You are Uzumaki Shiki, son of the small but prominent Uzumaki clan and the chūnin leader of a squad of shinobi in Konohagakure. Despite being from Amegakure, where your parents and your sister still live, you’ve come to think of this village as a second home and your teammates as a second family. Which is why when Tsubaki-kun, a young samurai girl who has been placed onto a team with your cousins Boruto-kun and Sarada-kun, asks you a question about Konoha’s history you’re able to answer her - and in doing so, explain the situation you’ve found yourselves in.

“So in the Second and Third shinobi world wars, three students of the Third Hokage distinguished themselves,” you tell her. “These included the woman who would become Fifth Hokage, Senju Tsunade, and the Sage of Mount Myōboku, Jiraiya. The third of these ‘Sannin’, the collective title given to them by Hanzō of the Salamander during the Second shinobi world war, is a man named Orochimaru.”

“The client for this particular mission is someone that famous?” Tsubaki-kun muses aloud.

You shake your head. “Actually, ‘infamous’ is more like it.”

“What did he do?”

“He performed numerous unethical experiments, betrayed the village and joined a mercenary group called Akatsuki, then after falling out with them, murdered and posed as the Third Kazekage so that he could manipulate the Sunagakure into joining his own private village in attacking Konoha. During that attack he murdered the Third Hokage.”

“... that sounds bad,” Tsubaki-kun agrees. “So why would such a man be allowed to continue living?”

“I’ve wondered the same,” Wasabi-chan admits.

“May I?” Sumirin asks you politely.

You gesture for her to speak her mind. “My understanding is that it’s a matter of resources… you could say that Orochimaru’s capabilities are too great to discard.”

“He’s also been much better behaved recently,” you add. “Which is understandable, seeing how he died twice.”

“How does that work?” Boruto frowns.

“Shenanigans,” you shrug. “Like Sumirin says, he has <span class="mu-i">capabilities</span> and Konoha’s higher-ups know it.”
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