---Third POV---
"Impossible." Mei flatly refused Ryouma's request. She had genuine feelings for her village. To betray its interests for the sake of her own future, she had no intention of doing such a thing.
Ryouma had anticipated that she wouldn't agree, but he hadn't expected such a strong reaction.
"You may have misunderstood my intention. I don't need you to pass me any secret intelligence from Kiri. As long as…" He trailed off, stopping mid-sentence, because in his perception, Hiruzen had already arrived.
Looks like he'd have to speak to Mei in private another time.
Fragments of buildings were scattered across the empty street. Though the battle hadn't lasted long, the intensity had been high, especially with Root, who started off by scorching the area with Fire Release.
He approached Ryouma and the others, accompanied by several elite ANBU operatives. Though aged, his eyesight hadn't deteriorated much, he had spotted Ryouma and the others from a distance. And of course, he had also seen the massive skeletal giant.
"Susanoo, is it?" So, another Uchiha prodigy had emerged who could awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan. But that matter could be investigated later, for now, the most pressing issue was dealing with Danzō.
He quickly used the Body Flicker Technique to appear in front of Ryouma and Mei.
"Are you all alright? Some unidentified enemies infiltrated Konoha just now, I apologize for the scare."
As expected of the Hokage, he was already an expert at shifting blame the moment he opened his mouth. Behind him, Daigoro and the others, still shaken from their brush with death, looked visibly displeased upon hearing Hiruzen's blatant lie.
However, none of them acted rashly.
Daigoro swung his arm and took a few aggressive steps forward. "Hokage-sama, is this how your village treats the envoy of a foreign nation? We almost died just now!"
After speaking, he gave Mei a discreet signal. She instantly understood and picked up the cue.
"As the Hokage said, this was the doing of unknown enemies. We can only blame ourselves for being too careless, thinking we didn't need to worry about safety in the shinobi world's foremost village, Konoha."
Ryouma, standing nearby, listened to this refined and indirect rhetoric with a feeling of nostalgic déjà vu. Clearly, Mei had some skill in political maneuvering.
Hiruzen continued smiling warmly, as if he hadn't picked up on the sarcasm in her words, and replied in a gentle tone.
"Please rest assured. I will ensure that those who attempted to sabotage the peace talks are punished severely." After this righteous declaration, he turned to an ANBU on his left and instructed, "Take these Kiri envoys to the inn next to the Hokage Building. Station some guards around them. Make sure nothing like today happens again."
"Please come with me." The ANBU squad captain replied crisply and took a few steps forward to face the Kiri delegation.
Since he hadn't gotten the answer he wanted, Daigoro wanted to say more, but Mei spoke up first, addressing the ANBU captain.
"Thank you."
Everyone understood the principle of moderation, but many people failed to restrain their desires when the situation got real, only to end up worse off.
Fortunately, Mei wasn't one of them.
It was important to remember: this version of Hiruzen was not the same as the one who, later in life, would be rebuked by the envoy from Kumo and not even dare to respond.
The title God of Shinobi wasn't given lightly. The Sannin were still active in Konoha, and the new generation boasted elites like Minato and Ryouma.
Kiri was in no position to provoke such a flourishing Konoha. The best they could hope for was that today's incident might earn them some leverage at the negotiation table, helping them pay a slightly smaller price.
After sending off the Kiri envoys, Hiruzen finally had a moment to speak with Ryouma.
"What's the situation in the meeting room? How did you get here so quickly? And that chakra giant we just saw, do you know who summoned it?"
He threw out a string of questions all at once. When he had left the Hokage's office, his crystal ball had shown the negotiations still ongoing, so he hadn't known that Kisame and the others had also been on their way here.
Ryouma first responded to the initial question. "As for the meeting room, the Kiri envoy left halfway through to check on their members who had stayed behind. Judging by the time, they should be arriving here soon."
Hiruzen gave a slight nod. Since this wasn't the best place to have a discussion, he left a few ANBU behind to wait for Kisame and the others, then headed back to the Hokage's office with Ryouma.
Walking behind Hiruzen with his hands clasped behind his head, Ryouma passed by a few of the ANBU left behind and couldn't help but comment.
"ANBU work sure is tough."
These ANBU weren't just responsible for escorting Kisame's group to reunite with the recently departed Kiri envoys, they also had to assess the street damage.
After that, they'd have to negotiate compensation with the property owners, and finally submit the approved compensation list to Root.
Hiruzen chuckled and made a suggestion to Ryouma, "How about it? Want to join the ANBU for some training?"
"Please don't do that to me," Ryouma quickly waved his hands in refusal. He had no desire to let work consume his life.
---
Meanwhile, on a small stone-paved path shaded by greenery, Shiori walked with a sullen expression. She was in a foul mood. And the cause of that foul mood wasn't anyone else, it was herself. Or rather, her future self.
She had always hated being ordered around, even more so if it was by her own future self.
When she received the information from her Mangekyō ability in her right eye, she deliberately didn't show herself right away. Instead, she hid near the inn, planning to wait until that Kiri girl was killed by the Aburame ninja before stepping in.
But things didn't go as expected. Because of her delay, Ryouma used Flying Thunder God to rescue the girl.
"Damn it… Was that within your calculations too, future me?"
---
Putting aside Shiori, who was now so exasperated that she was literally mad at herself, Ryouma had already returned to the Hokage's office with Hiruzen.
The moment they stepped inside, they were greeted by Danzō. "Don't worry. One day, you'll all come to understand just how right I was today."
Hiruzen and Ryouma exchanged a glance, silently deciding not to dignify Danzō's delusions with a response. They simply walked past him into the room.
Noticing that their reactions seemed off, Danzō suddenly felt a pang of unease. Could it be… that the plan failed?
Hiruzen waved his hand to signal the two ANBU guarding Danzō to step back.
Facing Danzō, who was leaning on his cane and still unaware of the current situation, Hiruzen spoke sternly. "Your actions this time have seriously damaged the interests of the village. Starting today, all Root members are to be merged into the ANBU and placed under the command of the Hokage."
Hearing Hiruzen's merciless declaration, Danzō's face darkened as he responded. "Do you really have to go this far? Everything I did was for the village!"
Danzō shouldn't have brought that up, hearing those words, the slight relief Hiruzen had felt after Ryouma's timely rescue of the Kiri delegation vanished again.
"Silence! Don't think this matter will pass so easily. From now on, return to your clan grounds and reflect on your mistakes. Without my orders, you are not to take a single step out."
With that, he summoned two ANBU elites to escort Danzō away.
Bang!
Glancing at the door, Hiruzen lit his old smoking pipe and took a few puffs. After a long pause, he turned to Ryouma and asked softly, "Do you think I was too lenient with him?"
"Hmm, yes, it was too lenient. Frankly, what he did was almost equivalent to treason." Ryouma stated his opinion bluntly.
Cough cough~
Hiruzen hadn't expected the boy to be so straightforward and ended up choking a bit on his own smoke.
Given Ryouma's outstanding performance on the battlefield lately and his connection to Tsunade, he was now considered a staunch ally of the Hokage's faction. There was no need to beat around the bush, they could speak openly and honestly.
"Hokage-sama, Root really is unreasonable. It might have been acceptable during wartime, but once the war ends and Captain Minato becomes the Fourth Hokage, this group will definitely become a thorn in Konoha's side. A rotten root underground won't nourish the tree above, it'll only cause disease in an otherwise healthy tree."
Hearing this, Hiruzen was a bit surprised. It was rare to see Ryouma speak to him so seriously. Even when the boy had previously reported the shocking encounter with Madara in the Land of Water, he'd done so with a relaxed expression.
His expression quickly turned solemn. He nodded and said, "You're right. Remarkable, you're already thinking like a Hokage."
Ryouma responded with a bitter expression, as if he'd just eaten a bitter melon. He had finally managed to have a serious discussion with Hiruzen, and this was the kind of praise he got?
Was he being treated like some gullible kid like Itachi?
"I will handle Danzō's matter seriously. But do you also think Minato is more suited to be Hokage than Orochimaru?"
Hiruzen asked, though he already knew the answer. He simply wanted to hear Ryouma's opinion on these two outstanding talents of Konoha.
"I don't know much about Orochimaru, but in front of Captain Minato, anyone would pale in comparison."
Ryouma didn't want to delve too deeply into the topic, as if his opinion would actually influence the Hokage selection.
Hiruzen chuckled heartily and agreed, "You and Minato really are close."
To him, nothing was more comforting than seeing the bonds form between the younger generation of Konoha. After some lighthearted conversation, it was time for the main event, the real reason Ryouma had been called in.
Hiruzen cleared his throat and said, "That Uchiha who activated Susanoo, was it Shiori?"
Among the Uchiha clan members currently in the village, the strongest was indeed Shiori. Shisui and Fugaku were still stationed at the frontlines along the Land of Fire's coastline.
According to the information he had received, ever since she returned from the Land of Rivers battlefield and moved to the Kiri battlefield, her strength had progressed at an astonishing rate.
It was un-ninja-like, but very Uchiha.
The entire shinobi world knew that the Uchiha clan's power could largely be gauged by the number of tomoe in their Sharingan. The reason behind this was that every evolution of the Sharingan brought about a comprehensive enhancement of the user's ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu abilities.
She had already awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan during the battle in the Land of Rivers. Now, with her strength surging again, it was only natural for him to become suspicious.
In fact, a similar suspicion had previously arisen with Shisui, but unlike now, there hadn't been clear evidence like the appearance of Susanoo.
Faced with Hiruzen's question, Ryouma answered truthfully. "It was her, no doubt."
"And do you know the ability of her Mangekyō Sharingan?" Hiruzen asked the question that concerned him most.
According to the records left by his teacher, the Sharingan was also known as "the eye that reflects the soul."
The Mangekyō Sharingan was named as such not just because of the unique and diverse patterns each user developed upon awakening it, but because each one also contained a unique ocular power that mirrored the user's inner self.
If Shiori's ocular power was too dangerous, he couldn't help but start thinking about countermeasures.
Ryouma could instantly tell that Hiruzen was once again worried about whether the Uchiha clan might pose a threat to Konoha.
"Don't worry. Her ability isn't dangerous. Besides, isn't Konoha safe with me around?"
His confidence came from his strength. With so many powerful ninjas in Konoha now, there truly wasn't much need to be overly concerned about the Uchiha clan becoming a problem.
Hiruzen was clearly still deeply influenced by Tobirama, just hearing Mangekyō Sharingan was enough to trigger what seemed like PTSD.
You couldn't blame him. After all, the last person to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan had been Madara. And it was that very battle with him that had led to the untimely death of the First Hokage, which in turn indirectly triggered the First Great Ninja War.
Hiruzen had still been a child at the time, and that war, being the first of its kind in the shinobi world, had left a lasting psychological shadow on his entire generation.
---
A lot had happened that day. By the time Ryouma walked out of the Hokage Building, it was already afternoon. The setting sun was slowly sinking, painting the Hokage Rock in brilliant hues of orange and red.
On the other side of the village, Mei was deep in discussion with Kisame and the others, strategizing how they could leverage Konoha's recent misstep to gain bargaining chips for Kiri in future negotiations.
Suddenly, she felt a slight bulge in her hand, as though something had been placed there.
She maintained a calm demeanor throughout the discussion. Once she returned to her room, Mei opened her palm and discovered a note.
[Tonight at 8, I'll come find you to discuss removing the coordinates.]