Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura were utterly stunned.
Ōnoki—that stubborn old man, the Tsuchikage who had lived since the First's time—actually believed this nonsense too!?
"Sarutobi—this—" Koharu's lips trembled. She pointed at the Anbu, then at Sarutobi Hiruzen, her mind in utter chaos. "Did that brat tell you this too? Did he make up these lies as well?!"
"Koharu!" Homura shouted, cutting off her unguarded outburst.
He was just as shocked, but he had regained his composure faster than Koharu.
"Even if he were a god, he couldn't reach all the way into Iwagakure! Koharu, calm down!"
That was what he said, but Homura's gaze remained fixed on Hiruzen, trying to find even the slightest hint of a flaw on his face, which was shrouded in smoke.
"Sarutobi, you'd better give us a reasonable explanation." Homura's voice was hoarse. "Why would the Tsuchikage and Raikage believe such—such nonsense?"
Hiruzen didn't answer right away.
He simply took a puff of his pipe.
Then he slowly raised his brows. "If you don't believe it, why don't we go see for ourselves?"
"Intelligence can be false, but the scene itself can't lie! If someone disguised themselves as Inuzuka San and attacked Hiroki—"
"Then there'll be traces—"
The office fell silent once again.
Koharu and Homura were quiet for a long time, but in the end, they nodded.
They simply couldn't accept that a ten-year-old child had truly surpassed decades of their efforts in less than a year—
Besides, they knew perfectly well that Hiroki wasn't the product of some so-called Second Hokage's legacy. There were no records of him in any of the laboratories!
—Only Hiruzen and Danzo of Root were willing to believe such nonsense—
But since the Third had said so, they had no choice but to nod.