"I?"
"That's right, it's you. The point has never been whether Shimura Arima will apologize to Mr. Sakumo, but that you, Kakashi, as Mr. Sakumo's only son, went to see Shimura Arima and asked him to apologize to Mr. Sakumo." Mitsuki looked at Kakashi and said seriously.
Mitsuki's goal from the beginning to the end was to prevent White Fang from committing suicide. The villagers' opinions or anything else were secondary.
When he heard Shimura's last name, he realized that it was probably impossible to get Shimura Arima to apologize so that White Fang would have the motivation to live again.
Everyone who has watched Hokage knows who the most famous person with the surname Shimura is. It is undoubtedly the 5.5th Hokage Shimura Danzō. This is not Mitsuki's random guess.
It was mentioned in the original plot that White Fang led the team to carry out a confidential mission deep into the enemy's territory. Even if this mission failed, it would not be widely spread in the village.
Because no matter whether this confidential mission succeeds or fails, the information about the mission results itself has a certain value.
During wartime, there will inevitably be local spies infiltrating every village. If the results of every secret mission were to be made public, the ninja villages would have been in chaos long ago.
On the other hand, public opinion is just public opinion after all. A few spit from villagers may kill a samurai, but trying to kill a ninja is a bit ridiculous.
Therefore, the purpose of the mastermind behind this incident is very clear, just to make Konoha's White Fang depressed for a period of time and let him bear some infamy and stains.
Considering Danzo's purpose, he should be worried that as White Fang Hatake Sakumo's exploits on the battlefield increase, it will eventually affect Orochimaru's succession to the Fourth Hokage.
The stigmatized White Fang naturally could not compete with the legitimate disciples of the Third Hokage.
Naturally, this kind of thing could not be hidden from the Third Hokage, but the Third Hokage at this time was more fond of his disciple Orochimaru, so he acquiesced to Danzo's little tricks.
The only thing is that even the Third Hokage or Shimura Danzō had not thought of it. They had received ninja education since childhood, and it was taught by the Second Hokage Senju Tobirama.
In their opinion, for ninjas, these public pressures are nothing, but the Hatake family is different.
As we all know, the Hatake family was transformed from a samurai family, so such insults and abuses were extremely destructive to Hatake Sakumo.
To put it simply, Hatake Sakumo's defense was broken.
Therefore, Mitsuki's purpose is very simple, which is to give Hatake Sakumo a reason to live. Once a person has an excuse, death is not an easy decision to make.
And in Mitsuki's opinion, Hatake Sakumo probably has no ambition to become Hokage. He probably wants to end the war and accompany Kakashi to grow up.
"Kakashi, you are Mr. Sakumo's only relative. As long as Mr. Sakumo sees your actions and determination, as long as his own mentality is not affected, any public opinion from the outside world will disappear with time sooner or later."
"But there are so many people in the village... I'm sorry, it's not that I don't trust you, Mitsuki." Although Kakashi believed what Mitsuki said, he still couldn't help but worry.
"No buts, trust my judgment." Mitsuki didn't care about Kakashi's words, because he understood that the more you care, the more careful you should be. He had the same mentality when he faced Kento.
...
The four of them reorganized their plan and came to Konoha Hospital.
After asking the ninja on duty, they came to Shimura Arima's ward.
In front of the ward, Kakashi went up and knocked on the door
"Come in."
"Excuse me"
When I entered the ward, what caught my eye was a man half leaning on the bed. He had short black hair, a lot of bandages wrapped around his body, and looked haggard.
Although it was wartime, Konoha Hospital, as the largest hospital in the ninja world, did not have congested beds. Shimura Arima was the only one living in his ward.
"You are Shimura Arima, do you know what you have done?" Obito saw the person he was cursing and immediately started to scold him.
After all, he also knew that their purpose was not to require Shimura Arima to do anything.
In his opinion, all he needed to do was to scold this b*****d who betrayed his companions.
"That hair, you must be Kakashi, right?" Shimura Arima ignored Obito and called out Kakashi's name instead.
Obito wanted to say something, but was pulled behind Kakashi by Mitsuki and Rin, each with one arm.
"Alright Obito, now let Kakashi do his thing." Rin whispered to Obito.
"Hmph..." Although Obito was dissatisfied, he still kept quiet.
"I want to know why you blame my father. Since my father is willing to give up the mission to save you, you should have a good relationship with him. Why do you say that?!" Kakashi's voice unconsciously got louder as he spoke.
Looking at Kakashi in front of me, I couldn't see his expression clearly because he was wearing a mask.
Shimura Arima did not answer him, but grabbed the crutches beside the bed and got out of bed from the direction of the door with some difficulty.
It was then that everyone discovered that half of Shimura Arima's calf was gone.
Shimura Arima limped to Kakashi and whispered, "I'm sorry." Then he knelt in front of Kakashi and made the gesture of taking a step forward.
But before Kakashi could say anything, Shimura Arima immediately stood up again with the help of crutches. Kakashi wanted to help him, but Shimura Arima waved his hand to refuse.
At this point, Shimura Arima lay back on the hospital bed and refused any communication.
After trying to communicate to no avail, the few of them looked at each other and walked out of Konoha Hospital.
Kakashi thought of a thousand scenarios of meeting Shimura Arima, but still had never thought of this situation.
Although Mitsuki did not expect this, he could understand that Mr. Sakumo was not a fool. On the contrary, he was very smart.
The teammate that he was willing to interrupt the mission to save is naturally unlikely to be an unforgivable villain.
Moreover, he noticed that there was a bouquet of carnations next to Shimura Arima's bed, and judging from the color of the flowers, it seemed that they had just been changed in the morning.
However, there is no need to delve into these clues. No matter what the reasons behind Shimura Arima's abnormal behavior, it will not affect the subsequent actions of Mitsuki and others.
"Kakashi, what do you think?" Mitsuki wanted to know what Kakashi was thinking now.
"I feel like Shimura Arima didn't mean to blame my father. Maybe there are some reasons I don't know." Kakashi supported his chin with one hand and thought.
"But he doesn't want to talk to us at all now." Obito interrupted and muttered.
"At least now we know that Shimura Arima feels guilty towards Uncle Sakumo. Uncle Sakumo will probably feel better after knowing that." Rin also joined the discussion.
Mitsuki, who was standing by, looked at Kakashi's expression and thought that it seemed that he needed to give Kakashi a strong dose of medicine.
Mitsuki grabbed Kakashi's shoulders with both hands and made him look directly into his eyes.
"Kakashi, there is only one thing you need to do next. You need to take the worst possible outcome of your father, Hatake Sakumo, committing suicide due to public opinion and go persuade your father!"