Danzo's Anger!

"You intend to challenge me tonight?"

Standing in the courtyard with his hands clasped behind his back, Danzo frowned as he looked at Kizaru.

Three days! It had only been three days since Kizaru proposed challenging a Jonin of the Uchiha Clan during his graduation exam, a request Danzo had countered by demanding he pass his own test first!

He had given the boy a full month to prepare, yet he had only spent three days on it.

This child seemed to be getting ahead of himself!

The praise he had received within the village over the past month, combined with the weakness of his peers, had made him arrogant and unable to see himself clearly.

Danzo felt a mix of irritation and concern.

Things could not continue like this; pride and arrogance were the greatest enemies of a genius, and he had to make Kizaru realize this.

Looking at his nephew, in whom he had invested so much hope and importance, Danzo felt he needed to provide a lesson of "tough love" to beat the arrogance and conceit out of him.

"I will absolutely not hold back during this assessment! You had better think this through, Kizaru!" Danzo said, his tone heavy.

"How terrifying, Uncle!" Kizaru said with a smile, completely unfazed by Danzo's warning.

Hmph!

Though he let out an angry snort internally, Danzo maintained a calm expression on the surface. He stared straight at Kizaru and continued, "Since you are so confident, I accept. 8:00 tonight, at the clan's Training Ground. I will be waiting for you."

"Don't worry, Uncle! I'll be there on time," Kizaru replied with a grin.

"I hope you won't disappoint me," Danzo said seriously.

"Then you had better be prepared, lest you be frightened by me."

"Very well, I shall look forward to it," Danzo nodded.

Just as they were speaking, a figure descended from the sky, landing on one knee before Danzo.

"Lord Danzo, the Hokage has arrived."

Hearing his subordinate's report, Danzo nodded slightly and waved his hand. "I understand. You may go."

Watching the man leave via the Body Flicker Technique, Kizaru realized Danzo had business to attend to and spoke up, "Then we shall meet tonight, Uncle!"

With that, Kizaru waved at Danzo and turned to leave before the older man could respond.

Shameless!

Looking at the wrinkled, size-38 face before him, Danzo felt a strong urge to take off his own size-40 shoe and smack it across that face.

Disgusting! Despicable!

It was one thing to steal his position as Hokage back in the day, but now he wanted to steal his nephew? And he was poaching his own student's student, no less!

It was like pressing one cheek against the other—one side was shameless, and the other was thick-skinned!

Seeing Hiruzen Sarutobi standing before him with a beaming smile, acting as if he were ready to take any abuse, Danzo felt a surge of fury!

But anger aside, for the sake of his nephew's future, Danzo had to admit that having this shameless old bastard Hiruzen Sarutobi as his nephew's teacher would indeed yield greater benefits.

If Kizaru's teacher were Orochimaru, his best chance for the future would be competing for the Fifth Hokage, as the Sannin generation stood above him.

If Hiruzen Sarutobi became his teacher, Kizaru would have the credentials to compete for the Fourth Hokage, with a chance to become the youngest Hokage in the history of Konoha at the age of twenty.

The time gap between the two was immense, forcing Danzo to grit his teeth and admit that the benefits of Hiruzen Sarutobi becoming Kizaru's teacher far outweighed those of Orochimaru.

"Does Orochimaru have any objections?" Though he had already agreed in his heart, Danzo, still feeling disgruntled, did not give an immediate answer.

Maintaining his kindly smile, Hiruzen Sarutobi took a puff of his pipe and said slowly, "They have no objections."

Danzo nodded and said coldly, "In that case, I have no choice but to follow the Hokage's arrangements."

To mock Hiruzen, Danzo emphasized the title "Hokage" with a heavy tone.

Hiruzen caught the sarcasm, but instead of getting angry, he only smiled more broadly.

"Danzo! It isn't that I want to steal Orochimaru's student; I do this for the sake of the village and Kizaru's future. Did you know? Yesterday afternoon, Kizaru defeated Jiraiya and sent him to the hospital."

What?

Danzo was shocked, yet he maintained a calm expression, looking as steady as an old dog.

"Although that fellow Jiraiya didn't use his signature ninjutsu to hide his identity, even so, defeating him so easily is not something an ordinary Jonin could accomplish." At this point, Hiruzen praised him with a sigh, "Kizaru is truly an extraordinary child!"

"Why would Jiraiya attack Kizaru?" Though surprised by Kizaru's strength, Danzo was more concerned about this question.

"That was my fault," Hiruzen took the blame upon himself. "I had previously told Jiraiya that Orochimaru intended to take Kizaru as a student. That idiot was too impulsive; upon hearing of Kizaru's genius, he grew curious, disguised himself as a ninja from another village, and ambushed Kizaru to test the boy's strength."

An ambush?

Danzo was even angrier now.

"Attacking a fellow ninja of the village is the act of a rogue ninja. Jiraiya, he..."

"I have already disciplined him. He was severely injured by Kizaru, suffered multiple fractures, and is still lying in the hospital," Hiruzen interrupted Danzo, speaking quickly.

"How reckless!" Danzo commented angrily.

"Young people are too impulsive. We old folks must persevere and continue to guide them," Hiruzen said with a sigh, attempting to shift the topic.

Danzo fell for it, nodding in agreement. "Indeed! For the sake of the village's younger generation, we must continue to persevere!"

Once the conversation turned to such matters, the two old foxes found themselves in complete agreement.

Trading sentence for sentence, the two began to reminisce about the contributions they had made in the past, sighing over the hardships of those days and the comforts of the present.

Along the way, they took the opportunity to grumble about how fortunate the younger generation of the village had it, lamenting how decadent and lazy the youth had become compared to their own younger days.

"The children of today really need more training!"

"Indeed! Each generation is truly worse than the last!"

With these concluding remarks, the two brought the topic to an end.

After the trip down memory lane, the anger in Danzo's heart had dissipated, and looking at Hiruzen Sarutobi before him, he felt much more agreeable.

"That child Kizaru is planning to challenge me tonight. You should come and watch, Hiruzen! Consider it an inspection of a disciple."

Faced with Danzo's invitation, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was already full of curiosity and interest regarding Kizaru, naturally agreed without a moment's hesitation.

"Hahaha! Very well, I shall certainly be there tonight. I want to see for myself just how strong that child Kizaru really is."

"8:00 PM tonight, I will be waiting for you at the clan's Training Ground."