chsdbacks Chapter 33: It was all Danzo Shimura's doing.
Chapter 33: It was all Danzo Shimura's doing.
The first ray of sunlight pierced through the clouds in front of the Konoha gate, shrouded in morning mist.
The Chunin guarding the gate suddenly gripped the kunai in his hand tightly.
"What...what is that?"
On the horizon, a long, black dragon was slowly crawling towards the village.
As they drew closer, the clattering of the metal stretchers grew clearer, mingled with suppressed sobs.
"Open the city gates!" Uchiha's hoarse, medicinal roar pierced the morning mist.
When the first stretcher passed through the city gate, the villagers watching collectively gasped in shock.
On the stretcher was a boy who looked only seven or eight years old, his pale face frozen in terror. There was a diamond-shaped wound on his throat, clearly caused by a kunai, a specialty of Kirigakure.
There were 884 similar corpses, and you couldn't see the end of them at a glance.
"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!" Uchiha Yakumi left bloody footprints on the ground with every step he took.
The bodies on the stretchers were not covered with sheets, allowing those around to clearly see the children's injuries.
As the procession reached the commercial street, a woman carrying a baby suddenly rushed out of the crowd.
"Xiao Wu! That's Xiao Wu!"
She lunged frantically at stretcher number 147, on which lay a child with a charred hole in the left chest, clearly pierced by a fire-style technique. The woman's trembling fingers traced the child's stiff cheek.
"He just turned eight, not long ago..." The woman's wailing suddenly stopped, and she collapsed beside the stretcher like a puppet with its strings cut.
At noon, the ninja academy's training grounds turned into an open-air morgue.
When the last body was placed in the ninja academy's training ground, the ground was filled with the corpses of children.
The parents around were already sobbing uncontrollably...
A one-armed ninja knelt before body number 326, his trembling hands turning the pages of a blood-stained diary.
The last page was dated three days ago, and the words were written in crooked handwriting: "Another friend died today. I'm so scared. Daddy, Daddy, I want to go home..."
Blood suddenly gushed from the one-armed ninja's single eye, and he frantically tore at his hair, shouting, "My son is only nine years old! Nine years old!"
......
The protest in front of the Hokage Building has turned into a riot.
Stones, rotten vegetable leaves, and rotten eggs were constantly thrown at the building. Finally, the glass on the fifth floor could not withstand the heavy impact and shattered into dust with a crash.
Koharu Utatane's right cheek was cut by a shard of metal, and she wiped the blood from her face with trembling fingers: "This...this is insane..."
"Hiruzen Sarutobi! Come out here!"
"Murderer!"
"Give me back my daughter's life!"
The angry crowd completely surrounded the Hokage Building, and some members of the Anbu had already fled upon seeing this.
Mitokado wiped the cold sweat from his forehead: "We must take immediate action..."
His words were interrupted by a loud crash as the gates of the Hokage Building were smashed open, and hundreds of villagers rushed in. Leading them was the one-armed Chunin who had lost his son.
Hatred burned in the chunin's single eye: "Where is he? Where is that old bastard who ordered the children to their deaths?"
Since the Hokage's office had been vandalized by angry villagers, Hiruzen Sarutobi and his men had no choice but to hide in the underground office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat alone in the darkness, a framed photo of him with his three disciples on the table.
Jiraiya's cheerful smile, Orochimaru's gloomy eyes, Tsunade's proud expression...
"Sarutobi, what are you waiting for? The Uchiha are stirring up this chaos!"
Danzo Shimura emerged from the shadows, the bandage around his right eye particularly glaring.
Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly raised his head: "Those children... I..."
Danzo Shimura slammed his fist on the table: "Weakness! Now is not the time for repentance! Root is ready, just give the order..."
The third generation leader suddenly stood up, his weariness replaced by determination: "No, I will take responsibility for the mistakes I made."
He removed the Hokage hat and gently placed it on the table: "Tomorrow, I will publicly announce my resignation from the position of Hokage."
Danzo Shimura narrowed his one eye slightly: "Are you insane? Abdicating now would be exactly what the Uchiha want!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi gazed at the moonlight outside the window: "Perhaps, but it's the only way to quell my anger."
Suddenly, a female ANBU appeared and whispered a few words to Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Seeing Hiruzen Sarutobi nod, the female ANBU waved her hand, and three ANBU members instantly appeared and surrounded Danzo Shimura.
"Sarutobi, what are you trying to do?"
The Third Hokage's voice was hoarse: "Danzo, someone needs to take responsibility for this. I'm just asking you to make a small sacrifice; you'll be fine."
Danzo Shimura and Hiruzen Sarutobi grew up together, and Danzo immediately guessed what Hiruzen Sarutobi was planning.
"Sarutobi, you can't do this..."
"Danzo, I am the Hokage!"
Upon hearing these words, Shimura Danzo seemed to lose all his strength.
"Sarutobi, you'll regret this..."
Seeing this, the four ANBU rushed forward, grabbed Shimura Danzo, and forcibly gagged him.
A notice was posted on the Hokage bulletin board: "The proposals and actions regarding sending students who graduated early and sending children to the Hidden Mist battlefield were all suggested and implemented by Danzo Shimura. Due to the special circumstances, the Hokage Building is issuing this notice regarding the contents of the meeting that day."
Attendees: The Third Hokage, Danzo Shimura, Koharu Koharu, and Mito Monobu
Topic: Countermeasures against Fog Intrusion
Event: On November 4th, the three thousand Hidden Mist ninjas broke through the southern coastal defense line and are advancing into the heart of the Land of Fire.
Xiaochun, who was turning over a new bed, suggested, "The front lines are in dire need of reinforcements; we must send reinforcements immediately."
Mitokado Homura adjusted his glasses: "But the regular troops are all on the Iwagakure front, the Kumogakure front, the Sunagakure front..."
Danzo Shimura's one eye gleamed in the shadows: "Just take more than 1000 people from the ninja clans of Konoha and select another 2000 from the children of the Ninja Academy, and that will be enough."
The third generation's hand suddenly trembled, and the pipe fell to the table with a "clatter".
"Danzo, are you insane? Those children don't even know the Three Bodies Technique..."
Danzo Shimura sneered, "Foolish, pedantic, Sarutobi, a merciful general cannot command troops. We need someone to hold them off. If we allow these Kirigakure ninjas to advance unimpeded... the consequences will be unimaginable..."
Hiruzen Sarutobi angrily rebuked, "Danzo... children are the future of the village... how could you do this!"
Danzo Shimura said expressionlessly, "Since you're too scared to do it, then let me do it. I'll take full responsibility!"
After saying that, Danzo Shimura slammed the door and left.
After hearing that the early graduation was orchestrated by Danzo Shimura, the angry villagers, unable to find him, began looting and vandalizing the Shimura family's shops...
More than a dozen members of the Shimura family were even beaten to death in the street, scaring many Shimura clan members into not daring to leave their clan territory...