Jiraiya, standing beside them, nodded repeatedly in full agreement with Tsunade and chimed in, "Tsunade's right. The village's progress shouldn't depend on any one person's will."
"Everyone lets their guard down sometimes, and no one is immune to mistakes. Betting the entire village's future on one person is the greatest risk of all."
Hiruzen Sarutobi's expression changed completely.
After living most of his life, how could he fail to understand what the two of them were implying?
Tsunade and Jiraiya weren't simply complaining about tedious paperwork.
They were calling him out!
Calling him out for monopolizing power for decades and handling everything himself, until he had gradually come to regard Konoha as his private property.
Precisely because he held supreme power, he had shown favoritism, made compromises and misjudgments, tacitly allowed the Uchiha tragedy, and fostered Konoha's darkness!
If other people had been involved, if someone else had offered different solutions...
Would none of it have happened?
The Third stood rooted to the spot, his heart a tangle of emotions, filled with confusion and a sense of injustice.
I've worked diligently all my life, never acting out of selfishness, thinking only of Konoha...
Have I really treated the village as my own?
Was I really wrong?
For the first time in his many decades of life, Hiruzen Sarutobi began to question the way of the Hokage he had upheld all his life.
The Third remained silent for a long time. His expression shifted repeatedly, struggle, confusion, and stubbornness mingling together, before he finally shook his head gently.
"Tsunade, that way of thinking is wrong."
"If power is delegated and too many people interfere in village affairs, Konoha will descend into chaos and spiral completely out of control."
"In the end, the Hokage will become nothing but a figurehead, no longer