Orochimaru had been secretly conducting human experiments.
It wasn't just Konoha's higher-ups and jōnin who'd heard rumors about it. Even some of the lower-ranking shinobi had caught wind of it.
After all, judging by Orochimaru's appearance and temperament, he looked exactly like the kind of deranged scientist who would smirk over a scalpel in a laboratory.
At its core, a shinobi village was an extremely violent organization. Beneath the grand, righteous ideals of the Will of Fire, there was inevitably a dark, ugly side.
So those standing in the light couldn't expand it to wipe away the darkness. All they could do was pretend they knew nothing, unless—
Someone lifted the lid and let everyone see and hear the filth buried underground, where the sunlight couldn't reach.
If it had only been human experimentation, that would've been bad enough. At most, it would've ended Orochimaru's political career. But Uchiha Inabi was lying on the lab table, and—
"Isn't that so-and-so's kid? I've seen him before!"
"That's a descendant of the Senju Clan! And that one's Gekko Hayate of the Hayate Clan. I heard he went missing a while ago. I never thought..."
They were all jōnin. Not one of them had poor eyesight.
Shimura Danzō had taken the experiments very seriously and bought only the highest-quality bio-pods, with exceptionally clear glass. So it wasn't long before people recognized familiar faces among the test subjects.
Now the nature of the matter had changed completely!
What made a shinobi village a village, and allowed people with no blood ties—or even strangers—to unite, was that they all belonged to the collective called Konoha. They were comrades.
Attacking comrades from the village and getting caught red-handed was an unforgivable crime. It was an assault on Konoha's very foundations!
The way everyone looked at Orochimaru