Uchiha Tonan smiled and looked straight at Sarutobi Hiruzen as if he was seeing through a very poor scheme. He then said in an inexplicable tone, “Naoto-sensei, I’m no longer a child.”
Seeing Tonan was not even looking at him, Umino Naoto withdrew his hand and scratched his head. He said with a forced smile, “Ha… haha… that’s right… It seems to have slipped my mind.”
Hiruzen blew out a mouthful of smoke and looked at Tonan with deep eyes for a long time. He finally then said, “Naoto, go back and prepare. I’ve something to discuss with Tonan.”
“Alright, Hokage-sama,” Naoto bowed at Hiruzen and left in a daze. In fact, Naoto’s strength hadn’t reached the jonin level yet. Hiruzen just wanted to create an opportunity and take this chance to express a favor to his estranged student. At the same time, using the relationship between Naoto and Tonan who were once teacher and student as well as an intermediary, he wanted to rekindle his relationship with Tonan.
Unfortunately, Tonan didn’t care about a talentless jonin like Naoto. From start to finish, he had the condescending attitude of looking down on the person. Naoto might even feel sad but in this regard, Tonan had a very firm point of view — sorry, I’m like this. I only have eyes for power.
In the spacious office, the atmosphere was silent for a while. Neither of them spoke. After a long time, Hiruzen took a deep breath, and broke the silence, “About what happened with Tsunade, I also couldn’t stop her at the time.”
Tonan just stared at Hiruzen quietly. He neither responded nor the expression on his face changed. Hiruzen paused. He was slightly annoyed with Tonan’s current attitude. But now, if Tonan stood on Shimura Danzo’s side, then Danzo’s influence would be comparable to Hiruzen and that was not a situation he wanted.
The feeling of being restrained by this kind of power was even more uncomfortable than his dead sons. Especially since Danzo had considerable financial support from the Daimyo Residence, Danzo could slowly swallow the opportunist ninja clans without any problem.
But what about him? The only thing presentable was the Will of Fire. Hiruzen had to admit that in front of actual interests, the Will of Fire simply couldn’t withstand a single blow. At this moment, he realized how important Tonan was. Not to mention his combat power that rivaled the Sannin, but Konoha’s number one clan, the Uchihas stood behind him as well. Moreover, he was still young and he had unfathomable growth potential.
Hiruzen suppressed the anger and hatred in his heart and continued to try to repair his relationship with Tonan. “You probably don’t know much about Danzo. He is not like what you see.”
Tonan indifferently replied, “But for me, seeing is believing, sensei.” Hiruzen took a deep breath and took out a scroll from the drawer. He placed it on the table and said, “Take a look at these things.”
Tonan looked over and roughly guessed the contents of the scroll. It must be Danzo’s shady dealings and different kinds of dark material that Tonan would usually pretend to disdain. These things could make it clear that Danzo was a scheming villain, but they weren’t direct evidence and hence couldn’t be used to convict Danzo.
It seemed that Hiruzen noticed that he wouldn’t be able to redeem himself using the old sentiments, so he planned to use the so-called justice card to make Tonan break away from Danzo.
Bang… Right at this time, the Hokage Office’s door was violently pushed open. Tonan looked back and saw Danzo, staring at Hiruzen with a gloomy face. Danzo then said, word by word, “Hiruzen, what does all this mean?”
Seeing his trick was caught by Danzo, Hiruzen quietly put the scroll away. He then blew out a mouthful of smoke. He wanted to use this to cover up his misfeasance just now, so as to avoid being embarrassed.
After all, regardless of how fierce the struggle between them was, he and Danzo had never exposed each other’s true sides. Because both of them were not clean. Once they exposed each other’s faults, it would mean that both of them would be done for.
The atmosphere of the office was a little gloomy. A long time later, Hiruzen leaned back on the chair and ignored the furious Danzo. He leisurely said to Tonan, “Tonan, I had promoted you to a jonin last time. But the Honorary Chunin Competition is very important, and each village can only send one person. Moreover, the victor village can get extremely valuable rewards. We cannot lose this time, so I have lowered your ninja rank to chunin. In two months, you have to go to the Fire Capital to compete.”
Tonan adjusted his glasses and lightly said, “No problem, if there is nothing else, I’ll leave now.” After saying this, he turned around decisively and walked outside without waiting for a reply. Just as he walked past Danzo, Hiruzen coldly said from behind, “Tonan, if you have any questions in these two months, you can come to see me at any time.”
This sentence was equivalent to an ultimatum. It was like a couple’s quarrel. One of them slammed the door and left, and the other wanted to remain together but was unwilling to give in, so could only say something along the lines of ‘if you don’t come back tonight, you don’t have to come back in the future’.
Tonan paused and then nodded to Danzo. The two of them left the Hokage Building together. In the spacious office, Hiruzen’s anger had reached the limit.
Crack… The smoke pipe in his hand was crushed into pieces and was ferociously thrown to the ground. After a long time, Hiruzen’s gloomy voice resounded in the office. “Guards…”
