Konoha's sky was overcast, as though shrouded in an inescapable gloom.
Hatake Sakumo, once the star-like "White Fang of the Leaf," had now been drawn into a deep vortex of public opinion.
He had once been the village's hero, earning the trust and respect of villagers and shinobi through the success of countless crucial missions.
But now, it all seemed to have turned to foam and scattered with the wind.
Shimura Danzō's scheme advanced step by step, cold and meticulous.
Through Root's methods, he quietly approached the teammates Sakumo had once saved during a mission.
These people had originally been grateful to Sakumo. After all, it was his judgment and strength that had saved their lives during that crisis.
But through carefully designed guidance and insinuations, Danzō's people gradually magnified the faint guilt buried deep within them—"Sakumo saved us, but he also abandoned the mission because of it, and the village suffered major losses. Perhaps... it was our fault."
The teammates Sakumo had saved were gradually swayed by Danzō's methods. In the end, they chose to publicly step forward and condemn Sakumo's decision.
They began claiming throughout the village that while Sakumo's choice had saved them, it had directly caused the mission to fail, inflicting irreparable losses upon Konoha's overall interests.
"At the time, we never asked him to save us no matter what," one teammate said publicly in the village. "We all understood that completing the mission was of the utmost importance. But Sakumo... he made his own choice. Although he saved us, that mission's failure brought immense losses to the village. As a Konoha shinobi, he should not have put personal feelings first."
Those words were like a sharp blade, stabbing straight into Sakumo's heart.
The storm of public opinion in the village was ignited once more. This