Hokage-sama? What a Long-Forgotten Title

"Tap, tap, tap."

Accompanied by the peculiar sound of footsteps,

an elderly one-eyed man with his face wrapped in bandages leaned on a cane, trudging unevenly through the dawn shadows as he slowly descended the towering mountain.

To an outsider unaware of the truth, this sight would surely make them involuntarily...

"I am a failure. I barely notice whether the sun is shining or not, because I have no time.

"My parents couldn't support me, and I wasn't well educated. I searched for a future alone in the city.

"I looked for many jobs, but none of them hired me. Maybe nobody liked someone who wasn't good at talking, didn't like socializing, and hadn't shown enough ability.

"For three whole days, I ate only two loaves of bread. Hunger kept me awake at night. Luckily, I had paid a month's rent in advance, so I could keep living in that dark basement and didn't have to go outside to endure the unusually freezing winter wind.

"At last, I found a job. I worked nights at a hospital, watching over the morgue.

"The hospital was even colder at night than I had imagined. The wall lamps in the corridor were unlit, and everything was dim. I could only rely on the faint light spilling out from the rooms to see where I was stepping.

"The place smelled awful. From time to time, bodies would be delivered stuffed into body bags, and we would work together to carry them into the morgue.

"It wasn't a very good job, but at least it let me afford bread. I could also use my free time at night to study. After all, no one wanted to come to the morgue unless a body needed to be delivered or taken away for cremation. Of course, I