The White Teeth Incident

Chapter 26 The White Teeth Incident

These past few days, Shiki Aburame has been living a very regular life. Apart from completing ninja missions, he has been staying in the Aburame clan's territory.

The Aburame clan has many places for raising insects, all of which have been built with a lot of resources, and Aburame Shiki naturally takes advantage of them whenever possible.

Parasitic worms and soul-parasitic worms are the focus of Shiatsu Aburame's experiments, representing two directions for him to enhance his strength.

Needless to say, the parasitic worm is basically complete, and without a major stroke of luck, it won't improve much in the short term. I still need to go to the ninja world and find someone to help me gain some luck.

The parasitic worms were what Aburame Shiki spent a lot of time cultivating, but due to a lack of opportunity, the results were minimal.

Without the right opportunity, it's really too difficult to cultivate them by just starting out. Even the Aburame clan spent countless hours cultivating the Parasite Bug.

Aburame Shiki is going to the village to relax and unwind, and maybe find some inspiration.

Aburame Shiki lazily walked out of the Aburame clan's territory and arrived at the bustling main street of Konoha. He immediately sensed something was wrong; the vendors on the main street had no interest in hawking their wares.

"The atmosphere was very strange. Everyone was whispering, as if they were afraid of being discovered. But the way they were acting so openly, they just covered their mouths with their hands, as if to say that no one else could hear them."

Seeing this scene, Shiki Aburame sensed something was wrong. The atmosphere spreading over such a large area must have involved Konoha's higher-ups, otherwise the Anbu would have stopped it long ago.

"There's a problem, and it's a significant one. We need to gather some information."

Aburame Shiichi became serious; this was a ninja's subconscious reaction to unfamiliar information.

So Yu Nu Zhiyi went to the barbecue restaurant. He was a regular customer there and didn't attract much attention.

Moreover, barbecue restaurants are crowded and have a lot of information, making them a good place to gather gossip. You might not be able to get more confidential information, but it's easy to get information like this that's everywhere.

Aburame Shiki casually arrived at the Akimichi clan's barbecue restaurant, greeted the owner, and sat down.

"Have you heard? Hatake Sakumo failed in his mission, and the other ninja villages are blaming us, demanding an explanation or they'll start a war."

"Yeah, yeah, Sakumo Hatake's mission failed because one of his teammates abandoned it. Really, a ninja should prioritize the mission."

"That's right. The mission failure caused significant losses. Sakumo Hatake's teammates all wanted to abandon him, but Sakumo Hatake insisted on saving him."

Aburame Shizuka extracted useful information from the noisy environment, and after listening for a while, he found that they were all discussing Hatake Sakumo.

"This is... the White Fang incident that led to Sakumo Hatake's death?!"

The White Fang incident is actually quite simple: Sakumo Hatake abandoned the mission to save his teammates.

However, the White Fang incident had a significant impact, not on the villagers, but on the ninjas.

Despite the overwhelmingly positive public opinion surrounding the White Teeth incident, most of that opinion comes from villagers, and it's easy to manipulate them.

The key is the ninjas. The ninjas are the armed force of Konoha, the ones who control the power. The ninjas haven't spoken yet.

This is because some Konoha ninjas were indeed confused between the Will of Fire and the principles of ninja missions, and did not know what to do.

Another group of Konoha ninjas approved of Sakumo Hatake's actions, but were unable to speak out due to their status.

After all, he was able to stir up public opinion in Konoha and make every villager in Konoha aware of Sakumo Hatake in a short period of time, and he hasn't been suppressed by the Anbu ninjas for so long.

The person behind that is no ordinary individual; they cannot afford to offend them.

It's important to know that Sakumo Hatake was carrying out a top-secret mission, so it's incredibly audacious for anyone to directly expose the mastermind behind it.

Besides, the Third Hokage hasn't made a statement yet, so they wouldn't dare to say anything reckless.

As for whether the Third Hokage knew or not, are you kidding me? The Third Hokage definitely knew.

The Konoha ninja still have a lot of confidence in the Third Hokage, believing that he can handle the situation well.

Even so, many ninjas are still worried, fearing that the Will of Fire and the Ninja Code might be compromised, which is no small matter.

The Will of Fire is not only the foundation of the Hokage's rule, but also the spiritual anchor for many Konoha ninjas. If it gets damaged, it will be a major problem.

In fact, the Will of Fire doesn't have a strict set of rules and regulations. To put it bluntly, it's just a slogan, a slogan that can sustain the spirits of Konoha ninjas under high pressure.

For ninjas, completing missions has always been their highest principle.

The conflict between these two has now created a logical paradox.

The ninjas of Konoha must abide by these two mutually contradictory ironclad rules.

To not follow the Will of Fire is to be a traitor to Konoha. To not prioritize the mission above all else is not to be a qualified ninja.

Of course, these two ironclad rules are in a state of ambiguity, and Konoha ninjas usually avoid them intentionally or unintentionally.

The Konoha leadership was aware of the situation, but they couldn't resolve it.

The Will of Fire is the foundation of their rule, and so are the principles of ninja missions; they can only deliberately blur these lines.

But now someone is playing dirty tricks, no longer intending to blur the lines, and is directly using this matter, which is wrong no matter what, to attack Sakumo Hatake's prestige.

"This is troublesome. Perhaps the Third Hokage initially only wanted to suppress Sakumo Hatake, since Sakumo had already threatened the Hokage master-disciple system. So he allowed Danzo Shimura to spread rumors, but he didn't expect things to escalate so much that Sakumo Hatake committed suicide!"

While eating barbecue, Yu Nu Zhiyi sorted out the current situation.

"The consequences of Sakumo Hatake's death are severe. It not only means that Konoha has lost a high-end combatant, but more frighteningly, it has caused Konoha ninjas to question the Will of Fire."

"If we don't even rescue our own comrades, what's the point of the Will of Fire? Bonds become laughable, and comrades become untrustworthy."

This is a major blow to Konoha and will also affect the morale of the entire village.

If it weren't for Minato Namikaze's emergence in the Third Shinobi World War, given the dire consequences of White Fang's death, it's hard to say whether Konoha could have won.

After Sakumo Hatake's death, the White Fang incident became a taboo subject, and everyone tacitly avoided discussing it.

But someone must take responsibility, otherwise the people of Konoha will be unsettled.

The conflict between the Will of Fire and the principles of ninja missions, sparked by the White Fang incident, must also be resolved.

The abdication of the Third Hokage and the rise of Minato Namikaze as Hokage may have been partly due to the death of Sakumo Hatake, serving as a kind of closure for the Third Hokage.

"This is indeed an opportunity, an opportunity to enter the eye of the storm of public opinion and catch the attention of Konoha's higher-ups."

After finishing her barbecue, Yu Nu Zhiyi leaned back in her chair and rested for a while.

"But you must also be careful not to draw the storm to yourself. It's best to be in the eye of the storm, where the storm won't hurt you but you'll still get the attention of Konoha's higher-ups."

Aburame Shiki thought quickly, deducing the course of the White Fang incident, and suddenly thought of his classmates from the Ninja Academy.

"Kakashi, Kakashi is a perfect opportunity to intervene."

(End of this chapter)