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"You say you didn't kill him? Then tell me, who did?" the middle-aged shinobi shot back.
"I..." Hiruzen opened his mouth, but for a moment, he had no idea how to explain. The truth was, he didn't know who the real culprit was either. The only lead they had was what Midorima had mentioned during the meeting: the Akatsuki.
"It was the Akatsuki," Jiraiya said, stepping forward and positioning himself in front of Hiruzen.
"Jiraiya, this has nothing to do with you."
The middle-aged shinobi's expression darkened the moment he saw Jiraiya approach.
Among the many shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village, Jiraiya and Tsunade were the only two toward whom the Uchiha clan still harbored a measure of goodwill. Part of the reason was that Jiraiya and Tsunade had consistently tried to mediate the tensions between the Uchiha clan and the village. But more importantly, during Tsunade's tenure as Hokage, the village's policies had genuinely begun to tilt in favor of the Uchiha clan. Because of this, the Uchiha clansmen tended to exercise a bit more patience when dealing with Jiraiya and Tsunade.
When Jiraiya stepped forward, the middle-aged shinobi found himself reluctant to engage with him. Not because he disliked Jiraiya, but because things had already escalated beyond reconciliation. If Jiraiya were to say something harsh now, then he, too, would become someone the man despised.
"It does have something to do with me. After all, I am a member of this village. I don't know how things spiraled into this state. All I can say is that it's deeply regrettable. During the meeting, someone already presented an analysis—both the death of Kimimaro and the death of the Kazekage may indeed be connected to someone from the Uchiha clan, but the true mastermind behind it all is someone else entirely. Uchiha Itachi was merely coerced into becoming an accomplice. This has nothing to do with the Uchiha clan as a whole. As for the veracity of this, once today's events are over, you can verify it yourself, alongside a Uchiha representative you trust, with the leaders of the other shinobi villages.
"Since those two incidents have nothing to do with the Uchiha clan, why on earth would the Hokage issue an order to kill you? Furthermore, even if the Hokage truly intended to make a move against you, would he really choose today of all days? The Five Kage Summit was about to convene—the village's security was already pushed to its absolute limit. Everyone just wanted to make it through this night smoothly. Was there any need to stir up even more trouble today?"
Jiraiya spoke with patient deliberation.
The middle-aged shinobi let out a cold laugh. "Didn't want to stir up trouble? If you really didn't want to cause more problems, then why were our clansmen killed? Do you dare deny that the ones who attacked us were shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village?"
"Yes, they were! But don't forget, the Sharingan can hypnotize those shinobi."
"Heh, so in other words, you're saying the Uchiha clan is behind all this?"
"No. I'm saying it's a shinobi of the Uchiha clan, but one individual cannot represent the entire Uchiha people. Take Itachi, for example." Jiraiya's patience, too, was gradually wearing thin.
"So what you're suggesting is that he hypnotized shinobi from outside the clan to murder his own clansmen? And what exactly would be his purpose in doing that?" the middle-aged shinobi sneered.
Jiraiya rolled his eyes.
How was he supposed to know what Itachi's purpose was? To plunge the Hidden Leaf Village into even greater chaos, thereby creating an opening for a sneak attack on the meeting hall?
Jiraiya's eyes widened, and he spun around to look at Hiruzen behind him. "What's the current situation at the meeting hall?"
"Reinforcements have already been dispatched. The situation over there is likely just as urgent. But with the Raikage, the Tsuchikage, and the Mizukage present, they should be able to withstand the Akatsuki's assault. Besides, Midorima is also the Six-Tails jinchuriki—there's no way his strength is insignificant," Hiruzen explained.
A sudden, profound sense of unease washed over Jiraiya.
The reason Hiruzen had dared to leave the meeting hall in the first place was precisely because he was relying on the formidable strength of the leaders from the various shinobi villages. But the members of the Akatsuki were not to be underestimated either, especially Pain, who possessed the Rinnegan. Once Pain entered the fray, there was absolutely no guarantee which way the battle would turn.
Yet they couldn't simply abandon their current position either. The only option left was to cut through the chaos as swiftly as possible. Either they persuaded these renegade shinobi to surrender, or they would have no choice but to eliminate them. But the latter was, without a doubt, the worst possible outcome, because there was still a significant portion of Uchiha shinobi who had shown no signs of rebellion whatsoever—who were, in fact, still diligently fulfilling their duties to protect the village. If only for their sake, one final attempt at persuasion had to be made.
Jiraiya steeled his resolve and was just about to try once more when, all of a sudden, a clamor of noise erupted from the crowd behind him.
Hiruzen sensed the disturbance as well and swiftly turned around. "What's going on?" he demanded.
Roughly ten seconds later, an Uchiha shinobi pushed his way through the crowd. The moment he laid eyes on Hiruzen, it was as if all the strength drained from his body, and he collapsed to the ground in a heap.
Jiraiya was badly startled by the sight of that shinobi.
The man's clothing was severely shredded, and blood was continuously seeping from his wounds, mixing with the dust and dirt and congealing on his exposed skin. It was painfully obvious that this shinobi had just been through a brutal assault.
"What happened?!" Jiraiya asked urgently.
"Bombs... Someone is dropping bombs from the sky." The Uchiha shinobi pointed upward. "We couldn't get through to reinforce the meeting hall. We were all blocked."
"The sky?!" Jiraiya looked up in alarm. By the light of the moon, he could just make out a giant bird circling in the night sky.
"That's it... It's dropping bombs on us!" the shinobi cried out.
Even as he spoke, the giant bird appeared to be releasing more objects downward. When they struck the rooftops, the impact instantly produced a deafening roar, and the buildings collapsed in on themselves. The bombs that landed on the open ground were even more devastating, killing and wounding several people in the blasts.
In the span of a few heartbeats, the crowd scattered in all directions, fleeing for their lives. Yet the packed, surging flow of people was struck by yet another explosion, and harrowing screams echoed all around.
This was an indiscriminate assault. Not only were the Leaf shinobi being bombed, but the encircled Uchiha renegades trapped in the middle had also become targets of the bombardment.
"Take cover, quickly!" The middle-aged shinobi stared up at the giant bird circling overhead, a throbbing pain settling in his head.
That massive bird was at least two to three hundred meters above the ground. While certain fire-style ninjutsu might have the range to reach it, the bird was no stationary target—it was constantly wheeling and circling through the air. Trying to hit it with fire-style techniques was completely impractical.
The middle-aged shinobi had already reached that conclusion in his mind. But there was no way he would simply sit back and await death. Besides, that giant bird was undeniably attacking his clansmen as well.
He launched a Great Fireball Technique at the bird, but the fireball was still mid-flight when the bird had already veered away from its original trajectory. It continued dropping bombs without pause, giving the middle-aged shinobi no opportunity to fight back.
Not far away, five shinobi draped in dark-colored cloaks stood upon a rooftop, their expressions utterly blank as they watched Deidara wantonly hurl bombs from above.
"Is it really all right for him to be doing that?" the Asura Path asked.
"What problem could there be? He's sowing chaos in the Hidden Leaf Village, making sure they're too preoccupied to focus on anything else," the Human Path replied.
"These shinobi really are pathetic, trying to use fire-style techniques against Deidara. There's absolutely no way they'll hit him," the Preta Path remarked.
"Don't let your guard down. Our objective is to prevent the Hokage and Jiraiya from reinforcing the meeting hall. Everyone, stay sharp," the Animal Path commanded.