Kiyosuke left in a daze, his tongue numb and the taste still lingering in an indescribable way.
With a complicated mood, he came to Orochimaru's residence. Seeing that he was still doing experiments, Kiyosuke said, "Orochimaru - sensei, the Hokage - sama called me over today to talk about the succession of the Hokage position."
"The successor is Minato, right?" Orochimaru said without looking up.
"Yes. I didn't want it."
"en?,that's quite in line with your character, Kiyosuke - kun," Orochimaru said without putting down his experiment. "Minato is more suitable to be the Hokage than you. Your character can be quite assertive in some aspects, and you won't allow others to interfere in your affairs. If you were to succeed as the Hokage, those elders would probably be mere decorations."
"Come on, how could they be mere decorations? They're such good pawns. It would be a waste not to use them. But now it has nothing to do with me," Kiyosuke said, shaking his head.
Orochimaru said, "Minato will soon be sidelined. Those old guys won't give up the power in their hands. Power is an addictive poison, and the old - timers won't hand it over so easily. Minato will definitely be restricted in every way for at least two years."
Danzo and the others wouldn't easily relinquish the power they held. Having been in their positions for so long, they wouldn't compromise easily, especially not to a young person.
In their eyes, Minato was just Jiraiya's disciple. Although he had remarkable military achievements, he was still too inexperienced to compete with them.
"Orochimaru - sensei, you also had the qualification. Aren't you angry?"
Orochimaru also had the qualification to become the Hokage, and he even had Danzo's support behind him...
Uh... well, with Danzo as a teammate, no wonder he couldn't succeed.
"There's no need to be angry. Minato will become a puppet for the Third Hokage to hold onto power. He's too young, and his prestige is far less than that of the Third Hokage and the elder council. The elders probably thought the same way when they chose you and Minato. It's just that your character isn't suitable to be their puppet," Orochimaru said, his eyes sharp as he saw through everything long ago.
Kiyosuke nodded and said, "That's true. I bet that within three days of my succession, I might get into a fight with the Third Hokage. That old man is up to no good. Not to mention the Third Hokage, I'd definitely give the elder council a beating."
The corner of Orochimaru's mouth twitched, but he knew Kiyosuke was telling the truth. Although it might be a bit difficult for Kiyosuke, who had learned Sage Mode, to fight the Third Hokage whose strength was declining, he would have no problem dealing with the elder council.
"emm,if there's nothing else, take Anko to complete some missions. I don't have the time to take care of you guys right now." Orochimaru was very busy at the moment. He had obtained a lot of good experimental materials and other things on the battlefield.
Knock, knock, knock!
Just then, the door was knocked.
Kiyosuke went to open the door. It was a bandaged man with a scar on his chin, around fifty or sixty years old, wearing a black robe. Beside him were two masked Anbu ninjas, or rather... members of ROOT.
"Orochimaru's disciple? It's you, Kiyosuke Asakawa," said the man, who was the leader of ROOT and Hokage advisor, Danzo Shimura.
He gave Kiyosuke a deep look and asked, "Where is Orochimaru?"
"Sensei is doing experiments inside."
"Take me there."
Kiyosuke raised an eyebrow and stood still. Danzo frowned and repeated, "Take me there."
Kiyosuke still didn't say anything.
The two Anbu beside Danzo moved, but the next second, their bodies froze, not daring to move. Two flaming spears were floating between their eyebrows, with an extremely high temperature. With just a thought from the other party, their heads could be pierced.
"Don't you know what courtesy is?" Kiyosuke said, crossing his arms. "What brings you here, Lord Danzo? Sensei is very busy."
"Just take me there."
As soon as he finished speaking, another flaming spear flew out, pointing directly at Danzo's bandaged right eye. Kiyosuke said, "Lord Danzo, your eye is quite special. Also, at your age, don't you know what courtesy is?"
Danzo narrowed the one eye that was exposed and said, "You're good. Orochimaru has taught a good disciple."
At this moment, Orochimaru came out and said, "Isn't this Danzo? What wind has blown you here? Kiyosuke - kun, they mean no harm. It's okay."
"I was just teaching these impolite old people a lesson. At your age, you should be retired, staying at home, raising fish, and growing vegetables. Running around at such an old age, the bones of old people are very brittle, you know. Be careful not to break your leg!"
Kiyosuke withdrew the flaming spears and said sarcastically.
"Don't bother. Orochimaru, I need to talk to you."
With that, he walked into the laboratory with Orochimaru.
Kiyosuke looked at their backs and was silent for a moment. Orochimaru would still follow the old path, but it had nothing to do with him. He had already established himself in Konoha. Even if he stopped Orochimaru from collaborating with Danzo, Orochimaru would eventually do experiments on ninjas.
Orochimaru's pursuit of truth would never stop.
He was a lonely seeker of the way, and no one could walk with him on this path. But this path was too difficult to traverse and required a large amount of data as support. And Danzo happened to be able to help him speed up.
The two of them had their own ulterior motives and hit it off immediately.
Orochimaru would definitely defect in the future, but it wouldn't have much of an impact on him. At most, his reputation in Konoha might not be so good, but that didn't matter much to him. He didn't care about reputation in the first place.
He didn't even have the Will of Fire, let alone care about reputation.
If things didn't work out, he could go to the Mist Village and cling to Mei Terumi, that wealthy woman!
Yawning, he left. On the way home, he met Hiashi Hyuga, whom he hadn't seen for a long time. The usually gloomy expression on Hiashi's face showed a bit of joy. Seeing Kiyosuke, he said, "I was just about to look for you. I sent someone to find you this morning but you weren't there, so I came in person. The day after tomorrow is the hundred - day celebration of my son's birth. You must come."
He handed an invitation to Kiyosuke.
Kiyosuke took it and said, "You have a son?"
"Yeah!" Hiashi nodded. "He was born when the war was about to end. Speaking of which, I should thank you. If it weren't for your battle in the Mist Village, I might not have been able to come back in time for my son's hundred - day celebration."
"Oh, I'll come."
Hiashi had taken good care of him on the Mist Village battlefield. Moreover, he wanted to attend Neji Hyuga's hundred - day celebration. Neji was one of the Twelve Guardians Ninja of Konoha.
Speaking of which, I'm only twelve years old, and I already have to give out money for such occasions. Thinking about all the future events, well, no, I have to take on some missions. Otherwise, I'll go broke just from giving out money for these things.
After saying goodbye to Hiashi, he went home and slept for a night. Early the next morning, he took Anko to pick up a C - rank mission.
Gotta take missions to earn money!