Scapegoat King Danzo

Chapter 10: The Scapegoat King, Danzo

Hozuki Shingetsu found a few novelists to polish the prose and "verified" several heart-wrenching anecdotes, finally allowing the entire article to spread across the Shinobi World at breakneck speed.

Before the Land of Water closed its borders, it served as the economic and trade hub of the eastern Shinobi World due to its proximity to the mainland, with merchants and cargo ships flowing in and out day and night. Although trade had plummeted due to the isolationist policy, those connections remained intact for the short term. Through the hands of these merchants, the public opinion slowly began to ferment across the globe.

At this juncture, one must first clarify that in the current era, the power to control public discourse lies not with the commoners, but with the nobility. Since only nobles and shinobi are literate, and shinobi—being detached from daily life—generally have no interest in manipulating public opinion, one only needs to capture the nobles to control the narrative of this world.

For these nobles, who have always enjoyed feigning illness and indulging in flowery prose, the sudden delivery of such explosive news was undoubtedly a colorful addition to their barren lives. Moreover, since it involved the pairing of Konoha and the Land of Fire—the current premier duo of the Shinobi World—they naturally unleashed a torrent of gossip with their burning passion.

In particular, the core theme of the article was a single word: "Peace."

Since the dawn of history, war and chaos in the Shinobi World have never ceased. Especially since Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara joined forces to pioneer the "One Country, One Village" system, it had not only failed to bring peace, but the First Shinobi World War that erupted after their deaths had actually escalated the intensity of conflict. Because of this, a significant portion of the population was dissatisfied with Senju Hashirama.

Although those with keen eyes could see that someone was targeting Konoha... but who cared?

Under these circumstances, with someone having sounded the charge, these idle noble lords were naturally not stingy with their vocal support.

After all, since ancient times, no one has ever been convicted for advocating peace. Of course, the most important thing was that one could easily reap prestige just by moving their lips; why wouldn't they do it?

Furthermore... damn, this kind of high-minded political correctness was exactly to the taste of these noble lords.

Just imagine: while you are still stuck showing off how many beautiful maids you have at home, what grade of clothing you wear, or what you eat, others are talking about peace and the grand strategy of the Shinobi World.

What is this?

Do you understand what it means to "converse with scholars and have no unrefined company"?

Showing off material wealth all day long, lacking any noble substance, and failing to even pull off a proper display of superiority—it's a disgrace to our nobility!

Expel them from the noble registry at once!

In the end, once this trend took hold, it even evolved to the point where if one didn't curse Konoha a few times, they would immediately be labeled a "warmonger" or a "dark hand behind the chaos of the Shinobi World." Eventually, these nobles even began to spontaneously publish their own "editorials" based on the materials fabricated by Hozuki Shingetsu.

As for Konoha's attitude...

In the eyes of the noble lords, shinobi were no different from commoners; they were all lowly subjects. It was just that one type of lowly subject provided them with food, while the other fought wars for them—beyond that, there was no difference.

Some brave souls even rushed to the Tenshukaku of the Land of Fire's Daimyo, attempting to verify if the Daimyo had been manipulated by the Hokage...

Well, one can only say that the Land of Fire is a vast nation, and it still possesses loyal subjects!

If even the nobles of the Land of Fire were like this, it went without saying for the nobles of other nations.

Therefore, they had no regard for the face of Konoha or the Hokage, and began a passionate output centered on the Konoha Threat Theory.

As the saying goes, "The King of Chu favored slender waists, and many in the palace starved to death." With such influence trickling down, the commoners under these nobles also learned of the matter and began to discuss it.

Although they didn't know who the Hokage or Danzo were, and didn't even know in which direction Konoha lay, it didn't stop them from weighing in.

Moreover, the base nature of humanity lies in the natural pleasure of seeing those who live better than themselves suffer.

In the eyes of the commoners, once Lord Hokage and Lord Danzo met with misfortune, they wouldn't be able to farm with golden hoes anymore, right? That would be truly wonderful.

Furthermore, to ensure full-scale, multi-angle coverage of the Shinobi World in a short time, Hozuki Shingetsu specifically arranged plays and skits, having troupes, storytellers, and poets perform them, ensuring that even the illiterate knew what was being discussed.

The emphasis was on a combination of elegance and vulgarity, with propaganda that left no corner untouched.

Under Hozuki Shingetsu's campaign, these commoners were reminded of the hardships they endured during the First Shinobi World War over a decade ago. Thinking of the present, they inadvertently began to link their own miserable lives—oppressed by the nobility—to Konoha.

Although the effect was not yet obvious, there was plenty of time, and over the long run, it would surely yield results.

As a despicable tactic never before seen in the Shinobi World, Konoha had no experience and naturally had no defenses against it. The spies Konoha had planted everywhere were basically focused on the military and shinobi intelligence of other villages; who would pay attention to trivial information between nobles and commoners?

Even if they wanted to glean intelligence on enemy resource mobilization from daily trifles, those spies would only investigate the daily lives of commoners in major villages. And as for enemies... wasn't it normal for them to curse each other?

Although in terms of intensity and frequency, it was somewhat abnormal... but when it involved Lord Danzo, if one thought about it carefully, it was actually quite normal.

After all, no matter how absurd a situation was, as long as it was linked to Lord Danzo, it suddenly felt reasonable.

"It must be that Lord Danzo has executed some plan again, which is why he is so hated!"

The spies naturally thought this upon hearing the villagers' insults toward the Konoha leadership.

"Truly worthy of Konoha's 'Shinobi no Yami'! To strike with such sharpness—to be cursed by so many people, Lord Danzo must have caused severe losses to these villages, right?"

By common logic, such news would certainly not be reported back to the village. After all, there shouldn't be any blind intelligence officer who would include a rap battle of the enemy sending kind regards to their leader's family in a report, right?

Thus, a month later, when the envoy of the Land of Fire's Daimyo arrived at Konoha, told him about this in a fit of rage at the Hokage office, and conveyed the Daimyo's instructions...

Sarutobi Hiruzen's first thought was not that this was a conspiracy by other nations, but rather... did that brat Danzo do something behind my back again?