From the perspective of his own interests, he instinctively believed that this was because Sarutobi Hiruzen's prestige had been damaged, and he wanted to forcibly suppress both sides and stop this meaningless fight.

But he was about to win!

The Ninja Clan has sent several representatives to negotiate with him.

You old man, why are you taking sides at a time like this?

What's more, he really felt that Sarutobi Hiruzen was making a big deal out of nothing.

So what if a few civilian ninjas lead a group of civilians in a riot?

Not to mention arresting them, even if they were all killed, who would know in this village where communications were closed?
Every year, the Root's laboratory produces so many orphans to be used as spies and personnel selection, and every year, so many experimental subjects to be used to test ninjutsu. Aren't these all captured by them from the village and surrounding areas?
It's not like Hiruzen didn't know these things.

The more he thought about it, the more Danzo felt that he had been fooled by Hiruzen.

"."

"What if I say 'no'?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at him quietly and said coldly: "Then don't blame me for taking action."

"Huruzen." Danzo wanted to say something out of habit.

But his voice was interrupted by Sarutobi Hiruzen: "Danzo, I am the Hokage!"

He will answer the questions quickly.

"Humph."

Without saying anything, Danzo slammed the door and left.

The more Hiruzen protested, the stronger his belief became.

This time, no one can stop him from winning!

After they left the house, Aburame Ryoma, who had listened to the entire story, asked:
"Master Danzo, what if we face that mob later?"

Shimura Danzo waved his hand nonchalantly:
"Business as usual."

"My subordinate understands."

"."

In the room, Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at Danzo's back, and thought of his own disciple's behavior of digging for his roots, and his heart became heavier.

Finally, he let out a long sigh.

"There are notices posted in the Hokage building. The reason your store was searched is because of the 'Investigation Order' issued by Lady Tsunade. Your store was searched because you must have evaded taxes!"

"You're talking nonsense! I said it during the speech at the Disabled Association and the Peace Ninja Federation that Lady Tsunade is looking for those big shots - look, it's clearly written in the Konoha Civilian Ninja Newspaper."

"Why are you cursing? Could it be that the notices of the Hokage Building and the Uchiha Guard Department are fake? What's so good about your tabloid?"

“Fake is fake.”

Similar quarrels can be heard in any restaurant on the street.

However, it seemed that because the skylight was opened, various ninja riots raised the psychological threshold of the Uchiha Guard, and quarrels like this that would normally lead to arrests were no longer taken seriously.

Konoha Prison is so small, and there are so many people locked up there recently. Where can we get so much rice to feed them?

The Uchiha ninjas on the eaves had clearly heard it, but at this moment they just pretended nothing had happened and passed by.

"The people of Konoha are the most moderate. If you ask them to drill a window, they will definitely disagree. But if you ask them to tear down the roof, they will quickly come to compromise and agree to drill a window."

Tsunade, who had transformed into another appearance, listened to the noise in the restaurant in secret and drank a cup of tea in silence.

Sawara Kiri's words rang unconsciously in my mind.

During the month of waiting for the effect of public opinion, she was initially very impatient and even a little afraid that the civilian ninjas they had provoked would be suppressed on a large scale, resulting in many people losing their lives.

You know, Konoha is a standard military group. If you make radical remarks in the village, you should be sentenced to death by the Anbu.

However, the consequences that Tsunade worried about did not happen. Instead, the situation developed step by step as Sawara Kiri had indicated.

"If you fight for your rights, they will survive; if you compromise, they will perish."

In the past month, they had only helped some poor ninjas who were disabled in the war. As Mr. Wu said, they had held a "grievance meeting" among themselves.

Somehow, those people suddenly seemed to have changed their appearance, bursting out with a driving force that even Tsunade herself could hardly imagine. They no longer had the difficult and stern expressions as if they were suffering when they first met. They began to speak everywhere like Sawara Kiri, calling on people who were in the same situation as themselves.

In just one month, Konoha had more than a dozen associations of various sizes, and even several more magazines and tabloids.

"But that alone is not enough."

"Just as the establishment of Konoha was the result of years of bloody battles between the Senju and Uchiha clans, the reform of Konoha must also begin with bloodshed and sacrifice."

Tsunade sipped her tea, recalling the firm and even cold expression on Sahara Kiri's face when she said this.

It was as if he had witnessed similar history somewhere before. He had anticipated the current scene when he spoke these words.

"Lady Tsunade, we did evil things and were evil to the victims, but we barely had a good result for the people who came after us." "We are just lice that are attached to this elephant and rush out of this cage with them for survival."

"The pain caused by sucking blood alone provided them with a little motivation to charge forward."

"That is why, if you have the opportunity to lead them forward in the future, please proceed with caution and with a guilty conscience."

Beneath that childish face, the words uttered seemed to be weathered by the vicissitudes of life, with a kind of laughable incongruity.

However, when everything he said came true, it became hard to laugh anymore.

"Wow——!"

Just as Tsunade was thinking this, not far from this remote restaurant, in a Root base disguised as a library, bursts of deafening shouts and speeches suddenly erupted.

In a short while, it turned into a group of civilian ninjas, wailing under the attack of the Root.

Hearing the voice, Tsunade closed her eyes slightly, but her fists on the table clenched tightly until they turned white.

At this moment, this woman who has always been soft-hearted, inexplicably flinched.

If in order to avenge Kato Dan and make insects like Shimura Danzo pay the price, more people must die, then can she really still firmly believe in revenge?

However, things had developed to this point and she had no control over anything anymore.

On the cliff across the street, Sawara Kiri opened her azure eyes that were as bright as stars and looked silently at the corpses scattered on the ground in front of the Root stronghold.

He is helpless. Due to the reality that the time for public opinion propaganda and mobilization is too short, every steadfast person among the few people he has organized is extremely important and cannot be wasted.

Therefore, this group of people were all the death warriors he borrowed from Goju Yagura.

but it does not matter.

After these people die, no one will care whether they were civilians or spies.

All Konoha needs to know is that this organization called 'Root' indiscriminately killed seventeen people in one go simply because they gave a speech in the library.

that's enough.

To put the blame on someone, we must put the blame on whoever deserves it.

Just like that, when Danzo Shimura and Hiruzen Sarutobi were still confused.

After a full month and a half of preparation, countless shocks and speeches have raised the threshold.

An unprecedented rally of tens of thousands of people that engulfed the entire Konoha Village finally began in front of the main entrance of the Hokage Building at noon the next day.

Before the speech, everyone waited quietly in front of the Hokage Building, blocking the street entrance.

In front of the Hokage Building, the Anbu members who encountered this situation for the first time stood in front of the door as if they were facing a powerful enemy, looking at the people gathered here in cold sweat.

If something really happens here, should they take action or not?
The Sandaime-sama didn't give any orders.
Sarutobi Hiruzen was standing in the Hokage's office on the fourth floor, looking out the floor-to-ceiling window at the endless crowd of people gathering at the street corner. He didn't even hold the pipe that he always carried with him, and his expression was extremely gloomy.

The worst outcome he had anticipated occurred.

at the same time.

Tsunade, Sahara Kiri and Hatake Sakumo stood behind a makeshift podium.

Taking advantage of this time, I lowered my head and whispered.

"Lady Tsunade, have you memorized the manuscript?"

"It's just that little bit of stuff. I can memorize it after just a few glances. But what you wrote, is it really useful?"

"You just have to speak, and you can win if you speak."

"What about these people? Are they all the people you found?"

"No, they'll follow whoever wins."

"Then you let me"

The tiny noise did not reach the even more noisy crowd in front of them.

Until the very end, when Tsunade, Sahara Kiri, and Hatake Sakumo walked onto the makeshift podium, the crowd below did not quiet down.

Most of them were not that enthusiastic. They just heard that someone was killed for giving a speech and followed on impulse. Some simply saw that since there were too many people, the law would not hold everyone responsible, so they also wanted to follow to see what the excitement was.

However, somehow.

When they looked into the deep blue eyes of the particularly young man on the stage and saw him whisper something, they suddenly felt a strong sense of sadness and grief for no reason, as if they were "infected" by his emotions.

Gradually, the people below calmed down.

Under the solemn response of the crowd, even Tsunade, who was originally worried, couldn't help but calm down.

The atmosphere was disturbed by the collective reaction.

Guided by this atmosphere, Tsunade, who was already soft-hearted and sentimental, looked at everyone and almost naturally shouted out the speech she had memorized by heart:
"You have probably all heard about the conflict between me and the Council of Advisory Elders at the Jonin Conference from the newspapers."

"We have always known that the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, was stripped of his power by the advisory elders who were also disciples of the Second Hokage because of trust."

"But I still couldn't have anticipated that something like this would happen."

"I just found out this morning that there was a civilian ninja giving a speech in the library yesterday. As soon as I opened my eyes, I received the bad news that the Root had actually unleashed a large-scale ninjutsu, killing and injuring dozens of people, and Ida-kun from the Disabled Association was among the victims."

"But I am actually quite skeptical about these legends."

"I have always assumed the worst of the Council of Elders, but I never expected or believed they would be so despicable and cruel."

"But it was proved today, and the evidence was his own body. There was another body, which belonged to Mr. Tajima."

"."

In this solemn and sorrowful speech, as well as the hypnotic effect brought by the insignificant illusion, the group standing at the street corner all listened quietly to Lady Tsunade's speech and looked up at her.

In fact, Konoha is very small, with only a few hundred thousand people in total.

For more than a month, various associations have been active everywhere. How could the old people of Konoha, who have lived here all year round and have a rich network of relationships, not know what has happened in the village in the past month?

The war was still going on at the frontline, but there were reports of high-level corruption in the rear, which were then passed off as misunderstandings and rumors.
All kinds of confusing information are mixed into a mess that is difficult to distinguish.

In the end, everything drove them to try to listen to how Tsunade, the head of the Senju clan and one of Konoha's high-ranking officials, would explain herself in public.

Therefore, Tsunade, who chose to stand in front of everyone, unknowingly took control of the right to interpret.

All those who had no choice listened quietly.

In fact, they are not the only ones who choose to listen.

Sarutobi Hiruzen in the Hokage Building was listening, the Anbu who were blocking the door to prevent a riot were listening, the many ninjas standing on the eaves were listening, and the ninja leaders who were mixed in the crowd were also listening.

Even Danzo Shimura, who was said to be the culprit of everything, was listening.

However, his expression was not so calm.

Danzo Shimura stood on the eaves of a house in the distance, staring in amazement at the scene at the street corner. A look of confusion could not help but flash across his one eye, and his whole body inexplicably felt cold.

Liver and gallbladder split.

The cold sweat that kept oozing out almost soaked his entire back.

'What is she going to do?'

"What on earth is Tsunade going to do?!"

On the contrary, Orochimaru, who was standing on the other side, frowned slightly and listened to his classmate's speech with great interest. Thinking back on the various signs over the past month, he seemed to suddenly understand something.

However, he knew Tsunade very well.

Orochimaru knew very well that the woman did not have such understanding, innovation and skills.

Naturally, his snake-like eyes turned to the young man standing next to Tsunade.

As for the speech itself, there is not much to say.

Even Orochimaru, who doesn't understand human nature, can see it.

From the moment Tsunade created the 'need to gather these people here', she had already won, and nothing could be stopped.

"The hearts of the people, right?" Orochimaru murmured in a low voice as he looked at the scene in front of him.

"What an amazing guy."

He wasn't the only one to understand this.

His teacher, Lord Sarutobi Hiruzen, who claimed to be an expert in political tactics, naturally understood this.

At this moment, Sarutobi Hiruzen just sat there condescendingly and listened quietly.

He listened to the voices below change from mourning to excitement and then to enthusiasm.

"Crash-"

Until the end, the dense crowd slowly got rid of the sad atmosphere and gradually broke into deafening shouts and applause.

At that moment, he suddenly understood.

As the Sandaime Hokage, he has completely lost the hearts of some people.

(The Fifth Hokage Tsunade↑)
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(End of this chapter)