"The old man… is going to die?" Jiraiya murmured in shock.
From the way Kaede Kitahara's diary kept bringing up the Fifth Hokage, Five-and-a-Half Hokage, Sixth Hokage, Seventh Hokage, and so on, he had vaguely guessed that Sarutobi Hiruzen might die someday in the future.
After all, at that age, by ninja standards, he had already served an exceptionally long time.
Still, that had only been a faint suspicion. Jiraiya had never dared to think too deeply about it.
But now, what Kaede had written today was basically forcing the thing they had all avoided thinking about right in front of them.
It was true that Jiraiya had deep conflicts with the Third Hokage, especially regarding certain secrets of Konoha's upper ranks. Otherwise, he would not have used the excuse of hunting Orochimaru to stay outside Konoha's system for so many years, to the point that he barely even returned to the village.
In truth, all three of the Legendary Sannin had been deeply hurt by Konoha's leadership.
Had Senju Tsunade really left just because of hemophobia?
Or was it because her lover and younger brother had died under unclear circumstances, combined with the Senju Clan's gradual withdrawal? Too many high-level power struggles were entangled in that, which was why she had stayed away from Konoha for so long.
Even Orochimaru, why had he become what he was? Aside from his own ambition, the village leadership also bore part of the blame.
All three harbored grievances toward their teacher, Sarutobi Hiruzen. The only difference was how deep those grievances ran.
But that did not mean Jiraiya could accept his teacher dying, especially dying at Orochimaru's hands.
"Orochimaru… Orochimaru, you bastard. What the hell are you trying to do?" Jiraiya exploded in fury.
Just the thought of his teacher's death made his heart pound painfully.
He absolutely could not accept it. He had to find Orochimaru ahead of time and kill him.
If he had to choose between his teacher and Orochimaru, there was no choice at all.
No matter what, killing one's teacher was far beyond what he could tolerate.
Then another thought struck him.
The Chunin Exams were still far off. At the very least, there were still six months to go. Even if Orochimaru had plans, he would not come to Konoha so early. At most, he would arrange for a few scouts.
With that in mind, Jiraiya could only force down the rage boiling in his chest. This was not the time to settle accounts with Orochimaru yet.
"The Third Hokage will die during the Chunin Exams?" Hatake Kakashi felt his heart quake at the thought.
How important the Third Hokage was to Konoha went without saying. Not only had he ruled the village for decades, giving him immense influence, but more importantly, he was currently the only openly acknowledged Kage Level powerhouse in Konoha.
Yes. The once talent-packed strongest ninja village had seen its Kage Level fighters die, defect, or leave one after another. On the surface, only a single top-tier fighter remained.
Shimura Danzo might barely qualify as a gatekeeper at Kage Level, but since he rarely appeared in public, he was almost incapable of taking on the Hokage position.
This meant the entire Konoha system would face upheaval and reshuffling.
When the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, died, Kakashi had still been young. He could not fully grasp those changes back then. He had only been one jonin among many.
Now, however, he was one of the few elite jonin truly qualified to compete for the Fifth Hokage position. This coming storm would inevitably sweep over him as well.
A troubled era. A year of turmoil.
If the Third Hokage's fall could not be prevented, Konoha would face enormous trouble.
And more than anything, after so many years of Sarutobi Hiruzen leading the village, his presence had become something everyone took for granted. Imagining Konoha without him left Kakashi feeling strangely hollow.
Fortunately, it had not happened yet. There was still time to change everything.
Who said the Third Hokage had to fall during this Chunin Exams?
"The Third Hokage will fall…" Uchiha Itachi went momentarily unfocused, his thoughts immediately jumping to another issue, his ties with Konoha's upper ranks.
As a traitor-spy embedded within Akatsuki, what would his position become if Konoha appointed a new Fifth Hokage?
He suddenly recalled a scene from an earlier video. In that misty return to the village, he and Hoshigaki Kisame had gone to great lengths to visit Konoha once, and he had even told Hatake Kakashi that his target was the Fourth Hokage's legacy, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Uzumaki Naruto.
Why had he done that?
If that moment took place after the Third Hokage's death, then returning then must have been to warn the new Konoha leadership. To tell them he was still alive, still useful, still capable of providing Akatsuki intelligence, and that they should not move against Sasuke.
Thinking this far, Itachi let out a quiet sigh. The future was not something his present self could control. From the outside, he could not manage affairs within Konoha anyway.
[Putting aside how I know about Orochimaru, which is impossible to explain, even if I could explain it, it would not matter. If you think about it, Konoha was not completely ignorant of Orochimaru's existence. They were not totally in the dark.
They even made some preparations, but in the end, those preparations amounted to nothing.
In a supernatural mess like the shinobi world, hiding yourself is far too easy.
One Transformation Technique is enough to fool the vast majority of people.
No, wait. There actually is a method. Since we know Orochimaru exists in advance, why not have the Hyuga Clan activate their Byakugan and search? After all, in the entire village, the ones with chakra reserves that massive should only be Orochimaru and the Third Hokage.
The Hyuga Clan's Byakugan can see exactly how much chakra someone has. In that regard, it is even more convenient than the Sharingan. If the Sharingan has tactical value, then the Byakugan has strategic value on the battlefield.
But doing that would easily drag me in as well. My chakra should have already entered Kage Level by now. If they start suspecting I am Orochimaru in disguise, that would be a real mess. There would be no way to explain it.]
"So the village knew about Orochimaru?" Kakashi murmured.
Then he recalled a scene from one of the videos, where he had confronted Orochimaru directly and Orochimaru had not taken the opportunity to kill him.
That meant Kakashi himself had likely known about Orochimaru's presence back then. If he knew, then the village leadership must have known as well.
That fit perfectly with what Kaede's diary said. Konoha's upper ranks were not completely ignorant.
But if they knew, why had they not reacted strongly enough?
Kakashi's mind began racing, rapidly piecing together an answer.
"They probably could not truly pinpoint Orochimaru's whereabouts," Kakashi said quietly. "With his strength, hiding himself is far too easy. And they were afraid of alerting him and ruining the bigger picture. This Chunin Exams is clearly a joint event between villages. Any misstep could spark a diplomatic crisis."
He knew that Konoha's Chunin Exams were usually either held independently or jointly with other villages.
If held alone, it was simply about promoting genin to chunin. But if held jointly, it was essentially a combined military exercise during peacetime.
A display meant to deter potential enemies and allies alike.
Yes, even allies had to be deterred, in case they made dangerous miscalculations.
Ordinary Chunin Exams took place every six months. Joint exams with multiple villages, however, happened only once every few years. Mishandling anything during that process could escalate into a major diplomatic disaster.
"But more importantly, no one expected Orochimaru's ambition to be this huge. It was not just sabotage, an assassination, or coming back to strike a deal with someone in the village.
It was the Konoha Crush Plan.
Because no one expected that, the preparations were insufficient.
Preparing for an ordinary missing-nin infiltration and preparing for an attack meant to destroy the entire village are two completely different things."
"Still… Kaede Kitahara's chakra has grown to this extent already?" Kakashi was just as shocked. His growth rate was monstrous, to the point of being almost absurd.
Then he thought of his own student, and suddenly it did not seem so outrageous anymore.
After all, that student possessed chakra reserves a hundred times greater than his own. If measured at Kage Level, it was easily more than ten times that of an ordinary Kage Level ninja.
That was the only reason he could get away with such reckless Shadow Clone bombardments.
For anyone else, just splitting that many clones would drain all their chakra.
Both Naruto and Sasuke had obvious talent. Sasuke's talent was explicit and visible through the Sharingan. Naruto's talent, on the other hand, lay in his body.
No wonder those two would become saviors in the future. Thinking about it now, it made perfect sense.
From Kaede's current attitude, he might not be especially loyal to Konoha. He had mocked and complained about the village plenty of times in his diary.
But he was definitely standing on Konoha's side.
Someone like that, the stronger he became, the more useful he would be in the future.
That was exactly why Kakashi had been willing to speak up for Kaede in front of the Third Hokage.
"What? Kaede Kitahara already has Kage Level chakra?" Uchiha Sasuke was completely stunned.
They had both awakened the Sharingan. He had made progress too.
But compared to Kaede, his progress looked laughable.
He only had chakra reserves at the tokubetsu jonin level.
"This guy… is the gap really this big?"
Uchiha Sasuke clenched his fists.
Unwilling to accept it.
[A/N: Enjoying the story? You can read more chapters early and support me here:patreon.com/Aeroscissors]