Outside Konoha, the Uzumaki Clan, driven to the brink, had already prepared for the worst.
For those who could only drift with the tides of their era, their future depended on the decisions of the "players" seated on either side of the board.
And for Sarutobi Hiruzen, who had borne the weighty duty of Hokage for nearly fifteen years—the heroic shinobi once entrusted with the task of saving Konoha in its hour of peril—he, too, was now enduring unimaginable torment!
—Looking back, ever since the Second Shinobi World War had begun, every upheaval within the Land of Fire seemed to have shaken the foundations of the Third Hokage Cabinet's rule.
Those schemes and calculations, those exchanges of interest, those gains, losses, and compromises...
All of it formed an inescapable net that ensnared everyone who stepped into it!
Until now, with the Great Collective spreading everywhere, the net woven by fate had finally torn Danzō—Third Hokage's most important right-hand man—away from the Sarutobi faction!
Then, over the following month or so, an unprecedented loneliness descended like a slowly falling blade, inch by inch shattering the Hokage's mental defenses...
Perhaps, in some people's eyes, bringing down Danzō and dismantling the darkness enshrouded by Root meant clearing the names of countless past injustices. It meant indirectly strengthening the prestige of the Hokage Faction and centralizing power further, seemingly bringing nothing but benefits.
Following that line of logic, people naturally could not avoid condemning the Third Hokage's own character!
They believed his inaction was malicious indulgence—that he was the true culprit behind "though I did not kill Bo Ren, Bo Ren died because of me"!
But was Sarutobi Hiruzen really incapable of telling right from wrong?
How could that be...
If upholding universal moral principles such as fairness and justice, respecting the elderly and