Sarutobi Asuma, son of Konoha's Third Hokage, was dead.
He had died at the hands of Momochi Zabuza, the Demon of the Hidden Mist, a rogue ninja from Kirigakure who wielded the Executioner's Blade.
The news spread rapidly.
Because the bounty exchange had been completed at a bounty station within the Land of Fire, Hiruzen Sarutobi was the first Kage to learn of it.
Within just a few days, all five great nations, along with many well-informed individuals, had heard the news.
"Momochi Zabuza…"
Hiruzen Sarutobi ground the name out through clenched teeth.
His son had actually died like this.
Impossible.
He knew Sarutobi Asuma's strength well.
The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist were not all equal in strength, but even the strongest among them should not have been able to kill Sarutobi Asuma.
And Momochi Zabuza was clearly not the strongest.
Besides, even if Sarutobi Asuma couldn't win, how could he not escape?
And this had happened within the Land of Fire.
As long as he held out for a while, reinforcements should have arrived.
How could he possibly have died?
Watching the younger generation die before him, Hiruzen Sarutobi nearly fainted.
Now even his own son was dead.
"Collect every scrap of information on Momochi Zabuza's recent movements."
Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice was cold and grim.
He had not completely lost his reason.
If he had, he would already have sent people out to kill Momochi Zabuza immediately.
He was the Hokage.
He could not act on emotion alone.
He had to determine whether Momochi Zabuza had truly defected from Kirigakure or only appeared to have done so.
He had to know whether this was Momochi Zabuza's own action or part of a larger collaboration.
He had to know whether there was someone backing him from behind the scenes.
"Yes, sir!"
ANBU immediately sprang into action.
The son of the Hokage being killed was no small matter, especially in a time that was not war.
If it had been during wartime, then forget the son of a Hokage—even one of the Five Kage could fall.
The Third Raikage had died during a ninja war, after all.
"Someone is definitely targeting Konoha. More specifically… targeting me, Danzo Shimura, Homura Mitokado, and Koharu Utatane."
Hiruzen Sarutobi was becoming increasingly agitated.
Over these past days, many of the clan ninja sent out on missions had met with disaster.
Among the four clans tied to the Konoha F4, the Utatane clan had suffered a little less.
That was only because a larger proportion of them were medical ninja, and many worked at the hospital.
During these days, whenever the other clones encountered ninja from those four clans, they sent them off to the Pure Land.
There were clones and assimilated bodies in the Land of Iron, the Land of Fire, the Land of Waves, the Land of Rice Fields, and the Land of Earth.
Other clones were constantly moving from place to place as well.
As a result, it was not that the ninja of those four clans suffered an incident every single time—
But it was close.
It was not only Sarutobi Asuma, Hiruzen Sarutobi's son, who had died.
Mitokado Homura's son had died too.
And this time, Uchiha Fujie had not even done it deliberately.
They had accidentally wandered into the territory of the Kawakami Tomie clone and were killed by one of her unfinished prototype techniques.
Neither Uchiha Fujie nor the Kawakami Tomie clone even knew that the man they had killed was Mitokado Homura's son.
Far away in the Land of Hot Water, the Zabuza assimilated body wore a dark expression.
He didn't even need to think to know that the blame had been thrown onto him by the Aizen clone.
After all, the task Uchiha Fujie had assigned to the Aizen clone had been to kill Sarutobi Asuma.
Whether clone or assimilated body, the moment they were born, they inherited the memories of every prior clone and assimilated body.
"That's fine. I can use them to temper my strength."
Zabuza was extremely confident.
And in truth, Zabuza was not weak.
When the Mihawk clone had fought him, even he had found it somewhat troublesome.
The reason Zabuza had not looked especially impressive in Naruto was simply because he had appeared too early in the story.
In reality, he had attempted to assassinate the Fourth Mizukage—a perfect jinchuriki—and still managed to escape alive after failing.
The fact that he failed did not make him unimpressive.
On the contrary, it was extraordinary.
Even against a Kage, Zabuza had enough strength to put up a fight.
He would lose, yes.
But his strength was still somewhat greater than that of the future Sixth Mizukage, who had turned out to be a disappointment.
Now, Zabuza had become an assimilated body.
Every aspect of him had been strengthened.
He had only existed for a short time, but in terms of overall combat power, the Zabuza assimilated body had already surpassed the other clones.
For example, with the Eight Gates technique, the other clones still could not open many of the gates.
But thanks to his powerful physique and Mangekyo abilities, the Zabuza assimilated body could forcibly open the Seventh Gate.
Doing so would leave injuries that normal people could never recover from.
But such wounds meant nothing to Tomie.
Which meant they meant nothing to the Zabuza assimilated body either, since he possessed Tomie's abilities as well.
There were still many people saddened by Sarutobi Asuma's death.
For example, the ninja of his generation.
The Raikage and the Tsuchikage, however, wore mocking expressions.
What an entertaining spectacle.
Neither of them knew Momochi Zabuza's exact strength, but as a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, he was clearly no ordinary opponent.
They could only hope that Momochi Zabuza would kill a few more Konoha jonin.
As for Sunagakure, it was not even worth mentioning.
Kirigakure, meanwhile, could barely save itself, with the Fourth Mizukage still under Obito Uchiha's control.
Back at the Ninja Academy, Uchiha Fujie sneered inwardly.
The deaths of ordinary Sarutobi clan ninja were not enough to make Hiruzen Sarutobi truly feel pain.
But what about the pain of losing a son?
"There's no need to keep targeting the F4's clans for now. They've already suffered enough losses. If this keeps going, there's too much risk they'll discover something. It's time to quiet down for a while. Strengthening ourselves is the real priority."
Uchiha Fujie temporarily slowed the pace of his revenge.
If the strength of those four clans was reduced too far, then Konoha's overall military power would weaken again.
If that happened, Kumogakure would definitely launch a war.
He wanted revenge, but he had not lost his reason.
He had no intention of dragging unrelated people into it.
Besides, the slow blade was far crueler.
That kind of killing tormented the victim more deeply.
Before long, Danzo Shimura would be fully assimilated.
Only then would the true revenge against the Konoha F4 begin.
What had happened so far was just a bit of warm-up.
Following the original body's command, all the clones and assimilated bodies aside from the Zabuza assimilated body focused entirely on training.
Even the Hancock clone found a place to hide and lay low.
The sun gradually set, and before long school was over.
Students gathered in small groups of twos and threes, with only a few walking alone.
Most of them were discussing Sarutobi Asuma's death.
"I bet that Momochi Zabuza must have ganged up on Lord Asuma with other people."
"Or maybe it was a sneak attack."
"Ninja from Kirigakure can't compare to us in Konoha. I bet Momochi Zabuza will be captured within a few days."
The students didn't know any better.
All they knew was that Konoha was the strongest ninja village.
So what if Momochi Zabuza was strong?
Sure, anyone capable of killing the Hokage's son couldn't be weak.
But once Konoha's ninja mobilized, Momochi Zabuza was as good as dead.
The Konoha ninja and villagers had never been afraid to gossip.
They had dared to talk about Sakumo Hatake.
They had dared to talk about Naruto Uzumaki.
Naturally, there was nothing they wouldn't discuss.
Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Uchiha Fujie left school together.
Perhaps it was because of the fated entanglement between Indra and Asura, but Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha had formed a bond very quickly.
Unlike in the original story, Naruto Uzumaki was now being trained by Kakashi Hatake and had grown fairly strong.
He was the only one in the class who could truly stand against Sasuke Uchiha, so naturally Sasuke Uchiha looked at him differently.
"Even the son of a Hokage cannot escape the fate of death. For a ninja, the only thing that truly matters in the end is personal strength. Status comes after that. Sasuke Uchiha, the only people we can rely on are ourselves. Get stronger. Otherwise, someone may kill us before we ever even get the chance to see Itachi Uchiha."
Uchiha Fujie took the opportunity to lecture Sasuke Uchiha again.
His talk no jutsu was nothing special.
But at the same time, he was invisibly releasing genjutsu.
This was not direct mind control.
It was more like psychological suggestion.
"That's right! We need real power. Only with real power can I become Hokage and protect everyone!"
Naruto Uzumaki suddenly felt as though he'd been challenged.
After all, he was also the son of a Hokage.
The son of the Fourth Hokage, no less.
So he immediately shouted out his dream at the top of his lungs.
Uchiha Fujie found it hard to understand.
With his Mangekyo Sharingan, he knew Naruto Uzumaki had not been affected by Kotoamatsukami.
So why was Naruto Uzumaki able to remain this cheerful?
His childhood environment had been even worse than Sasuke Uchiha's after the massacre.
Uchiha Fujie genuinely could not understand it.
Eventually, the three reached a crossroads.
They were headed in different directions.
And so they parted ways.
It almost seemed to symbolize something.