At the same time, inside Konoha Village, at the Ninja Academy, in the principal's office.
"Tsk, tsk. Old man, Minato Namikaze really did send you here to teach! I thought that was just a rumor!"
Tsunade strode into the office, glanced at Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was sitting behind the desk preparing his lesson plans, and then casually dropped onto the sofa without the slightest hint of restraint, as though she were in her own home.
"Why are you here?"
Hiruzen glanced at Tsunade and casually set down the lesson plan he had already read through dozens of times.
"I came to see you!"
Tsunade looked at Hiruzen with a somewhat complicated expression before saying solemnly, "The injuries you suffered haven't fully healed yet. Coming to the Ninja Academy to teach isn't a bad thing. You can consider it retirement!"
Hiruzen was stunned for a moment before sighing.
"How is this retirement? The Ninja Academy already has plenty of teachers. I don't even have two classes a day here. Basically, I'm just passing the time!"
"Old man, what kind of attitude is that?" Tsunade frowned. "As a teacher, even if you only have one class, you should still take it seriously!"
"In my opinion, you simply haven't given up yet. That's why your heart still refuses to settle down!"
"Give up? Heh."
Hiruzen laughed at himself.
"As you said, this old man was driven here to teach. How could I possibly let go so easily?"
After a pause, Hiruzen added, "Of course, there's nothing wrong with teaching and educating the next generation. But politics offers a much broader horizon for this old man!"
"I was the Third Hokage of Konoha. Even after stepping down from the position of Hokage, it would have been perfectly reasonable for me to take up a seat as a Konoha elder!"
"But look at what happened. Minato Namikaze and Uchiha Ren used a minor weakness of mine to deny me the position of Konoha elder and drive me here to teach at the Ninja Academy. Does that make any sense?"
Tsunade waved her hand.
"Old man, don't talk nonsense. When you were sent here to teach, Uchiha Ren was still carrying out his mission in Sunagakure. What does this have to do with him?"
"Besides, I heard you only gave them leverage because you tried to rescue that old bastard Shimura Danzō. Can you really call that a minor matter?"
At this point, Tsunade's expression became serious.
"Speaking of that, I really don't know what to say to you anymore! Shimura Danzō did so many terrible things and even tried to kill you, yet you still wanted to save him!"
"You even caused chaos in the village just to rescue him!"
"Old man, you were the previous Hokage! What exactly were you thinking?"
Tsunade simply could not understand why Hiruzen Sarutobi had been so tolerant of Shimura Danzō.
She could let Danzō's other crimes slide for the moment, but Danzō had tried to kill Hiruzen more than once and had even caused the deaths of Hiruzen's son and daughter-in-law!
If Tsunade put herself in Hiruzen's position, she knew she would have already cut Shimura Danzō into a thousand pieces.
There was no way she would still have protected him!
That was why Tsunade genuinely couldn't understand what Hiruzen had been thinking.
Hiruzen sighed and shook his head.
"Every decision this old man made was from the perspective of the greater good. Naturally, you can't understand my thinking because you aren't standing in my position."
"Take the time Shimura Danzō joined forces with shinobi from Kumogakure to ambush me on the road."
"Although I survived that incident, Shinnosuke and his wife died because of it, without even leaving behind a descendant. Should I have been furious? Of course!"
"But by the time I returned to the village, thousands of Kumo shinobi had already crossed the border and invaded the Land of Fire. Then the Battle of Kikyō Mountain broke out. Could I really have pursued Danzō's responsibility at a time like that, while risking civil unrest within Konoha?"
As Hiruzen spoke, he looked toward Tsunade, waiting for her answer.
Tsunade furrowed her brows slightly.
She already knew what had happened at the time, and when it came to this particular incident, Hiruzen's actions indeed hadn't been unreasonable.
"Sacrificing one's personal interests for the sake of everyone—that is the responsibility I bore as Hokage!"
Hiruzen continued, "I knew I couldn't openly turn against Danzō at that time, so I merely used the incident to force Danzō to hand Tenzō back to me."
"By the time everything was over, Danzō had already cleaned up the aftermath. It would have been much harder for me to use that incident against him afterward."
"And what happened after that?" Tsunade pressed. "Danzō came after you again, didn't he? He even dragged those two old fools, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, into it!"
"This time, Danzō couldn't possibly escape responsibility. Even all the terrible things he had done in the past were brought to light!"
"You didn't take advantage of his downfall, which is one thing. But why did you still try to save him?"
This was another thing Tsunade had never been able to understand.
If Hiruzen had previously spared Danzō for the sake of the greater good, then why had he tried to save Danzō this time, when Danzō had already fallen from power?
"For the greater good as well!"
Hiruzen answered without hesitation.
"The reason I sent people to rescue Shimura Danzō was because I had seen the true nature of Minato Namikaze and Uchiha Ren!"
"Uchiha Ren and Minato Namikaze had already laid out an enormous scheme without us realizing it. They treated me and Danzō as chess pieces, deliberately fueling the conflict between us and gradually taking the power we held for themselves!"
"Before I knew it, there were hardly any people left around me whom I could rely on. I was completely isolated within the village!"
"And although Shimura Danzō committed many terrible acts, one thing cannot be denied—his abilities were among the best!"
"Only with Danzō's help could I possibly stand against Minato Namikaze and the Uchiha!"
Hiruzen had been bottling up these grievances for days, and in front of his own disciple, Tsunade, he finally let them all out.
But the longer Tsunade listened, the more confused she became.
By the end, her entire face had practically scrunched up from bewilderment.
Once Hiruzen had said everything he wanted to say, Tsunade finally asked,
"But, old man... Minato Namikaze is the Fourth Hokage of Konoha!"
"Isn't it only natural that the highest authority in Konoha should be held by Minato, the Fourth Hokage?"
"Wouldn't it be you old geezers, who are clinging to the village's power and refusing to let go, who are actually in the wrong?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi: "..."
Hiruzen's entire face darkened.
He had simply gotten too carried away while talking and had unconsciously revealed what he truly thought!
Now things were going to be rather troublesome.
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