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From the day the government announced it had discovered that the chakra pests plaguing the chakra-enhanced crops grown in the south-eastern agricultural region for the past few years had been engineered—rather than a natural occurrence, as previously believed—it was all anyone could talk about. If that wasn't shocking enough, the reveal that the administration believed that the threat had originated from within the Hidden Leaf's own Aburame clan was even more startling.
It created waves of chaos that broke out of the Leaf shinobi circles and spread throughout the nation because it had affected so many people's livelihoods for years. There was a great deal of anger when people found out that the shinobi whom they had been praising for saving the Hidden Leaf from a resource collapse—as shinobi heavily relied on chakra-enhanced plants—had been the ones to threaten it in the first place.
The people demanded to know how something so grave could have happened. The administration knew there would be anger and had already prepared for it, announcing a fact-finding inquiry that would be open to the public through wide access to the media, who would be allowed to report on all the happenings at the tribunal.
The public-facing reason was to give the populace the facts and appease them by showing them that the administration wasn't just going to let this pass, but the inward-facing reason was to disallow the Aburame clan, and to some extent other clans, from using political cover to dodge responsibility. The clans had enormous powers, and by putting everything in broad daylight, they wrested away most of their ability to manoeuvre things as they'd be able to do behind closed doors.
It was also a very risky move because a public inquiry meant airing out the Hidden Leaf's dirty laundry for everyone to see. Regardless of whose fault it was, the Hidden Leaf wasn't going to escape blame.
The tribunal hall was jam-packed with journalists and those who could reserve seats in the hall.
The gathering seemed like a who's who of the Hidden Leaf.
The Hyūga clan sent a tokubetsu jōnin, but Yamanaka Inoichi himself came to observe the inquiry. Uchiha Fugaku and Nara Shikaku were present in their official capacities as the leader of the Leaf Military Police Force and the highest-ranking jōnin commander, respectively, but both clans sent separate representatives as well. Inuzuka Gaku inadvisably engaged with the reporters, while the Akimichi jōnin took up their places in the front row.
Even if every other clan was affected by the Aburame clan's actions—as prices had increased across the board and they wanted to see them punished—some clans also had an opposing interest where they wanted a few particular things to go in the Aburame clan's favour because of the news of ANBU raiding clan property that was explicitly protected by the kekkei genkai and hiden jutsu laws.
Only a limited number of times in the village's history had those laws been pierced; the clans wanted to keep those precedents as low as possible so the laws remained strong.
They wanted the Aburame clan to be punished while keeping the kekkei genkai and hiden jutsu laws out of it.
The centre of attention, however, was the long table where the Aburame clan members who had been officially summoned to appear before the inquiry panel and answer the questions under oath sat. At the table were the primary accused, Aburame Shigeki; the clan head, Aburame Shibi; a couple of high-ranking clan members; and secondary accused close to Shigeki, like his apprentice, Aburame Resa, who would return to ANBU custody afterwards.
The hall hushed as the Hokage entered. All stood up in customary respect as the Third Hokage made his way to the grand table on a ten-foot-high raised platform at the front of the hall that separated the leader of the village from the floor. From his vantage point, he could see the Aburame table on his left, the inquiry panel on his right, a small table with empty seats for others who would be called upon during the inquiry, and the spectators in the back of the hall.
Usually, the Hokage would maintain his distance, but his presence signalled the magnitude of the crime and how seriously the village planned to take it.
Two masked operatives from the Hokage's ANBU stood on either side of his chair, looking down at the hall like gargoyles. More security was hidden in the room in plain clothing, ready to protect the Hokage from any danger.
"Let us proceed," Hiruzen said.
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The past week had been stressful for Aburame Shibi. He'd been running around gathering information on what ANBU had against them, negotiating with the masks for Shigeki's release, dealing with the backlash from their business and political partners after the announcement, and preparing for the public inquiry.
Information about the panel was made public beforehand. It was a balanced panel consisting of a magistrate judge who would study the facts and draft the formal recommendation to the village's legislature, and help the panel suggest what the prosecution should investigate and who they should investigate for their criminal acts. There was also a representative from the agricultural guild, a shinobi, who worked with the farmers to connect them with shinobi who wove chakra into the soil and crops, giving the victims a voice on the panel. Then there were experts whose roles were to translate the technical data into layman's terms for the panel's benefit and the public record.
Of all of them, Shibi had the greatest problem with the man leading the panel.
"We are gathered here to discuss the recent revelation about the chakra pest infecting the fertile lands of our country for the past few years. It was recently revealed by the state that they had found that those pests were engineered by the Aburame clan, who infected the lands with the express purpose of profiting from the manufacturing crisis by selling a solution in the form of specially-bred pale beetles."
Seated front and centre of the inquiry panel was a bald man in well-appointed robes that seemed too opulent for the setting. Standing out more than the Hokage was a brazen move, but the self-confidence radiating alongside the downturned stare made the grandeur feel less like pretence and more like fact.
"My first question is to Jōnin Shibi, the clan head of the Aburame clan: Are the state's accusations true?"
Shibi took his time adjusting the microphone on the table before answering, "The Aburame clan wasn't aware that the chakra pests were engineered, nor did we create pale beetles so we could profit from the tragedy."
"But you did profit from it, immensely at that. Are we to believe that you didn't know about such a big thing happening under your own nose? I apologise, but I find that hard to believe." He didn't sound convinced and didn't hide it from his face and voice, and everyone in the hall saw and heard him.
Shibi could hear the opinions being formed behind him. He looked up at Jōnin Kossori Toridasu. At the man's age, when most jōnin had long retired, or at the very least taken purely administrative positions, Toridasu was as active as a young jōnin, not because he had to, but because he could, and that long and active career had made him one of the most influential individuals in the village. What kind of old man volunteered to lead a frontline camp in the Steam-Frost War at his age, force back a Cloud jōnin in their prime, and then recapture a gold mine and a valuable strategic city from the enemy? In an era where most of the shinobi who had come up with the Hokage had been retired for decades or were likely dead, Toridasu was the only person relatively close to the Hokage's age who was still active, making him one of the leader's closest confidants and trusted shinobi.
Toridasu wasn't someone who could be pushed around, and worst of all, the old shinobi was well aware of the fact. Not to mention, his old age meant he didn't mind offending the major clans because he had a long career and could retire tomorrow if it blew up in his face. Given his reputation, he wasn't going to let any fact go unturned, hidden, or untold.
The old jōnin continued, "When the authorities raided the Aburame greenhouses, they found a sizable breeding operation of the chakra pests. In fact, we were told it was bigger than the beetle breeding operation in the same building. Are we to believe that you weren't aware of it?"
"We appeal for that fact to be scrubbed from the record, as it's protected under the hiden jutsu laws enshrined as the foundation of the village," Shibi said.
"This is not a legal trial, Jōnin Shibi," Toridasu said, looking disappointed and having the gall to sound bored. "You can argue about the exclusion of evidence when this case goes to trial, which, given what I've seen, it definitely will. Our objective today is to discuss and understand the facts. What we want to know is: How did this disaster happen, and how do we prevent it from happening again? I'm sure you'd be interested in that as well, given that all of it originated inside your clan."
"… For efficient and proper management, the Aburame clan operates on compartmentalised leadership. The greenhouse wasn't under my direct control, and I trusted my subordinate—"
"You mean Tokujō Shigeki?"
"Yes. I trust my fellow clan members to be responsible. We only found out about the happenings when we were informed of the reason behind the raid from the authorities," Shibi said. He couldn't lie in the inquiry because if he said something now and changed his answer later in the trial, it wouldn't look good and would destroy his credibility.
This was as much about winning the subsequent trial as it was about coming out on top in the public opinion battle. The trial and inquiry hadn't even started, and they had already seen several interested parties for future work put their talks on hold or outright cancel them. Every answer had to be carefully considered to remove blame from the Aburame clan as much as possible.
Shibi covertly glanced at Shigeki, who hadn't spoken a lot in the past few days unless prompted, which was what they wanted from him, but Shibi didn't know him to be a man who would stay silent when the rest of his life was on the line. Since his return from ANBU custody, he had sort of given up or didn't have the energy to care about it as hard as one would expect. What had been done to him in ANBU custody had taken a lot out of him. Just thinking about the description made Shibi unsure how he would've taken the "silence", but it wouldn't have been a comfortable experience.
But that didn't change the fact that the clan was in grave trouble.
All of them knew that getting out of this scot-free would be miraculous. They had to be realistic about it. Shigeki knew about that as well and knew that the clan would be shifting blame to him and others to reduce the damage.
"You never visited the greenhouse?" Toridasu asked.
"I trusted the audit reports, and they said that the greenhouse was being run properly. We hadn't seen any complaints from our customers as they were receiving the pale beetle treatments on time. I inferred that the production was being handled professionally."
"It's all fine as long as the money was rolling in, was it?"
Shibi bit his words back when he saw the glint in Toridasu's eyes that said that he was ready for a back-and-forth where the only outcome would be damage to the Aburame clan. Instead, he glanced up at the Hokage who had selected Toridasu and couldn't help but wonder if this was how he wanted this debacle to be handled.
Were they going to be used as an example for other clans?
The proceedings only got worse as more and more evidence was shown about how Shigeki had used the Aburame clan's resources to infect the agricultural lands with chakra worms and then sell the pale beetles to profit from it. It was a clear effort to bind the clan to the crime to make sure that they couldn't later distance themselves from it.
None of it was surprising because Shigeki had confessed to everything he had done.
Shibi and other Aburame jōnin were repeatedly hammered as the panel showcased that Shigeki wasn't alone in the scheme. He had breeders who bred the pests for him, packers who packaged them for easy, safe transportation, and clan members who infected the vast farmland.
It showed major negligence on the part of the Aburame leadership that they didn't know all of this was happening without their knowledge. The amount of money the Aburame clan had earned through the scheme made it difficult for everyone to believe that there wasn't more oversight over such a huge revenue generator.
However, they couldn't accept fault without a fight because if they did, the aftermath would be disastrous, to say the least. And seeing how hard the panel was coming at them, it didn't seem like anything would change if they just decided to accept fault. So they had to try at least. However, at the same time, it also felt like fighting wasn't going to change much.
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