Thinking that his reputation would probably take another serious hit, Sarutobi Hiruzen could only grit his teeth and swallow the bitterness.
Pointing at Arata, Hiruzen was trembling with rage. He had never imagined that Arata's silence all this time was because he had been saving this move to trip him up right here.
Uzumaki Mito was Hiruzen's shishō—his teacher's wife. This was common knowledge in both Konoha and the wider shinobi world. With that relationship in place, there was absolutely no way he could openly defy Mito's decision.
In the current shinobi world, the bond of master and disciple was treated almost like that of parent and child. A master's orders were something disciples were expected to obey unconditionally. As for a master's wife, she was respected much like one's own mother.
If Hiruzen dared to go against Mito, and word of it spread, his prestige would plummet yet again.
And Hiruzen knew very well that Arata was fully aware of everything Mito had suffered over the years. If Arata truly decided to go after him, all it would take was exposing those matters, and Hiruzen's reputation would be utterly ruined.
Although Hiruzen had spent many years cultivating his influence in Konoha and still had some die-hard loyalists who wouldn't openly criticize him, Arata had taken an entirely different route—one that appealed to the common people.
In Konoha, although governance was divided among the major clans, the majority of the population consisted of civilian shinobi and ordinary villagers with no chakra at all. These people had long harbored grievances against Hiruzen. With Arata now in the picture, many of them no longer held the Third Hokage in much regard.
If Mito's treatment were to be made public, who knew how badly the rumors would spiral?
With that thought, even though he was seething inside, Hiruzen could only suppress his anger and say stiffly,
"Since that's the case, then the sealing of the Nine-Tails will be left to you. I won't interfere…"
After those final words, Hiruzen turned and left without another glance, storming off in a fury. One could only wonder which unlucky Konoha shinobi would end up bearing the brunt of his mood later.
In a rare display of bluntness, Hiruzen dumped the entire responsibility of sealing the tailed beast onto Arata, clearly signaling that he had no intention of helping.
Naturally, he had his own calculations. Sealing the Nine-Tails was no simple matter—it required a large force to first exhaust the beast, after which Uzumaki sealing techniques could be used.
Back then, the First Hokage had drained most of the Nine-Tails' strength before Uzumaki Ashina sealed it. Either of those figures was legendary in the shinobi world. Now, Arata had only himself and a handful of Uzumaki survivors—mere "small fry" in comparison. Under such circumstances, Hiruzen had no intention of offering support.
If Arata failed, he would inevitably have to ask Hiruzen for help. At that point, Hiruzen could step in openly and take control of everything related to the Nine-Tails' sealing—going as far as to including the choice of its next jinchūriki.
Of course, Hiruzen knew this was little more than wishful thinking. Arata was a shinobi at the peak of the super-Kage tier, a monster on the same level as Senju Hashirama. With that kind of power, subduing the Nine-Tails would be trivial, and sealing it afterward would be easy for the Uzumaki.
So while the scheme was vicious, it was ultimately meaningless in the face of absolute strength.
After seeing Hiruzen off, Arata turned to Uzumaki Yūki and said,
"Well done. Go and get the Uzumaki settled first. As for sealing the Nine-Tails, I'll make the arrangements later."
Arata understood that the Uzumaki had only just joined Konoha and had countless matters to deal with. There was no rush to seal the Nine-Tails anyway. With someone of his strength in the village, the beast wasn't an immediate concern.
Moreover, he wanted to ask Kushina whether she truly wished to become the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki. While the title sounded glorious, it often came with cold stares and discrimination from villagers.
Such things were common in every nation—Sunagakure in particular was infamous for it. Several of their jinchūriki had clashed with their own village, some even slaughtering fellow villagers.
Arata wanted to respect Kushina's choice, not force such a burden onto a child.
If he truly wanted to cultivate a super-Kage–level combatant, he didn't need to rely on the Nine-Tails at all.
Since Kushina had been entrusted to him by Mito with her dying breath, Arata intended to treat her sincerely. Besides, Kushina's personality wasn't bad—she was the type Arata found easy to like.
After all, she had only been staying at his home for a short while and was already getting along well with Shizune. A child like that was hard for any adult to dislike.
Yūki, seeing how understanding Arata was, found himself at a loss for words. In the end, he could only say with deep respect,
"Arata-sama, thank you for everything you've done for the Uzumaki. From now on, the Uzumaki clan will be your most loyal subordinates."
He didn't bother with empty words like "most loyal allies." His goodwill toward Arata had already reached its limit—this was reverence bordering on devotion.
Arata nodded, satisfied with his attitude, and then left the Uzumaki residential area.
The Uzumaki were living in the former Senju clan compounds, so for Arata, going home was just a matter of walking a few steps.
In the blink of an eye, he had returned to his courtyard.
The moment he entered, he was greeted by a heartwarming scene.
Shizune-chan was diligently practicing taijutsu, currently doing push-ups. Because of her age, she could only manage a dozen or so before taking a short break.
Beside her, Kushina had completely turned into a shameless cheerleader, praising Shizune every chance she got.
"Wow! Shizune, you're amazing! You're training so hard even at your age!"
"You've been practicing for so long—aren't you tired at all?"
"That's incredible! When I was your age, all I did was run around causing trouble…"
Shizune, basking in Kushina's praise, giggled nonstop.
It seemed that having always trained alone in silence, she was quite happy with this new family companion—at the very least, she now had someone to train alongside her.
Just then, Shizune noticed Arata and immediately jumped to her feet, throwing herself into his arms.
"Arata-nii!"
Holding Shizune, Arata laughed and said,
"Not bad. Your jumping power's improved a lot. Looks like you've been training properly while I was away."
Hearing his praise, Shizune beamed with delight, practically glowing with happiness, and Arata couldn't help but feel his heart melt at her cuteness.
Meanwhile, Kushina, standing off to the side, looked a little stiff when she saw Arata appear—clearly unsure how to interact with him just yet.