Betrayed and Abandoned by All

However, the Third Hokage still had Might Guy carry him to the Nara Clan's compound first. Sure enough, there was no one there.

Their retreat had been orderly. Nearly everything valuable and important had been taken away. The only two people left behind were two Anbu assigned to monitor them. They had been knocked unconscious and tossed onto a conspicuous spot on the roof, though few people would deliberately inspect the Nara Clan's rooftops.

The Third Hokage's trust in Ino-Shika-Cho had usually been almost unconditional, but at a time like this, that trust had clearly been fed to the dogs.

He no longer needed to visit anywhere else. No one else would gather around him, either. There might still be some civilian ninja and scattered Anbu throughout the village, but could he truly trust them anymore?

Even his own clansmen, along with the Ino-Shika-Cho he had always supported, had chosen betrayal.

Lying on Might Guy's back, the Third Hokage suddenly began to reflect. Perhaps this was simply his fate: betrayal, estrangement, until now, when there were barely any people left by his side whom he could trust.

His teacher, the Second Hokage, had passed away. After becoming Hokage, he had also drifted farther and farther away from his former teammates.

Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu had taken the positions of Elders. They usually kept to themselves and rarely involved themselves in anything aside from major village affairs.

He also knew that his two old teammates' combat abilities had declined even faster than his own. Even in their prime, they had been inferior to him.

The only one who might still have fighting strength was Danzo. But compared to anyone else, Danzo probably wanted him dead more than anyone, so he could take the Hokage's seat.

His wife had been killed