"Danzo! Homura! Koharu!!"
One after another, he watched companions who had been by his side for sixty or seventy years die. Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart filled with fury and grief.
Even though Danzo had always had a love-hate relationship with him and had even sent people to assassinate him, he had always valued their bond!
They had been companions ever since the founding of the ninja academy.
He had known him several times longer than he had known his late wife.
"Orochimaru! I never should have been soft-hearted and let you leave!"
"I don't have a student like you!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi roared furiously. When Orochimaru's human experiments had been exposed, he had turned a blind eye and allowed Orochimaru to defect from the village.
He had never truly tried to kill him.
Yet today, this traitorous disciple had actually brought powerful enemies to launch a surprise attack on the village and had even killed Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, his advisors and friends.
"Heh, soft-hearted? You simply felt guilty toward me!"
"During the Third Shinobi World War, you didn't dare go to the battlefield, and your reputation plummeted."
"The Third Raikage of the Hidden Cloud Village died on the battlefield!"
"Not only did you secretly obstruct my rise to power, you also used public opinion to drive Sakumo Hatake to his death!"
"You pushed the young Minato Namikaze into the position of Fourth Hokage, yet through your precious son, Shinnosuke Sarutobi, you still tightly controlled the power of the ANBU."
"You and these rotten Konoha advisors also controlled the village's finances."
"The Fourth Hokage was nothing more than your puppet."
"Even after the Fourth Hokage risked his life to seal the Nine-Tails, you seized every bit of the inheritance he and his wife left behind."
As Orochimaru listened to Hiruzen Sarutobi's