Naruto: Starting as the Third Hokage with Tears in His Eyes

Chapter 3 The wind was strong, blowing the robes of the two men.

The meeting room door was opened.

Akimichi Torifu sighed heavily, exchanged a glance with Uchiha Kagami, and silently left.

Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado walked up to Hiruzen Sarutobi and stopped.

"Hiruzen, we're leaving now."

Mitokado Yan pushed up his glasses, his eyes filled with genuine approval.

"We support you."

Koharu's words were brief, yet weighty.

Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded slightly.

"Thanks for your hard work."

The two said no more and turned to leave.

In the empty conference room, only Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo Shimura, who stood there with a gloomy expression, remained.

The last rays of the setting sun slanted in through the window, casting long shadows of the two people.

"Hiruzen".

Danzo's voice was low, suppressing some kind of emotion.

Why did you do that?

"Is this an insult to me?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi turned around and looked at him calmly.

"Humiliate you? No, Danzo, I'm saving you."

Danzo's eyebrows were furrowed.

"Help me?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi did not give a direct answer.

He walked to the window and looked at the Fire Shadow Rock behind the village.

"Come with me."

Before he finished speaking, his figure instantly turned into a blur and disappeared from the spot.

Danzo's pupils contracted, and he followed without hesitation.

Two figures leaped swiftly across the rooftops of Konoha, finally landing atop the stone statue of the Second Hokage.

The wind was strong, blowing their robes.

From here, you can overlook the entire Hidden Leaf Village.

Smoke curls from chimneys, pedestrians come and go on the streets, and children laugh and play—a scene of peace and tranquility.

"Danzo, look."

Hiruzen Sarutobi spoke, his voice carried somewhat by the wind.

"This is what the teacher protected with his life."

Danzo remained silent, his gaze also fixed on the village below the mountain.

"I know."

No, you don't know.

Hiruzen Sarutobi interrupted him.

"You only see the threats facing the village, but you don't see what the village itself is."

"The village is everyone who lives here. It's the lazybones from the Nara family, the fat guy from the Akimichi family, the patrol team from the Uchiha family, the ramen shop owner, and the crying kid at the ninja academy."

"It is not an abstract concept, Danzo."

Hiruzen Sarutobi turned his head and looked directly at his former teammate.

"Your roots may have good intentions, but they will only create something more terrible than darkness."

"That's called panic and distrust."

"A secret, unsupervised organization secretly monitors and judges everyone in the village. Today it can eliminate enemies, tomorrow it can eliminate dissidents. The day after tomorrow, it will create enemies in order to maintain its own existence."

Every word Hiruzen Sarutobi uttered struck Danzo's heart.

Danzo had never considered these words.

He only thought about how to protect Konoha with the most effective and ruthless means, but forgot that the means themselves could also become the root cause of Konoha's destruction.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's description showed him a path to destruction that he had never imagined.

"A root that is planted in darkness and never sees the sunlight will ultimately meet only two fates."

"It will either rot away on its own, or turn into a highly poisonous vine that will strangle the tree it was meant to nourish."

Danzo's lips moved, but no sound came out.

He found himself unable to refute it.

What Hiruzen said is not impossible.

He looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi, the man he had always thought was too merciful.

Overnight, he seemed to have become a different person.

His vision was far-reaching and profound.

"Power is a tool to protect them, not a toy to satisfy personal ambitions."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice returned to calm.

He patted Danzo on the shoulder.

"But I need you."

"I need your ruthlessness and decisiveness, even if it means getting your hands dirty for the sake of the village."

Danzo suddenly raised his head, his eyes filled with astonishment.

"So, you are still the leader of Root."

A glimmer of hope rose in Danzo's heart.

After going through such a long and complicated process, Hiruzen still has to rely on himself in the end.

However, Hiruzen Sarutobi's next words plunged him into an icy abyss.

"However, I need someone to assist you."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's expression remained unchanged.

"The deputy of Root will be Uchiha Kagami."

"What did you say?"

Danzo cried out, his face filled with disbelief.

"They're Uchiha, after all? Letting them into Konoha's most core secret organization? Hiruzen, are you insane?!"

"Have you forgotten how wary the teacher was of the Uchiha clan?!"

"I haven't forgotten."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's tone left no room for argument.

"I understood my teacher's concerns better than anyone else. But I also trusted his judgment; he trusted Jing until his death."

"The purpose of appointing Kagami as our deputy is to show everyone in the village, especially the Uchiha clan, that we trust them."

"This is a trust, but also a shackle. When the Uchiha people join Root, they must take the Hokage's will as their highest will, not their clan's."

"This is the best opportunity, and the only way, to completely integrate the Uchiha clan into Konoha."

"We can't push them to the opposite side of the village anymore."

Danzo's mind went blank.

As he looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi, he felt a chill rise from the soles of his feet.

Making Uchiha Kagami his deputy is tantamount to placing a surveillance device next to him that is absolutely loyal to the Hokage.

They even used the big label of "trust" to put it on them.

That's a brilliant move, killing two birds with one stone.

"That's not all."

Hiruzen Sarutobi seemed to have seen through his thoughts.

"The first members of Root will be selected from the most loyal scions of the major families."

"Including my Sarutobi clan."

Danzo was completely dumbfounded.

At this point, he completely lost his temper.

With representatives from various clans joining, Danzo Shimura's private army was transformed into an elite force directly under the Hokage's command, composed of members from all the major clans.

His position as leader was more like that of a figurehead instructor.

Any little trick you try to pull will be exposed to everyone.

A calculated scheme.

This is a completely open and aboveboard scheme.

……

The Hokage's office.

Uchiha Kagami stood in front of the desk, his expression solemn.

"Third Hokage, you wanted to see me."

Hiruzen Sarutobi put down the document in his hand and looked up at him.

"Mirror, the new department that was established a while ago, is basically used to handle some matters that the village's Light and Dark departments cannot reach."

"I hope you will be appointed as the deputy minister of the root."

Uchiha Kagami's body jolted violently.

He thought that Sarutobi would give him an important position because of his teacher.

But I never expected that he would be put to such an important position.

To let an Uchiha clan member take control of a core part of the village's power.

This trust is too heavy a burden.

He instantly understood the profound significance behind the appointment of Hokage.

This is sending a signal to the entire Uchiha clan, no, to the entire Hidden Leaf Village.

The Third Hokage was tasked with resolving the rift between the Uchiha clan and the village.

A surge of warmth welled up in his heart.

He saw it.

They saw hope for the village and the family to truly integrate.

That was what the First Hokage pursued throughout his life, and the future he himself dreamed of.

Uchiha Kagami took a step back, knelt on one knee, placed his right hand on his chest, and bowed his head deeply.

"Thank you for your trust, Third Hokage!"

"From this day forward, Kagami's life, and these eyes, will fight solely for the Hokage!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi stepped forward and personally helped him up.

"Mirror, I believe in you."

"I need your strength too."

Uchiha Kagami's eyes were slightly red, and he nodded heavily.

As he left the office, he brushed past Danzo, who was waiting at the door.

The two exchanged a glance, and the atmosphere became somewhat tense.

Finally, Uchiha Kagami nodded slightly and left first.

Danzo walked into the office and looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi sitting in the main seat, his feelings extremely complicated.

He lost.

All his schemes seemed utterly laughable in the face of Hiruzen's cunning plot.

We had no choice but to accept it.

"Hiruzen, you'll regret this."

He finally said those words.

Hiruzen Sarutobi lifted his gaze from the documents and looked at him calmly.

"Danzo, I am the Hokage."

With just one sentence, Danzo was left speechless, unable to finish all his unspoken words.

He gave Hiruzen Sarutobi a long look, then turned and left the office.

He picked up a document and handed it to the shadowy figure behind him.

"Relay my orders."

"Root's first task."

The officer knelt on one knee and respectfully accepted the gift.

"Thoroughly investigate the list of orphans of the fallen ninjas and verify the distribution of their compensation."

"Anyone who embezzles, withholds, or misappropriates..."

A cold glint flashed in Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes.

"Regardless of which family or what their status is involved."

"Kill them all without mercy."

"yes!"

The figures from the shadows disappeared.

a few days later.

In Konoha Village, several notorious loan sharks and the ninja in charge of resource allocation were found dead in their homes.

Beside their bodies, there was a mark of a tree root drawn in blood.

Meanwhile, pensions that had been withheld for many years were quietly delivered to the homes of those impoverished orphans.

The entire commoner class of Konoha was in an uproar.

People don't know what roots are.

But they knew that the newly appointed Third Hokage was using the most ruthless methods to seek justice for them, the victims of the war.

In an instant, Hiruzen Sarutobi's reputation reached its peak among the common people.

Inside the Hokage's office.

Koharu and Homura looked at the report in their hands, their faces filled with undisguised admiration.

late at night.

The candlelight in the office was still on.

Hiruzen Sarutobi leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples wearily.

Dealing with mountains of official business is more tiring than fighting with the Golden Horn and Silver Horn.

His gaze fell on a thick list on the table.

"Statistical List of War Orphans in Konoha Over the Years".

He flipped through the pages one by one, and behind each name was a broken family.

Suddenly, his fingers stopped.

One name was written on one line of the list.

Orochimaru.

Both of his parents were Jonin of Konoha, and they died in a conflict with Iwagakure at the end of the First Shinobi World War.

Involuntarily, the bloody scene of the Kusanagi sword piercing through his chest flashed through Hiruzen Sarutobi's mind.

Just then, a cold, mechanical voice rang in my mind.

[Key figure at a pivotal moment in life detected: Orochimaru.]

[Does this consume mental energy to simulate various possible future scenarios?]