The Hokage Residence.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat at the head of the table, with Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru seated below him.
Biwako kept bustling in and out. The moment she heard Jiraiya and Tsunade had arrived, she'd practically sprinted into the kitchen and threw together a spread in record time.
Tender chicken. Grilled meat. Skewered dumplings. Light little drinking snacks, crisp and clean on the tongue.
All of it was stuff she remembered the kids loving back then.
Asuma huffed and puffed as he hauled in a few jars of sake and set them beside the table.
Tsunade and Jiraiya both loved to drink. The second they got here, they started making noise about how Team Hiruzen hadn't reunited in forever and that tonight they were absolutely having a few rounds.
"Asuma," Hiruzen said, watching his youngest try way too hard while avoiding his eyes, "since when do you apologize to me?"
He could guess why.
Probably something along the lines of calling him old-fashioned. Stiff. A bore.
Because Hiruzen used to be the classic old-school war-era father type. As long as his son stayed alive and fed, that counted as raising him. Heart-to-hearts and casual talks barely existed.
In Hiruzen's generation, surviving was the best parenting you could manage.
That was just how old shinobi families worked.
"I said something about you at the Academy…" Asuma's face turned bright red. He couldn't even force the words out. He bent sharply at the waist. "Father, I'm sorry!"
"Let me guess," Hiruzen chuckled, shaking his head. "Something like 'that old man's so boring,' right? You're not the first one to say it…"
Asuma blinked and looked up, eyes drifting toward his older brother.
Shinnosuke's face darkened immediately. "Brat. I've always respected Father."
Asuma went blank. If it wasn't Shinnosuke, then who—
Hiruzen's gaze slid, slow and pointed, toward his three students.
Jiraiya abruptly found the ceiling fascinating, whistling like he'd never had a thought in his life.
Tsunade rubbed her hands together and let out a sheepish little laugh. "Come on, sensei. I was young. I didn't know any better!"
Only Orochimaru sat there like nothing in the world could move him.
He hadn't actually called Hiruzen a boring old man… but if things had kept going the way they used to—
He probably would've said far worse. Just with less warmth behind it.
Asuma couldn't help himself. "Wow. Tsunade-neesan and Jiraiya-niisan are seriously heartless. Father taught you so many jutsu and you still talked trash about him behind his back?"
Tsunade rolled her eyes, pretty and sharp. "Hey, hey. Watch your mouth, you little punk. That 'old man' is still your dad."
Jiraiya crossed his arms. "Sensei, I'm telling you, this kid's asking for it."
Orochimaru watched the whole thing in silence.
He could relate to Asuma, just a little.
What the kid wanted wasn't sake or snacks. It was Hiruzen's approval. His attention.
And Orochimaru wanted the same thing. Maybe even more.
"Asuma," Hiruzen said, clearing his throat, "I didn't spend much time with you before."
He paused, then continued more quietly, "From now on, if something happens at the Academy, you can come tell me. Share it with me."
Asuma's eyes lit up like someone had struck flint. "Really?"
Hiruzen nodded.
"Dad, I'm not staying for dinner," Shinnosuke said. He put on an Anbu mask and gave a thumbs-up. "I can't be the one dragging you down."
Then he turned and left, clean and quick.
"It's fine, it's fine, I'll stay!" Asuma grinned and moved toward the table like he belonged there.
Biwako set down the last dish, a pot of stew, and asked softly, "Hiruzen, are you going to talk business?"
"Yeah."
Hiruzen blinked at her, a gentle little cue. "You've worked hard."
Biwako smiled like she understood everything without needing it said. Then she grabbed Asuma by the back of the collar like he was a stray kitten and hauled him away from the table.
Hiruzen had to bite back a laugh.
The Sarutobi household was traditional about this sort of thing. Who sat at the table mattered.
As for why Tsunade was allowed—
Because she wasn't just a woman. She was a Jonin who could punch mountains, Konoha's top medical ninja, Hiruzen's student, Hashirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki's granddaughter, and the Land of Fire's princess by blood.
In other words: she qualified.
"Eat," Hiruzen said, tapping the table lightly. "Serve yourselves. Don't make me pick food for you like you're kids."
His eyes flicked to Orochimaru. "You've gotten thinner. Eat more meat. Put something back on."
"I think that's from you beating his Chakra dry," Jiraiya said around a mouthful of meat, talking through it shamelessly. "What's he care about getting fat? If he wants to get all weird and… lopsided… maybe the slimy snake should fix that too…"
Orochimaru's hand paused for the briefest moment.
His expression stayed calm. He ate a bite of egg with perfect manners. "Idiots really can't understand geniuses. Eat your food, toad."
But inside, he was genuinely startled.
That idiot's instincts were dead-on.
The Immortality Jutsu he'd been researching really could steal another person's body. And on quiet nights, alone, he'd imagined all sorts of things…
If one day he and Konoha ever went separate ways, he could even try changing sex. Just to see what it felt like. It might be interesting.
But now—
Orochimaru glanced at his teacher and smiled faintly.
There was no need for that anymore.
Tsunade ate with her usual fearless appetite.
After her lover and her little brother died, the list of people she truly cared about had gotten painfully short. Besides Mito Uzumaki, it was basically the ones sitting right here.
Back when Team Hiruzen started drifting, when the air between them stopped feeling like home, Tsunade had planned to leave the village for a while.
Out of sight, out of mind.
But now… she couldn't.
Her teacher was talking about reform. And somehow, he and Orochimaru had repaired whatever had broken between them, without her even noticing when it happened.
So she'd stay. Help her teacher. Help the village.
The speech Hiruzen gave today… the three of them heard it, and it hit like a shot of strength straight into the veins.
A few rounds of drinks later, the dishes picked over and the warmth rising—
Hiruzen clinked cups with his students. They drained them.
"I didn't embarrass myself today, did I?" Hiruzen sighed, lighting his pipe. "What did you think of everyone's reaction?"
"It was stylish," Jiraiya said with a big thumbs-up. "That emergency drill today, I think it really mattered."
"My student Minato told me something," Hiruzen said, brow lifting. "He said the village security's gotten loose. Sometimes he can spot Anbu, but they can't spot him."
Hiruzen rolled the name around in his head.
The boy who helped rescue Kushina. A civilian-born ninja. Jiraiya's newest student.
"Anbu can't spot him?" Tsunade frowned hard. "They didn't do badly today. Is it really that bad?"
"Not exactly," Jiraiya said, instantly animated. "Minato's just… he's a top-tier genius! I'm telling you, he's going to be incredible."
Then, with absolute sincerity, he declared, "My student Minato has the makings of a Hokage!"
Tsunade gave him a look and laughed. "He just graduated and you're already calling him Hokage material? Jiraiya, you're ridiculous."
"You don't get it, Tsunade!" Jiraiya shot back. "He's the real deal!"
Tsunade jerked her chin toward Orochimaru. "Yeah? Then ask the genius you've been staring at since childhood what he thinks."
Jiraiya choked on the argument, but still forced it out. "What's so great about that snake? Minato's already better than he was at that age!"
"A true genius grows up in three to five years," Jiraiya insisted, waving his hands. "He might even compete with the snake!"
Tsunade shooed him like a fly. "I'm not listening to this."
To her, it was just noise.
As long as Orochimaru didn't self-destruct, Tsunade couldn't imagine anyone else taking the Hokage seat from Hiruzen's hands.
Orochimaru sipped his drink. He didn't bother storing Minato's name away. He assumed Jiraiya was just being stubborn.
Interesting. Who wasn't a genius, in their own mind?
"How pathetic, Jiraiya," Orochimaru said softly. "So you've put all your hope into your student?"
He smiled, thin and arrogant. "Fine. If someone wants to be my enemy, their ending is obvious."
"Pathetic?" Jiraiya exploded. "Shut up, you smug snake! You don't understand Minato!"
Hiruzen watched it all.
In this brutal shinobi world, bonds built from childhood were different. You couldn't fake that looseness, that real laughter, when the three of them were together.
And Hiruzen understood something else too.
This, right here, was exactly why Jiraiya never managed to win Tsunade's heart.
His mouth was stubborn, his emotional intelligence was… nonexistent.
"You keep talking about your student," Hiruzen said. "Why don't you work harder yourself and become the Fourth Hokage?"
He flicked a peanut at Jiraiya's forehead.
"My grandstudent's a Chunin now, right?" Hiruzen added.
Jiraiya flailed both hands. "Hey, hey, I'll work for the village, sure! But Hokage? No way. I can't do that job. You do it, old man… it's too much thinking."
"You useless brat," Hiruzen said, half scolding, half laughing.
Then he pulled out a scroll and handed it to Orochimaru.
Orochimaru took it. "Sensei, what is this?"
"Danzo reported you," Hiruzen said quietly. "Accusations of privately researching forbidden Wood Style experiments, stealing important village jutsu, misusing Konoha research funds, gathering your own clique…"
The warm air at the table froze.
Orochimaru's slit pupils tightened without him meaning to. He accepted the scroll and felt like his heart had dropped off a cliff.
"…Heh."
He flipped through it quickly. Inside, his mind went cold.
Danzo had exaggerated, sure, but the bones of it were correct.
He had done those things.
Orochimaru's thoughts raced. Why would Danzo sell him out now?
Danzo had been involved too. If Orochimaru went down, how was Danzo planning to walk away clean?
"Sensei," Orochimaru asked, voice roughening without permission, "you don't actually believe this, do you?"
"Let me see." Tsunade leaned over and snatched the scroll.
Jiraiya leaned in too. The longer they read, the more complicated their expressions got.
Damn it.
It was written like a real case file. Evidence laid out in a way that could hold up under scrutiny.
Hiruzen puffed smoke, eyes half-lidded. "Based on what I know of you… nine parts truth, one part lie."
His voice stayed mild. "Danzo probably pinned some of his own work on you. Especially the funding."
He glanced at Orochimaru. "You've been tricking him out of research money for years, haven't you? Looks like he's been stewing in it."
Orochimaru's eyes flickered.
He couldn't read his teacher.
Was this a warning? A slap on the wrist? Hiruzen didn't sound like someone preparing a harsh punishment.
"What are you doing, snake?" Jiraiya groaned, hand to his forehead. "Were you really planning to defect?"
If Danzo's report was true, Konoha already had a small group of Orochimaru loyalists, with money and jutsu resources in their hands.
If it kept going, Orochimaru could probably build his own hidden village someday.
"Sensei," Jiraiya said fast, jumping in front of the cliff, "Orochimaru might've gone too far, but it's not like he's doing it on purpose. There has to be a misunderstanding!"
He pointed at the scroll like it stank. "You can't trust Danzo's word."
Tsunade nodded tightly. "Sensei, you can't take Danzo at face value. Orochimaru might be getting set up."
Warmth slid through Orochimaru's chest, quiet and unwanted.
They bickered constantly, but when it mattered, they still stood beside him.
"All right," Hiruzen said, cutting through it. "Orochimaru hasn't crossed a line that can't be forgiven."
He set the tone with that one sentence.
"Our relationship," Hiruzen continued, "started drifting after the Second Shinobi World War."
Weariness showed on his face.
And with it, the performance began.
"After the Kushina incident, I started thinking about something I didn't want to face."
He took a drink.
"What you did, hiding things from me as Hokage, was wrong. But the direction wasn't."
His gaze settled on Orochimaru. "You thought I was too conservative. Too stubborn to change. So you went behind my back and did it yourself. Right?"
Hiruzen lifted his cup again. "The three of you are here. So let's talk like family. Doors closed."
He set the cup down.
"Do you know why I was so conservative before?"
Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya exchanged looks, then slowly shook their heads.
"Because change always costs something," Hiruzen said. "And not every change turns out to be good."
He drew a long pull from his pipe.
"I'm not a once-in-a-generation genius. I somehow ended up taking on the Third's role, and I've been lost since the day I became Hokage."
His voice stayed steady, but something raw edged underneath it.
"I was afraid. Afraid I wouldn't be good enough. I didn't have the First Hokage's overwhelming power. I didn't have the Second Hokage's brilliance. But I still became Hokage."
"So I didn't dare adjust the Second's policies. I just worked harder. Did everything myself. I was terrified of failing the will of the ones who came before me."
He exhaled smoke.
"But the village didn't grow the way it should have."
"During the Second Shinobi World War… I even thought about running from it."
He let out a bitter laugh. "I wanted to be a Jonin on the front lines. Charge in, kill enemy shinobi one after another, die with 'hero' on my name. Then I wouldn't have to carry the pressure anymore."
Hiruzen smiled at himself like it hurt.
"Some of you noticed, didn't you? When I was young, I had the same build as Jiraiya. Broad. Solid. I became Hokage, and after a few years, even my height started shrinking. I was still a middle-aged man, and I already looked like an old one."
Tsunade's expression grew heavy. She felt the weight in his words more than anyone.
Jiraiya did too. He hated paperwork with a passion, and just listening to this made his lungs feel tight.
Orochimaru kept his eyes locked on Hiruzen, listening. The resentment he'd buried for years started to loosen, strand by strand.
His teacher had been trapped too.
"Then, after that situation with Kumogakure," Hiruzen said, "I dreamed of the Second Hokage."
"In the dream, he tore into me."
Hiruzen's voice shifted, quoting the memory cleanly.
"'Monkey. How can you be this weak? If every generation of Konoha lacks the confidence to surpass the last, this village will die sooner or later.'"
He stared into the smoke.
"When I woke up, I thought about it for a long time. Maybe it wasn't some spirit visit. Maybe it was just my own mind, finally screaming at me."
He set the pipe down.
"There's still time to make it right."
"I'm going to change Konoha starting now. If it benefits the village, I'll do it. If something stands in my way, I'll cut it down."
His eyes burned, calm on the surface, but alive with something fierce.
"Even if what's in my way is the weak version of myself."
Tsunade, Jiraiya, Orochimaru—none of them had ever seen Hiruzen Sarutobi like this.
Hard. Cold. Unyielding.
Like steel given a human shape.