Two hard slaps jolted Uchiha Kō awake. He opened his eyes and saw that expressionless face, and his soul nearly flew out of his body.
"W-we're police officers!" he stammered. "A villager came to the Konoha Military Police Force and reported that you were beating someone in the street, so w-we came..."
Hatake Sakumo didn't even raise an eyelid.
That was it?
He casually tossed him onto the ground. Uchiha Kō was already reeling from the vicious kick, and the fall nearly finished him off.
Hatake Sakumo turned and went back into the restaurant. He sat down in his old seat and said to the somewhat stunned Kakashi, "Let's finish eating."
Kakashi came to his senses and lowered his head to resume shoveling down his food.
The other customers weren't nearly as composed. Seeing that the fight was over and the members of the Konoha Military Police Force had all been knocked down, they abandoned their meals and fled.
The owner hid behind the counter, trembling.
He remembered how the famous Konoha White Fang had taken a sip of fish soup, then smashed the bowl against a police officer's head with a smack.
Could it be... that the fish soup tasted bad?
Was he going to come after the owner next?
The owner's imagination ran wilder and wilder, and his calves began to cramp.
Hatake Sakumo had no idea what the owner was thinking. He thought the fish soup tasted wonderfully authentic!
The original owner's memories said the same. The fish served at this restaurant wasn't the best in the village, but its fish soup was unmatched.
He tipped his chin toward the counter. "Another bowl of fish soup, please."
The owner said, "..."
It had been a false alarm. The man simply liked it.
Before long, father and son finished their meal. No one else came to cause trouble in the meantime.
But ANBU and Root had already reported the whole farce to the Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and the "Shadow," Shimura Danzō.
The Hokage's office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was forty-nine and at the height of his power. The Third Shinobi World War had yet to deal a blow to his ambitions, and he was still immersed in his aspiration to stand alongside the First and Second Hokage.
He sat behind his desk, digesting the news ANBU had just reported, his fingers tapping the desktop.
Hatake Sakumo...
He leaned back in his chair, pondering the man he found increasingly difficult to understand.
Had things gone so far they had turned to the opposite extreme? Had his attempt to suppress this sharp blade instead caused it to turn against him?
Hiruzen Sarutobi picked up his teacup and took a sip, thinking, Sakumo, Sakumo, if you'd obediently remained the blade in my hand, you wouldn't have suffered this misfortune. But you just had to abandon the mission for a comrade.
Once a blade in one's hand developed a mind of its own, its master would no longer trust it.
Ever since the end of the Second Shinobi World War, Hatake Sakumo's prestige had soared, and he was on his way to winning the recognition of the entire village.
How could Hiruzen Sarutobi, at the height of his power, tolerate someone who could threaten his position?
So he and Shimura Danzō had joined forces to orchestrate this campaign of public bullying against Hatake Sakumo.
From what he knew of Sakumo, the man was deeply influenced by the Will of Fire and regarded the villagers and the village as family. Betrayed by his "family," his convictions were bound to crumble, leaving him unable to recover.
The plan had gone smoothly. In two months, the man had indeed fallen apart.
Yet today, he seemed to have become a different person, actually attacking a Chunin and members of the Konoha Military Police Force?
The more Hiruzen Sarutobi thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. He used the Telescope Technique.
The crystal ball on his desk glimmered, revealing Hatake Sakumo and his son Kakashi Hatake emerging from the fish restaurant...
Hiruzen stared at the scene for a long time, but ultimately didn't send ANBU to summon him.
He would watch a little longer.
Had the man's temperament truly changed, or... was there something else behind it?
What Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't know was that Hatake Sakumo was currently planning how to settle accounts with him and Danzo that very night.
On the way home.
Kakashi kept sneaking glances at his father out of the corner of his eye.
Everything that had happened today had shaken him badly. His father had beaten someone up, had beaten up members of the Konoha Military Police Force...
Hatake Sakumo paid the boy's looks no mind.
He was going over his plans for what came next.
Danzo had to die. He had done the most to bring about the original owner's tragedy, and leaving him alive would only cause trouble.
Hiruzen Sarutobi... had to die too.
For all his kindly grandfather act, he had condoned the bullying, and he had to die for it. More importantly, Hatake Sakumo wanted to become Hokage too!
After those two died, only Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu would remain among Konoha's senior leadership.
Those two were also disciples of the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, and now served as Konoha's advisors.
After Hiruzen and Danzo were killed, whether or not the village descended into chaos would be up to those two.
If he wanted to take the position of Fourth Hokage without a hitch, his achievements in the Second Shinobi World War and his usual prestige wouldn't be enough. He needed the support of both advisors.
The question was, how could he get them to support him?
Intimidation? Too crude, and likely to cause trouble later.
Bribery? What hadn't those two seen before?
Something came to Hatake Sakumo's mind.
The Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal.
It was a forbidden technique known only to Konoha's core leadership!
The original owner had gained access to this forbidden technique during his lifetime thanks to his strength and the level of his missions.
The Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal was a voice-triggered forbidden technique that affected the nerves, involving a Cursed Seal engraved on the tongue.
If the person subjected to it tried to speak of anything the caster had forbidden, the Cursed Seal would activate, paralyzing their entire body and leaving them unable to speak. Their life and death would also rest entirely on the caster's whim.
The original owner had hated and disdained the technique, but he had studied it in private, determined to find a way to break it.
He knew a thing or two about how Danzo used the technique to control Root. Precisely because he knew, he had wanted to break it and rescue the Root members bound by the Cursed Seal.
But the technique was difficult to learn, and breaking it was harder still.
In the end, all the original owner had managed was to master the technique. He had never found a way to break it.
What the original owner had scorned was a treasure in the eyes of the present Hatake Sakumo.
It was excellent for controlling subordinates. If he engraved one on Mitokado Homura and another on Utatane Koharu, the two advisors would become his most dependable "people."
When the time came, he would lay all the bullying he had endured over the past two months, and the accusation that he had "harmed the village's interests," squarely at the feet of Hiruzen Sarutobi and Shimura Danzō.
The dead couldn't defend themselves, after all. Then, with his achievements in the Second Shinobi World War, his usual prestige, and the joint support of the two advisors...
The position of Fourth Hokage was as good as his!
At ten that night, Hatake Sakumo lay in bed with his eyes open, going over the plan once more: first kill Hiruzen Sarutobi, then kill Shimura Danzō, and finally engrave the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal on Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu.
At that moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi had just left the Hokage's office and was preparing to return to the Sarutobi residence to rest.
He had been busy all evening. He hadn't been spying on Hatake Sakumo through the crystal ball for long before an elder of the Uchiha Clan came to see him.
The elder's face was livid when he entered, and anger colored his words.
"Lord Hokage, Hatake Sakumo seriously injured a four-man squad from the Konoha Military Police Force. He's openly defying Konoha's rules. Please order his arrest, Lord Hokage!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi held his teacup and took his time answering.
He leisurely blew the froth aside before looking up. "Have the injured been taken care of?"
The elder was taken aback. "They have, but Lord Hokage, we Uchiha can't swallow this insult."
"Then you may leave for now," Hiruzen Sarutobi interrupted, his tone so even it betrayed no emotion. "Take care of the injured. I'll handle this."
The elder clenched his fists, his chest heaving twice. In the end, he couldn't hold back. "Lord Hokage! Hatake Sakumo... he's slapping Konoha in the face!"
"I said I'll handle it." Hiruzen Sarutobi looked up and gave him a measured glance.
That single glance pinned the elder to the spot. He opened his mouth, let out a heavy breath, and withdrew.
The door had barely closed, and the quiet hadn't lasted long, before someone else pushed it open.
Shimura Danzō.
He came in cold and bad-tempered.
"Hiruzen, Hatake Sakumo injured a Chunin and members of the Konoha Military Police Force. How do you intend to handle this?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi set down his teacup. "I have my own plans."
"Plans?" Danzo thumped his cane on the floor. "This is a perfect opportunity. Arrest Hatake Sakumo outright!"
"And then what? Sakumo's achievements speak for themselves," Hiruzen Sarutobi replied.
Danzo slammed his palm on the desk, making the teacup jump with a clink. "Hiruzen, as Hokage, you need to be decisive when the time calls for it! You're always hesitating, whether it's the Uchiha or Hatake Sakumo!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi drew out his pipe, lit it, and took a deep drag.
He exhaled, then looked through the white smoke at the furious old friend before him and spoke.
"Danzo, I'm the Hokage."
Those words were like a bucket of cold water poured over him.
Danzo's anger caught in his throat. He glared at Hiruzen Sarutobi, his chest heaving several times, but in the end he didn't utter another word.
After a long moment, he snorted, turned, and left, slamming the door behind him.
Hiruzen Sarutobi watched the still-swaying door, leaned back in his chair with his pipe in his mouth, and blew a smoke ring.
Whenever he argued with his old friend, all he had to do was deliver that finishing line-"Danzo, I'm the Hokage"-and Danzo would have to back down and leave.
It worked every time.
Midnight, at the Sarutobi residence.
In the bedroom, Hiruzen Sarutobi slept soundly with his wife, Biwako Sarutobi, in his arms.
A figure appeared silently in the room.
The newcomer wore a voluminous cloak, its hood covering his hair, and a mask over his face, leaving only his eyes exposed. He was wrapped up from head to toe.
It was Hatake Sakumo.
The original owner had often come to the Sarutobi residence to report on missions and attend meetings, so he was fairly familiar with its layout. With his strength besides, infiltrating the Hokage's home was no different from strolling through his own backyard.
But Hiruzen Sarutobi was Hiruzen Sarutobi, after all.
The figure had barely taken two steps into the bedroom when the man in bed snapped his eyes open.
"Who's there!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat bolt upright and examined the intruder by the moonlight streaming through the window.
The cloak and mask revealed nothing.
But the blade in the man's hand...
"White Fang..." he said, his voice utterly certain. "You're Hatake Sakumo!"