"You still clung to pacifism as you always had. That naivety of yours would get you burned someday, Hiruzen."
Hiruzen Sarutobi walked to the window of the Hokage Office and looked out over the entire Leaf Village. This was a place worth protecting with his life.
"Perhaps. But no matter how peace is attained, it should be cherished."
Danzō knew he had lost—lost completely. From beginning to end, Hiruzen Sarutobi had kept him firmly in his grasp, and none of his thoughts could escape Hiruzen's eyes.
He stepped away from the Hokage's desk and headed for the door. For a time, only the sound of his wooden clogs against the floor remained.
"Tap~ tap~ tap~"
"It had always been this way. You are the light, and I am the darkness. Where there is light, there must be darkness. Yet if either is absent, the world cannot function smoothly."
"You are the leaf bathing in sunlight, while I am the root in the darkness. The great tree of Konoha cannot survive without the support of its roots."
Hiruzen Sarutobi did not answer any of Danzō's words. Only after Danzō had left the Hokage Office did Hiruzen Sarutobi open his eyes.
"This is the last time, Danzō."
They had known one another since their youth, graduated and carried out missions on the same team, and then, when the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju lay dying, Hiruzen Sarutobi had been appointed to succeed him as the Third Hokage. Hiruzen had watched Danzō walk step by step down the path that had led him here.
Hiruzen Sarutobi felt both the guilt of a close friend and the guilt of having made Danzō bear the village's darkness. So many emotions intertwined in his heart that he had spoken those words just now.
What else could Hiruzen