Chapter 84: Announce It to the Entire Village—Listing Sarutobi Hiruzen’s Crimes!

This time, the Uchiha Police Force acted extremely quickly.

It seemed they were simply too eager to see Sarutobi Hiruzen’s reputation completely ruined.

The notice detailing Sarutobi Hiruzen’s crimes quickly spread throughout all of Konoha!

"A notice from the Police Force? Tch, what could those Uchiha guys possibly have to announce? Could it be a bunch of lies?"

"Wait, the notice says... the crimes of the Third Hokage?!"

Several Konoha villagers had gathered together to read the newly released notice.

After briefly reading its contents, their expressions changed on the spot!

That was the Hokage!

And the notice was actually using the word "crimes"!

"What kind of bullshit is this? It must be fake!"

"Exactly! And look how ridiculously long this notice is. How could the Third Hokage possibly have committed so many crimes?"

"Forget the Hokage. Who could even accumulate this many crimes?"

It wasn’t entirely their fault for refusing to believe it.

The notice was simply too long.

There were six major charges, along with countless other assorted crimes.

It was difficult for ordinary people to believe that anyone could have committed so many crimes.

And this person was none other than the Hokage of the village, Sarutobi Hiruzen, who had always presented himself as a kind and gentle old man!

"No need to rush. Let’s first see what kind of nonsense the Uchiha clan is spouting."

"The first one... Huh? It says the Third Hokage wanted to exterminate the Uchiha clan, and that the Uchiha were merely forced to resist!"

"They’ve completely twisted the truth! Does the Uchiha clan think we’re idiots?"

"Aoba, weren’t you at the meeting in the Hokage Tower earlier? Come tell everyone what really happened."

Among the crowd, two people were wearing jonin vests.

Both were Special Jonin who had attended the meeting at the Hokage Tower earlier.

Genma Shiranui and Aoba Yamashiro.

"...What’s written there is true."

Aoba Yamashiro’s expression was somewhat unpleasant as he spoke.

"Uchiha Reiji extracted all of this information from the two advisory elders. There is no way it could be fake."

"Besides, I went to take a look myself earlier. There really were traces of battle outside the Uchiha clan grounds."

"It really was the Third... No, Sarutobi Hiruzen, that bastard, who made the first move. The Uchiha clan only fought back afterward."

As he spoke, he had already changed the way he referred to Sarutobi Hiruzen.

What kind of bullshit Hokage!

After learning all those truths at the meeting earlier, practically everyone’s impression of Sarutobi Hiruzen had undergone a complete one-eighty-degree reversal!

Sarutobi Hiruzen wasn’t even worthy of being called a decent human being!

Remembering the respect he had once held for Sarutobi Hiruzen, Aoba Yamashiro couldn’t help feeling disgusted.

Beside him, Genma Shiranui’s hatred for Sarutobi Hiruzen was even stronger.

Seeing that even these two jonin had such an attitude, the Konoha villagers present were completely stunned.

Especially Aoba Yamashiro.

His attitude toward Sarutobi Hiruzen was filled with nothing but contempt and resentment!

For a moment, the people reading the notice looked at one another.

Could everything written on it actually be true?

Everyone hurriedly continued reading.

"Second charge: The Third Hokage used various methods to frame members of the Senju clan... Senju? I remember that’s the clan of the First and Second Hokage, right?"

"Not only that, the Third Hokage was also the Second Hokage’s disciple!"

"He actually framed the members of his own teacher’s clan? Is this really the Third Hokage I knew?"

They continued reading.

The third charge was deliberately delaying assistance and causing the Land of Uzumaki to be destroyed.

The people of Konoha didn’t know much about the Land of Uzumaki anymore.

Only a small number of people knew that the Land of Uzumaki had once been an ally of Konoha, and that the symbol of the Konoha shinobi was the crest of the Uzumaki clan.

Yet they had never expected this!

The Land of Uzumaki had clearly been Konoha’s ally, but the Third Hokage had actually abandoned it!

"Fourth charge... Huh? I remember this one. It happened a few years ago, when the village almost went to war with Kumogakure again!"

"The leader of the Kumogakure delegation kidnapped the daughter of the Hyuga clan head. After he was killed, Kumogakure actually threatened us and demanded that the culprit be handed over... and the Third Hokage actually agreed?"

"And the person pushed forward to die in order to settle the matter was the Hyuga clan head’s twin brother..."

"This... They were practically shitting on the Third Hokage’s neck, and he still swallowed it?!"

Everyone was dumbfounded.

No, where had all that ruthlessness from the first three charges gone?

He was so ruthless toward his own people, yet so cowardly when facing Kumogakure?

So he really was only good at internal conflict and useless against outsiders!

"No wonder. I remember a few years ago, when Kumogakure came to Konoha for the Chunin Exams, one of their shinobi called the Third Hokage a coward without a backbone. I was furious at the time. I didn’t expect it to actually be true!"

"I already knew about this back then, but the village issued a gag order and forbade us from spreading it."

"Heh! After doing something so humiliating, of course the Third Hokage wouldn’t want us to know!"

By this point, the Konoha villagers’ attitude toward Sarutobi Hiruzen had already undergone a drastic reversal.

There was no longer any respect in their words.

Various contemptuous remarks could be heard from time to time.

However, when they reached the fifth charge, many people fell silent.

"Lord White Fang... His failure on that mission was actually a trap designed by the Third Hokage?"

"Someone named Danzo spread rumors claiming that Lord White Fang’s decision had caused enormous losses to the village... I actually believed those words back then!"

"I also criticized Lord White Fang for failing to consider the bigger picture..."

"That damned Sarutobi Hiruzen! He actually framed Lord White Fang like this!"

"If Lord White Fang had become Hokage, the village wouldn’t have been forced to hand over one of its own people to Kumogakure a few years ago!"

Many of the older villagers still remembered the incident involving the White Fang of Konoha.

Rumors had spread throughout the village, claiming that the White Fang had abandoned his mission to save his comrades, causing enormous losses to the village.

Many people had joined in criticizing the White Fang.

Some said he had failed to consider the bigger picture.

Some said he was irresponsible.

Some had even said that someone like the White Fang wasn’t worthy of being called a shinobi!

Now, the truth had finally come out.

The so-called enormous losses caused to the village had merely been part of a trap designed to frame the White Fang.

The rumors throughout the village had also been deliberately encouraged.

Many people couldn’t help feeling guilty.

Some even cursed Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo furiously.

It seemed that placing all the blame on two dead men somehow made them feel as though they themselves had done nothing wrong.

However.

When everyone reached the sixth major charge, the entire crowd fell silent.

There was only one reason.

The sixth major charge revealed the identity of one person.

Uzumaki Naruto was the orphaned son of the Fourth Hokage.

Sarutobi Hiruzen had spread the rumor throughout the village that Naruto was a demon fox, causing the villagers to distance themselves from him, while he himself planned to use emotional manipulation to win Naruto over.

"That demon fox... That blond kid is the Fourth Hokage’s son?"

"Before the Fourth Hokage died, he sealed the Nine-Tailed Fox inside his newborn child..."

"We... What have we done all these years...?"

The milder treatment Naruto received was villagers pointing at him whenever they saw him.

They would even warn their children not to approach that demon-fox brat.

More seriously, some people verbally abused Naruto and refused to sell him things.

And in even worse cases, some people had deliberately sold Naruto expired food!

Among the crowd, Genma Shiranui’s body swayed violently, and he nearly collapsed.

Aoba Yamashiro hurriedly supported him.

"Aoba... I’ve done nothing all these years..."

Genma Shiranui spoke with a blank expression.

Back then, he, Raidō Namiashi, and Iwashi Tatami had all served as guards for the Fourth Hokage.

The Fourth Hokage had even taught them his own signature technique, the Flying Thunder God Technique!

Although they had learned it terribly...

That alone demonstrated how much the Fourth Hokage valued them!

The three of them had been more than ordinary shinobi at the time.

They had actually been chosen to serve as the Hokage’s guards.

That had been an enormous honor!

Yet after the Fourth Hokage died, his orphaned son had been left with no one to care for him.

And he, a former guard of the Fourth Hokage, had done nothing.

"...Sarutobi Hiruzen ordered us not to approach Naruto. You couldn’t exactly disobey the Hokage’s orders."

Aoba Yamashiro comforted him.

"But it was still something I should have done..."

"The Fourth Hokage’s orphan had no one to care for him, yet I, someone who once served as the Fourth Hokage’s guard, completely failed to fulfill my responsibility!"

"Earlier, when Uchiha Reiji asked us who had ever taken care of Uzumaki Naruto, I felt nothing but overwhelming shame!"

Genma Shiranui’s face was filled with pain.

Any Konoha jonin who wasn’t an idiot could have guessed Naruto’s identity.

He was called the demon fox, and his age matched the year of the Nine-Tails’ attack.

He also had golden hair and blue eyes that looked almost exactly like the Fourth Hokage’s!

Anyone who couldn’t figure it out would truly have been blind.

"Now, all we can do is find a way to make it up to Naruto."

Aoba Yamashiro sighed.

And it wasn’t just Genma Shiranui, one of the Fourth Hokage’s former guards.

The entire village of Konoha owed Uzumaki Naruto a debt.

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