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The air crackled with unspoken tension. "Ron..." Tsunade's voice, usually sharp and decisive, wavered, a fragile thread stretched taut. She darted a nervous glance at Kushina, her words a hesitant whisper, "Ron, are you truly intent on bringing turmoil to Konoha?" It was a question she desperately hoped to avoid, a dangerous undercurrent she tried to navigate with delicate precision.
Ron's gaze, sharp as fractured ice, pinned her. "What. Did you just call me?" The simple question, delivered in a tone that promised retribution, hung heavy in the silence.
Tsunade's usually imperious little nose wrinkled, a flicker of reluctant submission in her eyes. "Master."
Ron: "What did you just call me?"
Tsunade wrinkled her little nose. "Master."
What? Master?
Wait… you, me, him? What kind of arrangement is this?
Even though Kushina was in a complicated mood, she couldn't help but twitch the corner of her mouth at that.
But the shock only lasted a few seconds before her expression turned somber again.
Konoha… Namikaze Minato…
After the Third Shinobi World War, she was supposed to marry Namikaze Minato.
And now…
She didn't dare to imagine what things would be like when she returned to Konoha.
In fact, she wasn't even sure if she wanted to return at all.
"What do you mean by me causing trouble for Konoha?" Ron frowned at Tsunade's words.
"I was on my way to Konoha to talk business with Orochimaru, and I got ambushed halfway there. And you're saying I'm the one causing trouble for Konoha?"
Tsunade flinched under Ron's glare, lowering her head.
But, still worried about Konoha, she muttered under her breath, "But you're fine… and you killed all your attackers..."
Ron chuckled coldly. "If I didn't have the skill, and they had killed me, that would've been my fate.
"But since I was stronger and killed them instead, that was theirs. However, that doesn't mean my anger is gone. And it sure as hell doesn't mean that everyone responsible has been punished."
Tsunade shot back, "You already killed Danzo. Who else needs to be punished?"
"Hiruzen Sarutobi," Ron said calmly.
"The old man?!" Tsunade's eyes widened. "What does he have to do with this?"
Ron gazed ahead. In the distance, a village was slowly coming into view.
"Kushina, as the Jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails, left the village, and you think the Hokage didn't know?"
"Danzo made such a huge move, and you think he wasn't aware of it?"
Tsunade defended, "He was deceived!"
Ron sneered. "If he could be deceived that easily, then he shouldn't be Hokage."
"Don't underestimate Hiruzen Sarutobi. Nothing major happens in Konoha without him knowing."
Tsunade shook her head. "No, you don't understand. In Konoha, Danzo holds a lot of power. There are many things even the old man isn't aware of."
Ron turned to look at her. "If that's true, then the real Hokage is Danzo, not Hiruzen."
Kushina finally spoke up. "No, that's not how it is. The Hokage can't control Danzo completely.
"The Hokage is a good man. There were many times when Danzo wanted to act against me, but the Hokage stopped him. If not for him, I would've been taken into Root and disappeared."
Ron scoffed. "He knew the Land of Whirlpools was under attack. He knew that some of the attackers were from Root, coming for the Uzumaki clan's sealing techniques."
"When you were a child and enemy shinobi infiltrated the village to kidnap you, it was him who let them in on purpose."
"It was a setup so Namikaze Minato could save you, a classic 'hero saves the damsel' scenario, forcing a bond between you two."
"That way, the Jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails would truly become Konoha's weapon, just like Uzumaki Mito before you."
"No way! That's impossible!" Kushina shouted, trembling with emotion.
If that were true, then everything she had gone through was orchestrated. Her life would have been nothing but a carefully crafted illusion.
She couldn't accept that.
Ron had no interest in explaining further and simply continued, "I remember Kato Dan had a Spirit Transformation Jutsu..."
.
.
"Soul Projection, countless deaths."
"Logically speaking, using the Soul Projection technique should be done in a secure rear position, somewhere hidden, with allies guarding the body."
"However, he was ambushed right in the middle of his own camp."
"From what I know, if Dan Kato hadn't died, he would have been a strong contender for the Hokage position."
"And those with both the ability and the qualifications to compete for Hokage include Danzo, Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Sakumo Hatake."
Ignoring Tsunade, who kept trying to speak, Ron continued.
"What's really interesting is that out of the three direct disciples of the Hokage, none of you died. But the other two did."
"And their deaths were strange—highly suspicious."
Tsunade felt a wave of complex emotions. She knew Ron made sense, but she didn't want to believe it, let alone think too deeply about it.
All she could do was argue back, "At that time, the old man was still strong and healthy. What does that have to do with competing for Hokage?"
"Besides, the Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze, wasn't weak either. He was also a strong candidate for the Fourth Hokage."
When Tsunade mentioned Minato, Kushina's expression shifted into something unreadable.
Ron looked at Tsunade. "During the Second Shinobi War, Minato was just a kid."
"But if Dan Kato wanted to be Hokage, you—being the granddaughter of both the First and Second Hokage—would have definitely supported him."
"So, guess who would have ended up as the Fourth Hokage?"
It would have been Dan Kato!
Shizune and Kushina both arrived at the same conclusion in their minds.
Tsunade, as the Third Hokage's student, had all the political advantages stacked in her favor. If Dan Kato had lived and Tsunade didn't fight for the position herself, then the Fourth Hokage would have been him, no doubt.
Ron chuckled. "So, he died."
"After his death, you were devastated. Everyone noticed."
"You lost hope and naturally withdrew from the fight for Hokage..."
"But just eliminating Dan Kato wasn't enough. So, your little brother, Nawaki, had to die too."
"In the end, the result was perfect. Two of the strongest contenders for Hokage were gone."
"And to make it even more suspicious—Nawaki was Orochimaru's student."
"His death made Orochimaru realize how fragile life was, pushing him away from the Hokage competition and into his obsession with immortality."
"Then came Sakumo Hatake's death."
"With Jiraiya's personality, he was never going to fight for Hokage either."
"So, in the end, all the real competitors for Hokage were conveniently eliminated. Don't you think that's a little too coincidental?"
Ron's words carried countless conspiracies, sending a shiver down Shizune's spine.
This wasn't the Konoha she had always believed in.
Oh god. Were people really this ruthless? So ruthless that darkness covered everything?
"Lord Ron, are you saying... Danzo was behind all of this?"
Ron raised an eyebrow. "I never said that. I'm just pointing out how suspicious these events are."
"Oh, and by the way, Konoha has been researching Wood Release—essentially, the First Hokage's cells."
"Because of that, countless people with Senju blood have mysteriously disappeared."
"As for where they went? I have no idea. But they're gone."
"The Senju Clan, the very people who built this village, somehow ended up wiped out within their own home. Isn't that interesting?"
"And Nawaki—after he was blown up, his internal organs were removed."
"What kind of enemy would specifically take out someone's organs after killing them?"
Someone researching Wood Release!
This time, the three of them didn't even need to think about it—they all reached the same conclusion instantly."
.
.
Researchers of Wood Release!
"The truly fascinating detail," Ron's voice sliced through the tension, a low, predatory purr, "is this: of the Hokage's three direct disciples, you survived. But the other two were killed..." He paused, letting the weight of his words settle, the silence amplifying the unspoken accusation. "And their deaths weren't merely deaths. They were... peculiar. Highly, suspiciously so."
The air in the room thickened, charged with unspoken dread. Tsunade felt a tempest of emotions swirling within her, a chaotic vortex of denial and chilling comprehension. Ron's words, each syllable precise and sharp, resonated with a disturbing truth she desperately wanted to ignore. He laid bare the unsettling inconsistencies, the hidden shadows lurking beneath the surface of official reports. She knew he was right. The nagging doubts, the subtle discrepancies she had pushed aside for years, now screamed for attention.
Ron's words shocked them over and over again.
It was hard to believe. This is Konoha. This is the place we've lived in all our lives.
Shizune handled it a bit better. She just felt a deep chill, thinking, The adult world is so dirty.
Especially the people circling around the Hokage—they were the filthiest of all.
But Kushina and Tsunade? They had fallen into complete silence.
They weren't on the verge of breaking down yet, but their disappointment in Konoha was growing.
Of course, none of this had anything to do with Ron.
To him, what they thought didn't matter at all.
He was just explaining things so that, in the future, when he was no longer in the Shinobi World, there would be two people left who could hold down the fort.
If they ended up being hopelessly loyal to Konoha, he wouldn't mind swapping them out for someone else.
In his heart, there were only one and a half people who truly mattered.
Gwen counted as one. Elena counted as half.
Call him a scumbag, say he's irresponsible—it didn't make a difference to him.
From the very first interaction, everything had already been given a price.
While the three women remained silent, the four of them had already arrived outside Konoha Village...
"....."