A Ghost

The warm and gentle afternoon sun shone through the window onto a pale-skinned, black-haired youth with an alluring, wicked charm, dispelling some of the gloom that clung to him.

Orochimaru observed everything in the conference room with his golden slit pupils, finding it quite interesting.

He had always detested such meetings filled with power struggles and mutual bickering, yet he had not expected to witness such an amusing spectacle today.

From the moment the Uchiha proposed the Madara Eye Theft Theory to the opening of the coffin for inspection, the process had been full of twists and turns, but once it was verified that the coffin was empty of Madara's remains, the Uchiha had achieved a resounding victory.

Konoha was currently at its weakest point since the founding of the village and could no longer afford any internal turmoil.

Sarutobi Hiruzen had no choice but to choose to appease the Uchiha.

The proposal to expand the Military Police Force was passed, the matter of relocating the clan was no longer mentioned, and the Uchiha were even granted two additional commercial streets in the village's reconstruction plan.

None of that mattered.

The most important thing was that although the Uchiha had not fully cleared themselves of suspicion regarding the Night of the Nine-Tails, they had managed to cast that same suspicion onto the Hokage's inner circle.

The excrement had hit the fan.

When you can't shake it off or wash it clean, what do you do?

You overturn the latrine so that the ones who splashed it on you get covered in the stench as well.

"Well done, Uchiha Chen." Orochimaru grinned, looking toward the Uchiha's direction.

Uchiha Chen, surrounded by his clansmen, stood as straight as a victorious general, smiling with reserved modesty.

That was the youth and vitality that Orochimaru envied, craved, and was fascinated by.

Today, the Hokage's faction could be said to have suffered a crushing defeat in their confrontation with the Uchiha, but according to custom, the high-level officials still had to hold a small meeting after the Jonin conference.

Once the jubilant Uchiha and the Jonin, each harboring their own thoughts, had departed, only the Third Hokage, the three advisors, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru remained in the conference room.

As soon as the Uchiha were gone, Danzo immediately regained his arrogance:

"Sarutobi, what on earth are you playing at? You've been acting strange ever since you pushed open that coffin. Don't tell me you've been controlled by a genjutsu?"

Mitokado Homura also furrowed his brows.

"Hiruzen, you were far too weak today. The policy of suppressing the Uchiha clan should be carried out consistently."

Sarutobi Hiruzen ignored his old friend's complaints, pinched a few strands of tobacco from the small pouch in his pocket, stuffed them into his pipe, and lit it.

Before, he had assumed someone had awakened the Mangekyō, but now that there was a high probability it was linked to Madara, could it really be the same?

"You don't understand!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen narrowed his eyes, his thoughts drifting back to many, many years ago.

Although Danzo and Homura were about the same age as him, they had only become disciples of the Second Hokage when they were nearly adults.

They had only heard of the power of the Two Heroes of the Ninja World, but had never witnessed it with their own eyes.

In the eyes of these few, just how strong could the Two Heroes of the Ninja World be?

Maybe a level and a half stronger than Hiruzen, and a level stronger than Senju Tobirama—that would be impressive enough, right?

Even if the mastermind behind the Night of the Nine-Tails had transplanted his Sharingan, transplanting a Sharingan was incredibly taxing for anyone who wasn't an Uchiha!

By that logic, how much stronger could the enemy be than Sarutobi Hiruzen?

But Sarutobi Hiruzen had been raised by the Second Hokage since he was a child. During the battle at the Valley of the End, the Second Hokage had taken him, then a young boy, to a position twenty miles away to prepare to support the First Hokage.

He had seen it with his own eyes.

A massive blue samurai two or three hundred meters tall, the Nine-Tails clad in Susanoo as armor, and the Senju Great Buddha that stood over five hundred meters high.

In the battle between them, even a safe distance of twenty miles was barely enough.

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked dazed, and as he recalled the earth-shattering scene from decades ago, his voice involuntarily turned sharp:

"A ghost with a Sharingan is lurking around Konoha!

Every force in Konoha—the Hokage and the Uchiha, the ninja clans and the civilians, the Anbu and the Root—should be fighting side by side!

"Now is not the right time to weaken the Uchiha!

Besides, I didn't intend to push the Uchiha too hard this time anyway. Take a look at this."

Sarutobi Hiruzen pulled a scroll from his robes. "This is intelligence that arrived this morning from the Cloud and Mist front lines."

Danzo snatched the scroll from the Third Hokage without ceremony, and after scanning it for a moment, his expression changed. "The Cloud Ninja have reinforced by five thousand, and the Mist Ninja by two thousand. Have they gone mad?"

The Third Shinobi World War had been going on for six or seven years, and every nation was exhausted and yearning for peace.

Konoha had already signed peace treaties with Suna and Iwa, and the intensity of the war with the Mist and Cloud had been decreasing over the last year or two.

But now, Kirigakure and Kumogakure saw hope for expanding their gains, and upon confirming that the Nine-Tails Incident was true, they had mobilized their forces to invade the Land of Fire almost immediately.

"Clever, Hiruzen!" Danzo's wrinkled face twisted into a cold sneer.

"The village has suffered heavy losses while the Uchiha have preserved their strength, and you've dangled a big carrot in front of them.

To prove that the Nine-Tails Incident had nothing to do with them, and to prove they are worthy of this carrot, these lunatics will definitely scramble to get to the battlefield."

Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head; this had not been his original intention. He had always agreed with the Second Hokage's approach of confining the Uchiha to the Military Police Force.

War would cause the Uchiha to suffer heavy casualties, but it also had the potential to forge them into elites.

But now, through a twist of fate, this outcome could not be called bad.

"Jiraiya!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen pondered for a moment, his back, which had been leaning against the chair, suddenly straightening as he spoke in a resonant voice:

"I order you to lead four thousand troops, departing in three days to repel the Cloud Ninja outside the borders of the Land of Fire. As for the eastern front of Kirigakure, have the Uchiha send four hundred men, and the village will dispatch another six hundred to make a force of one thousand for reinforcements. Orochimaru, you have just returned from the eastern front, so take a good rest for a while."

Sarutobi Hiruzen found it increasingly difficult to see through his most brilliant student, feeling it would be safer to keep him under his own nose.

"Very well!"

Orochimaru showed no resentment at being stripped of his command; instead, he looked at the Third Hokage's wrinkled, aged face with a strange smile, revealing his ghastly white teeth:

"Old man, you've aged quite a bit in just these past two weeks. If you can't handle it, why don't you ask Tsunade to teach you the Yin Seal!

Since there's nothing left for me, I'll be taking my leave!"

Orochimaru rose and left on his own accord.

He truly could not stand the sight of his teacher's decrepit state and his wrinkled forehead.

It served as a constant reminder, filling him with the fear that one day he, too, would become like that.

Compared to war, compared to the struggle for power and profit, he had more important things to do!

"Orochimaru, wait for me!" Jiraiya chased after him.

"What a fine child! It's just a pity he isn't as cute as he was when he was little!"

Completely oblivious to the disgust and pity hidden in Orochimaru's eyes, Sarutobi Hiruzen proudly boasted to his old colleagues about the excellence of his student.

After the advisors had also departed, Sarutobi Hiruzen took a slow puff of his pipe and removed the Hokage hat from his head.

He hadn't worn this item, which had accompanied him for decades, for over a year, and it felt somewhat uncomfortable to wear it again now.

The Fourth died young; I must preserve this hat well so it can be passed on to the Fifth in the future.

For this, even if it means temporarily yielding to the Uchiha, it is acceptable; the village can no longer afford another internal conflict.

"Orochimaru," Sarutobi Hiruzen pressed a hand onto the hat.

After a long while, he placed the hat back on his head, shaking it as he muttered to himself:

"Jiraiya has no interest in being Hokage, and Shinnosuke lacks the strength and prestige.

I suppose I must wait for the generation of Kakashi and Asuma to grow up!"