The First Thing That Will Happen

"So you're saying,"

Tsunade sat on the tatami mat in the living room, pouring tea for Sahara Mizu and Hatake Sakumo across the wooden table with one hand. She pushed the cups towards them and looked up at the two.

"We don't need to keep talking with them anymore?"

It wasn't just Tsunade; Hatake Sakumo on the other side also turned to look at the young man.

The tea leaves floating in the cups stirred with the rising steam, creating ripples as they swayed.

Sahara Mizu picked up his tea cup and smiled gently:

"Precisely."

"Bang!"

Tsunade's fair, slender hand slammed onto the table with a dull thud, causing the solid wood surface to dent. She stared intently at the young man in front of her.

"Mizu-kun, you must know how determined I was to do this, right?"

"Do you know what you're saying?"

"If no one can stop those parasites, do you know what they'll turn the village into?"

"Corruption, espionage, military funds, intelligence..."

"This is wartime!"

Perhaps it was because the anger she had bottled up, unable to unleash it on the Konoha F3, was forcibly cut short.

Now, Tsunade glared fiercely at Sahara Mizu's face, her expression tight, her voice steadily rising, gritting her teeth.

She was incredibly angry right now.

However, Sahara Mizu seemed oblivious to her emotions, picking up his tea cup and taking a sip.

"Tsunade-sama."

"You don't really care about these things, do you?"

"It's not like they just started doing this yesterday."

"No."

Looking up, Sahara Mizu met her eyes.

"To be precise, compared to 'avenging Kato Dan,' these minor details aren't that important to you, are they?"

As he spoke, his expression was indifferent and composed. With a steady demeanor, he rationally dissected the reality, tearing away the superficial pretense, leaving Tsunade momentarily unable to adapt.

"..."

"Yes, so what!"

After a pause, she slammed the table again, throwing caution to the wind, and looked at him with red eyes.

"I just want revenge on those rotten bastards! Do you have a problem with that?"

"No, why would I have a problem?"

Seeing her agitated state, Sahara Mizu's smile became even gentler.

He pointed to Hatake Sakumo beside him, then pointed to himself:

"It's not just you, Tsunade-sama. Sakumo-sensei and I are also here for our own selfish reasons – we both want to protect ourselves in this storm."

"For that, it's easier to communicate if we are open with each other first, isn't it?"

Tsunade was startled by his words and turned to look at Hatake Sakumo, who was drinking tea beside her.

"Just listen to him," Hatake Sakumo waved at her. "Don't let his young age fool you, this kid is full of tricks. He's very capable."

On the way here, he had deeply experienced it through Sahara Mizu's seemingly understated few words.

Sahara Mizu smiled sheepishly:

"Sakumo-sensei is too kind."

Tsunade's eyes twitched at the sight.

Who's praising you?

However, recalling the amazing things Sahara Mizu had shown her before, Tsunade couldn't help but feel a glimmer of hope.

"So, since we're not talking, what do we do next?"

"Are we going to just storm into Root and the Hokage Building to check the accounts?"

Sahara Mizu put down his teacup and looked at the two seriously: "Such an absurd thing is, of course, impossible."

"To be blunt, the goal you set at the very beginning, 'forcing the Elder Council to resign through corruption inquiries,' was inherently unrealistic – how can you make the referee on the field give himself a red card?"

Hearing this, Tsunade was taken aback.

Hatake Sakumo showed a thoughtful expression, his brows furrowed.

Sahara Mizu continued: "It's been three days since you returned to the village and formally proposed the 'Inquiry into the Corruption and Espionage of the Konoha Elder Council' motion at the full Jonin meeting."

"At the same time, rumors about 'Tsunade-sama demanding an investigation into the corruption of all Konoha higher-ups' have also spread for three days throughout the village. During this process, you weren't able to take any action to counter it, and you didn't even notice the public opinion starting to fester in the streets and alleys."

"As the head of the Senju Clan, one of the founding families of the village and the inheritors of the glory of two Hokage, if you, Lady Tsunade, were merely named in the incredibly righteous-sounding rumor I just mentioned, no villager in all of Konoha would raise any objection."

"Do you know what that means?"

Tsunade glared at him, teeth clenched, and retorted, "I was clearly questioning the 'Council of Elders,' when did I ever address the entire upper echelon—"

"I know, and you know, but that's not important."

Sahara Mizu cut her off and continued, "What's important is that they've already prepared the public opinion."

Tsunade's voice involuntarily stopped. Her slender hand resting on the wooden table suddenly clenched tightly, her skin stretched and pale.

"Now, I will tell you what is about to happen in the village after they have finished preparing public opinion."

Sahara Mizu's voice was calm and indifferent, carrying a mechanical coldness as he held up a finger towards her. "First, they will use a large amount of 'punish corruption' rhetoric to cover up the actions currently underway."

"Then, they will choose a suitable breakthrough point, taking advantage of this opportunity."

"They will first use a seemingly insignificant matter that could potentially affect everyone as a fulcrum for public opinion, artificially exaggerating its harmfulness and adding a pile of baseless accusations."

He spoke eloquently as if he had witnessed similar events countless times, as if he had traveled through time and seen it all with his own eyes, even selecting the process and the roles.

"This breakthrough point is best suited to a Ninja Clan that is neither high nor low among Konoha's upper ranks, lacks strong backing, and whose population and economic scale are around the middle level."

"Counting through all of Konoha, the candidates would be families like the Inuzuka, Aburame, Kurama, and a few others."

"In terms of scale, the Inuzuka are the most likely fit."

"Have you heard?"

"An Inuzuka family's Summoning Dog, while delivering a message on the battlefield, suddenly lost control."

"That can't be true, can it? They are a clan of professional dog trainers. A Summoning Dog that can take commands and understand human speech costs hundreds of thousands of ryo."

"It's true! It was my third uncle's daughter-in-law's cousin's sister; when she was fighting with the Summoning Dog, it suddenly bit her leg. That dog couldn't even distinguish between friend and foe anymore."

"Ah! If the camp hadn't been right behind her, she would have been killed by the Hidden Sand ninja."

"I heard about it too, I heard about it too!"

"The veterinarian on the front lines said that dead dog meat and brains were added to the pet food, and all the Summoning Dogs that ate that food got sick."

"They look fine normally, but once they see blood, they go crazy immediately."

"Is that true or false?"

One person told two, two told three, and three became a tiger (a lie spread widely becomes believed as truth).

Rumors that were obviously nonsense quickly became the 'truth' circulating only underground and among the common people as they accumulated in number.

Initially, these words were only spread by ordinary people, and the Inuzuka clan didn't pay much attention.

But ordinary people had to live around ninja, and interpersonal communication would naturally carry these invisible rumors into the ninja community.

By this time, it was impossible to trace the source of the rumors.

Not only that.

The Uchiha Police Force, which had received a report from the Inuzuka clan and chose to implement large-scale rumor blockades and source investigations, instead caused those who weren't paying much attention to these rumors to develop a slight curiosity about these 'truths'.

In less than a week, more and more people began to 'speculate' the truth behind the rumor that 'an Inuzuka clan Summoning Dog went crazy'.

From the Summoning Dog eating sick dog meat, it went to the grain feed money being embezzled;

Then someone said that the Inuzuka clan had always used inferior grain for feed, and someone else heard that to save on feed costs, the Inuzuka clan made an underground deal with the Konoha Grain Company;

After that, everyone started spreading the rumor that the Inuzuka clan, leveraging their members' connections, were manipulating things within Konoha's food department, and that not only was the food problematic, but the previous sick dogs had also died from the misuse of medication;

Finally, everyone knew that the Inuzuka clan head wielded immense power and was heavily corrupt across Konoha's food and medical fields.

More and more 'truths' were constantly emerging, and an endless stream of 'facts' were being spread by everyone. People worried about problems in their lives launched waves of accusations.

All of this happened in a short period that many Ninja Clans didn't even notice.

"Hah..."

Black Jade Maru, a slender dog, lay on the edge of the store entrance with his two paws stretched out, basking in the sun and letting out a long yawn.

He looked at the empty street in front of his store and tilted his head, quite puzzled.

Although not many people usually wandered around here, their ninja dog food was quite popular, and occasionally three or two ninja dogs would drag their owners back to buy some to try.

But for some reason, there hasn't been a soul on the entire street for the past two days. The store's income was low, which meant he wasn't eating well.

Last night, he didn't even get to eat braised pork at home.

"Annoying."

Black Jade Maru mumbled softly, lying on the ground.

Just as he was thinking, his ears suddenly perked up, catching the sound of footsteps from a distance.

He sniffed carefully with his sensitive nose and his eyes immediately lit up.

There must be at least a dozen people, right?

What a big piece of business.

Thinking this, he immediately stood up and quickly trotted out the door to try to drum up business:

"Customers! Customers!"

"Black Bear Ninja Dog Food Store is 20% off today! We have all flavors: white meat, red meat, Hidden Cloud beef. Bring your own dog to try them out!"

However, before it could finish its advertising slogan, it saw the entire team of fully armed figures dressed as Anbu kick open the door of the house at the very end of the street and shout:

"Inuzuka Gentai, Clan Head!"

"Wait! Who are you?" The poor Clan Head clearly hadn't reacted yet. "I haven't received an investigation order from the Hokage's direct Anbu."

But the ninja dressed as Anbu in the lead clearly didn't intend to pay attention to him and instead shouted loudly:

"According to the temporary proposal for the 'Wartime Special Investigation Ordinance' put forward by Tsunade-sama last week, and reports from multiple Konoha ninjas and residents, there are suspected cases of large-scale grain smuggling, illegal medicine smuggling, malicious competition, and illegal summoning animals within your Ninja Clan!"

"Please come with us immediately!"

"Wait a minute! I've bled for Konoha, I've made contributions for Konoha."

"You, you guys—!"

Black Jade Maru stood at the entrance, cleverly sticking out half its body, and watched with wide eyes as the kind old Clan Head was dragged out the door by a group of people dressed as Anbu.

It immediately tucked in its privates and tail.

It's over, no meat tonight either.

This chapter is 3k words, I wrote a little extra, and I just finished writing it now.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone!