[Ace: Ah this... I'm a bit confused. If the mission failed, blaming anyone else shouldn't mean blaming White Fang.]
[Krillin: That's right. If someone needs to take responsibility, shouldn't it be that guy called... what's his name... Shinsuke?]
[Leomon: Human thinking is indeed quite different from us Digimon.]
...
Compared to the confused youngsters, the older, more experienced members saw the reason at a glance.
Izuna, the staunchest anti-Senju, didn't miss the chance to mock his old rival.
[Izuna: @Tobirama, If you say your precious disciple isn't fanning the flames behind this, I won't believe it.]
[Newgate: If someone really needs to take responsibility, it should be that Sarutobi Shinsuke. But his father is the leader of this village, so naturally, a subordinate need to be the scapegoat.]
[Dio: Hahaha! Humans are so ugly! That's why this Dio-sama stopped being human!]
[Hashirama: Hiruzen, how could you fall to this point...]
Obviously, the seasoned members in the group could see it.
There was absolutely Hiruzen pulling the strings behind the scenes.
He's trying to shift all the blame onto Sakumo.
After all, he couldn't let his own biological son suffer.
Moreover, if the Hokage's son made a major mistake, the Hokage's own reputation would inevitably be implicated.
Not to mention the reason Shinsuke could participate in such an important mission was because his father wanted to help him gain military achievements.
With so many factors stacked up-
It destined Hiruzen to find a scapegoat to take the fall for his son.
So who was suitable?
There were only three candidates.
Sakumo, Jin, and Minato, the three who carried out the mission with his son.
Jin wasn't even with the group during the action, so he felt that even if he wanted to pin it on him, it would be difficult.
And Jin's personality was too difficult to handle.
He's like a powder keg, likely to explode at the slightest spark.
Hiruzen thought about it and felt it wasn't very suitable.
Meanwhile, both Sakumo and Minato had honest, straightforward personalities, very easy to bully.
So he'd choose one from between them.
After much deliberation, Hiruzen chose Sakumo.
There were two reasons.
One was that Minato was Jiraiya's student, which is equivalent to his student's student.
This relationship was closer than with Sakumo.
The other was that Sakumo's reputation was too high and his achievements too great, so it was necessary to suppress him a bit.
After all, Sakumo had accomplished many military exploits in this Great Ninja War.
There were even many villagers saying that he, the Third Hokage, could retire and let Sakumo succeed as the Fourth Hokage.
How could this be allowed?
One must know that although Hiruzen had been the Hokage for twenty years, he wasn't even fifty yet.
He hadn't had his fill of the taste of power.
He felt he could still work for another twenty years.
How could he tolerate a 'Fourth Hokage' emerging at this time?
Suppress!
He must be suppressed!
...
And so, it evolved into the current situation.
Sakumo became the one to bear the blame.
The members of the chat group, after listening to Jin's analysis, also fell into a rare silence.
No one spoke for a long time.
[Ace: Good thing I didn't listen to the old man and join the Marines back then. Otherwise, I'd probably have to face this kind of scheming and intrigue every day.]
[Yamamoto: The leader of this village is too narrow-minded. Favoritism and jealousy of the capable are major taboos for a leader!]
[Newgate: If any of my sons on my ship could surpass me, I would only be happy for him! First Hokage, these disciples of yours are indeed too narrow-minded!]
[Izuna: Hahaha! I told you the Senju Clan was no good! The disciples they trained are a bunch of cowards too!]
[Tobirama: When establishing the Hokage's position, we should have added a rule that each Hokage's term cannot exceed ten years.]
[Hashirama: @Jin, Jin-kun, can you help talk some sense into Hiruzen?]
Seeing this message from Senju, Jin couldn't help but laugh.
'Talk sense into him?'
'That old bastard Sarutobi Hiruzen is already completely corroded by power.'
'Even if you old people came back to life to reason with him, it might not work.'
Did Jin have that ability?
He wasn't Naruto, who has the overpowered Talk no Jutsu.
"Jin-nii, I learned how to cook several dishes from Grandma Mito! I'll make them for you tonight!"
After coming to Konoha Village, Konan, whose personality had become increasingly cheerful, said with a smile.
"Okay, I'll be waiting then..."
Jin replied with a smile.
But just after speaking, he noticed a familiar figure walking past his shoulder.
Hatake Sakumo!
"Hey~ Uncle Hatake... Huh?"
Jin instinctively greeted him.
But upon seeing Sakumo's face, he couldn't help but freeze.
Because the current Sakumo looked deathly pale, like a walking corpse that had lost its soul.
His steps were even somewhat unsteady.
A sharp contrast to the Konoha's White Fang who dominated the battlefield.
Many people in the chat group were also startled by Sakumo's condition.
[Ace: Wow~ Looks like he's been hit pretty hard.]
[Master Roshi: This young man's strength is good, but his mentality isn't strong enough.]
[Yamamoto: The power of gossip is fearsome. But indeed, as Roshi said, his mental fortitude doesn't match his strength.]
The group members relatively recognized Sakumo's strength.
But they clearly didn't expect his mentality to be so fragile.
'Although he was being scolded so badly, but it shouldn't be this exaggerated, right?'
[Jin: He's going to die.]
Looking at Sakumo's condition, Jin guessed that White Fang was going to follow the original work's path.
[Hashirama: No, it can't be that bad, right?]
[Jin: Did you see the look in his eyes just now? Did it look like the eyes of a living person?]
[Tobirama: @Jin, Jin, can you save him? I, I can give you the Flying Thunder God Technique!]
Tobirama had better judgment of character than his older brother.
He saw at a glance that the look in Sakumo's eyes just now was the look of someone seeking death.
After much deliberation, Tobirama finally decided to offer his trump card, the Flying Thunder God Technique.
He still admired White Fang very much-
Especially White Fang's earlier initiative to volunteer as the bait.
It reminded Tobirama of himself, volunteering as bait when his team was pursued by Gold and Silver Brothers.
Seeing such a strong individual, who wholeheartedly dedicated himself to Konoha, Tobirama really couldn't bear to watch him die.
However, just when Tobirama thought the Flying Thunder God Technique would be enough to tempt Jin, the other party replied mercilessly:
[Jin: Sorry, I'm no longer interested in the Flying Thunder God Technique.]