Your grandpa chopped my dad…
The kind of down-to-earth line you'd never expect to hear between a Hokage and his assistant.
The Inuzuka and An Aburame shinobi both froze. Even En Uchiha, who'd been holding his chin up in stubborn silence, couldn't help leaning in to listen.
"That did happen," Danzo Shimura said, eyes half-lidded. "But that was the Warring States Era."
"If you're going to bring that up, your dad burned my uncle with Fire Style."
Hiruzen Sarutobi's father was Sasuke Sarutobi.
He wasn't Madara or Hashirama, not one of those near-myth figures, but he was still a name people remembered.
Back in the Warring States Era, Danzo's grandfather had set his sights on Sasuke Sarutobi, wanting to snuff out a genius before he could fully grow.
And whatever happened between Sasuke Sarutobi and Danzo's second uncle had been more of the same.
That era was like that.
If you didn't have blood ties holding trust together, clans killing each other was normal. Last year you could be allies. This year you could be trying to cut each other down.
And even blood didn't guarantee anything.
Cousins fighting cousins inside the same clan wasn't rare either.
"Hah," Hiruzen Sarutobi said, a soft laugh in his throat. "That's exactly what the Warring States Era was."
"And that's why the village matters. Why it's precious."
He looked around at them, voice carrying easily.
"Konoha or any other hidden village, if you really dig into the history, who hasn't been enemies with who?"
"But now we've built something else."
"A community that helps each other."
En Uchiha found himself nodding before he even realized it.
The Uchiha had slaughtered the Senju the hardest, sure, but that didn't mean they'd ever gotten along with everyone else.
Proud and aggressive, Uchiha in that high-pressure era were the kind to kick a stray dog just because it was there. When they got blood in their eyes, sometimes they didn't even spare their own.
In the period when Izanagi was at its height, the clan had even turned inward, killing each other to steal Sharingan and strengthen themselves.
Hiruzen Sarutobi's point was clear.
The hatred between the Senju and the Uchiha wasn't uniquely special. It was just the most famous.
The Hokage and the assistant's families had hated each other too, once, and look at them now.
"Grudges and obsessions from that era should be buried with that cruel time," Hiruzen Sarutobi said.
"Standing together and looking forward, that's the belief we should hold now."
He paused, then tapped his chest lightly with two fingers.
"I won't brag as Hokage."
"But I can promise this. I'll treat every Konoha shinobi fairly, and I'll do what I can to make everyone's lives a little better."
That was something he dared say out loud.
Hiruzen Sarutobi pulled out a fresh pack of cigarettes and tore it open with slow, practiced movements.
He'd lifted them from his eldest son, Shinzo, without asking.
His pipe had become part of his image, but outside, cigarettes were easier to carry.
En Uchiha stayed quiet.
If it were another Uchiha hearing all this, they might've argued back on principle.
But En had joined the Patrol Unit. He'd felt the village's support with his own skin.
Sakumo Hatake showing up at his door personally. The respect from the Inuzuka and Aburame juniors. It all made him feel something he hadn't felt in a long time.
Respect.
He'd even heard that the Patrol Unit's budget included money Hiruzen Sarutobi had donated himself.
The stiffness in En Uchiha's neck had already softened.
He nodded once, and when he spoke, his voice came out rough.
"Third… you're right."
"I just hope you can keep being like this."
"I will," Hiruzen Sarutobi said.
He pulled two cigarettes out and offered one. "Want one?"
En Uchiha took it. Then, very properly, he flicked a small flame to life at his fingertips and lit Hiruzen Sarutobi's cigarette first.
Hiruzen Sarutobi leaned in, shielding the flame, and patted En Uchiha's hand once in thanks.
Then the two of them just stood there and smoked.
With the drifting smoke, the heavy tension from before seemed to lift and float away with it.
From a distance, En Uchiha and Hiruzen Sarutobi looked like two old friends who'd bumped into each other and decided to stop for a chat.
Danzo Shimura ground his teeth quietly.
This bastard…
He could really talk.
He could take a situation this bad and still round it back into shape.
And for some reason, watching Hiruzen Sarutobi smoke with En Uchiha made Danzo Shimura feel oddly irritated.
You're the Hokage.
He's an Uchiha.
Do you have any awareness at all that you're Tobirama's student?
"Hiruzen," Danzo Shimura cut in abruptly, "you should smoke less. Even if being Hokage comes with pressure, you need self-control."
"Cigarettes aren't good."
"Mm, yeah, yeah. You're right," Hiruzen Sarutobi replied with a smile, completely unbothered.
Danzo Shimura's face darkened.
Then he turned to En Uchiha. "I'm not singling you out. But you're Patrol Unit. If you're on duty and you smell like smoke, that's negligence."
And then it hit him.
A blind spot.
Wait.
Fire Style could light cigarettes.
There was no way Hiruzen Sarutobi, who could push his flames to a white-hot nature transformation, couldn't manage that.
So earlier, when Hiruzen Sarutobi had been lecturing him about the "buffer layer" concept and putting on that little act about looking for a lighter…
Was he doing it on purpose? Just to make Danzo Shimura offer to light it for him?
Damn it.
He only realized now.
And what Danzo Shimura didn't expect was…
En Uchiha nodded seriously. No argument at all.
"Assistant Danzo is right," En Uchiha said. "That's my mistake."
"I'll write an explanation with Lord Sakumo and request punishment."
"And I guarantee there won't be a next time."
En Uchiha's thinking was simple.
Right was right. Wrong was wrong.
Pointing it out right then might sound provocative, but the issue itself was real, so there was nothing to argue about.
Danzo Shimura's mouth twitched.
Old Uchiha. Why are you being so agreeable?
"I should reflect too," Hiruzen Sarutobi said, then pushed the entire pack into En Uchiha's hand. "It did affect work. I won't do it again."
En Uchiha accepted it and nodded along. "Thank you, Third."
Inside, he told himself calmly.
I'll report exactly how the village treats the Uchiha Clan.
A pack of cigarettes won't buy me.
I'll use these eyes to see the truth.
But his hands still tucked the pack away carefully.
En Uchiha and Hiruzen Sarutobi met each other's eyes for a brief moment.
Then, both of them smiled.
It wasn't clear what they were smiling about.
Danzo Shimura's face turned even darker.
Are you two close now?
After En Uchiha and the others moved on to continue their patrol, Hiruzen Sarutobi finally spoke again.
"Danzo. The resentment in the Uchiha Clan, their unease toward the village, it won't disappear quickly."
"What I said earlier was for the moment. Yes, clan slaughter was normal in the Warring States Era."
"But the influence Tobirama-sensei left… that was in the village era."
Danzo Shimura blinked.
Wait, that was what I was about to say.
If you say it first, what am I supposed to say?
And he'd honestly thought Hiruzen Sarutobi meant every word of that earlier speech.
"We have to move step by step," Hiruzen Sarutobi continued. "We can't drop our vigilance toward the Uchiha Clan."
"But we need to be smarter about it."
"Having Anbu stare at them directly is useless and crude."
"Instead, we use work as the excuse. Patrol Unit, Anbu, and the police force interact naturally."
"Our people gather intel, and village security improves at the same time."
In that moment, a thought rose in Danzo Shimura's chest before he could stop it.
The one acting more like Tobirama-sensei…
Wasn't him.
It was Hiruzen Sarutobi.
"No," Danzo Shimura muttered under his breath. "It's me. I'm the one…"
Hiruzen Sarutobi glanced over. "What did you say?"
"Nothing," Danzo Shimura said, blowing out a long breath. In his mind, he warned himself again, hard.
I won't lose.
I can learn all of this.
Then he spoke louder, steadying his voice.
"I said, I'm the Hokage."