Uchiha Qi, who had been speaking with Hiruzen Sarutobi, knew nothing of what was happening outside. He simply focused on talking with Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, and the two discussed many things.
What had originally been expected to take half an hour ended up lasting more than two hours.
No one knew what the two had discussed inside the room, as a barrier had isolated it.
However, when Hiruzen Sarutobi departed, his eyes held joy, anticipation, and deep regret. His expression was exceedingly complicated.
Just as Shimura Danzō, who understood him well, had said, Hiruzen Sarutobi had indeed come to speak with Uchiha Qi about the Will of Fire. He wanted to see how much Qi identified with it, and he also wished to know what, as an Uchiha, Qi thought of Konoha as it currently was.
Essentially, he had been probing him while building goodwill, hoping to learn just how different he was from the other Uchiha.
Although he had inherited the Second Hokage's attitude and policies of being wary of the Uchiha, Hiruzen Sarutobi had never been an extremist. He was vastly different from Shimura Danzō.
After all, Hiruzen Sarutobi, as Hokage, thought differently from the Root of Konoha and the two Hokage advisors. He genuinely hoped that the Uchiha could integrate into Konoha. It would be best of all if they could integrate as thoroughly as the Senju Clan had.
Unfortunately, the Uchiha's black-and-white thinking, coupled with the death of Kagami Uchiha, the leader of the pro-Hokage faction, had caused the Uchiha Clan to remain at odds with Konoha's upper ranks throughout the Third Hokage's administration.
If Hiruzen Sarutobi had truly possessed the political cunning attributed to him in conspiracy theories, things would have been much better. With the Uchiha Clan's black-and-white thinking, the political skill