After hearing Uchiha Kazuto's words, Uchiha Shisui was completely stunned.
"You lot, drag this worthless bastard out of here! What an idiot!"
Uchiha Kazuto looked at Uchiha Shisui, shook his head, and waved a hand. He didn't want to see the idiot hanging around here any longer.
"Yes, Lord Hokage!"
Soon, the Military Police Force members dragged Uchiha Shisui out of the Hokage's Office.
Thud!
"Get out of here, idiot!"
Uchiha Shisui was tossed to the ground like a dead dog.
"How could this happen..."
Uchiha Shisui lay on the ground, dazed. Yes, at that moment, he finally understood. Everything had been decided. His beloved Lord Hokage, the great Hiruzen Sarutobi, was dead!
It was all over.
As for the conflict between the village and the clan, he hadn't seen any conflict at all when Hiruzen Sarutobi died. In fact, no one had even come out to save him.
Aside from a few people, most of Konoha hated Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Uchiha Shisui got to his feet in a daze and wandered around the village. After making his way halfway around it, he realized in horror that everyone in the village was cursing his great Lord Hokage. He also heard all sorts of truths.
He'd heard these truths before, but he hadn't believed them. Now, in his daze, he suddenly felt they made sense.
Had he once again wronged Uchiha Kazuto? Was Hiruzen Sarutobi really the one at fault?
"Ah! I can't tell! I can't tell!"
Uchiha Shisui fell to his knees, clutching his head and wailing in utter despair. He could no longer tell what was true.
By the time people saw Uchiha Shisui again, he had gone completely mad. In the end, he was sent to Konoha's hospital, and never came out again.
Somewhere in the Land of Fire.
Jiraiya crouched beside a bathhouse, peeking at the women bathing.
But in the next moment, an overwhelming sadness suddenly welled up inside him, and he began to sob uncontrollably. At the same time, his body started to sting, and discomfort spread from head to toe.
"Waaah... Aah!!!"
The next moment, this hero of the Ninja World could hold back no longer. He burst into tears, tears streaming uncontrollably from the corners of his eyes.
His cries immediately drew the attention of those around him.
"Ah! It's a pervert!!!"
A chorus of shrieks rang out.
Jiraiya was chased away by the women, still crying.
But even after he left, he kept weeping, sobbing, wailing.
"No, what's happening to me? Why am I crying? I'm not even sad! And why does my whole body sting? Did someone use some kind of Ninjutsu on me? Waaah... waaah..."
Jiraiya cried as he examined his body, but he couldn't find anything wrong. He had no idea what was happening to him.
He tried to hold it in, but it didn't work. This wasn't something he wanted to do, and it wasn't something he could stop through sheer willpower. It was like an ordinary person trying to withstand being crushed by a thousand-ton hydraulic press.
A sense of dread began to rise within him.
Jiraiya tried all sorts of methods to solve the problem, but no matter what Ninjutsu he used, nothing worked. He kept crying, crying like mad.
It was useless. All his struggles were futile. This was his punishment for peeking at a woman he wasn't related to while she bathed. Though Jiraiya was rarely in Konoha, he was still a Konoha ninja.
Once Uchiha Kazuto had established the laws, Jiraiya, as a Konoha ninja, was naturally subject to them. Only if he had defected before Uchiha Kazuto became Hokage, like Orochimaru, would he no longer have counted as a Konoha ninja and thus have been unaffected.
Otherwise, even if he defected after Uchiha Kazuto became Hokage, he couldn't escape the law. He would become a rogue ninja and face other punishments unless Uchiha Kazuto personally expelled him.
Uchiha Kazuto's legal system didn't depend on territory, but on affiliation. It was a judgment that was both vague and precise, with no limit on distance.
At that moment, Jiraiya didn't know that his teacher had been beheaded and that Konoha had a new Hokage.
If he didn't return to the village to accept his punishment, he'd probably cry himself to death here.
People could cry themselves to death.
"Waaah... No, I... waaah... have to... waaah... go find the Toad Sage..."
Jiraiya sobbed as he quickly formed hand seals and used the Reverse Summoning Technique to travel to Mount Myōboku.
"Teacher is dead?"
In a laboratory somewhere in the Ninja World, Orochimaru looked at the intelligence in his hands, his expression strangely complicated.
What did it mean, Hiruzen Sarutobi had killed the Second Hokage and become the Third Hokage, and now that secret had been exposed and he'd been beheaded?
At that moment, even Orochimaru had to rub his eyes to make sure he hadn't misread it.
"That can't be right. Teacher couldn't possibly be that kind of person!"
Orochimaru shook his head. He knew his teacher. Though he'd grown old and confused, he could never have been the kind of person who killed his own teacher.
"Uchiha Kazuto..."
Orochimaru stared at the unfamiliar name. It clearly belonged to someone from the Uchiha Clan, but he had never heard of this person during his time in Konoha. He hadn't known the village had such a talented individual.
As he read the information about Uchiha Kazuto, his expression grew more and more grave.
If his teacher hadn't been beheaded by Uchiha Kazuto himself, and if he hadn't known Hiruzen Sarutobi, he would almost have believed from reading this information that Uchiha Kazuto was a loyal and devoted servant of Hiruzen Sarutobi.
But because he knew Hiruzen Sarutobi, and because Hiruzen Sarutobi had been beheaded, he was horrified. Hiruzen Sarutobi had been manipulated by Uchiha Kazuto from beginning to end.
Everything had been done to behead Hiruzen Sarutobi in front of everyone, amid their cheers, while carrying out a Coup right under their noses.
"Uchiha Kazuto really is a terrifying man."
Orochimaru set down the documents and spoke. He felt sorry for Hiruzen Sarutobi, but after thinking it over, he wondered: what would he have done in his place?
Before you continue