Naruto: Starting with Tsunade

Chapter 381 Aokiji's Hardline Stance Against the High-Ranking Officials

Aokiji seized on this linguistic loophole and retorted, "Did you ask the deceased Fourth Hokage and his wife for their opinions before doing this?"

Aokiji's words struck a chord with everyone.

The air was so quiet it seemed to have frozen in time.

Everyone knows what kind of fate awaits those who become Jinchūriki. Even so, the Fourth Hokage and his wife risked their lives to seal the Nine-Tails into their own child, preserving this powerful fighting force for the village.

Because of his selflessness, the villagers should protect Naruto properly, instead of pretending to hide it while the whole village knows, playing the emperor's new clothes game.

The higher-ups might say this is to protect Konoha, but after Aokiji's blunt statement, this argument simply doesn't hold water.

If they really wanted to hide the fact that Naruto was the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, things wouldn't have escalated to this point.

"Putting aside the tight schedule and heavy workload, given the Fourth Hokage's personality, it's unlikely he would choose someone else as the vessel for the Tailed Beast."

"Naruto has the bloodline power of the Uzumaki clan flowing through his veins, and coupled with the burden of being the Hokage, he chose Naruto as the vessel for the Nine-Tails."

"But what kind of fate awaits a Jinchūriki? I think the Fourth Hokage should be very clear about this. No parent doesn't love their child. He probably thought that the village would treat Naruto as the son of a hero because of his sacrifice, so he ultimately chose to seal the Nine-Tails into his son's body without hesitation."

At this point, Aokiji sneered, "But I don't think the Fourth Hokage could have imagined that the village never revealed Naruto's identity, which led to his child suffering inhuman discrimination from a young age."

As Aokiji finished speaking, everyone present looked at the high-ranking officials on the stage, their eyes filled with questions.

If the topic is brought up to this issue, a single wrong answer could severely damage one's political reputation and could even lead to disgrace.

Although Mitokado Enoki and Utatane Koharu are the type to be lazy and incompetent, they have been leaders for so many years, so they still have a certain degree of composure.

Well, they have Hiruzen Sarutobi to clean up their messes.

Danzo remained silent. He had already said something wrong, and he chose not to speak again to avoid saying the same thing again.

Well, he has Hiruzen Sarutobi to clean up his mess.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, his face as impassive as a rock, didn't answer the question directly. Instead, he chuckled and said, "You weren't even in the village back then, how could you know so much?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi said this partly to buy himself time and think of a way to respond to Aokiji's verbal attack.

The other side was implying to everyone present that Aokiji was suspected of manipulating the Nine-Tails back then.

As is well known, there are only two ways to manipulate tailed beasts: Wood Release and Sharingan.

Wood Release has disappeared, so that leaves only the Sharingan.

When Kurama was manipulated, three tomoe appeared on its large eyes. Anyone with eyesight could tell that it was the Sharingan, which was clearly a symptom of Sharingan manipulation.

That's why everyone subconsciously suspected that the Uchiha clan was behind it.

They are either Uchiha from within the village or Uchiha from outside the village.

However, even with the Sharingan, it's not a tailed beast that just any Tom, Dick, or Harry can control.

Controlling a tailed beast requires extremely powerful ocular abilities.

This narrows down the scope, and coincidentally, if one possesses the eye power to control tailed beasts, Aokiji would definitely be one of them.

If Aokiji had died back then, no one would have suspected him. But not only is he alive and well, he's getting younger and younger, which makes it easy for people to speculate.

If you're feeling a bit bolder, you could even imagine that Aokiji might have been possessed and become someone else.

The reasons are all quite valid. The goal was to incite Konoha to start a civil war, which explains Aokiji's disrespect towards the Hokage at the meeting.

If you smear someone, no one will believe anything they say.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart is wicked and deserves to be punished.

Aokiji said calmly, "Back then, on the night of the Nine-Tails, things got so big. Kushina was a member of Mito's clan and inherited the Nine-Tails from her. It's reasonable for me to care about such things."

Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded, acknowledging Aokiji's statement.

"Lord Hokage, you still haven't answered my question."

Aokiji, with a cold and aggressive expression, wanted to see Hiruzen Sarutobi make a fool of himself, so that he could tear off his disguise and reveal his sinister and cunning side.

Facing the gazes of countless eyes, Hiruzen Sarutobi remained calm, slowly closed his eyes for a moment, and sighed, "First of all, I must apologize for what Danzo said earlier."

"To some extent, the village was indeed using Naruto to appease the unsettled emotions within the village."

"How could this be...?"

Upon hearing this, some of the naive ninjas present felt their worldviews were shaken, unable to accept that the village would use children to do such a thing.

Upon hearing the Third Hokage admit to this, Uchiha Inahime and Uchiha Yatsura were secretly delighted. With this stain confirmed, Hiruzen Sarutobi's reign as Hokage was over.

In this way, Lord Aokiji's rise to power became a matter of course.

Aokiji frowned, not so optimistic.

His verification quickly confirmed his suspicions. Hiruzen Sarutobi, unperturbed, said with a dissatisfaction, "However," a transitional word that negated everything before, and continued, "...doing this was just a side effect; the village has other motives for doing it."

Everyone looked at them with suspicion: "Is there something else going on?"

Although he didn't know what the old man was going to say, Aokiji knew it definitely wouldn't develop in a way that would benefit him.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed, "I shouldn't be saying this, but considering that Aokiji has returned and the village's strength has greatly increased, we don't need to worry about being exposed anymore, so I'll explain it."

Aokiji cursed inwardly. Before he had even said anything, Hiruzen Sarutobi had already portrayed himself as a paragon of virtue and righteousness, while Aokiji was being judged by his own petty standards.

Aokiji snorted coldly, wanting to see what Hiruzen Sarutobi would say next to explain his decision not to announce Naruto's order.

Under the watchful eyes of many, Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly spoke, explaining, "This is to test Naruto's potential as a Jinchūriki."

"test?"

The others didn't understand what the discrimination Naruto suffered had to do with the test.

Hiruzen Sarutobi continued:

"First of all, even if the villagers know Naruto's identity, although they won't express it, they will still unconsciously develop prejudice because of fear."

"Such cases do exist. For example, the previous Jinchuriki of Kumogakure, Burubi, was an excellent ninja with a special identity as the cousin of the Fourth Raikage. But even so, the villagers' attitude towards him changed after he became the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki. They viewed him with lust, which made him increasingly exhausted, eventually leading to the Eight-Tails going berserk within him."

"Secondly, letting Naruto know about his time as the Fourth Hokage would create a huge sense of disparity for him from a young age, which would be detrimental to his mental and physical development."

"If we're talking about cases, there are some. For example, Gaara, the youngest son of the Fourth Kazekage, seems to have experienced a sudden outburst of the tailed beast within him due to the huge psychological gap and pressure. As far as I know, he only lost his mother at birth, while Naruto lost both his parents. You can imagine how Naruto ended up like this."

Finally, there was the conscious effort to cultivate Naruto's character from a young age.

There's a saying that children from poor families learn to be independent early, and that applies to Naruto as well.

"People who have nothing are often very strong. It's not that they are born that way, but that the external environment constantly forces them to be strong, to keep moving forward, and to keep growing."

"When he has overcome all the hardships, he will find it to be a very valuable asset in retrospect. The difficulties that did not defeat him will ultimately make him stronger!"

"Only in this way can he have the opportunity to master the power of the Nine-Tails, become a truly perfect Jinchuriki like Killer Bee, the Jinchuriki of the Eight-Tails, inherit the Will of Fire, and protect the village like the previous Kage."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's answer can be described as perfect.

Firstly, it was a powerful counterattack against the fact that the village had been infiltrated by spies and turned into a sieve. After all, other villages had also been infiltrated by Konoha and turned into sieves.

It's not that the village's defense work was inadequate, but rather that some things were simply impossible to guard against.

Secondly, it perfectly explains why the village treated Naruto this way, even providing two examples that are logical and convincing.

Thirdly, he also revealed his intention to train Naruto to become Hokage.

To be honest, if Aokiji hadn't been tricked by Hiruzen Sarutobi before, even he would have almost believed those words.

If Aokiji is like this, then the others are self-evident.

At this moment, the way the ninjas below looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi changed.

Alright, that's all I have to say. The truth is out.

Aokiji was dissatisfied with the suppression of the Uchiha by the higher-ups, so he took the lead in challenging the higher-ups on behalf of the Uchiha clan.

Everyone present felt extremely guilty and remorseful about this.

Just now, they actually doubted the Third Hokage, who had devoted himself to the village, and the well-intentioned higher-ups, but easily believed Aokiji, who had only recently returned to the village.

It was precisely because of this self-blame that those who were already prejudiced against the Uchiha clan viewed them with even more prejudice.

Seeing the doubtful looks in everyone's eyes, Uchiha Yatsushiro and Uchiha Inahime cursed inwardly.

Neither of them could have imagined that things would develop in this way.

The situation was developing in a completely favorable direction, and Danzo couldn't sit still any longer. He added fuel to the fire, determined to completely isolate the Uchiha clan: "Aokiji, you need to know that not everyone is born with the Sharingan like you, making it easier for them to control the tailed beasts."

"For an ordinary person to control the power of a tailed beast is as difficult as ascending to heaven. Under normal circumstances, once someone becomes a Jinchūriki, the tailed beast will accompany them for life unless they die. The village has put a lot of effort into making Naruto a perfect Jinchūriki."

This statement is a sarcastic jab at Aokiji for being able to become a perfect Jinchuriki, suggesting that he is simply lucky to possess the Sharingan, thus placing Aokiji in opposition to ordinary ninjas.

At the same time, it also serves as a hint to everyone about Aokiji's current physical condition.

It's important to know that when a Jinchuriki dies, the Tailed Beast also dies, and it takes a long time for it to revive. The Five-Tails is an example of this; currently, the Five-Tails' Jinchuriki is someone else.

In other words, Aokiji is definitely dead, or at least physically dead once.

Who knows if the Aokiji standing before everyone now is the real Aokiji?

After arousing such suspicion, no one will believe anything Aokiji says afterward; they will only think he has ulterior motives.

Aokiji was careless; he never expected that this bug would allow the old man to perfectly cover it up.

No wonder he's a politician; he's got a silver tongue. He can turn black into white and white into black.

His expression briefly turned displeased before returning to a relaxed demeanor.

Well, never mind...

It would be pointless to trip up these old folks so easily.

Strength is the most powerful language.

With his formidable martial prowess, Aokiji possesses absolute confidence.

The worst outcome would be nothing more than flipping the table like a crow.

hum...