The Killer You Want Is Right Here

"Sigh…"

After temporarily appeasing the Cloud Village Delegation, Sarutobi Hiruzen stood up and looked out at the night view of Konoha. He appeared very exhausted.

"Hiruzen, if you ask me, if they want war, let them fight. Konoha isn't a place for the Cloud Village to run wild."

A person with one eye bandaged and a sour expression, as if everyone owed him a million ryo, emerged from the shadows.

"Danzō, Konoha can't afford another war. Besides, those few people are just clowns. The one truly giving me a headache is that Black Shadow that just appeared."

Danzō frowned. He had also heard about the Black Shadow. "Is that Black Shadow really that strange?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen took a puff of his pipe, not answering.

A moment later, just as he was about to speak, there was a knock on the door. Danzō hid in the shadows.

"Come in."

A ninja entered, holding a scroll, and said, "After the Black Shadow disappeared, it appeared in Miss Hyuga's room, killed a petty thief who happened to sneak in, and was then sealed into this scroll by the Hyuga using a sealing jutsu."

"I understand. Thank you for your hard work. You may go."

The ninja left the Hokage's office, and Danzō emerged from the shadows.

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at the scroll placed on the table. The aura within the scroll indeed matched the Black Shadow he had seen.

It must have been difficult for the Hyuga Clan to seal this Black Shadow.

Danzō also frowned as he looked at the scroll. This aura was truly bizarre. Even he, whose hands were stained with blood, felt a tremor of fear. When was the last time he felt this way?

"Something so strange should be handed over to my Root for safekeeping."

Danzō reached out to take the scroll directly.

"Danzō."

"Danzō, this Black Shadow is extremely bizarre; it's not something your Root can just take. Moreover, it killed someone from the Cloud Village."

At this moment, Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura entered, speaking to stop Danzō.

Danzō looked at Sarutobi Hiruzen. Sarutobi Hiruzen remained silent, but he did not agree to Danzō's request.

Danzō snorted coldly and turned to leave.

"We heard about the Cloud Village Delegation. What are your plans?"

Someone from the Cloud Village died in Konoha. Such a major incident couldn't possibly go unnoticed by them.

"This time, when signing the peace treaty, their Cloud Village people already had ulterior motives. If my guess is correct, they intended to use this opportunity to seize the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan."

Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura exchanged glances. Thinking about it carefully, this was indeed possible.

After all, it wasn't the first day their Cloud Village people had coveted the Hyuga's Byakugan, but they hadn't expected them to actually dare to cause trouble in Konoha. Weren't they afraid of provoking a war?

Provoking a war?

They knew their own situation. Konoha truly couldn't afford another war right now. If they fought any longer, Konoha's foundations would be completely depleted.

"Fortunately, they have no evidence…" Sarutobi Hiruzen recalled what the ninja had just said, that the Black Shadow had killed another person, and it was in the Hyuga Miss's room. "…no evidence proving that our Konoha ninja killed their people. There's a lot of room for maneuvering with just this point."

Although the Cloud Village Delegation had come prepared this time, they might not necessarily be able to outmaneuver Sarutobi Hiruzen and the other two, who had been politicians their entire lives.

The Cloud Village Delegation's only advantage was that Konoha, at present, could not easily go to war.

But how much did the Cloud Village people know about Konoha's true situation?

The next morning, the Cloud Village Delegation once again arrived at the Hokage's Office Building in a menacing manner.

They walked directly towards the Hokage's office, completely disregarding the people of Konoha.

As they reached the door of the Hokage's office, just as the Cloud Village members were about to kick it down, the door opened.

This left the person who wanted to kick the door in an awkward position, forcing them to sheepishly lower their raised leg.

"Your Konoha today…"

Just as the Cloud Village members were about to demand an explanation, Sarutobi Hiruzen spoke first.

"Esteemed members of the Cloud Village, I know you are deeply saddened by the death of your leader. Especially since it happened in our Konoha, we will give you an explanation."

Saying this, Sarutobi Hiruzen led the Cloud Village members to a courtyard.

As soon as they entered the courtyard, a strong smell of blood assaulted their senses.

Upon closer inspection, the entire courtyard was filled with corpses.

"The culprits you are looking for are all here."

The Cloud Village Delegation: "……"

As veterans of the battlefield, they were not unfamiliar with corpses. Compared to the gruesome sight of mangled bodies on the battlefield, these neatly arranged corpses were quite pleasing to the eye.

But the key issue wasn't here. The crucial point was that among these corpses were several people they recognized.

This wasn't because they had seen these people before, or because they had studied their profiles.

It was because these people were Jonin!

In fact, two of them were Elite Jonin!

As for the dozen or so Chunin laid out beside them, they weren't as important.

"Last night, while these two Jonin were leading a patrol, they mistakenly identified your leader as a thief infiltrating Konoha and killed him," Sarutobi Hiruzen said, pointing to two of the corpses.

"And these two," Sarutobi Hiruzen continued, pointing to another two bodies, "were killed by us as thieves infiltrating Konoha when they were sent out to find their leader."

"When I learned the truth of the matter, I was deeply pained."

"The people of Kumogakure came to Konoha with broad hearts seeking peace, but as soon as they arrived, two of them died, killed by our Konoha shinobi."

"I was heartbroken. I immediately ordered the execution of the Jonin responsible, and even the accompanying Chunin were executed along with them. I hope your delegation can quell your anger."

The Cloud Village Delegation looked at the neatly arranged corpses on the ground, then at Sarutobi Hiruzen's heartbroken expression, and their mouths hung open, unable to speak.

This... this development was not what they had anticipated.

He even suspected that the people sent to kidnap Miss Hyuga might have been discovered and killed on the spot before they even reached the Hyuga Clan Compound.

This thought, once it appeared, refused to leave his mind.

Could it be that their people were so unlucky as to encounter a patrol led by Elite Jonin?

"Wait! Where are the bodies? Where are our people's bodies?"

The Cloud Village Delegation finally spotted the crucial omission.

"This is even more heartbreaking for me. Perhaps these shinobi had just returned from the battlefield and their mindset hadn't adjusted yet. Upon encountering your people, they treated them as mortal enemies and showed no mercy, to the point that not even their remains were left behind, turning into dust."

Upon hearing such a ridiculous explanation, the Cloud Village Delegation's first reaction was disbelief.

But then they looked at the neatly arranged corpses again. Those were elite Konoha shinobi!

These were things that couldn't be faked!

At this point, the Cloud Village Delegation was completely flustered.