Naruto - Minato Namikaze SI - Chapter 291 - The Discussion in Konoha Begins.

[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Uzumaki Clan, Year 42.
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The group of Uzumakis with Minato arrived in Konoha in the morning.

Minato discussed with them for only a few minutes, along with the Senju clan, before using one of the houses damaged by yesterday's battle, deciding to rest a bit in the room with Mikoto.

However, he needed to sleep a few hours with Kushina, who also didn’t miss the opportunity to finally share the futon with her fiancé.

By the next morning, the village was still bustling, and quickly, everyone already knew what was going on.

The elders, at least Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, were trying to influence public opinion, putting their agents to work among the civilians, although they didn’t have the same success with the ninjas, who treated the situation with suspicion and held many opinions that were far from favorable to them, while the elders’ allies felt somewhat embarrassed to join the ninja groups.

Also, the detained Root ninjas were brought for a public trial. Lord Nara, along with Minato and the Uzumaki clan, was present conducting that trial for everyone, while Mu Uzumaki represented the group.

Hiruzen didn’t seem very shocked by their presence, but the other elders clearly didn’t like it.

The evidence, however, had not yet begun to be discussed.

Orochimaru also entered the village at that moment, avoiding Minato, and confirmed to everyone, when he went to the Hokage, that Minato had indeed killed the Kazekage in the attack.

The village of Sunagakure was not at all happy about this, cursing them and even sending every type of ninja possible wanting to kill Orochimaru. He had to flee when all the outraged people from Suna were after him for revenge, after the murder Minato had committed.

It was quite a strange thing: at one moment, he was fighting alongside them trying to defeat Minato; at the next, he was trying to flee from those who now wanted to kill him. Minato had left him there alone after the chaos started, on purpose.

The evidence continued to be discussed, while some Root ninjas began to speak publicly without Danzō’s restrictions, in more open places for everyone as the evidence was taken from scrolls.

They reported kidnappings, assassinations, bribes, threats, and even schemes to provoke one enemy against another, using the Root ninjas themselves to cause chaos.

Unsurprisingly, the reports revealed how they had killed Uzumakis and placed the blame on suspects from the Village of the Mist to avoid leaving evidence against Danzō’s activities. Naturally, the Uzumakis didn’t like hearing about that at all and began openly insulting a dead Danzō and his administration — something no one could really blame them for.

In any case, Danzō’s research was also discussed. The main ones involved, besides trying to gain the power of certain bloodlines, as shown, even capturing and killing ninjas within the village itself to conduct studies.

The experiments with Mokuton and the Sharingan were the most shocking, which greatly outraged both the Senju ninjas, who had great respect for Hashirama, and the Uchiha, who were disgusted, saying they were stealing the Sharingan and desecrating the clan.

The red-eyed clan did not fail to openly insult all the elders for this, and Hiruzen now had the entire police force against him.

Danzō was becoming more and more hated by the village, to the point that the jōnin began to complain that Minato had killed him, as many of them had wanted to do exactly that.

The extent of the Root’s activities being revealed was quite intense, and now it even involved children being used as test subjects.

Most died; some, if they had any potential, were placed into secret Root training; and others, if they didn’t join, were simply abandoned, provided their memories were erased. For those who wouldn’t survive, a grave or even burning them was enough for a man like Danzō.

Minato paid close attention and took part in all the evidence. And upon hearing about the children... there was someone he needed to visit: none other than Yamato, who was the same age as Kakashi and should have been in some orphanage, since he shouldn’t have even attended the academy.

Yamato had gone through Danzō’s experiments and had been discarded, placed in an orphanage, even though he was a little too old for the academy. Minato knew that something explosive was bound to come from Yamato before Danzō appeared in front of him, curious and with eyes full of malice and satisfaction at seeing a child using Mokuton — which meant that problem had once again been rediscovered by Danzō, who was fascinated to see the powers of the First Hokage. Danzō must have believed he had created Yamato, but he was wrong.

Mokuton needed something that neither Danzō nor Orochimaru ever understood — the life element.

It was a shame that, for Danzō of that future, Yamato had never had that much power in the original work, but there were also various factors as to why the boy wasn’t powerful, since he didn’t even have what the body of a member of the Senju clan could offer.

In any case, it was an entire day of discussions, as all kinds of ninjas began to truly see the darkness of the village — one that most ninjas didn’t know — and were certainly horrified.

The Hokage was facing the gaze of the entire village and only closed his eyes and sighed, with looks full of anger and accusation against him and his companions over the last few years.

It was at this moment that Hiruzen began to regret having let Danzō act as he had. He should never have given him so much freedom to create his projects and ended up contradicting his own words about protecting lives. But now it was too late — he was already involved enough that no one would really believe him.

Things would not be easy for him. He didn’t know how much time he had left as Hokage, but the village practically already wanted him to step down for someone else to take over.

Some schemes were also revealed regarding the profits of all the elders and their associates, while missions that would give them a lot of money had been disproportionately given to a select group of people, and benefits within the elders’ clans began to surface, favoring mainly the Sarutobi and Shimura clans.

This resulted in even more anger from the village itself.

And, at the same time, despite the anger Konoha felt toward the elders, one could sense caution within the village regarding the Uzumaki clan and helping them.

There was an important decision to be made, and Minato was disappointed to see how a little more than half of Konoha was leaning: they didn’t seem very willing to trade the idea of peace for trying to save a clan, when they could still have the chance to no longer see their loved ones dying, as had happened in the Second War.

The memories and terrors of the Second War were still quite fresh in their minds, and they didn’t want to return to war, since it had ended so recently. There was also a problem with Hiruzen’s leadership over Konoha, as he didn’t want the war to return when the village was so vulnerable.

At least half of the opinion among the ninjas was divided, while among the civilians it was more difficult — about 89% of them seemed to accept the Uzumakis’ fate, which was quite frustrating for any red-haired ninja there, seeing the village root for their death just to avoid returning to war.

In any case, Minato was quite active, still speaking with the clan leader and arranging meetings with other smaller clans that he had begun to meet now in public areas.

In the original story, these smaller clans were so tiny and few in number, with only a handful of members without anything extraordinary, that they hadn’t even been mentioned in the original work.

While the conversations continued with Minato and his group, the children at the Academy were also curious about what was happening in the village. As they approached the debate area, two of these children formed a rather curious and peculiar duo, which Minato could see approaching while he was talking and exchanging ideas with other ninjas.

Obito was curious. Things had been upside down since yesterday, when everyone saw the village’s ninjas suddenly start moving from the clan toward the center of the village.

He had been with his grandmother when he saw the Uchiha clan suddenly rush out, all dressed in battle clothes. He didn’t understand, and his grandmother also had no answer.

He still tried to figure it out, when he began to hear explosions and sought answers from the people who stayed behind, mainly the wives of the ninjas who were fighting at that moment.

Even though he was considered a member of the clan while running through it yesterday, no one gave him much information. He had some difficulty finding out what was happening, as most who had remained in the clan didn’t give him any importance.

But eventually, he managed to get information from a Uchiha housewife and learned what was going on — that the Uchihas had allied with other clans to pressure the Hokage in some way.

Obito heard the discussion as soon as it started between Minato and Hiruzen, from a distance, and couldn’t help but be surprised and confused. It was all too complicated for a child to process and understand, and he left with the others when it ended. The next day, when the Academy was canceled, he dragged Rin along to understand better, as it was all consuming him.

"Look, isn’t that the ninja we saw in front of the Academy? They say he’s a hero," Obito commented, in tone, upon seeing Minato debating in a circle with older ninjas, remembering him being praised by their teacher.

From time to time, there was always some girl with Minato, informing him of something, accompanying him for a while, and then disappearing.

'That guy… he’s just like Kakashi, popular with the women,' was Obito’s first frustrated thought. But he didn’t care much about that and approached carefully, listening to the open conversation about what was happening.

"This is terrible… the Hokage sold out a clan, that Uzumaki clan, to the other villages. Why would they let that happen?" Rin said, outraged.

Rin seemed touched by what was happening. She had a kind soul and certainly it seemed wrong to her to sacrifice innocent people in pursuit of peace. At the same time, she saw that Minato defended the idea that, if necessary, he would protect the Uzumaki however needed. This made the girl cast a look of admiration toward the older boy.

"Don’t worry. If you ask, I can go there and protect them," Obito said beside her, flashing an arrogant smile, wanting to be the girl’s hero.

Rin just laughed and shook her head, knowing he was talking nonsense, but finding it cute.

"Of course, Obito. I’m sure you’ll be a great hero," she said, smiling.

"You… really think so?" he asked, incredulous.

"Of course, Obito. You’ll be a great hero," Rin repeated, while he laughed, surprised by the answer.

Obito would have been happier if the mood hadn’t been ruined when he looked toward one of the buildings and spotted someone who immediately soured his mood.

Kakashi was there, at a distance, also listening to what Minato was discussing with the other clan leaders, interested in approaching to hear the debate.

"Kakashi…" Obito muttered angrily.

Minato might have even noticed the strange relationship among the three children, but he didn’t care about the idea of one teenager being jealous of another. That didn’t matter now, while at the same time, as the future leader of that team, he would probably also find a way to deal with Obito’s petty jealousy.