Putting Pressure on an Idiot?

Rotten vegetable leaves and stinking eggs rained down on the plaster covering Miki Yūya, striking it with sharp splats.

Sticky egg dribbled down his stark white bandages, mingling with dirt and shredded leaves and leaving Miki Yūya a complete mess.

The villagers' furious curses rose in wave after wave, their flying spit threatening to drown him.

In Konoha, bullying the weak made you a coward. Bullying the strong showed your true colors.

That was Konoha.

These villagers, these genin-as long as someone started a mob, they would join in without a second thought.

There had never been any justice or morality in their bones. All they knew was ganging up on others. Right now, they were bullying Miki Yūya, but when Miki Yūya started a mob, they would bully someone else.

Of course, sometimes Miki Yūya bullied them too.

After all, Miki Yūya was a moral, civilized person. Just how moral and civilized? Never mind that.

Anyway, Miki Yūya could never stand seeing people bully others. With these twisted, nasty people in Konoha, bullying them was helping them mend their ways.

What? You said Miki Yūya was a bastard himself, so what gave him the right to bully others?

I'm already a bastard. Do I still need the moral high ground to bully someone?

Just like now, when Miki Yūya was being bullied, he saw nothing wrong with it.

Meanwhile, in the Hokage's Office.

The atmosphere was tense enough to snap, several times more oppressive than the villagers' battle outside.

Sasuke's defection with every member of the Uchiha Clan was already an established fact. The damage was done and could not be undone. Even if they wanted to hold someone accountable, there was no way to do it now.

But Neji Hyuga's defection had completely detonated the conflicts within Konoha High Command.

As Konoha's strongest remaining great clan and its foremost ninja clan, the Hyuga Clan's loss of a gifted branch family disciple shook the foundations of the entire Konoha clan system and undermined Konoha's authority.

Someone had to take the blame!

A cold, raspy voice broke the silence in the Hokage's Office. Danzo leaned on his cane, his lone eye fixed on Hyuga Hiashi.

"Hiashi, you've disappointed me deeply."

"You've been the Hyuga Clan's head for years, yet you're still so utterly incompetent!"

"You ignored the resentment between the Main Family and the branch family, letting it fester until you drove a branch family genius to defect!"

Danzo's voice grew colder still.

"If you had been the one to die back then instead of Hizashi, how could Konoha ever have suffered something like this?!"

That single sentence left Hyuga Hiashi's brain frozen.

Hyuga Hiashi was dumbfounded.

In all his years, he had never heard such outrageous, shameless reasoning.

So not dying back then had somehow become his crime?!

"Danzo! What nonsense are you spouting?!"

Hyuga Hiashi was beside himself with anger, his face turning livid.

"Hizashi chose to die back then! He sacrificed himself willingly for the clan and the village. It had nothing to do with me!"

"Besides, what does Neji's defection have to do with me?"

The reason they were only bringing this up now was that Konoha had been conducting an internal investigation all this time.

Hyuga Hiashi hurried to speak.

"At the end of the day, the source of all this was that mad villager-Miki Yūya!"

"He deliberately sowed discord! His malice toward Neji gave Neji other ideas!"

"If he hadn't deliberately misled Neji, how could Neji have defected?"

"And the Inuzuka Clan!"

"If Kiba Inuzuka hadn't compared ninja dogs to the Hyuga Branch Family, deliberately humiliating Neji and striking a nerve, why would Neji have defected?!"

The office erupted at those words.

Tsume Inuzuka, head of the Inuzuka Clan, bristled instantly. Her eyes widened as she cursed Hyuga Hiashi on the spot. Fucking shameless old bastard.

"Hey, Hyuga! Have you no shame?!"

"Our Inuzuka Clan has treated ninja dogs well for generations. Kiba never humiliated Neji. It was Neji who humiliated Kiba's partner!"

"So now treating our own companions well is a crime?!

You couldn't sort out your own clan's affairs, and now that something's gone wrong, you're blaming the Inuzuka Clan?!

Is this all the decency one of Konoha's great clans has?"

Danzo followed right behind her.

"Utterly absurd!"

"Your clan falls into turmoil, and instead of examining your own failures as clan head, you shift the blame onto an ordinary villager?"

"A mentally unstable boy with intellectual impairments can shake the very foundations of your Hyuga Clan?"

"Hiashi, do you truly have no sense of responsibility whatsoever?"

Miki Yūya had mental problems and abnormal intelligence. That was the conclusion of the higher-ups' investigation, unanimously acknowledged by every medical ninja in Konoha.

The Hyuga Clan was blaming an idiot and putting pressure on him? Had they no shame?

Hyuga Hiashi completely lost his temper.

"Why can't I blame him?!"

"Didn't Gaara of Sunagakure lose control because Miki Yūya provoked him?"

"If Sunagakure's incident can be blamed on him, why can't my Hyuga Clan's internal turmoil be laid at his feet?!"

The moment Hyuga Hiashi said that.

The room fell deathly silent.

To avoid damaging diplomatic relations between Konoha and Sunagakure, Konoha High Command had indeed refrained from pursuing the matter of Gaara nearly beating Miki Yūya to death.

After all, Gaara also had a get-out-of-jail-free card: he was an unstable lunatic too.

But after Hyuga Hiashi said that, everyone looked at him differently.

Gaara, Sunagakure's jinchūriki, was already mentally damaged, a madman who had spent years being eroded by a tailed beast.

Miki Yūya was infamous throughout the village for having something wrong with his head and abnormal intelligence.

Two lunatics confronting each other and going mad was perfectly reasonable, no matter how much of a disturbance they caused.

Nobody would really blame two lunatics. And frankly, Gaara belonged to Sunagakure. His savage beating of Miki Yūya had not harmed Konoha's interests.

Yet Hyuga Hiashi insisted on dragging that incident into this and forcing the comparison.

Seated at the head of the room, Tsunade rubbed her brow, utterly speechless. Finally, she could not help speaking.

"Hiashi, if you insist on putting it that way."

"Then I can issue you a Severe Mental Instability Certificate too."

Hearing Tsunade's words, Tsume Inuzuka immediately chimed in.

"I agree with Lord Hokage!"

Danzo seized the chance to kick him while he was down, his face gloomy.

"I agree as well.

This was all that villager's fault and had nothing to do with the Hyuga Clan's head. It wasn't a deliberate failing on the Hyuga Clan's part. This only happened because its clan head is utterly incompetent and mentally unwell."

Everyone's eyes turned to Hyuga Hiashi, filled with mockery, scrutiny, and contempt.

Gaara was mentally ill, which was why he took Miki Yūya seriously and was driven mad by him. If Hiashi wanted to make that argument, they could stop holding another mentally ill man accountable too.

If there was something wrong with his brain, what more could any of them say?

Hyuga Hiashi's face darkened. Nobody in the Hokage's Office was joking.

As long as Hyuga Hiashi admitted there was something wrong with his head too, they could let this matter slide.

But would Hyuga Hiashi admit that? The Hyuga Clan's dignity was at stake.

"It was... my failing as clan head."

"The resentment between the Main Family and the branch family ran deep. My failure to resolve it in time led to this incident."

"The Hyuga Clan is willing to accept full responsibility for this incident."

A concealed smile flickered in Danzo's eye.

This was exactly the outcome he wanted.

The Uchiha, once Konoha's greatest clan, existed in name only. Allowing the Hyuga Clan to become the sole dominant power and overshadow Konoha would bring the village nothing but harm.

Putting Hyuga Hiashi in his place and suppressing the Hyuga Clan's prestige today had been his intention all along.

Tsunade gave a slight nod and calmly settled the matter.

"Since the Hyuga Clan accepts full responsibility."

"Shizune, bring Miki Yūya, the person involved, to the office."

"It's time to settle this affair."

"Yes!"

Shizune withdrew at her command. A short while later, she slowly entered the Hokage's Office, pushing an electric wheelchair.

When everyone saw the figure in the wheelchair clearly, all the Konoha higher-ups froze.

The boy, who should have been clean and resting, was covered in rotten vegetable leaves, sticky egg, dust, and mud.

His plaster was filthy and stained all over, leaving him looking wretched and pitiful.

Danzo narrowed his lone eye and immediately seized on this new ammunition, angrily launching another attack on Hyuga Hiashi.

"Outrageous! Utterly outrageous!"

"The Hyuga are one of Konoha's foremost ninja clans, yet they have no sense of responsibility whatsoever!"

"Look, Hiashi! You couldn't quell your own clan's internal turmoil, so you left a mentally unstable, intellectually impaired villager to bear the entire village's displaced anger and malice alone."

"Is there no law of the land? Are there no laws?!"

In his wheelchair, Miki Yūya was utterly furious.

Fuck you, you old dog Danzo! I just got here and you're already insulting me! Who are you calling mentally unstable? Who are you calling intellectually impaired?

His fingers moved slightly, turning the wheelchair around once more.

The glaring black words on white paper were revealed to every higher-up again-

[A bunch of worthless fools!]

Boom!

Those few words instantly extinguished the flames Danzo had just stoked.

Mitokado Homura, Utatane Koharu, Tsume Inuzuka, Danzo, Hyuga Hiashi...

Every member of Konoha's top brass turned toward Miki Yūya, their faces instantly livid.

Insolent!

Utterly insolent!

A villager confined to a wheelchair, paralyzed and unable to move.

He actually dared to publicly call all of Konoha's higher-ups worthless fools.

This was entirely the Hyuga Clan's fault. What did it have to do with them?

[Ding! Conqueror's Haki +11]

[Ding! Conqueror's Haki +12]

Mitokado Homura frowned deeply. As an elder of the village's older generation who valued dignity above all else, he immediately stepped forward.

He reached out, tore the insolent sheet of white paper off the back of the wheelchair, and replaced it with a brand-new banner.

Its handwriting was neat, its slogan righteous, every word grand and respectable-

[With love in Konoha, happiness is always here]

Having finished, Mitokado Homura assumed the manner of a kindly elder and calmly smoothed things over.

"He really is an intellectually impaired illiterate. Ah, what a pity for this child."

"Look, Hiashi. He can't even write words praising the village properly. How could he possibly stir up trouble and sow discord among the great clans?"

Those words neutralized Miki Yūya's "bullying" on the spot.

Miki Yūya:

"!!!"

What the fuck? Are you all insane? Who's the illiterate here? Can you actually take a proper look?

He was frantic.

With his throat severely injured, he could not speak. He could only open his mouth, his whole body stiff, and let out urgent whimpers of "Mm, mm! Ah, ah!"

Seeing Miki Yūya so agitated, everyone thought Mitokado Homura was right. This was simply an idiot.

Even Hyuga Hiashi felt a pang of guilt at the sight of Miki Yūya sitting in his wheelchair, so worked up as he went "Mm, mm! Ah, ah!"

He really was a bastard, trying to shift all the blame onto such a miserable villager. Just look at him-he was even drooling.

Seeing Miki Yūya struggling to say something but unable to get anything out, the others stepped forward to speak on his behalf.

Mitokado Homura spoke kindly.

"Don't get worked up, child. There's no need to thank me. Caring for villagers is simply my duty as an elder of Konoha."

Danzo followed closely, putting on an air of impartial righteousness.

"Konoha will never mistreat any villager, much less discriminate against the injured.

Focus on recovering. The village will keep you safe."

Tsume Inuzuka's eyes filled with tears. What a good child. Even with his intellectual impairments, he had been willing to run out and face a vicious ninja for Kiba and Akamaru.

"Yūya, the Inuzuka Clan will never forget how you spoke up for us.

Don't worry. We won't mistreat you. From now on, you're Akamaru's older brother!"

Tsume Inuzuka truly meant it. Ninja dogs held a very high status in the Inuzuka Clan. Making Miki Yūya Akamaru's older brother really meant treating him as family.

[Ding! Observation Haki +6]

[Ding! Observation Haki +7]

Bastards, every last one of you was a bastard!!

Who the hell wanted to be a dog's big brother? Fuck, could you just let me talk?!

But with Miki Yūya unable to speak, everyone simply filled in what they thought he wanted to say.

Seeing how worked up Miki Yūya was, Tsume Inuzuka came over to comfort him.

"Yūya, it's all right. Even though you don't have what it takes to be a ninja dog, Akamaru won't look down on you. He's very fond of you."

"Mmmph, mmmph, mmmph!!!" (Fuck, it had to be Akamaru-no, it had to be that bastard Akainu! If you wanted to repay me, then repay me. Why the fuck did you have to make me your big brother!!)

In the end, every gaze fell on Hyuga Hiashi.

Left with no choice, Hyuga Hiashi looked at Miki Yūya, who was frantically making muffled cries in his wheelchair, and offered a solemn apology in a low voice.

"Yūya, this was the Hyuga Clan's fault, and you were caught up in it."

"The Hyuga Clan will cover all your treatment expenses."

"I will devote all the Hyuga Clan's wealth to providing Lady Tsunade with the finest medical resources so she can cure you completely."

Miki Yūya completely lost it.

You were sorry? If you were sorry, then give me the money!

Who the hell wanted you to give the money to Tsunade!!

I was the one who got hurt, I was the one who suffered! I was the one bullied by the whole village, too!

And you gave the money to Tsunade? Were you crazy, or was I? Were you out of your fucking mind?

Watching Miki Yūya tremble all over in agitation, Tsunade made a solemn promise in a loud voice:

"Hiashi, rest assured."

"Since the Hyuga Clan is funding everything, I will make sure to heal every one of Yūya's injuries!"

With that, Tsunade waved a hand.

"Shizune, take Yūya back."

"Yes."

Shizune nodded and pushed Miki Yūya slowly out of the Hokage's Office, where undercurrents still swirled.

Only then did the reckoning over this defection incident finally draw to a close.