"That Hada Anna? The little girl crying now?"
After hearing Kakashi's report, the Third Hokage's gentle expression, stirred by the innocent sight of Hada Anna wiping her tears and bawling, faded slightly in surprise. He turned to look at Kakashi, who stood behind him after reporting everything, and spoke.
By now, Kakashi had told the Third Hokage every detail of what had happened when they sealed the Cursed Seal on Second Pillar.
"Yes."
Kakashi answered the Third Hokage's question without hesitation, nodding.
"Hmm..."
Hearing Kakashi's affirmative answer, the Third Hokage slowly furrowed his brow. His gaze returned to the crying girl and Hada Ichiba beside her, who looked exactly like Chiba. All gentleness vanished from his face, leaving only grave solemnity tinged with heaviness.
"Orochimaru clearly expressed an interest in Second Pillar?"
After giving it some thought, he could not help asking.
"From the way he acted, he seemed extremely eager to obtain Second Pillar."
At this, Kakashi recalled Orochimaru's reaction at the time and answered.
Extremely eager? Then... did Orochimaru come here because of Itachi? Did he suffer such a crushing loss at Itachi's hands that he desperately wanted the Sharingan?
That thought arose in the Third Hokage's mind upon hearing those words.
Although Orochimaru had not been as high a priority in recent years as Uchiha Nobuhiko, or the unavoidable changes to the Shinobi World's balance brought about by Uchiha Nobuhiko's appearance, the Third Hokage, as Hokage, had still assigned some manpower to investigate a rogue ninja of that caliber.
It was simply that the effort did not quite match the status of an S-rank rogue ninja.
Though Orochimaru had not received the treatment usually afforded to S-rank rogue ninja, the Third Hokage still knew his general movements.
Orochimaru had merely been relatively quiet, while Konoha had been