"Captain… we found these items on the boy."
A Konoha ninja presented two objects taken from the unconscious Yuusuke Ame to the ninja in charge of this operation.
One was a bloodstained forehead protector.The other was the note Yuusuke valued more than anything else.
The moment the captain saw those two items, his expression turned grave. Without hesitation, he issued an order to his subordinates.
"Mission terminated. Immediately take this boy and return to the village at top speed."
"But Captain, our mission—"
"Carry out the order. No delays."
"Yes, sir!"
From the items Yuusuke carried, the captain inferred a certain possibility. As a result, he immediately aborted the ongoing mission and rushed back toward the village with the boy.
His command was executed flawlessly. From the border back to Konohagakure, the ninja squad took just over a single day. Throughout the entire journey, Yuusuke remained unconscious.
Konoha was a village of considerable scale—practically a town in its own right. Although it served as the headquarters of the Land of Fire's ninja, it was nothing like the tightly sealed, heavily guarded military fortress one might imagine. Its gates stood openly wide at all times.
Even during wartime, ninja villages still accepted external commissions. Welcoming clients from all directions, taking on their requests, and receiving payment upon completion—this formed a significant portion of a village's economic foundation.
Not far from the entrance stood a table where several ninjas were stationed. They were responsible for communicating with outsiders, receiving visitors, and screening those who entered the village.
Early that morning, the squad carrying Yuusuke rushed straight into the village at full speed.
"Hey, you—!"
Such reckless entry immediately triggered hostility and alarm from the gate guards. But before they could fully shout their warnings, the squad had already disappeared deeper into the village.
"Emergency mission!" the captain called out, leaving only those words behind.
The gate ninja were furious, yet powerless. One remained to guard the gate while another hurried after them. Had they not recognized the squad as ninjas who had departed on a mission days earlier, they would have attacked without hesitation.
In fact, by the time the squad reached the gate, news had already been passed inward. After Yuusuke's collapse the previous day, the squad had secretly transmitted information back to the village.
It could be said that Konoha's ruling figures were anxiously awaiting their return.
"Lord Hiruzen, the squad has arrived at the village. They'll be here shortly."
The messenger reported to the young man before him.
At this moment, Konoha's upper leadership had gathered in the room—Sarutobi Hiruzen, Mitokado Homura, Utatane Koharu, and Shimura Danzō, all disciples of the Second Hokage. At present, they were the true power holders of the village.
"They're already here? Is the boy all right?" Sarutobi Hiruzen asked urgently.
"It appears he's seriously injured."
"Call in the medical ninja," Sarutobi ordered immediately.
"Yes, sir."
The ninja turned to leave, only to be stopped.
"Wait. Bring Yamanaka as well."
That command did not come from Sarutobi, but from the silent Shimura Danzō.
"…Yes, Lord Danzō."
Sarutobi glanced at Danzō but said nothing. Soon enough, those summoned arrived—and shortly after, Yuusuke was brought in as well.
"Can he be woken?"
The medical ninja who had arrived earlier stepped forward at once. After a round of emergency treatment, Yuusuke slowly opened his eyes.
The room fell unnaturally silent.
"This is…" Yuusuke asked instinctively.
His vision was blurred, shadows overlapping. He couldn't tell where he was—until the final memory before losing consciousness resurfaced.
So… I still ended up in Iwagakure's hands?
"The Hidden Leaf Village of the Land of Fire."
The answer caught Yuusuke completely off guard.
"Konoha?"
He shook his head hard, forcing his vision to clear. At last, he could make out the person standing before him. The face seemed familiar—yet…
Too young.
"One day ago, our ninja found you," Sarutobi Hiruzen said, pointing to the Second Hokage's forehead protector and the sealed note. "These two items were found on you. Can you tell us how you obtained them?"
Yuusuke opened his mouth. After a brief pause, he spoke.
"According to an agreement with someone, I came here to deliver a message to your village. Two days ago, I encountered a Konoha ninja who called himself Senju Tobirama. He entrusted me with delivering a message to a man named Sarutobi Hiruzen."
His reasoning was clear. Based on Sarutobi's words, Yuusuke immediately deduced that his encounter with the Second Hokage had occurred two days earlier.
Yet even presented in the calmest manner possible, the information Yuusuke revealed was overwhelmingly shocking.
The moment his words fell, every gaze in the room locked onto him.
The Hokage's disappearance had already spread throughout the village. But no one could have imagined that the first concrete news about him would come from an unrelated outsider—especially when Konoha's own intelligence network had spent days searching in vain.
The contrast was almost absurd.
And yet, precisely because it seemed so absurd, it felt real.
About five days earlier, the Second Hokage had led his disciples to the Land of Lightning to form an alliance with Kumogakure's Raikage. During the alliance ceremony, however, they were ambushed by rogue Kumogakure ninja. The Second Raikage was killed on the spot.
Although the Hokage and his subordinates initially escaped, they were pursued relentlessly by elite enemy forces. Realizing that total escape was impossible, the Hokage chose to sacrifice himself—acting as bait to buy time for his disciples to flee, entrusting the village's future to the younger generation.
The disciples escaped.
The Hokage vanished.
Five days later, despite having prepared themselves for the worst, facing the truth directly was still unbearable.
The Hokage's disciples were standing before Yuusuke now.The Hokage's belongings rested in Sarutobi's hands.
"Young man, don't be nervous," Sarutobi Hiruzen said gently. "Tell us everything you know about what happened. I am the ninja named Sarutobi."
Yuusuke had anticipated a situation like this.
From the moment he entered Konoha, his fate was no longer entirely his own. Every word he spoke from here on had to be chosen with the utmost care.