Hokage's Office.
Tsunade had sent Genhai, Shizune, and Kurenai home first. She led Saiki and Tsume directly to the office to report.
"Hiruzen-sensei." Though she had been maneuvered into this, Tsunade maintained her cold, detached demeanor. She offered the barest hint of a greeting to the man who had taught her.
"Ah, Tsunade! You're finally back!" Hiruzen Sarutobi looked up from his paperwork, his face a mask of grandfatherly warmth. To an outsider, they looked like a beloved teacher and his favorite student.
Watching Hiruzen act so approachable and kind, Tsume—who previously hadn't been privy to the village's internal rot—would have assumed the Hokage was a man of the people.
But after hearing the truth from Saiki and witnessing the screaming matches between Tsunade and Jiraiya, she now saw the mask as nothing but a layer of hypocrisy. Her voice was stiff as she bowed. "Lord Hokage."
Saiki, on the other hand, just stood there. In the past, he would have played along, fearing for his life.
Now? He looked at the scene with icy indifference. He didn't bow, he didn't greet him, and he certainly didn't address him by his title.
One could call it a lack of "political progress," but when a man has the power to refuse "beef," he no longer needs to worry about the chef's temper.
While Saiki and Tsunade were frosty, Hiruzen remained relentlessly "warm." He beamed at Saiki, but since Saiki didn't even acknowledge his gaze, the Old Man found himself unable to start his rehearsed lecture of praise.
Since the day Saiki stepped onto the battlefield, his record had been nothing short of mythological.
Hiruzen knew that even if he deployed himself to the front, he might not be as terrifyingly efficient as this boy.
Nearly a hundred Cloud ninja dead in a single night. A third of them were high-ranking specialists. An Elite Jonin wielding Black Lightning, butchered.
In one night, Saiki had earned the moniker "Thunder Fang of the Leaf."
The village elders were not fond of that title. It was far too close to "White Fang," a hero they had personally driven to suicide through a smear campaign.
The existence of a "Thunder Fang" was a stinging slap to their faces, a reminder of the blood on their hands they desperately wanted the public to forget.
Hiruzen had actually been relieved when the report came in that Saiki had vanished during his fight with the Eight-Tails.
The boy was arrogant, uncontrollable, and possessed zero loyalty to the "Will of Fire." In Hiruzen's calculated world, a brilliant tool that won't let you hold the handle is better off broken.
Of course, the public mask had to be maintained. He had "desperately" sent Minato to find the missing "hero."
And if that mission happened to bring Tsunade back to the village? Even better.
Hiruzen wasn't worried about Tsunade's rebellion. He knew she loved the village, despite her words. He knew she could never ignore the suffering of Leaf soldiers.
As a politician, Hiruzen was a master: it didn't matter if his subordinates liked him, as long as he knew where their leashes were.
He had tried to use the orphanage to leash Saiki, thinking the boy would sell his soul for a bit of funding.
The old Saiki had been forced to compromise. But the new Saiki was quite prepared to slaughter the Hokage if the money stopped flowing. Tsunade would arguably be a better leader anyway.
Hiruzen had been alternating between viewing Saiki as a threat and a tool, but everything changed when Saiki returned from the Tailed Beast Ball blast unscathed.
The boy had then proceeded to wipe out several Root squads led by Tatsuma Aburame—Danzo's right hand.
Then he had cleaved a mountain.
Then he had effortlessly countered the "invincible" Flying Thunder God and stabbed Minato Namikaze.
Hiruzen struggled to process this level of power. Saiki was still a child.
Reality, however, didn't care about Hiruzen's disbelief. His strategy now shifted: if he couldn't control the boy, he would crush him through bureaucratic suppression.
He never considered that Saiki might just flip the table. There hadn't been a coup in the Leaf since the founding; the era of Hashirama and Madara felt like ancient myth. Hiruzen still believed that enough "fodder" ninja could solve any problem.
He was about to learn that political power means nothing in the face of absolute, cosmic strength.
By the time Saiki and Minato returned after driving off the A-B combo and wounding the Two-Tails, Hiruzen was no longer surprised. He was prepared to meet the boy head-on.
Seeing the "Old Geezer" staring at him, Saiki decided to break the silence himself.
He frowned slightly and asked, "Old Man, is there something on my face?"
Calling him "Sandaime" sounded casual, but Saiki was pointedly omitting "Lord." Even a basic honorific was too much effort for him now.
Tsunade and Tsume both tensed. Tsunade knew Saiki was a stubborn mule, but his lack of deference today was bordering on suicidal. She snapped at him, "Saiki! Watch your tone with the Hokage!"
Tsume just shot him a look of pure terror.
Hiruzen felt a prickle of annoyance at the boy's attitude, but as Hokage, he couldn't bicker with a child. He forced a smile. "It's quite alright. He's just a boy who's been away from home too long."
Saiki noted the "boy" comment. He was taller than most kids his age, and his birthday was only a month away. He knew Hiruzen was taking a subtle jab at his maturity.
Hiruzen turned his full attention to Saiki. "Saiki, your performance at the front was exemplary..."
He delivered a glowing review of Saiki's tactical value, but his tone shifted instantly. "However, you are still young and impulsive. Why did you attack the village's Anbu?"
Hiruzen sighed, looking like a disappointed grandfather. Saiki wasn't buying a single second of the performance. If Hiruzen tried anything today, the Leaf would have a new Hokage by sunset.
Saiki sneered. "Old Man, were those actually Anbu? Did you issue those orders? I assumed they were foreign spies. After all, what kind of Hokage would order his Anbu to assassinate a decorated war hero of his own village?"
Saiki had just ripped the mask off Hiruzen's face and stomped on it.
Hiruzen and Danzo still viewed Saiki as a child whose mind could be manipulated by a few clever words. They assumed a ten-year-old would be flattered by a "hero" title and submit.
This time, Tsunade didn't scold him. She just watched Hiruzen with cold, calculating eyes. If he moved against Saiki, she was leaving Konoha with the boy, and she didn't care who tried to stop her.
Tsume felt like her heart was going to burst. In her mind, Saiki was a good, sensible boy. She couldn't understand where this sudden, terrifying defiance had come from.
Hiruzen's jaw tightened. He wanted to call the guards and have Saiki bound, but Tsunade's presence stayed his hand. He had to be careful.
He forced his smile to widen. "Ah, I see. It was a failure of the Intelligence Division. The Cloud intercepted our communications and tried to use the confusion to eliminate you. When that failed, they actually had the audacity to demand your head as a condition for a ceasefire."
He was alternating between a threat and a lecture. He straightened his back, adopting a posture of firm, protective leadership. "Rest assured, we viewed their demand as a joke. You are a hero of the Leaf. Even if this war escalates—even if it costs us more lives—we would never betray one of our own."
It was a classic PUA move. Even a loyalist like Tsume could smell the manipulation. Tsunade's knuckles turned white; her clansmen had been "heroically" sent to their deaths with the exact same rhetoric.
Hiruzen was essentially saying: Look how much we are sacrificing for you. You owe us your life and your soul.
If an idiot like Genhai were standing there, he'd probably be crying and offering to turn himself in to save the village.
Saiki just wanted to laugh. He had expected Hiruzen to be a snake, but he hadn't realized the man was more shameless than Danzo.
Danzo would at least tell you to your face that your death is necessary for the village before stabbing you.
Saiki let out a wide, toothy grin. He was in the middle of losing his baby teeth; his upper left canine was missing, making the grin look hilariously out of place on his handsome face.
"Old Man, if handing me over to the Cloud would truly bring peace... I'm just an outsider, after all. Why wouldn't I be a willing pawn? It's just a shame that only a complete moron would believe a single word out of a Cloud ninja's mouth. Are you a moron, Sandaime?"
Saiki had turned the question back on him with a verbal middle finger.
Hiruzen felt zero guilt about the "moron" comment. This was a man who would eventually hand over Hizashi Hyuga to the Cloud to avoid a fight. Compared to a Hyuga patriarch, Saiki was nobody.
But Saiki's response confirmed the Hokage's worst fear: the boy was utterly uncontrollable.
Ignoring the insult, Hiruzen maintained his mournful mask. "Indeed. The Cloud cannot be trusted. We have the advantage, and we have absolute confidence in our victory."
Saiki was done with the theater. He opened his mouth to say, "So what you're saying is, the moment we start losing, you're throwing me to the wolves?"
But Tsunade sensed the explosion coming. If Saiki said that out loud, there would be no going back. Before he could utter a word, she delivered a thunderous punch to the top of his head.
THWACK!
Saiki had been focused on Hiruzen and didn't sense any malice from Tsunade, so the hit landed flush. His intended sentence was cut off into a muffled "Ack!"
"Enough, Hiruzen-sensei! We've been marching for days and we're exhausted. If you have nothing else to say, we're going home to rest," Tsunade snapped.
Hiruzen forced another smile. He didn't want a full-scale confrontation with Tsunade yet. "Of course. Go and rest. However, given the recent... friction, Saiki will be assigned to the Anbu for his own protection to let the situation blow over. Tsunade, there are several critical cases at the hospital; please look them over when you have a moment."
Saiki didn't want to hear another word about the Anbu, but Tsunade shoved his head down, cutting him off. "Fine. I'll go to the hospital. We're leaving."
She practically dragged Saiki out of the office. Once the door clicked shut, a side panel slid open. Danzo Shimura, leaning on his cane with his eye bandaged, limped into the room.
"Hiruzen. That boy is a cancer to this village. Hand him to me. I will break him."
This time, Hiruzen didn't say no. He simply sat in a cloud of tobacco smoke, his face unreadable.