The Shadow of Konoha

"Captain... we found these on this young man." A Konoha ninja brought the two things he had searched from the unconscious Hanyu to the ninja in charge of this operation. One is a blood-stained forehead protector, and the other is a note that Hanyu attaches great importance to. The captain's expression became extremely serious when he saw these two things. He immediately ordered his subordinates, "The mission is terminated. Take this boy back to the village as quickly as possible."

"But Captain, our mission is..."

"Follow orders, without stopping for a moment!"

"Yes!"

From what Hanyu was carrying, the captain guessed a possibility, so he immediately stopped the ongoing mission and rushed back to the village with him. His orders were undoubtedly carried out in the best possible way. It took this ninja team just over a day to return to Konoha Village from the border, and during this process, Hanyu was in a coma.

Konoha Village is a town of considerable size. Although it is the headquarters of the Fire Nation Ninja, unlike the imagined military camp with closed gates, strict security, and strict entry and exit, its gates have always been open from beginning to end. Even during the war, the ninja village still had to take on external business. Receiving visitors from all over the world, accepting their various commissions, and getting paid after solving the problems was, to a certain extent, a ninja village's source of income.

There was a table not far from the door, where several ninjas were sitting. They were responsible for communicating and receiving visitors from outside, and for examining people entering the village. On the morning of that day, Hanyu's team rushed into the village as quickly as possible.

"Hey, you guys!" This act of trespassing into the village immediately aroused the vigilance and hostility of the ninja at the door. However, before he could utter a word to stop them, the team had already rushed deep into the village.

"Urgent mission!" The captain only left this explanation. The ninjas guarding the gate were so furious that they could only leave one person to guard the gate while the other quickly followed... If they hadn't remembered that these people were the ninjas who went out on a mission two days ago, they would have launched an attack directly.

Just when the team arrived at the door, a ninja had already passed the message up - shortly after discovering Hanyu yesterday, the team secretly passed the message to the village. It can be said that the rulers of Konoha are anxiously awaiting their arrival at this time.

"Lord Sarutobi, the team has arrived at the village and will be here soon." The person who delivered the message reported to the young man in front of him. At this time, all the high-level leaders of Konoha gathered in this room, mainly the disciples of the Second Hokage, such as Sarutobi Hiruzen, Mitokado Homura, Utatane Koharu, and Shimura Danzo. They are currently the actual controllers of this village.

"Are we here already? Is everyone okay?" Sarutobi Hiruzen asked impatiently.

"It seems he was seriously injured."

"Call the medical ninja over." After hearing the messenger's further explanation, Sarutobi immediately gave the order.

"Yes." The ninja was about to turn around and leave, but was stopped again.

"Wait, call Yamanaka over as well." This sentence was not an order from Sarutobi, but an order from Shimura Danzo who remained silent.

"...Yes, Master Danzo." Sarutobi looked at Danzo silently but didn't say much. Soon, the people they ordered arrived here, and then Hanyu was also sent here.

"Can you wake him up?" The medical ninja who arrived earlier stepped forward immediately, and after some emergency treatment, Hanyu slowly opened his eyes. The surroundings became surprisingly quiet.

"Where is this..." Hanyu asked subconsciously. There were shadows in front of him and he didn't know where he was. But then he remembered the last memory before he fainted... Did he fall into the hands of Iwagakure after all?

"The Hidden Leaf Village in the Land of Fire." The answer he got was beyond Hanyu's expectations.

"Konoha?" He shook his head vigorously and finally saw the person standing in front of him. He looked familiar, but... too young.

"A day ago, our ninja found you and recovered these two things from you... Can you tell us how you got them?" Sarutobi Hiruzen asked Hanyu, pointing at the forehead protector and secret letter of the Second Hokage.

Hanyu opened his mouth, but finally said, "According to an agreement with a certain person, I came here to deliver a message to your village... Two days ago, I met a ninja from Konoha Village who called himself Senju Tobirama. He asked me to come here and deliver a message to a man named Sarutobi Hiruzen."

His logic was very clear, and he immediately determined based on Sarutobi's statement that he had met the Second Hokage two days ago. Even with this most bland statement, the information revealed in Hanyu's words was a little too shocking. As soon as he finished speaking, everyone around him stared at him.

The news that there was no news about the Hokage had already spread in the village, but who could have thought that the next information they heard about the Hokage was brought by an outsider who had nothing to do with the village. The village's own intelligence system has been searching for the second generation Hokage these days, but to no avail... In comparison, this seems a bit absurd, but it is precisely because this matter seems too absurd that people feel it is true.

About five days ago, it was the Second Hokage who brought his disciples to the Land of Lightning, preparing to form an alliance with the Raikage of Kumogakure.

However, during the alliance ceremony, they were suddenly attacked by the rebel ninjas of Kumogakure, and the Second Raikage was killed on the spot.

Although the people of Konoha, led by the Hokage, managed to escape at that time, they were faced with the pursuit of a large number of elite ninjas.

When they realized that they could not escape unscathed, the Hokage himself, with his sacrificial spirit, took the initiative to act as bait, and bought a chance for his subordinates and disciples to escape... and at the same time entrusted the future of the village to the young people.

The disciples were able to escape, but there was no news of the Hokage himself.

Now, five days later, although everyone has made the worst plan for the whereabouts of the Hokage, when this result is really put in front of everyone, it is not the kind of thing that can be easily accepted.

The Hokage's disciples are Sarutobi and others who are standing in front of Hanyu at this moment. The Hokage's relics are in Sarutobi's hands.

"Young man, don't be nervous. Tell us in detail what you know about what happened... I am the ninja named Sarutobi." Sarutobi Hiruzen said to Hanyu.

Hanyu had expected the grand scene before him, and he had to be extremely careful with his next explanation, because after arriving in Konoha, his fate was no longer under his control.