"Ignorant brat. A ninja's profession inherently involves this kind of hidden self-sacrifice to buy peace for the entire village."
"You wouldn't understand."
Danzo Shimura lowered his hands. The remaining surviving Root ninjas immediately returned to his side.
Aburame Ryoma and his three elite Root ninjas, however, remained indifferent. Standing aside with blood-red eyes.
Danzo frowned.
Genjutsu? Or some special controlling technique?
"Don't understand? Hehehe."
Zenji crossed his arms over his chest. A sarcastic smile appeared on his face.
"According to the Will of Fire, shouldn't a piece of deadwood like you be the one sacrificed? Then illuminate the newly sprouting seedlings."
"Oh, I remember now."
Zenji showed a look of sudden realization.
"You were just unwilling to sacrifice yourself. Which is why you never became Hokage—while the Third Hokage, who was willing to sacrifice himself, became the Hokage."
Danzo stiffened in place. His hands clenched tightly. The skin on his face not wrapped in bandages twitched slightly.
He stared fixedly at Zenji. His defenses were completely breached.
"You damn brat, what do you know—"
"What are you doing? What happened here?"
An aged voice, suppressing anger, rang out.
Hiruzen Sarutobi stood atop the nearby ruins, radiating murderous intent. His battle armor was somewhat tattered, but his aura was like a toppling mountain and overturning sea.
This presence instantly suppressed the surroundings. Making it feel hard to breathe.
Danzo's pupils contracted. He hadn't seen Hiruzen in this state for many years.
The anger in his heart was swept away. Replaced by an uncontrollable sense of timid apprehension.
Zenji's heart jumped as he looked at Hiruzen—whose face had grown somewhat old and hair was turning gray, yet who was still full of imposing presence.
This should be Hiruzen Sarutobi's final peak. In the original story, it was also after this that his face aged rapidly within a few years. Transforming from a middle-aged appearance to that of an old man.
Somewhat curious about what had just happened, Zenji narrowed his eyes and immediately connected to one of the Soul Books through the Book of Ages.
The recorded scenes of time appeared before his eyes. The recent fight in the village quickly played out.
The battle was fierce from the very beginning. Although Ryomen Sukuna's strength was formidable, his body had not yet fully developed.
Coupled with Orochimaru's half-hearted effort—clearly wanting to probe for more combat intelligence on Sukuna—the situation was precarious.
Once Hiruzen familiarized himself with Sukuna's combat methods and gained more intelligence...
The true strength of the Professor of Ninjutsu was fully unleashed. He turned the tables and pressured both of them. In fact, the harder he fought, the stronger his aura became. Almost like a final burst of vitality before the end.
"Lord Hokage, these people wanted to take me away. I said I needed your orders—and then they just directly attacked."
Zenji spread his hands, speaking up first.
Hiruzen immediately formed a guess about the situation here. His gaze fixed on Danzo.
The current Hiruzen's aura was overwhelming. It was the final afterglow of his peak period—even making him appear slightly stronger than a few years prior.
Danzo found himself momentarily speechless. But he quickly reacted and hurriedly said, "Hiruzen, Ryomen Sukuna was also involved in human experimentation. I suspect—"
"How did you know?"
Hiruzen interrupted directly. His voice was cold.
"I...!"
Danzo's heart tightened. The intelligence and investigations before the operation only pointed to Orochimaru. Ryomen Sukuna was never mentioned.
Saying this almost explicitly revealed that he knew some inside information but had concealed it before the operation.
That wasn't the most important part. He had hidden many things and didn't care about one more.
But looking at the broken and damaged traces on Hiruzen's armor, the previous battle must have been fierce.
Orochimaru alone could absolutely not push him to this extent.
Hiruzen suspects me. He suspects that I had the thought of killing him again.
As an old teammate and partner for decades, Danzo immediately deduced Hiruzen's thoughts.
A sense of danger surged within him. This time was different from the last.
There was no chaos brought by the Nine-Tails incident. The village wasn't in a state where it couldn't withstand any losses or provocation like it was back then.
Under Hiruzen's intense aura, Danzo could only grit his teeth and say—feeling extreme heartache:
"It was just a guess. I... actually had other reasons."
"What reasons?"
Hiruzen's cold voice rang out.
Danzo frowned. He glanced at Zenji and slowly looked up at Hiruzen.
Hiruzen instantly understood the other's implication. Having slowly calmed down from the frenzy of battle, he once again considered their old friendship.
"We can talk about this matter later."
Hearing this, Danzo breathed a sigh of relief. But the next words made his heart tighten again.
"From now on, every operation of Root must be reported. No operations are to be carried out without my approval."
After Hiruzen finished speaking, he completely ignored Danzo and turned his gaze to Zenji.
"Zenji, this matter is my responsibility. Rest assured. I will handle everything and give you an explanation."
Hiruzen took a deep breath. He could only offer this for now.
Although he had a guess about the entire sequence of events, without detailed intelligence, he simply couldn't make a judgment.
He could only use such a vague promise to stabilize Zenji for the time being.
The situation and strength of Ryomen Sukuna couldn't help but make him harbor some doubts about Zenji as well.
"I trust you, Third Hokage." Zenji pointed to the courtyard, which had turned into a pile of ruins. "But what about the damages here?"
"I will arrange for someone to rebuild it."
Hiruzen glanced at Danzo. His dissatisfaction growing.
The vast majority of Konoha Village's funding came from three sources.
The first was appropriations from the Daimyo of the Land of Fire.
This part was actually mainly resources and channels—food, livestock, medicine, ores, various trading channels. Or rather, markets.
This was also the most basic method the Daimyo used to influence the ninja village.
The second was commissioned tasks from various countries, organizations, or individuals.
This was a massive cash flow and the main competitive resource for the major ninja villages during peacetime. As well as the trigger for wars.
The third part was the commerce within the village. Including the specialties of the major ninja clans, the merchant caravans that came and went, and the wealthy merchants who came for tourism or short stays.
However, due to the Nine-Tails incident two years ago, this third part—commerce—had suffered a severe blow.
Today, such chaos had occurred again. Although it was mainly outside the village, it would clearly affect commerce.
Two years ago, they had managed to get through difficulties relying on the Daimyo's appropriations. The village's funds were already very tight. And now this had happened.
Light and darkness? A guy who can't make money and only knows how to destroy things could never become Hokage in this lifetime.
Hiruzen snorted coldly in his heart.
As for relying purely on military force? Even the First Hokage had to sell Tailed Beasts and produce timber to make money. Who did Danzo think he was?
Hiruzen took Danzo away from the area. They returned to the Hokage Building, and he arranged for the subsequent handling of the situation.
Sitting behind his desk, he stared at Danzo.
"Now you can speak."
Although Danzo felt somewhat unwilling, he still revealed the existence of the hidden laboratory.
"A hidden laboratory? Have the Barrier Team..."
Hiruzen's voice came to an abrupt halt.
He thought of Tengen.
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