Tsunade stood at the edge of the cliff above Hokage Rock.
She pressed herself against Naruto from behind, wrapping both arms around him as he drifted off in thought.
"What are you thinking about?"
Below the cliff, villagers moved across the ground like a swarm of ants.
Hyuga Hiashi led the ninjas as they searched through their homes for anything that had not been crushed.
The most thoroughly destroyed parts of Konoha were the commercial district centered around the Hokage Building, along with the entire civilian district.
After two Super Kage had clashed, this place had basically been reduced to rubble.
Thick tree roots intertwined and tangled together, making it hard even to find a place to stand.
Meanwhile, the ninja clans that Hiruzen Sarutobi had moved one by one to the outskirts of the village to guard the Hokage Building had suffered almost no damage to their clan grounds.
His crude system of feudal autonomy had ultimately dug a pit beneath his own rule.
Take this coup, for example. If the fighting had reached the clan grounds, those old diehards in the clans would never have agreed to follow Naruto.
The sensation against his back made Naruto's thoughts wander a little.
"Nothing. Just feeling a bit sentimental."
Tsunade froze for a moment.
"Sentimental? About what?"
Naruto chuckled.
"About the idiots down there."
"They changed the story a little, and now they're cursing the Third Hokage they once supported. Meanwhile, I'm the one who destroyed Konoha, yet I became their savior."
"I wonder if Hiruzen Sarutobi would die of anger all over again if he came back to see this."
Tsunade's gaze fell upon the overly green ruins below, and she said nothing.
This was the village her grandfather had built with his own hands.
Now, it had been destroyed