Konoha Was in Some Chaos

Realizing that the situation was truly dire and extremely unfavorable to him, Hiruzen Sarutobi felt both angry and helpless.

How should this be resolved? What's the situation with Morui from the Kumogakure delegation? Where did he go?

Was he secretly killed by ninjas from Konoha who had a grudge against Kumogakure? Or was he really harmed by Danzo and Root? Or was it all a staged event orchestrated by the Kumogakure delegation?

Hiruzen Sarutobi with every thought; the more he thought about it, the more troublesome it seemed, to the point where his head felt like it was about to explode.

With a sigh, Hiruzen Sarutobi sat alone behind his desk and coldly issued an order:

"The Anbu Ninja who were remotely monitoring the Kumogakure delegation failed to notice in advance that the Kumogakure delegation was missing a person, causing Konoha to lose the initiative in this matter."

This was a huge mistake and error. Those ninjas should be dismissed and punished according to the rules and regulations of the Anbu."

The Anbu guards nearby felt a chill run down their spines upon hearing this.

Good grief, what does the Lord Hokage mean by this? He's taking out his anger on his subordinates because he has nowhere else to vent it after getting it from Dodai?

Those Anbu who were ordered to monitor the Kumogakure delegation were instructed not to get too close or eavesdrop on their conversations, lest they be discovered by the Kumogakure delegation and thus affect the negotiations.

With you giving them these instructions, how would they know the specific situation within the Kumogakure delegation? They'd be even less likely to care about things like whether someone was missing or not.

As a result, he was punished and dismissed from his post because of this crime, which was clearly a case of someone taking their anger out on him!

Lord Hokage, isn't what you're doing a little bit unfair?

I have a feeling that the Lord Hokage has become increasingly incompetent and unreasonable lately. Is this something that happens when people get old?

For a moment, the Anbu guards around them felt a chill.

However, no matter what, the Hokage's orders are absolute, and even if these Anbu have their own thoughts, they dare not express them.

So, after receiving Hiruzen Sarutobi's order, even if they felt a sense of shared grief, these Anbu still had to send someone back to the Anbu base to ensure the punishment took effect and to make those unfortunate Anbu Ninja bear the blame for this mistake.

Hiruzen Sarutobi knew he had done something wrong, but he had no choice.

Having just suffered such a humiliation at the Dodai, how could he, the Hokage, possibly accept this so easily?

Unable to vent their anger on the Dodai itself, they could only try to take it out on their subordinates first; that's how subordinates sometimes operate.

If he doesn't vent this frustration, Hiruzen Sarutobi won't be able to think straight. So, in order to resolve this matter as soon as possible, he has no choice but to apologize to his subordinates.

That's incredibly shameless! How come Hiruzen Sarutobi is becoming more and more annoying?

Regardless of the circumstances, this matter needs to be resolved quickly.

After calming himself down, Hiruzen Sarutobi immediately ordered his men to use any means necessary to find out what was going on and what the truth of the matter was.

We must find out the whereabouts of that Morui, alive or dead!

Ha, Dodai gave him the requirements of the Third Hokage, and the Third Hokage immediately assigned him to be Anbu. This is really... I don't even want to comment.

If the Hokage is like this, how can Konoha possibly be any better?

However, subsequent events did not unfold in accordance with Hiruzen Sarutobi's wishes at all.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's original intention was that this matter should not be blown out of proportion; a secret investigation must be conducted, and after the investigation, a secret discussion should be held with the Kumogakure delegation to keep the impact to a minimum.

This idea is reasonable because it benefits Konoha.

However, what was beneficial to Konoha was detrimental to Kumogakure, so the Kumogakure delegation did the opposite.

After Dodai returned, in order to Hiruzen Sarutobi and to create a favorable situation for them, he gave orders to everyone in the Kumogakure delegation.

They were instructed to spread the word within Konoha, informing all Konoha villagers and ninjas that a member of their Kumogakure delegation had gone missing in Konoha, and that the Kumogakure was furious and demanded an explanation.

The demand is to spread this matter far and wide, ideally causing a huge uproar and making everyone aware of it, so that the people of Konoha are filled with fear and Hiruzen Sarutobi is forced to confront this matter directly.

The people in the Kumogakure delegation were all troublemakers who thrived on chaos. They had no goodwill towards Konoha and were particularly happy to see Konoha in trouble.

So, upon receiving this order, they happily carried it out and went to spread the news.

They were all very motivated when spreading the news, and they did it even better than when they were doing missions in Kumogakure!

So it didn't take long, maybe less than a day, before the whole of Konoha knew about it, that someone from the Kumogakure delegation that came to Konoha for negotiations had gone missing.

Moreover, many people in Konoha couldn't help but start speculating: Could this person be dead? Could it be that Konoha was behind this?

If that's the case, wouldn't Konoha be in the wrong? Would this negotiation fail? Would Kumogakure be furious? Would war break out next?

For a time, Konoha was filled with worried people. Everyone was very concerned, rumors were rampant, and the overall order within Konoha was somewhat chaotic, almost out of control.

It must be said that the Kumogakure delegation's move hit Konoha's weak spot. Hiruzen Sarutobi fears everything, especially the instability of Konoha's overall situation.

The villagers at the grassroots level in Konoha are in a state of disarray. If this continues, it seems that the entire Konoha will soon descend into chaos. This is a cause for concern for Hiruzen Sarutobi, a man who is extremely concerned about his image and appearances.

When he heard that, for some reason, even the villagers knew about this, and that there was even a great uproar about it, Hiruzen Sarutobi was furious.

In his office, he slammed his hand on the table. It was easy for him to conclude that the Kumogakure delegation was behind this, in order to put pressure on him and to disrupt the situation in Konoha.

How despicable! That guy with the thick eyebrows and one eye on the Dodai looks like a decent person, but he's actually so treacherous!

Whether it's insidious or not, after these days of negotiations, Hiruzen Sarutobi should have already realized that this Dodai is no ordinary structure.

Therefore, it's not surprising at all that Dodai has resorted to these methods. What good is Hiruzen Sarutobi's current impotent rage?

Forget about this and that; the priority now is to solve this urgent problem.

If the problem isn't resolved and the duct tape isn't delivered to the Kumogakure delegation, the situation will only worsen, the village will become more chaotic, and the negotiations might even be unable to continue.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had no other choice but to sit in his office smoking his pipe, waiting for his Anbu to investigate thoroughly.

Where did that missing person from the Kumogakure delegation, that Morui, go? Or is he really dead?

Dodai's demand was to find the person, alive or dead, but the problem was, Konoha was so big, where were they going to find someone who had already gone missing?

Moreover, the missing person might not even be in Konoha. What if they disappeared outside of Konoha? Like searching for a needle in a haystack?

Even Hiruzen Sarutobi had reason to suspect that this Morui was not dead at all, and that it was all a staged act by Dodai to give him a reason to attack Konoha.

Of course, if Morui is really dead, the situation isn't much better. How did he die? Who killed him? Could it be that he was really killed by his own Konoha side?

If that's the case, how should this matter be handled? How should we explain it to Dodai? And what will be the reaction from the Kumogakure delegation?

Many of these troublesome things are interconnected, with one change affecting the whole situation.

While Hiruzen Sarutobi was smoking and worrying in his office, and while the rumors were spreading like wildfire throughout Konoha, the Hyūga Clan naturally received the information as well.

When Hyūga Clan Hyuga Hiashi, the head of the Kumogakure clan, heard that one member of the Kumogakure delegation had gone missing and the delegation was very angry about it, he couldn't sit still.