The Name of the Mad Dog

Land of Fire, Konoha Village.

The smoke inside the Hokage's office was as thick as miso soup that had been boiling for three hours; the heavy scent of tobacco had already permeated every corner of the room.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, still in the prime of his life, sat behind his desk with a pipe clamped between his teeth. The embers in the bowl flickered on and off, and seven or eight mounds of ash had already piled up in the ashtray.

Spread out before Sarutobi Hiruzen was a battle report sent back via Namikaze Minato's Flying Thunder God—it was written in charcoal, the handwriting somewhat hurried, clearly jotted down in a very short amount of time.

Yet, the content made the brow of this Third Hokage, who had survived two Great Ninja Wars, furrow even deeper.

[Daimyo Palace attacked. Nine of the Twelve Guardian Ninja killed in action, three survivors. The intruder impersonated Shimura Danzo, using Wind Release ninjutsu and a certain forbidden technique capable of resurrection in conjunction with the Reverse Four-Symbols Sealing to cause massive destruction within the Daimyo Palace. The Daimyo himself is unharmed, but the treasury was looted, with losses preliminarily estimated at over ten billion ryo.]

Sarutobi Hiruzen stared at these lines, silent for a long time.

Then, he picked up his pipe and took another drag.

"Minato."

"Present."

Namikaze Minato stood before the desk, his golden hair still bright under the lamplight, though his eyes carried a hint of exhaustion.

He had just rushed back to Konoha from the Daimyo Palace and hadn't even had time to change his clothes; the scent of gunpowder and dust still clung to him.

"Tell me again—how did that 'Danzo' fight?"

Namikaze Minato was silent for a few seconds, seemingly organizing his thoughts, before speaking with a rare note of confusion in his tone: "...Madness."

"Madness?"

"Yes, madness."

Namikaze Minato recalled the scene he had witnessed during the battle. "His fighting style lacked any of the discipline a ninja should have—no probing, no defense, no maneuvering. From the very first second of the engagement, he entered a state of 'trading life for life'."

"He didn't even bother to waste chakra dodging my Flying Thunder God. Every dozen seconds or whenever his injuries became too severe, he would perform a suicide sealing technique on the spot—the Reverse Four-Symbols Sealing—swallowing everything near him into the darkness."

"The problem is, after self-destructing, he could resurrect almost immediately. Not only was he unscathed, but his chakra fluctuations were also bizarre. I could sense that he consumed a massive amount of chakra after using the Reverse Four-Symbols Sealing, and the fluctuations he displayed confirmed this."

"But even when his chakra hit rock bottom, he could recover at least half of it in an instant!"

Namikaze Minato paused, his brows knitting slightly as if thinking of how to accurately describe that eerie sensation.

"All of his actions were as if his eyes were directly linked to his flesh, bypassing his brain entirely. As an opponent, I could never guess what he was going to do next."

"No pattern?"

Namikaze Minato shook his head. "It's more like anti-pattern. A normal ninja, when fighting, will predict the next move based on the opponent's actions, set up defenses, probe, and calculate chakra consumption. But not him. He fought like—"

"Like a mad dog charging blindly?!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen finished the sentence for him, then realizing the tone was off, corrected himself. "Like a crazed beast, crashing around, biting whoever it caught?"

"Yes."

Namikaze Minato nodded.

He was never one to criticize fighting styles, but Sarutobi Hiruzen's description accurately summarized the combat characteristics of that "Danzo."

Sarutobi Hiruzen removed his pipe, tapped it against the edge of the ashtray, and clamped it back between his teeth, muttering indistinctly, "So, that wasn't Danzo."

Namikaze Minato said nothing.

He knew this conclusion didn't need to be spoken aloud—Sarutobi Hiruzen had already reached the answer himself.

Shimura Danzo was a ninja of the same generation as Sarutobi Hiruzen.

They had studied together under the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, carried out missions together, and survived the battlefield together.

He knew Danzo's fighting style better than anyone—cautious, ruthless, skilled at planning, and never taking a fight he wasn't sure of winning.

How could a ninja whose every tactical move was precisely calculated resort to self-destruction the moment the fight began?

Furthermore, that old man Danzo was the most cowardly of them all; how could he possibly play his trump card of mutual destruction in the first round without knowing the opponent's bottom line?

The real Danzo would let his opponent be worn down and manipulated into a desperate situation without them even realizing it, only then launching a fatal strike the moment they revealed a flaw.

These two fighting styles were worlds apart!

"—Who could that impostor be? Who else in the ninja world possesses Kage-level mastery of Wind Release?"

"And... listening to Minato's description, the Wind Release ninjutsu this impostor used were all Danzo's exclusive techniques!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen placed his pipe on the desk, stood up, and walked to the window.

Outside was the night view of Konoha, brightly lit, with pedestrians on the streets, patrolling Anbu, and vendors closing up shop—everything was orderly, as if nothing had happened.

But Sarutobi Hiruzen knew.

A political storm capable of shaking the foundations of Konoha had already quietly approached.

"Minato, you go first."

Sarutobi Hiruzen stood with his back to Namikaze Minato, his voice so calm not a ripple could be heard. "Go to the infirmary and have your wounds treated. You've worked hard today."

"This escort mission is concluded, and your pay will not be docked."

Namikaze Minato bowed slightly, turned, and left the office.

The moment the door closed, Sarutobi Hiruzen's grip tightened sharply around his pipe.

"--The imposter is just a smokescreen; the real trouble is still to come!"

The Land of Fire Daimyo Palace had been attacked, the 'plaque' of the Twelve Guardian Ninja had been wiped out on the spot, and the treasury had been looted—this matter was no longer just an internal issue for the Land of Fire.

A Daimyo is a class unto themselves.

Since the Daimyo of the Land of Fire had been slapped in the face, the Daimyo of the other four nations would not think, "This is an internal matter for the Land of Fire." They would only care about one thing: the dignity of the Daimyo had been provoked.

If a sufficiently tough response was not made, if someone dared to attack the Land of Fire Daimyo Palace today, someone would dare to attack the Land of Wind Daimyo Palace tomorrow.

That would be a massive problem!

Therefore, once the Daimyo of the other four nations received the news, they would certainly exert joint pressure through their respective ninja villages.

And the target of this pressure would not be that "imposter Danzo"—because he could not be found. They would only pour all their pressure onto Konoha Village!

Either hand over Konoha's Shimura Danzo, or stage a 'siege of Konoha Village by the four great ninja villages' to serve as a warning to others.

Who exactly had Danzo offended? Such a massive pot of filth had been dumped right onto his head.

Sarutobi Hiruzen took a deep drag of his pipe and exhaled a long, lingering stream of smoke. His gaze pierced through the haze and landed on the massive Hokage Rock outside the window.

"--This is truly an incredible mess."

Meanwhile, hundreds of meters beneath Konoha, at the Root base.