You Regret! I Shadow! Bang!

Shimura Danzō, having just stepped through the door, failed to notice his two companions shrouded in the smoke and rushed straight toward the Hokage's desk, speaking urgently.

"Hiruzen! Let's go to war! Cloud Village has completely torn off the mask with us!"

By the look of his posture, it was as if he intended to use the fires of war to ignite the entire Cloud-Thunder Gorge immediately.

"Root will handle the pre-battle intelligence gathering, and you can handle the mobilization of the ninja clans!"

"We absolutely must take those savages from Cloud Village down a peg this time; we cannot be as merciful as our teacher was and give them a chance to catch their breath!"

In Danzō's eyes, that aggressively radical Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, was actually still a conservative.

"By the way, hand Kushina over to me. One of my projects has reached its final stage, and it's about time to proceed with the Jinchūriki transplant."

"This little girl is far too cowardly; she can't replace Lady Mito as the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki. I've recently tracked down a few more Uzumaki clansmen; I'll slowly break them in once I've captured them!"

Having said this, Shimura Danzō turned on his heel and headed toward the door, appearing to have no intention of giving Sarutobi Hiruzen time to respond.

Unexpectedly, the two Hokage advisors hidden within the smoke sprang into action.

Mitokado Homura moved first, blocking the office door and bracing his body firmly against it, while Utatane Koharu grabbed Danzō and dragged him backward.

"Danzō, don't be hasty! Hiruzen hasn't spoken yet!"

Clearly, both Hokage advisors understood that their authority stemmed from the Hokage; once someone challenged the Hokage's authority, it undoubtedly shook their own prestige within the village.

Watching the farce performed by his three companions, Sarutobi Hiruzen frowned slightly and retorted with irritation.

"What would you have me say?"

"Does he listen to anything I say?"

"When I told him to stop the human experimentation and cease recruiting Root trainees from the ninja clans, how did he respond?"

"Hmm... 'This is Root, not a place under your jurisdiction, Lord Hokage!'... Isn't that what he said?"

"I am the Third Hokage, yet I can no longer intervene in the village's intelligence department. Why don't the three of you just overthrow me directly?"

"After all, hasn't he always complained that he missed out on the position of Hokage back then simply because he hesitated for a moment and failed to volunteer to cover the teacher's retreat?"

"Why don't you call the leader of the Jonin Squad and the heads of the major ninja clans right now, while the four of us are all here, and initiate the Hokage impeachment process?"

"I'll contact the Daimyo in the capital and personally propose, in my name as the Third Hokage, that Shimura Danzō be appointed as the Fourth Hokage. How about that? Speak up!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen's sudden outburst left all three of them stunned.

However, as they listened further, the expressions on the three of them changed in very different ways.

Utatane Koharu suddenly recalled the heroic bearing of Sarutobi Hiruzen back in their youth, when he had first been crowned with the title of "Shinobi Hero."

At that time, Koharu's affection for him was significantly higher than for Shimura Danzō or Kagami Uchiha, despite their more advantageous appearances.

However, before that affection could transform into love, Sarutobi Hiruzen was arranged by his clan to marry his childhood sweetheart, Sarutobi Biwako, also of the Sarutobi clan, and her feelings came to a quiet end.

Mitokado Homura, meanwhile, was utterly astonished that Hiruzen, who had always been one to "harmonize with the dust," had suddenly hardened his stance, and his sarcastic tone was completely unlike his usual public persona.

Shimura Danzō, on the other hand, had already begun to fall into a hallucination the moment he heard Sarutobi Hiruzen offer to initiate the impeachment process and promote him to the Fourth Hokage.

In his vision, Shimura Danzō stood on the rooftop of the Hokage Building, wearing the Hokage hat and a haori inscribed with the words "Fourth Hokage," waving to the Konoha villagers gathered below.

For a fleeting moment, he felt as if he had returned to his youth, and he almost blurted out the lines of the "Will of Fire": "Where the leaves dance, the fire burns."

Fortunately, Mitokado Homura, seeing that Danzō's consciousness had become blurred, secretly performed a hand seal behind his back to disrupt the chakra in his body, forcing him to reluctantly snap out of his hallucination.

Otherwise, Homura was certain that if Danzō had dared to recite the "Will of Fire" to Hiruzen's face, Hiruzen would have truly followed through on his sarcastic threats!

By then, beyond throwing the village's political landscape into complete chaos, the only outcome would have been to make themselves a laughingstock to outsiders.

Seeing that all three were cowed by his outburst, with no one daring to meet his gaze—either looking out the dark window or counting ants on the clean floor—Sarutobi Hiruzen brought the matter to a close.

"That's enough. I don't have time to keep wasting it with you."

"Homura, remember to notify the leader of the Jonin Squad, the Anbu commander, and the head of the Senju clan tomorrow to discuss re-drafting the security strategy for Kushina."

"Koharu, go to the Intelligence Division and coordinate with them. Have the Torture and Interrogation Force and the Corpse Disposal Unit extract the intelligence from the Cloud Village captives as quickly as possible, and prepare a report for discussion at tomorrow's meeting."

"As for you, Danzō... never mind... go back to Root and reflect. You don't need to participate in tomorrow's meeting. Come see me when you've finally cleared your head!"

Immediately, Sarutobi Hiruzen donned the Hokage hat from the desk, stood up, and brushed past the three of them toward the door.

Just as he was about to step out, Sarutobi Hiruzen suddenly stopped, turned his head to look at Danzō, and said with eyes full of killing intent: "Danzō, remember: I am the Hokage!" With that, he swept away.

Hearing this, Danzō subconsciously snapped back to reality, intending to retort.

"Hiruzen, you will regret this!"

Unfortunately, Sarutobi Hiruzen did not give him the chance; he had already used the Body Flicker Technique and was nowhere to be found!

The fact that the words remained unspoken left Danzō feeling exceptionally stifled, and Homura and Koharu felt equally suppressed.

Their focus remained on the door, feeling as though something had been left unfinished, leaving them with a sense of emptiness.

When the disgruntled Danzō slammed the door behind him with a loud "bang," the two of them finally felt at ease, exchanged glances, and let out a wry, helpless smile.

They now felt that the position of Hokage advisor was much harder to sit in than they had imagined. For no reason, both of them simultaneously thought of their teacher.

In their youth, they had never seen their teacher fall into such a predicament while handling the affairs of the village.

Touma had not expected that upon returning to the village, the Anbu would simply send the three of them home.

They were neither hauled off to the Anbu or the Intelligence Division for interrogation, nor were they placed under surveillance; it was clear that the higher-ups fully trusted them.

It was only natural for the leadership to trust Namikaze Minato and Kushina Uzumaki. There was no need to even mention Kushina; as the last princess from the Land of Whirlpools with the backing of Uzumaki Mito, her loyalty was never a subject for scrutiny.

Namikaze Minato was no mere commoner either. His father, Hayato Namikaze, was a ninja who had joined Konoha at the time of its founding and was currently an elite Jonin in charge of logistics and supply coordination for the Jonin Squad, firmly placing him among the upper-middle echelon of Konoha.

Naturally, no one would ever question the loyalty of this elite Jonin's only son, Namikaze Minato.

What surprised Touma was that he, the descendant of a mere Genin, had not been dragged away for questioning.

After all, during the "Great Purge" last year, several Genin had simply vanished due to doubts regarding their identities. There had been a Genin living nearby who had just married and started a family; after the Intelligence Division took the family of three away, they never returned!

Fortunately, this doubt was finally answered by his mother, Takako, who also revealed the shocking side of that father he had never met!