"What?"
Shimura Danzō's eyes trembled. How could this be? Hiruzen... how could he make such a huge sacrifice for him?!
"Get lost! Hiruzen Sarutobi, I don't need you to save me! Who do you think you are? Some kind of savior?! If I hadn't been one step too late that day, I definitely would have become a better Hokage than you!"
"I'm the one who inherited our teacher's will better!"
Shimura Danzō roared. There was no relief in his eyes, only anger and rejection.
"But this old man is willing!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's clouded eyes trembled, his voice filled with grief. "Sometimes, this old man wonders... if I had noticed your changes sooner all these years, Danzo, would you... not have become what you are now?"
In the end, it was this old man's failure as Hokage!
His voice shook.
An endless sea of guilt seemed ready to drown him.
Shimura Danzō's eyes suddenly trembled.
He abruptly turned around. Even with pain searing into his bones, he still twisted his head to look at Hiruzen Sarutobi with his last black eye. Time seemed to rewind. Across decades of time, all he could see was Hiruzen Sarutobi.
The spirited young man in his twenties merged with the battered, elderly Hiruzen Sarutobi before him.
"Hahaha... hahaha... hahahahahahaha!!!"
He suddenly burst into laughter, laughing until tears streamed down his face, only to find it absurd again.
"How truly laughable. All my life, I, Danzo, wanted to become Hokage. I treated you, Hiruzen Sarutobi, as the towering mountain I had to surpass. But... but why is it that now... I actually feel a trace of regret?!"
If he had not fallen into darkness.
Would he still have been an outstanding Konoha ninja?
The Senju Clan would still be around, Minato Namikaze would still be alive,