I Set the Fire; You'll Regret It

Sarutobi Hiruzen's brow furrowed at once, and an imposing presence rose from him without a hint of anger.

Having perfectly inherited the Third Hokage's past experiences, Sarutobi Hiruzen also carried the dignity of a Hokage.

"Sarutobi!"

An elderly man with a sinister air entered, leaning on a cane. He showed not the slightest respect for the Hokage.

"Why did you order Kakashi to leave Root?"

The newcomer opened with an accusation. Sarutobi Hiruzen barely needed to look up to know who stood before him.

Shimura Danzō.

The one-eyed old man slowly walked in, carrying the same air of someone long accustomed to power.

"You should know that, given Kakashi's talent—"

"Only in—"

"Shimura Danzō!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen now possessed a different soul. He was no longer the sentimental, softhearted Third Hokage he had once been.

In his place was a visitor from Blue Star who had no goodwill toward Danzō whatsoever.

"I am the Hokage!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen's expression was cold. He cut Danzō off before he could continue questioning him. He had no intention of beating around the bush with Shimura Danzō and went straight to the point.

"..."

Shimura Danzō was momentarily stunned. Looking at the indifferent Sarutobi Hiruzen before him, he suddenly found him somewhat unfamiliar.

It felt as if Sarutobi Hiruzen had changed somehow today.

At the very least, in the past, Sarutobi Hiruzen would have tried to explain himself and argue back and forth with Shimura Danzō in a situation like this, before eventually getting to the classic theme: "I set the fire; you'll regret it."

"Hmph."

Shimura Danzō's face darkened, as if it might drip with fury. After years of indulgence from the Third Hokage, he no longer had much reverence for the man in that office.

"You'll regret this."

"Sarutobi..."

Shimura Danzō seemed to think of something. A flash of undisguised killing intent passed through his eye, then he turned without hesitation and left the Hokage Office.

But Shimura Danzō didn't see the naked killing intent brewing in Sarutobi Hiruzen's eyes, either.

'Shimura Danzō...'

'The Pot Kage, huh?'

A deep gloom crossed Sarutobi Hiruzen's mind.

As the biggest troublemaker among the Konoha F4, Shimura Danzō could be blamed for just about every rotten thing that had happened in Konoha.

So, knowing the story, Sarutobi Hiruzen naturally wanted to get rid of him first.

After all, keeping him around served no purpose whatsoever. All he did was drag Konoha into a pile of grudges.

'And I can gain a considerable amount of Source Energy, too.'

Sarutobi Hiruzen suddenly seemed to remember something and opened the scroll the Anbu had left earlier.

It clearly stated that the Daimyo of the Land of Fire had agreed to let Sarutobi Hiruzen take up the Hokage Position again. He only needed to travel to the capital of the Land of Fire in three days and meet with the Daimyo.

According to the process for taking office as Hokage, the new Hokage had to receive the Daimyo's approval and authorization.

It was just a formality. The Daimyo generally wouldn't oppose or interfere with the choice of Hokage, but the process still had to be followed.

That was how the Daimyo of the Land of Fire could demonstrate his unrivaled position.

"So that means..."

"Danzō will try to assassinate me on the way to the capital of the Land of Fire in three days..."

Sarutobi Hiruzen's expression turned inscrutable as he recalled the plot where Wolong and Fengchu had worked together with such exquisite coordination.

"He even tried to recruit Kakashi..."

"And get him to join the assassination..."

"I suppose that's what you'd expect from Fengchu, one half of Wolong and Fengchu."

Sarutobi Hiruzen was practically in awe of this one-eyed little cutie.

"To come up with an assassination attempt that's so foolish and has such a low chance of success..."

That aside, Sarutobi Hiruzen's strength as a shinobi was the real deal. Though he was over fifty and his Chakra and Taijutsu had declined somewhat, his mastery of the Five Nature Transformation Ninjutsu had only grown deeper.

Danzō couldn't even scrape together three tactical squads of Ninja, yet he wanted to assassinate the leader of a village.

"Still, I'm not exactly in a position to criticize Shimura Danzō..."

"The original Third Hokage, the Wolong, was an even bigger genius..."

"Danzō tried to assassinate him, and he still forgave Danzō afterward."

"He didn't even give him a proper punishment."

Thinking of his predecessor's actions, Sarutobi Hiruzen felt his teeth ache.

They really had been Destined Pair, those two. He could only respect their choices and wish them well.

Fortunately, he was now a brand-new Sarutobi Hiruzen. He certainly wouldn't do anything that stupid.

"Danzō's not a serious threat..."

"He probably hasn't even transplanted the Sharingan or Wood Release yet..."

"So I can do whatever I want with him."

Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't take the Pot Kage too seriously.

Compared with the troubles to come—Orochimaru, Uchiha Madara, and the Otsutsuki, for example—Shimura Danzō was frankly a bit of a pushover.

"The only variable..."

"Is that Danzō might fight to the death and take me out with him. That would be a joke..."

He wouldn't let Danzō off lightly like his predecessor had. Anyone who wanted Sarutobi Hiruzen dead deserved to have his whole family killed.

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at the system again.

"So I'd better try using a cheat first."

"Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation..."

Sarutobi Hiruzen exhaled a huge fireball dozens of meters across. It swallowed up a vast swath of trees in an instant.

The intense heat, amplified by Chakra, roasted the forest ahead, burning away more than half of it in a flash.

"So this is the power of Ninjutsu?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at the charred remains of the trees before him, his expression tinged with wonder.

Now that he had gained supernatural power, Sarutobi Hiruzen could hardly wait to try it out.

It was also a chance to get familiar with the strength of this body.

"Even the incendiary bombs from my previous life were no better..."

"Against ordinary people, this is practically slaughter..."

"So this is what supernatural power means?"

There was no doubt that Naruto, a Four-Star World, had a uniquely powerful Chakra system.

Even the Fire Release techniques most commonly seen in the original story—the ones that could barely kill anyone—were astonishingly powerful when Sarutobi Hiruzen used them.

They were like a continuous bombardment by several incendiary bombs.

With Sarutobi Hiruzen's deft transformation of Fire Release's nature, the flames could reach temperatures of several thousand degrees.

No ordinary human body could withstand them.

"Now, aside from Fire Release..."

Following the instincts in his memories, Sarutobi Hiruzen's hands moved like lightning, forming Hand Seals in an instant.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

"Earth Release: Earth Flow River!"

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"

"Lightning Release: Earth Flow!"

"Boom! Bang! Crackle!"

The smoke from the Ninjutsu's aftermath cleared.

Looking at the forest, now a complete mess, crisscrossed with ravines and almost entirely reshaped, Sarutobi Hiruzen nodded with satisfaction.

"Just what you'd expect from the Professor of Ninjutsu."

"He's mastered all five elemental transformations almost to the limits of nature and form."

"Any Five Nature Transformation Ninjutsu I use will have at least a B-rank level of power."

"And I'm now at the pinnacle of ordinary Ninja in Taijutsu and Genjutsu as well."

Sarutobi Hiruzen assessed the Third Hokage's former strength from a much broader perspective.

"And..."

Sarutobi Hiruzen felt the surging Chakra within him. Even after using five B- and A-rank Ninjutsu in a row, his Chakra reserves showed no obvious sign of diminishing.

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