Watching from the window as Hiruzen Sarutobi's figure slowly disappeared into the snowy night, Hayashi Ren let out a cold, mocking laugh in his heart.
How could he not know the reason Hiruzen left so suddenly?
It was obvious—he'd gone to confront Danzo, that old scheming bastard.
Ren's performance in the recent MOBA match hadn't been earth-shattering, but it was notable.Impressive enough to catch attention.And most importantly, his background was clean, he was young, and easily controllable.
On top of that, he possessed access to the MOBA space, something that could grant immense power for seemingly nothing in return.There was no way someone like Hiruzen Sarutobi would willingly hand a resource like him over to Danzo.
After all…
Hiruzen was old.Too old to manage every little thing in the village himself anymore.
What he needed was someone capable—but more importantly, someone controllable—to succeed him.Or rather, someone to serve as his puppet.
His ideal choice had once been Minato Namikaze.But Minato was dead.
So now, he had to find another puppet.
And right now, the best candidate was Hayashi Ren.
Danzo reaching out to claim Ren must've enraged Hiruzen.Sure, this wasn't enough to cause an outright fallout between the two old allies, but it had definitely planted a seed in both their hearts.
A seed that, with the right fertilizer, would soon sprout into something far larger.
"Two old dogs at each other's throats," Ren muttered with a chilly smile.
"Ren-kun, did you just say 'dogs fighting'?" Naruko asked curiously, tilting her head.
"Oh, nothing. Just thinking how funny it is that two old dogs might start biting each other soon," he replied with a faint chuckle.
"Ohhh," Naruko responded, then giggled. "Hey, Ren-kun, how about we go eat something to celebrate? Grandpa Hokage just gave us a bunch of spending money!"
"Sounds good. Sasuko, want to get some ramen from Uncle Ichiraku tonight?"
"…Sasuko?"
Ren turned toward her, noticing that she looked a little dazed, as if she hadn't even heard them.
"Sasuko?" he repeated.
"Oh, anything's fine," she finally replied without much emotion.
Naruko squinted at her, suspicious.
Something's definitely up with Sasuko… she thought, annoyed. But whatever, she's just a weirdo anyway. Ren-kun's way better than her.
Ren gave a small nod and led the girls out.
Of course, he could tell Sasuko had something on her mind. But he didn't press it.After all, asking a woman what's bothering her usually leads nowhere.
She'd either say it herself later… or he'd discover it some other way.
Otherwise, he'd just be wasting his time.
Creak...
The heavy door to Danzo's office slowly opened.
Hiruzen Sarutobi stepped inside, his face dark and thunderous as he stared at Danzo across the room.
"You're here," Danzo said without emotion.
"You damn well know I'd come," Hiruzen answered coldly.
"This is about Hayashi Ren, isn't it?"
"That's right."
Danzo met his furious gaze calmly. "You should know, everything I do is for the village."
"For the village?" Hiruzen scoffed. "Danzo, don't forget—out of all of our teacher's students, you and I understood each other best.With these eyes of mine, you have no ambitions that I can't see right through."