Naruto Online: Hyuga Branch Family? Let's go all out!

Chapter 131 Information Cocoon

Time flies, the years are like a shuttle.

In the blink of an eye, two years have passed.

In April of Konoha Year 43, Kakashi passed his graduation exam and became a proud genin at the age of five.

The following year, in February of Konoha 44, he passed the Chunin Exams and became a Chunin.

From then on, Kakashi replaced Orochimaru as the representative figure and even the benchmark of the new generation of geniuses in Konoha Village.

If you can't even graduate at five and become a Chunin at six, what kind of Chunin are you?

However, Kakashi's brilliance strengthened Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo's resolve to frame Sakumo Hatake.

The logic is simple: even if you, Sakumo Hatake, are awesome, the Hatake clan is a small clan with a small population. At worst, you can sit on the Hokage position for a while, and the next generation can take it back!

Politics is the art of compromise. In any case, apart from the Security Department, all the major departments of Konoha Village are controlled by Sarutobi and Shimura. Even if you, Hatake Sakumo, come to power, you have no one to replace him if you want to.

But things are different now; your son is too dazzling!

My son is not only exceptionally intelligent, but also incredibly strong. What is this? He's definitely a potential Hokage!

The appearance of such an outstanding son will make the ninja clans and genius commoner ninjas, who were originally in a state of wavering, firmly choose to follow Hatake Sakumo.

The logic is simple: by following Sakumo Hatake, you can at least guarantee that you've chosen the right side twice!

Furthermore, the small size of the Hatake Sakumo family meant that it was easier for Hiruzen Sarutobi to control them, but it was also an advantage for others, because no matter how much nepotism Hatake Sakumo practiced, he only had one son.

More spots will always be made available!

Unlike Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had many family members and even more clansmen, he wished he could send all of Sarutobi's dogs to Konoha to eat royal food.

From this perspective, both ninja clans and commoners would want Sakumo Hatake to take over!

So, less than an hour after Kakashi Hatake was promoted to Chunin, Danzo had already stormed into the Hokage's office.

At this moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi was wearing glasses and flipping through a book.

For some reason, the Land of Fire has changed its books to horizontal layout in the last two years, and the print is also very small.

Hiruzen Sarutobi initially found reading this kind of book a bit difficult, but after an eyeglasses merchant gave him a pair of glasses, it became much easier.

"What's the rush?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked irritably, "You didn't even knock before coming in!"

"Why are you knocking at a time like this?" Danzo's tone was even angrier. "That kid from the Hatake clan has been promoted to Chunin? Didn't I tell you to keep him in check?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi rolled his eyes: "You think he's a lump of dough, someone you can just press down on as you please? There wasn't a single person in the entire exam hall who could beat him. He even got a perfect score on the theory exam without cheating!"

Danzo was speechless.

If he cheats, no matter how clever his methods are, the Hokage has a reason to expel him.

But what if they don't cheat and rely solely on their abilities?

Hiruzen Sarutobi also felt a headache facing the father-son duo of Sakumo Hatake and Kakashi Hatake.

Attacking a person can be done from two angles: righteousness and personal morality. However, Hatake Sakumo has made countless contributions and never failed a mission. He even killed an important figure from an enemy village on the battlefield.

This important figure might even be the next Kazekage!

His prestige is too great!

In terms of personal morality, Sakumo Hatake was neither greedy for money nor lustful, and was even extremely loyal to his family, never remarrying even after his wife had died.

He also deeply loved and respected his subordinates and liked to mentor newcomers. Even someone like Might Guy, who wasn't well-regarded by the entire village, was praised without reservation.

This is practically a moral saint!

Okay, you're a saint, you're invincible, so how about I attack your son?

Maybe he's a spoiled brat?

As a result, Kakashi graduated at the age of five and became a Chunin at the age of six, making him a genius among geniuses!

Under the brilliance of a genius, no one cares if he's a spoiled brat, because this is Konoha Village, and everyone here is powerful!

Besides, Kakashi isn't one yet!

"Are we just going to watch the Hatake clan rise to power?" Danzo said coldly. "They're just a fallen samurai family, fortunate enough to have been given a surname by the First Hokage. Just because they've done a little good, they think they can be on equal footing with us?"

Danzo's hostility towards Hatake Sakumo also stemmed from the fact that they were not from the same circle.

The Sarutobi family and the Shimura family, aren't they both families that have been passed down for hundreds of years?

Where's the flag?

To put it nicely, it was a small family; to put it bluntly, it was a group of down-on-their-luck individuals who couldn't make it as samurai and had switched to being ninjas.

Why should you catch up with the efforts of our family over generations in just ten years?

"Don't say that!" Hiruzen Sarutobi slammed his fist on the table. "This is Konoha's era now. Stop using your old ways of thinking. If a young person has talent, we should give him a chance!"

"Give you another chance?" Danzo said irritably, "If I give you another chance, I'll have to give up the Hokage position!"

It's fine if you give up your seat, but give it to me!

"Being Hokage isn't easy!" Hiruzen Sarutobi said wistfully. "Back then, I also went through a life-or-death ordeal. Now, it's his turn!"

When the topic of trials came up, Danzo's features immediately contorted.

I wanted to speak too, but he beat me to it!

Ugh! You damn bastard, you're bringing this up again.

But now is not the time to think about these things. Let's take down Sakumo Hatake, our competitor, first.

"Leave this to me, I'll definitely handle him perfectly!" Danzo said quickly.

Hiruzen Sarutobi smirked. See? He didn't even need to say a word; Danzo jumped right in.

"It's a test, not a solution!" Hiruzen Sarutobi reminded him.

"I understand!" Danzo nodded nonchalantly, then turned and went back to make the arrangements.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, on the other hand, settled down to read his book.

With Danzo involved, Sakumo Hatake probably won't have a chance to become Hokage again.

I wonder what methods Danzo will use to deal with Hatake Sakumo. I'm really looking forward to it!

Unbeknownst to him, his conversation with Danzo was instantly transmitted to a building not far from the Hokage's office building.

This place is the Konoha Intelligence Department. A ninja watches as lines of text automatically emerge from the pages of a book. Once a page is full, he doesn't need to do anything; the page will automatically push out under the machine's operation, and then the next page will begin writing.

Once they reach a certain thickness, they are bound together and then handed over to a higher-level intelligence organization.

This is a device combining mechanics, sealing techniques, spells, paper magic, ink magic, and sound magic, called an automatic scribe.

This machine is widely used in all levels of Ning's organization; whenever there is a meeting, it must be recorded by the automatic recorder.

It's not to prevent human recorders from making typos, but because this thing is really convenient.

However, despite the widespread use of such a machine, Hiruzen Sarutobi had never heard of it, let alone seen it.

It's not that he, a third-generation member, is incompetent, but rather that he no longer has any of his own people around him, to the point that he has been surrounded by the information cocoon constructed by the Ning organization!

Information cocoons are a concept that emerged in the Internet age. They refer to the use of big data to analyze a person's gender, preferences, and chat habits, and then push relevant content to them.

Over time, this person becomes trapped in a network world that is only relevant to him. Unless he actively searches for things that are not relevant to him, the network will never push them to him.

The situation with Hiruzen Sarutobi is similar.

He has a good habit of keeping a file of all the task sheets and work orders he has annotated.

This is something any long-established ninja clan would do, because their descendants rely on these archives to draw nourishment and knowledge.

Why are the descendants of politicians more likely to become politicians themselves? They are influenced by their surroundings from a young age, so how could it not be easy for them?

However, these archives also made it easier for Ningyuan to build an information cocoon for them.

By analyzing all of Hiruzen Sarutobi's past annotations, one can understand Hiruzen Sarutobi's language, word choice, personality, and reaction habits. Then, when faced with another situation, even if Hiruzen Sarutobi hasn't looked at them, Ning Yuan already knows how he will handle it.

By analyzing all the missions Konoha has received in the 42 years since its founding, we can summarize all the types of missions Konoha has received.

Many of these missions ceased to exist after the Ning organization took control of the Land of Fire, such as bandit suppression missions and escort missions.

The bandits have all been wiped out by Ning's organization, so why would there be any need for bandit suppression or escort?

However, in order to avoid arousing suspicion from Hiruzen Sarutobi, Ning Yuan still used the vast manpower and resources of the Land of Fire to fabricate a large number of related missions to deal with Konoha Village.

Is it difficult?

It's actually very difficult. How difficult it is to act alongside thousands of ninjas without letting them see through your act.

But Ning Yuan soon discovered another bug in Konoha Village.

Konoha Village's various missions are all conducted in small teams, which consists of one Chunin and three Genin, or one Jonin and three Genin.

At best, it's just one Jonin and three Chunin.

I deployed four Jonin, and they easily took down this small team.

Just to be on the safe side, we'll deploy eight Jonin!

Actually, you don't need to take them all down. Just taking down the Jonin is enough, because Konoha ninjas are taught from a young age to listen to their captain.

The entire Hidden Leaf Village has only 150 Jonin and 500 Chunin registered ninjas. Through ingeniously designed missions, with Tsunade and Orochimaru in charge, those willing to join the Ning organization are given a cursed seal, while those unwilling are given an even greater cursed seal.

In just one year, all the Konoha ninjas who could go out on missions had joined the Ning organization!

At this point, Konoha Village, and even the Land of Fire, were still in a state of freedom, except that there were too many low-level ninjas and civilians who had little autonomy.

The top ninjas and nobles, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, have all joined Ning's organization.

What Hiruzen Sarutobi sees and hears every day is what the Ning organization wants him to see and hear!

The Ning organization's scheme actually has quite a few flaws. If Hiruzen Sarutobi were to go out and take a walk, he would see that roads are being built, schools are being constructed, and factories are being set up everywhere.

If things get out of hand, they'll probably have to take action against Hiruzen Sarutobi.

That would be pointless.

However, Hiruzen Sarutobi was even more cautious than Ning Yuan, and he would never leave the village unless absolutely necessary, so he would never discover this problem.

(End of this chapter)