Under Hiruzen Sarutobi's orders, Danzo handed over command of the troops.
"Am I doomed to be overwhelmed by sorrow at this very moment?" After one last look at the camp tent, Danzo reluctantly left with the Root ninjas.
Minato became the highest-ranking commander of the Konoha Ninja forces at Kikyo Pass.
It was his first time commanding a ninja force on his own.
He was a little nervous.
He thought he ought to learn everyone's names first, just like the Third Hokage.
Minato took some time to summon the ninjas at Kikyo Pass to his tent one by one, get to know them, and assign them their duties.
The Konoha ninjas were very cooperative with this outstanding ninja who had brought reinforcements and saved their lives. And when Minato had come to their rescue, his masterful Flying Thunder God Technique had seemed incredibly cool to the younger ones, while the older ones almost felt as if the Second had come back to life.
As he walked toward Minato's tent, he heard praise for Minato everywhere.
The twelve-year-old boy figured his teacher ought to understand the Third Hokage's intentions by now, right? He might as well have come out and said he wanted Minato to become Hokage.
"Zhengyi, Obito often tells me about you." Minato looked at Zhengyi, who sat across from him.
"I'm sure none of it was good."
Minato scratched the back of his head. That was indeed the case.
The atmosphere was a little awkward. Minato could chat with anyone else, but Zhengyi seemed to hold some hostility toward him.
"I don't think there's any misunderstanding between us, is there?" Minato sighed, looking wounded.
Zhengyi remained unmoved.
He saved his smiles for his own people.
He couldn't speak for anyone else, but from his perspective, Minato really was his greatest "enemy."
He could even smile at Danzo, but he just couldn't smile at Minato. Maybe it was because Hiruzen Sarutobi favored him.
Technically, Minato was Jiraiya's student, while he was Orochimaru's. They were of the same generation.
Honestly, had Jiraiya and Minato contributed more than Orochimaru and he had?
And yet, things went far more smoothly for Minato than they did for him in Konoha.
Minato got all the limelight.
He knew Minato was a good person, and that Hiruzen Sarutobi was to blame for all this.
But now that things had come this far, there was no way the Orochimaru faction and Minato's faction could end on good terms.
Rather than seeing it as Orochimaru versus Minato, Zhengyi thought of it as Tobirama's ideology versus Hashirama's.
One was private ownership, the other public ownership.
"Oh, right. Rin said..." Minato suddenly remembered something and smiled.
"Hmm?"
"Tell me all about it, Minato. What did Rin say?"
Zhengyi perked up at once, eager to hear more. Minato clicked his tongue in surprise. This kid really knew how to seize an opportunity.
He smiled wryly to himself.
He used to think that Kakashi was Obito's biggest rival for Rin's affections.
But now...
"Go on," Zhengyi urged Minato, who was still smiling wryly.
"Right, right."
"By the way, Zhengyi, do you still like Rin?"
"Mind your own business."
Zhengyi and Minato drove Sunagakure, which had invaded the Land of Fire, out of the country.
Sunagakure announced its unconditional surrender, withdrew from the Land of Fire, and signed an alliance treaty with Konoha.
"Minato, I'm counting on you."
Rasa was capable of swallowing his pride. In front of the cameras, he bowed to Minato and presented him with the surrender document.
There was no need to explain the impact that image would have on Minato's reputation in Konoha.
It was uplifting!
"Konoha and Sunagakure will surely remain at peace forever. I believe that'll still be true in our children's generation, because the Kazekage seems like a peace-loving person too," Minato said smoothly.
The humiliation Rasa felt beneath the spotlight eased somewhat.
If Zhengyi hadn't caught "test subjects" for Orochimaru, helped him rob graves, collected his illicit money, and dug up Hashirama's coffin... he would definitely have joined Minato.
But somewhere along the way, he had become a "rat in the gutter," too.
To escape that reputation, he would have to become Hokage, just like Tobirama. Becoming Hokage had nearly become an obsession for Zhengyi.
After the press conference, Zhengyi stopped Rasa. "Kazekage, would you like to learn about fitness?"
After Zhengyi had suffered for so long at Kikyo Pass, Orochimaru had taken pity on him and arranged a new set of exercise equipment for him.
As for the old set... he'd put it up for...
Ahem, he was planning to expand his gym business.
With the war going on, other ninja villages might take advantage of him.
Sunagakure had just surrendered to Konoha, so Konoha businesses ought to be exempt from local taxes.
Actually, there wasn't any difference between the new and old exercise equipment. Zhengyi figured his teacher just didn't know what he liked or what to give him, so he'd played it safe with some exercise equipment.
Sigh.
He really hadn't put any thought into it.
If it had been Nawaki, his teacher would have racked his brains to find him a gift, wouldn't he?
Why did his teacher dote on Anko? Zhengyi guessed it was because her impulsive personality was a lot like Nawaki's. So, Anko had become a stand-in.
"Fitness?" Rasa looked confused.
The only place in the Shinobi World where people knew about fitness was the Land of Lightning. It had only started to catch on among ninjas in the Land of Fire on a small scale because Zhengyi had introduced it.
The people of Sunagakure could barely afford to eat. They'd have to be bored out of their minds to take up fitness.
"Yashamaru." Seeing that Zhengyi was only a Chunin and not well known, Rasa called over his brother-in-law to handle him.
When his brother-in-law saw that Zhengyi was only a Chunin and not well known, he called over one of his subordinates to deal with him.
That year, at twelve, he stood there like a nobody.
Zhengyi was starting to hate Hiruzen Sarutobi. If his record in the Kumogakure war had been made public throughout the Shinobi World, would these two dare to look down on him like this?!
Damn it!
Sunagakure!!!
Zhengyi could be a bit petty.
That village had better never come begging him for help.
After the deal was done, Zhengyi left, still seething.
"Let's go."
He had subordinates now, too.
They were both Genin, fresh graduates from the Ninja Academy who had been assigned to him.
One was named Killua. He was fair and handsome, and Zhengyi thought he'd look even better with hair the same color as Kakashi's.
The other was named Sakata Yuji. He was quite passionate and sunny.
There had originally been three boys, but one had died. Sigh, war was cruel.
"Sensei, it's my birthday in a few days!" Killua was especially fond of acting cute around Zhengyi.
Aw, he called me Sensei.
A teacher couldn't let a student down.
"Sensei, could you get me an annual gym membership for my birthday?"
"Oh? Your birthday's coming up too?"
"Not exactly."
"Then no."
Before you continue