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Qianyu entered the conference room.
Everyone was there. All the high-ranking village officials. Every major clan head. Even Orochimaru had shown up this time.
The seat next to Orochimaru was empty. Qianyu nodded to him. "Master Orochimaru." He took the vacant chair.
He scanned the room, his mind working. Something was off.
This should have been a post-Nine-Tails disaster recovery meeting. So where was Minato Namikaze?
Qianyu glanced at Orochimaru beside him. The Sannin gave a slight, imperceptible shake of his head. He didn't know either. He'd been pulled straight from his lab by the Anbu. Mandatory attendance.
Hiruzen Sarutobi rose from his seat at the head of the table. His expression was grave, heavy with sorrow.
"Everyone is present," he began, voice low. "First, I must express the village's gratitude for your efforts during the Nine-Tails' attack. Your contributions were… invaluable."
He paused. The air in the room grew thicker.
"Now, there is another matter you must be made aware of." Hiruzen's knuckles whitened where they gripped the table's edge. "The Fourth Hokage… is currently in a coma. There are no signs of him regaining consciousness."
Qianyu's brows furrowed instantly.
Minato? Unconscious? What happened?
Murmurs rippled through the clan heads who were in the dark. Confused glances were exchanged.
Hiruzen raised a hand for silence. "The Fourth exhausted nearly all of his chakra. In that severely weakened state, he suffered a heavy blow. He is alive, but… we do not know when, or if, he will wake."
Ah. So that was it.
Chakra was the product of spiritual and physical energy blended together. Exhaust both, and you died. Simple. Like Kakashi in the original timeline, dying against Pain's Deva Path after pushing himself past empty.
Minato had teleported a Tailed Beast Ball. Then he'd teleported another one with the Nine-Tails still attached. His reserves were already bottoming out. And that was before fighting Obito Uchiha. Before performing the Eight Trigrams Sealing twice.
Then the Reaper Death Seal. Summoning the Shinigami itself, even without completing the soul sacrifice, took a monstrous amount of chakra.
By the time he was trying to seal the Nine-Tails into Miyuki Uzumaki, Minato had nothing left. Not even enough to secure the final chains of the seal. The backlash from the Nine-Tails' chakra had been the final straw.
Minato was strong. Incredibly so. But he had no special lineage, no freakish genetics. His chakra reserves were just… better than average. He couldn't compare to monsters like Qianyu or Kushina Uzumaki.
All things considered, ending up in a coma instead of a coffin was lucky.
After explaining Minato's condition, Hiruzen's voice hardened. "Despite repelling the Nine-Tails, the sacrifices were too great. We have no time to wallow in grief."
Koharu Utatane picked up where he left off. "With the Fourth Hokage's condition unknown, and the village in ruins, panic is spreading among the civilians. Furthermore, news of our… vulnerability will have reached the other Great Villages by now. It is only a matter of time before they see an opportunity to strike."
She leaned forward, her gaze sweeping the room. "Therefore, we must select a suitable successor to assume the mantle of Hokage. Immediately. To stabilize the village. This meeting's purpose is to deliberate on the Fifth Hokage's candidacy."
Several pairs of eyes in the room flicked toward Qianyu and Orochimaru.
After the Third Great Shinobi War, Orochimaru had been the obvious, expected choice for Fourth Hokage. Until Hiruzen blocked it and shoved Minato into the seat.
And Qianyu? Publicly acknowledged as Minato's equal. His reputation and power were sky-high. Both were politically clean: Orochimaru was the Hokage's student; Qianyu was Orochimaru's student.
To some clan heads, the Fifth Hokage would inevitably come from one of them.
Danzō noticed the looks. His expression soured instantly.
Qianyu had burned every bridge with him. By extension, Danzō had cut Orochimaru out of his plans too. Letting the Hokage seat fall into either of their hands was unacceptable.
"Lord Third," Danzō's voice cut through the murmurs, cold and pointed. "Before we discuss successors, I believe there is a matter of accountability that must be addressed."
Hiruzen, Koharu, and Homura Mitokado all turned to him, wary.
Danzō's single visible eye fixed on Qianyu. "When Miyuki Uzumaki was in labor, you were stationed outside with a squad of Anbu. Why are all those Anbu operatives dead? My Root agents examined the bodies. Each was killed with a single, precise strike. Yet you emerged completely unscathed."
He didn't wait for a reaction. "Furthermore, according to Lord Hiruzen, you were present during the Fourth's final sealing of the Nine-Tails. Yet, you were simultaneously engaged in combat with two intruders on the other side of the battlefield. A Shadow Clone. Whether it was your clone or your real body fighting is irrelevant. The fact remains: you had power to spare. You could have disengaged and assisted against the Nine-Tails directly. Instead, you only appeared at the very end."
Danzō's tone grew sharper, more accusatory. "Point three. The cave where Miyuki Uzumaki gave birth was protected by seals. Seals that were never triggered. The only people who knew how to bypass those seals were you, the Fourth Hokage, and Lord Hiruzen's wife."
He let that hang in the air for a moment.
"So how did the enemy enter the cave, kill Lord Hiruzen's wife and an Anbu guard, and abduct the Fourth's child?"
Finally, the killing blow. "And the Nine-Tails. It appeared in Konoha suddenly. It was summoned here. In my memory, only one man was capable of such a feat. A man long dead. And you, Qianyu… are known as the one who came closest to matching him."
Danzō's gaze was a physical weight. "Don't you find this series of events… far too convenient?"
All eyes in the room shifted to Qianyu.
He lifted his gaze slowly to meet Danzō's. His face was a mask of perfect calm.
"So, Councilor Danzō," Qianyu's voice was flat, devoid of inflection. "Are you suggesting that I conspired with the enemy? That I allowed them into the cave to attack Miyuki's child? That I released the Nine-Tails, then summoned it into Konoha to wreak havoc?"
Danzō snorted. "I am not suggesting anything. I am merely stating that your actions are suspicious. I have every reason to be skeptical."
Qianyu didn't look away from Danzō. Instead, he slowly turned his head, scanning the faces of every shinobi in the room. His gaze finally settled on the man at the head of the table.
"Lord Third," he said, his tone deceptively light. "Do you share this… skepticism?"
Hiruzen met his eyes, his own expression unreadable. "I trust you implicitly, Qianyu. But… an explanation would put all doubts to rest."
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