Kusagakure

"..."

Mitokado Homura pondered. "Hiruzen, could Shinji Uchiha have helped them remove the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal?"

"Absolutely impossible!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi waved a hand. "You two, leave me! I need to think!"

"..."

"..."

His two old friends left with helpless looks on their faces.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sat motionless in his Chair. "Hashirama Cells... Why did it have to be Yamato and Hashirama Cells?"

"...Danzo is still in a hospital bed. Could it be him?!"

A thought suddenly struck Hiruzen Sarutobi. He had remembered a crucial person!

He gritted his teeth.

"I've tolerated you again and again, but you keep testing my limits. You grow bolder every time... What's next? Are you going to kill your teacher?!"

Bang!

He slammed his hand on the desk, his Chest heaving.

Then he broke into a fit of coughing.

"Orochimaru, Orochimaru... Cough, cough!"

A trace of resentment crossed Hiruzen Sarutobi's weary old face.

"Do you really hate me that much? Was my choice back then truly wrong? No... It wasn't! Minato really was the best choice!"

"With your temperament, you would have dragged Konoha into the abyss! Time has proved that again and again!"

"I was not wrong!"

Knock, knock, knock!

Someone knocked on the office door again.

"Third Hokage! Urgent news from the border!!!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's vision went dark.

Could it be...

Was war inevitable after all?

"Come in!"

An ANBU ninja he rarely saw entered through the door.

A wave of exhaustion washed over Hiruzen Sarutobi.

An inexplicable, indescribable sense of crisis closed around him... Kakashi was away, Yamato was missing, Danzo was half-dead, and Root had been disbanded...

The major clans' attitudes had grown difficult to read. Who knew what they had been doing behind the scenes lately?

The Hyuga Clan in particular.

Ever since learning that Shimura Danzō had