Mercy Beneath the Sun

"Those who have always fled from reality, too afraid to face their conflicts..."

"So it was me."

Shisui's voice was so soft it was nearly inaudible.

But Lie Yang did not stop because of that.

He turned to Kakashi and suddenly let out a derisive laugh.

"You didn't refute me just now."

"Is it because you also think Konoha's higher-ups really are using Shisui?"

Kakashi gripped his broken kunai, his right eye turning vigilant again.

"I just don't want to make judgments for others."

"Still that same hypocritical excuse."

Lie Yang looked at him.

"You believe in the Third Hokage, don't you?"

Kakashi fell silent for a moment.

"Everything Lord Hokage does is for Konoha."

"Do you even believe that yourself?"

There was not the slightest fluctuation in Lie Yang's tone.

"Hatake Sakumo abandoned his mission to save his comrades. After he returned, the entire village condemned him."

"The ninja who carried out missions cursed him."

"Ordinary villagers cursed him."

"Even those he had saved blamed the mission's failure on him."

Kakashi's grip on the kunai suddenly tightened.

Lie Yang gave him no chance to avoid the issue.

"Konoha's White Fang, renowned throughout the ninja world and credited with countless achievements, was driven to suicide by rumors."

"The Third Hokage was in office at the time."

"Danzo could manipulate public opinion, and the village clans could shirk responsibility. So why didn't the Hokage who constantly preached the Will of Fire step forward and say a single word for White Fang?"

"Enough."

Kakashi's voice sank.

"My father's affairs have nothing to do with you."

"Of course they have nothing to do with me."

Lie Yang said coldly, "But your trust in the Third Hokage is not as firm as you imagine."

"If you truly believed in the Third Hokage, you wouldn't have stayed silent after hearing about Shisui's experiences."

"Nor would you have watched me expose Konoha's higher-ups' schemes without being able to offer even a single rebuttal."

Kurenai Yuhi opened her mouth, but in the end, she said nothing.

She wanted to say that the Third Hokage had always protected the village over the years.

But Hinata Yota's corpse had yet to be buried.

Yamanaka Daito's fate was still unknown.

And the intelligence they had received before setting out had been wrong all the way from Special Jonin to Mangekyō Sharingan.

One sentence of "for Konoha" could not explain so many deaths.

Lie Yang continued, "White Fang was not the first, and he will not be the last."

"Look at Naruto."

"The Nine-Tails' jinchuriki."

"The child the Fourth Hokage left behind."

Kakashi's pupils abruptly constricted.

Kurenai Yuhi also jerked her head up.

"How do you know Naruto's identity?"

Lie Yang did not answer her question.

"A child whose parents died for Konoha, who had the Nine-Tails sealed inside him, and who should have been placed under the village's strict protection."

"What did he receive all these years?"

"Cold stares."

"Exclusion."

"Abuse."

"The villagers vented all their hatred for the Nine-Tails on a child. Shopkeepers refused to sell him anything, adults forbade their children from going near him, and everyone treated him like a monster."

Lie Yang stared at Kakashi.

"You were the Fourth Hokage's student."

"You were also one of the subordinates Naruto's father trusted most."

"What have you done for him all these years?"

Kakashi froze where he stood.

He had no answer.

After Minato Namikaze died, pain and missions had crushed him until he could barely breathe.

His father, Obito, Rin, his teacher.

One important person after another had left him.

He did not dare remember, nor did he dare form deep bonds with anyone again.

Naruto was right there in the village.

He knew who that child was.

Yet he had never truly gone to stand before him.

With a single sentence, Lie Yang tore open the wound Kakashi had always refused to touch.

"Why has the village become like this?"

Lie Yang asked, "Was the Third Hokage truly powerless to stop it?"

"If he had publicly revealed that Naruto was the Fourth Hokage's son, would those villagers still have dared act so recklessly?"

"If he had severely punished a few people who spread word of the Nine-Tails, how many would have dared call Naruto a monster?"

Kurenai Yuhi could not help saying, "A jinchuriki's identity cannot be made public."

"The casualties caused by the Nine-Tails Incident were too great."

"Lord Hokage could not force everyone to let go of their hatred."

Lie Yang looked at her.

"So a child was made to bear all that hatred?"

Kurenai Yuhi was rendered speechless on the spot.

"Is this Konoha's Will of Fire?"

"Make a hero's son bear the pain of the entire village, then wait for him to grow up and tell him the villagers were merely too grief-stricken back then, asking him to understand everyone?"

"This is not protection."

"It is exploitation."

Kakashi's breathing grew heavier and heavier.

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying that the Third Hokage you see has never been a simply kind old man."

Lie Yang raised his head toward Konoha.

"He could not prevent White Fang's tragedy."

"He failed to stop Orochimaru's human experiments in time."

"He likewise could not completely stop Danzo from using Root to eliminate dissidents and infiltrate the various clans."

"The conflict between the Uchiha and the village grew deeper and deeper, yet he still could not stop anything."

"If he could stop nothing, what right did he have to sit in the Hokage's seat for decades?"

Kakashi's right eye fixed tightly on Lie Yang.

A chill unlike any he had ever felt rose from the depths of his heart.

Lie Yang's next words made him stop breathing altogether.

"Because this darkness needed to exist in the first place."

"Danzo did what the Third Hokage could not do."

"The Council of Elders bore the responsibilities the Hokage was unwilling to make public."

"Root killed those unsuitable for ANBU to handle."

"And the Third Hokage stood beneath the sun, maintaining an image of mercy, gentleness, and tolerance."

Might Guy lowered his voice.

"Lord Hokage would never use his comrades' lives to maintain an image."

"You're wrong."

Lie Yang said calmly, "Hiruzen Sarutobi understands Konoha's darkness better than any of you imagine."

"It wasn't that he didn't see it."

"Rather, he chose to accept it long ago."

"Lie Yang!"

Kakashi cut him off sharply. "Enough with baseless speculation!"

"Speculation?"

Lie Yang laughed.

"Why do you think the Third Hokage returned to the Hokage's seat?"

"Why, despite knowing that age had weakened him, did he still refuse to cultivate a true successor capable of replacing him?"

"Why did he allow Danzo to accumulate such immense power, yet never completely purge Root?"

Kakashi's pupils contracted bit by bit.

"Because he had long decided that he would become the final reckoning."

"The Third Hokage would shoulder all the darkness Konoha had accumulated over decades."

"Root's sins."

"The conflict with the Uchiha."

"The dangers Orochimaru left behind."

"The hatred that had endured since the war years."

"All problems that could not be resolved openly would come to an end with his death."