He… he actually said it out loud! Even when Uchiha Setsuna was still alive, he never dared, in front of me—a Konoha advisor—to openly say he wanted to replace the Hokage!
But Uchiha Chizumi had no qualms at all.
The moment he sensed that Hiruzen had blocked the path of Absolute Justice, he seemed to raise the idea of a "rebellious coup" without hesitation. Does he not realize that if someone overheard those words, they could be used as ammunition against him?
Uh…
The instant that thought surfaced, Mitokado Homura caught himself—Chizumi really wouldn't care. And even if others did overhear, they probably wouldn't be all that shocked. The way Chizumi had been pressing the Hokage step by step, giving him no face whatsoever, already told everyone he would move against the Hokage one day.
At this point, what Chizumi had said hardly exceeded some people's expectations.
Homura stayed quiet for several seconds before mumbling, "Hiruzen… has been Hokage for a very long time. It's hard to find anyone in the village who can match him. First, they'd need comparable—if only slightly lesser—renown. Second… they'd need strength to back it up."
There was one more thing he didn't say: ideally, that person shouldn't be in the same camp as Hiruzen. Otherwise replacing the Hokage would be pointless—Hiruzen could sit behind the scenes as Konoha's shadow ruler.
Of course, saying that aloud would make him a traitor, outright. Homura wasn't that heartless toward Hiruzen. He still leaned, a little, in Hiruzen's favor.
"What about Tsunade?" Chizumi suddenly offered a name, catching Homura off guard.
He realized… that choice actually fit.
Tsunade—the First Hokage's granddaughter, one of the Legendary Sannin, a medic who saved countless lives during the wars—her reputation among shinobi was hardly small. And she'd recently fallen out with Hiruzen, so she clearly wouldn't be on his side.
"Wait…"
Homura couldn't help turning back to Chizumi. "Chizumi, why does it feel like… you already hand-picked Tsunade to take Hiruzen's place?"
A chill ran through his heart. He suddenly felt that Chizumi was nowhere near as simple as people assumed—that the man had schemes he couldn't see through, that he'd drawn up contingency plans for Konoha's current situation long ago.
Chizumi only answered calmly, "Because among Konoha's current options, she's the most suitable."
"Isn't Jiraiya suitable too? He's in Konoha, he's also one of the Sannin, he's highly regarded, and he's not entirely on Hiruzen's side." Homura felt crazy, actually discussing replacing the Hokage with Uchiha Chizumi.
"He stands with an unrealistic delusion," Chizumi said evenly. "A fool who wants to find a 'Chosen One' to save and reform the entire shinobi world—make that man Hokage and Konoha might end up worse than it is now."
Homura very nearly blurted out—so picking a drunk, gambling burnout is better? But when he thought about it…
Tsunade hadn't been at Konoha's casinos much lately. When she'd first returned, she practically visited them several times a day, losing millions of ryō daily and becoming the casinos' biggest whale. But in recent days, her trips had dropped—from several times a day to once every three or four days.
And it wasn't because she'd run out of money. It seemed she had other things to do.
For example… building a new medical unit outside Konoha's existing structure.
Word was she'd been running herself ragged for it these days, rushing all over the place. Whatever was driving her, she hadn't gone back to her old "I give up" mode—she gritted her teeth and kept at it.
The change was so stark Homura barely recognized her. Well… strictly speaking, maybe not a "change." Before she fell apart, this was the very passion she used to have. It was only after losing her loved ones, one after another, that she sank into a swamp of confusion.
"Maybe…" Homura knew he could refuse to answer, yet for some reason he spoke anyway. "Tsunade really is quite suitable… at least as a backup candidate for Hokage. In fact, Koharu and I settled on two backups a long time ago: one is Tsunade, the other is Jiraiya."
With that, Homura hurried out of the Police Force building, afraid he'd say even more. That would be too disloyal to Hiruzen… his conscience couldn't take it. That would make him a real traitor. He kept telling himself he was doing this for the Mitokado clan and Konoha's future—that he had no choice.
"…That guy's some big shot from your Konoha, right? If I'm not mistaken he's called Mitokado Homura? I've seen his name and picture on the underworld bounty boards—looks like there's a 25-million-ryō price on his head."
With that voice, Jūzō Biwa stepped out from behind the folding screen in the Police Chief's office—he'd been hiding there, suppressing his presence, the entire time Homura was inside.
Jūzō let out a low whistle. "Uchiha Chizumi, you're not about to stage a coup in Konoha, are you? I just decided to join you, and you're already putting on a show this big. Did I walk straight into a whirlpool of trouble?"
At his self-mocking tone, Chizumi replied coolly, "You don't need to meddle in Konoha. What you need to focus on is the Mist in the Land of Water."
Jūzō narrowed his eyes, barely containing his eagerness. "So you're already preparing to move on the Land of Water? But…"
Suspicion crept in. "You haven't even finished with Konoha, and you're about to clash with the Hokage. In that situation, you can still spare the bandwidth for the Land of Water?"
"I'll leave Konoha to Tsunade," Chizumi said. "If she can't unseat Hiruzen Sarutobi, she isn't fit to be the next Hokage."
Jūzō gaped. "Don't tell me the famed Tsunade-sama of the Sannin is already your subordinate?"
"No," Chizumi answered bluntly.
"Then why are you so sure she'll do exactly what you said?"
"She will."
Jūzō couldn't make sense of it. But one implication was clear—if Chizumi was leaving the Hokage to Tsunade, he was likely going to the Hidden Mist in person.
And that… left Jūzō a little lost. Could the Blood Mist policy that had plunged the village into this state really be ended one day? And would the one to end it be an outsider?
…
Afternoon.
Tsunade stared, stunned, at the expressionless Uchiha Chizumi. For a moment, her mind almost shut down.
"Huh? What?!!"
It took her several seconds to recover. She peered at Chizumi's face for a few more beats, then began pacing back and forth, words rising and dying on her lips in turns. Finally, once she'd sorted the chaos in her head, she faced him and said, "All I said was I'd try to work around the old man and build a new medical unit in Konoha."
"That unit could provide a degree of medical support to the Police Force's shinobi—the two sides could cooperate. That's how justice can endure, and it avoids too many irreversible casualties."
"The problem is…"
"I never said I wanted to be Hokage! Just hearing that title makes my scalp tingle. Sit in that chair and I doubt I'd get a single day off!"
Watching her get a little heated, Chizumi's tone stayed even. "If you're going to found a new medical unit, you can't go around the Third—especially if your targets are Academy students."
"And…"
He paused. "If you were Hokage, the rollout of Absolute Justice in the Land of Fire would speed up dramatically."
"The rate at which justice corrects the country's twisted moral compass would be faster and more effective than we projected."
"Once you sit in that seat, things you could say a hundred or ten thousand times without being heard… you'll only need to say once, and they'll be done."
Seeing Tsunade freeze at that, Chizumi went on, "You chose to stand with Absolute Justice because you want this world to get better. Sometimes you have to clear every obstacle blocking justice. Only then can you sow the seeds of justice across the shinobi world."
Tsunade's expression turned complicated. "If I don't become Hokage, is Konoha—the Land of Fire—beyond saving?"
"Look at what the Third has done," Chizumi said.
That one line shoved every retort back down her throat.
"What about Jiraiya?" she asked.
"Do you really think he's the one?" he shot back.
"…Tch. That guy really did let the toads on Mount Myōboku talk him into a fantasy," Tsunade grumbled, raking a hand through her hair. "Do we really have to push the old man off the seat? He's so old—he might keel over any day."
"You know what 'dragging your feet' means for justice," Chizumi said coolly.
"Yes, yes, I know! It means justice arrives late. It means more innocent victims. It means villains get shelter. It deepens the twisted mindset. In the worst case, it… it means Nawaki's tragedy plays out all over again…"
She drew a long breath—and fell silent without quite knowing why.
After who-knows-how long, Tsunade raised her head to meet Chizumi's eyes at arm's length. "Is it really true that just changing the Hokage changes a lot?"
"I can't guarantee it one hundred percent," he answered slowly. "It depends on how much resolve you have."
She narrowed her eyes. "Wait… don't tell me you want me to be the next Hokage just so you can use me as a tool against the old man."
"If that's how you like to understand it, you can understand it that way," Chizumi said.
"Tch. Fine, fine! I'll think about it."
After watching him leave, Tsunade let out a long breath. Behind her, Shizune had been trembling for ages, terrified by their entire conversation.
Swallowing hard, she waited until Chizumi's silhouette vanished completely, then asked in a small voice, "Tsunade-sama… are you really going to compete with Lord Third for the Hokage's seat? Isn't… isn't that a bit much? He may be older, but he's in good health."
"And… and he's your teacher!"
At Shizune's anxious words, Tsunade shot her a look. "I didn't agree to anything—why are you panicking? And why is your voice shaking?"
Shizune whispered, "Because with your personality, if you wanted to refuse outright, you would've done so already. Saying you'll 'think about it'… basically means you've already decided what to do."
Tsunade: "…"
…
Some time later.
Land of Rain.
"Didn't we agree to meet alone? Bringing two guards on your own violates the terms, doesn't it?" Koharu Utatane stared at the woman in the black cloak with red clouds. Her clouded eyes flashed with a hint of displeasure.
It was Konan. Behind her stood two of Pain's Six Paths, posted by Nagato as Konan's bodyguards.
"You aren't in a position to demand I come alone," Konan said impassively. "You've got plenty of men hidden around here too, don't you?"
"Let me guess how many… eleven in total. All elite from Konoha's Root. Am I right?"
Konan's calm tone made a flicker of surprise cross Koharu's face, and in her eyes a deeply buried wariness stirred.
"Does Koharu-sama of Konoha's Root want to hire Akatsuki for something?" Konan asked. "If you're after a proxy war, we can be the perfect vanguard for Konoha. But… our fees are high. I hope you can pay."
"Konoha won't be the one to start a war," Koharu said coldly. "I want to hire you to work with Root to eliminate someone."
"Who?" Konan's face didn't change, though she was curious.
"Uchiha Chizumi."