Konoha seemed to have been submerged in thick, viscous poison overnight.
The news that Hatake Sakumo's team had failed its mission and struggled home with an unfamiliar girl and a damaged token box was like a pebble dropped into a placid lake.
And the puppeteer lurking in the shadows instantly turned those ripples into a murky wave that devoured everything.
What first began to spread was not public condemnation, but carefully manufactured "inside information" and "reasonable questions," circulated through the countless covert channels controlled by Root.
Like a mutated virus, this information took on multiple lethal forms, each precisely targeted at a different group:
The first attack used "loyalty" to hold the leadership hostage and constrain its power.
On the very night Sakumo's team returned to the village, a sternly worded emergency report personally submitted by Shimura Danzō landed on Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi's desk almost simultaneously with urgent intelligence from the northern border: "Unusual movements in Iwagakure; suspected large-scale troop mobilization."
Danzo's report not only "described" in detail how Sakumo had "deliberately abandoned the mission objective to rescue a young girl of unknown identity, causing the alliance agreement with the Land of Iron to collapse."
It also included a vague yet heavily suggestive statement from team member Ishikawa Ken: "...The captain was agitated at the time and seemed to have a close relationship with the girl... Although I did everything I could to urge him to prioritize the mission..."
The report cleverly recast a complicated mission failure as "willful dereliction of duty" and "possible personal involvement."
Meanwhile, the tense situation on the northern border could not be ignored.
As Hokage, Hiruzen had to respond immediately, deploy troops, and stabilize the defensive line.
Danzo seized the opportunity to advise him. "Hiruzen, the situation in the north is critical. You must