Because Kakashi had just heard what this man had said.
About young ninja like Obito and Rin, about Konoha's two founding clans, and about the Sarutobi Clan.
Those words had swirled together into a vortex that seemed to drag his thoughts into it.
If all that was true, then what about Father?
Hear him out. At least hear what he thinks.
Kakashi silently raised a kunai, blocking the Sarutobi ninja who had charged forward.
"Senior Kakashi?" The ninja froze.
"Let him finish." Kakashi's voice was unusually calm.
Shuofang Si seized the opportunity and raised his voice so everyone present could hear.
"Everyone knows that Konoha's White Fang, Hatake Sakumo, was hailed as the 'Half-Sleeved Hokage' for his outstanding achievements! There were even calls for him to become the next Hokage!"
People in the crowd nodded in agreement. Several older villagers chimed in. "Yes, I remember. Lord White Fang really was highly respected back then."
"Everyone called him a hero!"
"His death was such a shame..."
Shuofang Si waited for those voices to subside a little, then sharply raised his voice.
"Then here's the question. The mission he was carrying out must have been an extremely difficult, classified assignment for him to have been forced to abandon it for his teammates!"
"But how did every ordinary villager on every street hear about a classified mission of that level?!"
Silence.
Deathly silence.
"Who leaked the mission details? Who spread the specifics of how he abandoned it? How did secrets that should have been locked away in the Anbu archives spread throughout the village overnight?"
Shuofang Si's voice pierced the heart of everyone present who knew about the incident.
"Because his reputation was too great! Because he had already threatened Hiruzen Sarutobi's power and position as Hokage! So someone needed to ruin him!"
"He didn't betray the mission. Someone betrayed him!"
That blow hit far too hard.
The crowd erupted into an uproar far fiercer than before.
"Exactly! I never thought about it. How would we have heard about a classified mission like that?"
"Lord White Fang's death really was suspicious..."
"I thought something was wrong back then, but I didn't dare say it!"
"Could it really have been the Third...?"
And Kakashi?
He stood motionless, the voices around him seeming to fade until only Shuofang Si's words echoed.
All he could think about was that one sentence Shuofang Si had just spoken, turning it over and over in his mind.
Yes. Someone betrayed him.
How could every ordinary villager on the street have known about a classified mission like that?
He had worked in the Anbu and examined his father's mission records.
That mission had been classified as S-rank. Under Anbu secrecy regulations, no details should have leaked even if the mission failed.
Yet back then, the news had spread faster than a Hokage's decree.
His father's mistake in abandoning the mission had been embellished until it became the talk of the entire village.
He had once thought that was simply how cold the world was, that people just couldn't keep their mouths shut.
But he had never considered that someone might have been pulling strings behind it all.
He abruptly raised his head. Something was stirring in his one exposed eye.
Seeing that his words had had enough time to sink in, Shuofang Si spoke again.
Everyone else immediately quieted down, eager to hear what shocking revelation he would unleash next.
"Why was it the young Fourth Hokage who died during the Nine-Tails Rebellion? Why was it Minato Namikaze who sealed the Nine-Tails, rather than the Third Hokage, who was already an old man?"
He pointed at the elderly man fighting Orochimaru inside the barrier.
"He had already stepped down back then, while the Fourth was in his prime. And he was the Professor of Ninjutsu. Shouldn't he have been better equipped to handle it than Minato Namikaze?"
"If he truly embodied the will of fire, if he truly was willing to give his life for the village, then on the night of the Nine-Tails Rebellion, he should have been the one to take the Nine-Tails down with him!"
"Not that young hero who had only just become Hokage, whose child had just been born!"
Shuofang Si's voice had gone hoarse, but every word rang clearly across the entire arena.
"The moment that young hero died, he stepped right back in and seized power again. Tell me, is that what he calls the will of fire?!"
By now, many of the unconscious villagers in the arena had awakened. Konoha's ninja, having cleared the surrounding stands, had also approached, and several hundred people crowded around to watch.
And the crowd fell utterly silent.
The gray-haired old man who had been praising the Third Hokage earlier now gripped his walking stick with a violently trembling hand.
He wanted to say something, but couldn't get a single word out.
The burly men who had thrown stones at Shuofang Si lowered their heads, their clenched fists hanging limply at their sides.
The women who had glared at him turned deathly pale, their gazes darting away, no longer daring to look at the purple barrier.
And the ninja knew more than the villagers did.
Every point this young villager raised was a doubt that had once crossed their minds, but that they had never dared examine closely.
Was this the truth? Not necessarily all of it. Some of it was fact, some was conspiracy theory, and some was even taken out of context.
But once a wound in people's hearts was torn open, emotions that had built up over decades came pouring out, each clamoring to be released first.
Something was brewing in the hearts of countless villagers.
Exactly. Hiruzen Sarutobi was fighting for his life today against the treacherous student he himself had let escape, and he had let all of Konoha end up in this dreadful state.
And that ugly face of his, clinging to power and persecuting heroes and talented people, was enough to make anyone sick.
At that moment, every villager in the arena went completely berserk.
You old bastard, you hid in the village whenever war broke out, and you had the nerve to call yourself the strongest Hokage? It was all empty hype!
Our friends and family had to go to war when they were barely more than toddlers. At twelve, they were sent straight to the front lines on suicide missions, their names carved onto the Memorial Stone before their time.
Meanwhile, you lived in comfort, kept your grip on power, and now your face was covered in age spots.
Looking at it that way, all those powerful ninja who had left the village or died were casualties of his filthy schemes to hold on to power!
Hero, my ass! Strongest, my ass!
He had destroyed the entire village for his own selfish desires. He deserved to die!
All the resentment and hatred everyone had buried in their hearts for who knew how many years exploded at once, blasting straight through the tops of their heads.
The villagers who had just been complaining about the attackers and cursing Shuofang Si abruptly switched targets.
Faces swollen from crying, eyes bloodshot, they glared fixedly at Hiruzen Sarutobi inside the barrier.
Earthshaking curses erupted all around as they vented their rage.
"Hiruzen Sarutobi, you old bastard!"
"You've been Hokage your whole life, and you've only gotten more useless!"
"You drove away all three of your Sannin students, and you pushed out every rising talent who wasn't on your side!"
"Our children ended up on the Memorial Stone before their time! But your Sarutobi Clan managed to keep three thousand people alive in a profession as dangerous as being a ninja?!"
"I remember that back then, the Senju Clan either went to the very front lines or disappeared in those experiments."
At that point, even an older ninja stepped forward. His approval for promotion to jonin had been held up for years, and he had long resented the Third. Seeing more than a hundred villagers denouncing him together, he couldn't resist kicking him while he was down.
"The Fourth Hokage fought to his dying breath to stop the disaster! He gave his life to protect the village! What about you?! What can you do besides fight among yourselves and ruin people's lives?!"
A middle-aged man whose entire family had been buried alive beneath the rubble, leaving him the sole survivor, screamed with bloodshot eyes until his voice cracked.
"Do you even know how to teach anyone? Do you know how to run a village?! Before you took over, we were the strongest village in the shinobi world, with so many talented people!"
"All those decades as Hokage amounted to nothing! You just clung to power and coasted through life!"
"The village is rotten with longstanding problems, and there are dangers everywhere! Are you blind? Can't you see them?"
"And now you're still putting on airs as Hokage? Who are you trying to fool? Have you no shame, you old bastard?!"
Before you continue