The Senju Clan!

Under the painstaking management of the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, who had spent decades forging alliances and eliminating dissenters, Konoha might not have been completely monolithic, but he had long since secured his position as Hokage!

Given Sarutobi Hiruzen's prestige in Konoha, if not for this war, he might have remained Hokage until the day he died!

But Konoha's situation had been vastly different several decades ago!

Back then, Konoha had only recently been founded, and the Second Hokage's various policies had only begun to show Initial Results. Konoha's main fighting force still came from the ninja of its major clans!

Although the Sarutobi Clan, to which Sarutobi Hiruzen belonged, was also a Great Clan, it did not rank among the likes of the Uchiha, Senju, and Hyuga noble clans!

The Senju Clan in particular was not only one of Konoha's founders, but had also produced two consecutive Hokage. Their prestige in Konoha was at its peak!

In such an environment, the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, died under unclear circumstances. Sarutobi Hiruzen and the others returned bearing the Second Hokage's final instructions and sought to inherit the Hokage Position. One could imagine how much Questioning they faced!

Uchiha Jin continued, "In short, Sarutobi Hiruzen's path to becoming Hokage was far from smooth. He encountered plenty of obstruction from the major clans!"

"And among them, the Senju Clan's Questioning was the most severe!"

"However, Konoha's strongest person at the time considered the bigger picture and overrode all objections, forcibly suppressing those dissenting voices. Only then did Sarutobi Hiruzen temporarily secure his position as Hokage!"

"Konoha's strongest person?" Minato Namikaze's heart stirred at those words, and he guessed, "Could it have been Lady Mito?"

"That's right, it was Lady Uzumaki Mito!" Uchiha Jin nodded. "Lady Uzumaki Mito was Konoha's first Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. Her strength was likely only inferior to the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, and Uchiha Madara. She was evenly matched even against the Second Hokage!"

"Not only that, Lady Uzumaki Mito was also the First Hokage's wife. Her prestige in both Konoha and the Senju Clan was extraordinary!"

"To put it somewhat improperly, if Lady Uzumaki Mito had possessed such ambition, it wouldn't have been impossible for her to take the Third Hokage's seat herself!"

Minato Namikaze nodded in deep agreement. He had met Uzumaki Mito before as well.

He recalled the first time he had met Uzumaki Mito. The Aura she casually gave off had nearly crushed him to the point that he could barely breathe!

Uzumaki Mito's strength was indeed unfathomable!

Uchiha Jin continued, "And our Third Hokage was As expected of a natural-born politician. After taking the Hokage Position, he began displaying his methods and swiftly consolidated his position!"

"Perhaps after overcoming those initial difficulties, the Third Hokage saw the threat that the major clans posed to the village's development!"

"After securing the Hokage Position, the Third Hokage began implementing a series of targeted measures against the major clans!"

"And the first to bear the brunt was the then-mighty Senju Clan!"

Hearing this, Minato Namikaze recalled the desolate, miserable scenes he had seen whenever he visited the Senju Clan compound. An indescribable sense of sorrow rose within him!

The Senju Clan had stood strong for thousands of years even during the era when heroes battled across the Warring States Period, yet within just a few decades after founding Konoha, they had vanished completely, leaving behind only a single descendant!

Who would believe there was no problem behind that?

Uchiha Jin continued, "What exactly happened may have already been swallowed by the river of history, but according to some records within our Uchiha Clan, most of the Senju Clan's young and middle-aged members died on the battlefield, while many Senju infants vanished from the village without explanation!"

"They vanished from the village? How is that possible?" Minato Namikaze frowned. "Didn't the village send anyone to investigate?"

"Of course they investigated!" Inuzuka Agito interjected from the side. "Actually, it wasn't just the Senju Clan. Children from other clans disappeared as well!"

"But the matter never yielded any results. The situation in the Ninja World was extremely tense at the time, so in the end, it was simply dropped!"

Akamichi Chodo also spoke in a muffled voice, "I remember something about that too! I was still young then. My family said spies from Enemy Villages had infiltrated the village, and they scared me into not wandering around the village for no reason!"

Minato Namikaze's eyebrows were tightly furrowed. He had been born later and had no idea such things had once happened in the village!

After thinking for a moment, Uchiha Jin spoke solemnly, "There are no walls that don't let rumors through. I happen to know some of the truth behind this matter!"

As soon as he said that, everyone present turned their eyes toward Uchiha Jin!

Uchiha Jin did not keep them in suspense and said directly, "After the First and Second Hokage died, although Konoha was still the Number One Great Village in the Ninja World, it had already lost the Ruling Power it once possessed!"

"Several Konoha High-Level officials led by the Third Hokage decided to restart a Human Experimentation project!"

"Human Experimentation? Restart?" Minato Namikaze sharply caught the two Keywords in Uchiha Jin's words and pressed, "Jin, what exactly is going on?"

The others all revealed shocked expressions as well!

After all, Human Experimentation had always been taboo in the Ninja World!

They never imagined that the Third Hokage and the others would dare commit such an outrage!

Uchiha Jin explained, "This Human Experimentation project was first proposed by the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama!"

"Because of the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama's unique nature, even after his death, his body's cells retained terrifying vitality!"

"The Second Hokage was a research fanatic to begin with. Upon seeing this, he began researching the First Hokage's cells while attempting to recreate the First Hokage's Wood Style!"

"And since they shared the same bloodline, if they were the First Hokage's cells, then the best test subjects were naturally members of the Senju Clan!"

"However, because the First Hokage's cells were too invasive, virtually no one survived the experiments!"

"The Second Hokage finally came to his senses, cut his losses in time, and ended the experiment!"

"But for various reasons, the Third Hokage and the others restarted the experiment and expanded the pool of test subjects, no longer limiting it to the Senju Clan!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen and the others' Human Experimentation involving the First Hokage's cells had certainly centered on the Senju Clan without being limited to them!

Otherwise, they would never have discovered the connection between the Uchiha Clan's Sharinga and the First Hokage's cells!

"The Third Hokage... how could they do such a thing?!" Minato Namikaze's gentle face became somewhat twisted as he gritted his teeth. "How could they face the Will of Fire after doing this?!"

Minato Namikaze recalled Sarutobi Hiruzen's kind, elderly face. He had never imagined that beneath his true face lay such an Icy Cold side!

Minato Namikaze had thought he already understood the darkness of this world well enough, but now it seemed that he had still been far too naive!