Chapter 92: Was it you?

The room had a moment of silence upon hearing his analysis, the Hokage fell silent.

That was also keeping in mind, that they were basing this on suspicion and not true evidence.

Although, most of them had already drew a connection between the terrifying sight and the accident from six years ago.

They had all seen the dark side of the village's politics and knew what the other villages were capable of.

This world mirrored the rules of the jungle, and so strength was what reigned supreme. (Kill me now, this is so cliche)

Politics with another village was not easy and could easily lead to unforeseen consequences.

Starting a war wasn't much of an option for Konoha either, the Sand, Rock and Mist would all jump to benefit and occupy the land that Konoha was currently build on.

Their strength was not what it was a few years ago either, so an extended fight would only end in negative outcomes.

"Lord Hokage."

Shikaku opened his mouth before hesitating.

"Nevermind..."

Hiruzen had a dark expression as his hands caused small cracks to spread along his trusty old pipe.

The other elders observed silently, and kept their ideas to themselves.

"Lord Hokage, there's trouble!"

Suddenly, a Konoha shinobi that was being held back by two Anbu shouted at him anxiously,

Hiruzen frowned, slightly annoyed.

He gave the Anbu a wave to tell them to let the shinobi through,

The shinobi bowed respectfully before saying hurriedly,

"Ehm. Mr Asuma and Hachiro are fighting each other!"

"What?!!"

Hiruzen jumped up and spat out his pipe.

The expressions of the clan leader's also showed great variation, mostly shock though.

Hiashi flawlessly blended in with the majority and thought to himself, "The Hokage is getting riled up..."

...

...

Yesterday.

While Hanabi was sharing her passion and love for fried bananas, Orochimaru sent a letter informing him that he had found the location of the gateway to the moon from the mouth of Toneri Otsutsuki.

After entertaining the banana loving gremlin until she got bored, they sent her home and Hachiro snuck into the room of left for the Sound jonin.

He found the dead bodies of three people, one of them being Toneri.

Orochimaru had left a detailed map depicting the location of his desire.

"60 kilometers northwest of a village called Retunki along the border of the Land of Fire. It say's on that its only a general location, but I guess this is good enough."

"I have ten days before the finals start and the plan is launched..."

I can make it if I don't dally somewhere, along the way.

He made a quick decision to leave early the next morning.

...

...

The next day.

In the Hotel's cafeteria.

Hachiro made sure to leave the three with a series of clear instructions.

"Kimimaro, you try to not move about to much. Haku, continue to monitor the Leaf's movements and keep connection with Yugito-nii and the army outside the village at all times."

The two of them replied with a "Yes!"

"As for Hinata, make a clone and come with me."

She nodded and complied, "Okay!"

They made their way towards the entrance of Konoha with some packed items for their trip ahead before meeting someone unexpected.

"Well, hello there, Hachiro-kun. I didn't think I would be seeing you today!"

A middle-aged man dressed in luxurious silk clothing walked over to him with a flushed face and cup of alcohol.

"Oh, hello Mr. Yogi. What a wonderful start to a day, meeting you so early in the morning must be a good premonition!"

Hachiro responded with a practised smile, reserved for merchants and politicians in high positions.

This Mr. Yogi Kimiko was the daimyo from the land of water, not someone you would want to be on bad terms with, no matter the person.

People with money, was a village's favourite kind of person.

Attracting them to post tasks in their own village was something every ambassador aspired to do, if they succeeded then they would have made a contribution to their village.

Soon after, individuals of similar power approached him.

Using his shinobi training, he identified that they were probably partying just before they had noticed him.

They seemed to like chatting about the giant of thunder and how menacing it stood in the middle of the village.

One thing, he noticed was that some of the ones, he had met in the past referred to him much more respectfully.

Most likely as a result of the overwhelming power that dealt major damage to Konoha yesterday.

While money was universal, it didn't have a self defense mechanism.

If a ninja of this calibre decided to do what ninjas are meant to do, by assassinating them just because he didn't like the way, they talked to him, then jokes on them. What were they going to do with their money in hell? Bribe Yama?

A low gutteral voice called out to him.

"Hachiro Raiden."

Gradually, a shinobi in leaf uniform stomped towards them, radiating anger.

The group of men with money and power, frowned at the unpleasant behaviour.

They started to whisper to each other, "Psst! That's Asuma Sarutobi, right? The Third Hokage's son."

"Yeah, he was one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja under Mr Sakuro, the daimyo in our country..."

Asuma trudged slowly, until he was ten feet away.

He pointed at Hachiro and demanded to know with clenched teeth.

"Did you... kill Shinnosuke, my brother?"

The death of the Anbu captain, Sarutobi Shinnosuke, had almost caused a war between Konoha, the Sand and the Cloud.

The consequences induced the three villages into trying to forgot about the incident entirely.

And here, the Hokage's own blood decided to bring this up in the middle of public.

The rich men took a few steps back to express that they weren't getting involved.

With lightning speed, he replied without a shred of hesitation.

"No."

Soon, groups of civilians and ninja formed around the two.

Kurenai and Anko Mitarashi were among them, as they had originally been shopping.

The breathing of Asuma became more sparodic as he furiously inquired, "They were killed by iron sand... and yesterday you used iron sand techniques!"

Hey~ I'm not lying.

Go to Hiashi, he was the one that ended them... not me...

___________

Asuma has less braincells than an MTL reader like me ;-;