The Hokage residence.
Hiruzen sat at the head of the table, with Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru seated below him.
Biwako bustled back and forth. Once she heard Tsunade and Jiraiya had come, she ducked into the kitchen and hurriedly whipped up a few more dishes.
Tender chicken, grilled meat, dumplings, and light, refreshing snacks meant for drinking.
All of it was food she remembered the kids loving.
Asuma huffed and puffed as he hauled in several jars of alcohol, setting them beside the table.
Tsunade and Jiraiya both liked to drink, and the moment they arrived they started loudly insisting that since it had been so long since Team Sarutobi reunited, they had to properly down a few cups.
"Asuma, why'd you suddenly apologize to me?" Hiruzen teased, watching his youngest son hover nearby with that eager-but-guilty look.
He could guess the reason well enough.
Probably the usual complaints about him being stiff and old-fashioned.
After all, the Hiruzen of the past had been the classic, old-era war dad. His attitude toward his son could be summed up as: as long as the kid lived, that was good enough. Heart-to-hearts and casual chatting barely existed.
In his time, surviving was the best kind of parenting.
That was how old-school ninja families worked.
"I said things about you at school…" Asuma's face instantly turned red. He couldn't bring himself to say it out loud. He bowed sharply. "Father, I'm sorry!"
"Let me guess. 'That old man is so boring,' something like that?" Hiruzen chuckled and shook his head. "You're not the first one to say it…"
Asuma looked up, confused, his eyes drifting toward his older brother.
Shinnosuke's face went dark. "Brat. I've always respected Father!"
Asuma blinked. Then who else would say something like that?
Hiruzen gave his three students a meaningful look.
Jiraiya suddenly became very interested in the ceiling, whistling like he had nothing in his head.
Tsunade rubbed her hands together and laughed awkwardly. "Hey, I mean… that was when I was young and didn't know better, sensei!"
Only Orochimaru sat there steady as ever.
He hadn't actually called Hiruzen a boring old man.
But if things had continued the way they used to…
Maybe he would've said something colder. Something that didn't sound so close.
Asuma couldn't help blurting, "Seriously, Tsunade and Jiraiya have no conscience. Father taught you so many jutsu and you still talked behind his back!"
Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Hey. You little brat. He's still your dad."
Jiraiya folded his arms. "Sensei, I think this kid's asking for a beating."
Orochimaru watched quietly.
In a way, he could understand Asuma.
What the kid lacked was Hiruzen's approval and attention.
And Orochimaru had lacked the same thing… even more so.
"Asuma, your old man hasn't spent much time with you." Hiruzen cleared his throat. "From now on, if anything happens at the academy, you can come tell me."
Asuma's eyes lit up immediately. "Really?!"
Hiruzen nodded.
"Old man, I'm not eating with you," Shinnosuke said. He put on his mask and gave a thumbs-up. "I'm on duty in Anbu tonight. I can't be the one dragging you down."
With that, he turned and left without hesitation.
"It's fine, it's fine. I'll keep you company!" Asuma grinned and moved like he was about to climb onto his seat.
After Biwako set down the final bowl of stew, she asked softly, "Husband, are you going to talk business?"
"Mm." Hiruzen blinked at her. "You've worked hard."
Biwako smiled, understanding immediately. She grabbed Asuma by the back of the collar and hauled him away from the table.
Hiruzen couldn't help laughing to himself.
When it came to meals, the Sarutobi family was very traditional.
As for why Tsunade could sit at the table…
Because she wasn't just a woman. She was also a jonin who could throw hands, Konoha's number one medical kunoichi, Hiruzen's student, Hashirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki's granddaughter, and the Land of Fire's princess…
Strength mattered.
"Eat," Hiruzen said. "Help yourselves. Don't make me put food in your bowls." He pointed at Orochimaru. "You're thinner again. Eat more meat. Build yourself back up."
"I think it's because you beat all his chakra out of him," Jiraiya said through a mouthful of meat, speaking in that half-muffled, needling way of his. "What's he care about fat or thin? If he's got time, maybe the bastard snake should fix that whole… not-quite-yin, not-quite-yang thing…"
Orochimaru's thoughts stirred.
His face stayed calm, though, as he elegantly ate an egg. "Idiots can't understand geniuses. A toad should focus on eating."
But inside, he was honestly a little surprised.
Was the idiot's intuition really that sharp?
The Immortality Jutsu he'd been researching did involve taking other people's bodies. And in the dead of night, he'd even imagined…
If he ever truly split from Konoha, he could try switching sexes. It might be interesting.
But now…
Orochimaru glanced at his teacher and smiled faintly.
There probably wouldn't be any need.
Tsunade ate with her usual boldness.
For her, after her lover and her younger brother died, the people who still mattered were few. Aside from Mito Uzumaki, the most important ones left were sitting at this table.
When she'd watched Team Sarutobi drift apart and lose that old feeling, she'd been planning to leave the village for a while and clear her head.
Out of sight, out of mind.
But now… that plan had to be put on hold.
Her teacher was pushing reforms, and somehow, at some point, he'd repaired his relationship with Orochimaru.
She needed to stay and help her teacher, help the village.
And the speech Hiruzen gave today had genuinely stirred all three of them.
The alcohol went around.
The dishes were cleared.
After Hiruzen clinked cups with his beloved students and drank deeply, he let out a long breath.
"I did alright today, didn't I?" He lit his pipe and took a slow draw. "How did everyone react, in your eyes?"
"Seriously stylish." Jiraiya gave a big thumbs-up. "That emergency drill today was meaningful!"
"My student Minato Namikaze told me the village security's gotten a little lax. Sometimes he can spot Anbu, but Anbu can't spot him…"
Hiruzen's eyebrow lifted as he rolled the name over in his mind.
The one who saved Kushina. A civilian-born ninja. Jiraiya's newly accepted student.
"Anbu can't spot him?" Tsunade frowned. "Anbu did fine today. Has it really gotten that loose?"
"It's not that simple." Jiraiya got excited, waving his hands around. "Minato is a top-tier genius! I'm telling you, he's going to be incredible!"
"My student Minato… has the makings of a Hokage!"
Tsunade snorted. "A kid who just graduated and you're calling him Hokage material? Jiraiya, seriously."
Jiraiya shot back immediately. "You don't get it, Tsunade! He's the real deal!"
Tsunade jerked her chin toward Orochimaru. "Oh? There's a genius you've known since childhood sitting right there. Ask him what he thinks."
Jiraiya choked, but he still refused to fold. "What's so great about that bastard snake? Minato's better than him when he was a kid!"
"A real genius can grow in three to five years. Maybe he could even compete with the snake someday!"
Tsunade waved a hand like she was shooing a fly. "I'm not listening to you."
To Tsunade, this whole speech from Jiraiya was just nonsense.
As long as Orochimaru didn't self-destruct, she didn't think anyone else had much chance of taking the Hokage position from Hiruzen's hands.
Orochimaru sipped his drink. He didn't bother remembering Minato Namikaze. To him, it was just Jiraiya being stubborn again.
Funny.
Who wasn't a genius?
How pathetic, Jiraiya. Putting all your hopes on a student.
Fine. If you insist on being my enemy, an ending like that is only natural.
"What's with you, bastard snake? Why're you acting so smug!" Jiraiya yelled, loud and indignant. "You don't understand Minato!"
Hiruzen took it all in.
In this brutal ninja world, bonds built from childhood were different. When the three of them were together, that looseness and happiness was real. You couldn't fake it.
And he also understood something else.
Why, despite growing up together, Jiraiya still couldn't win Tsunade over.
His mouth was stubborn, and his emotional intelligence was just as bad.
"All you do is talk about your student," Hiruzen said. "Why don't you work harder and become Fourth Hokage yourself?"
He flicked a peanut at Jiraiya's forehead. "My grandson-student is only a chunin, right?"
Jiraiya waved both hands hard. "Hey, I'll work for the village, sure! But Hokage is impossible. You do it, old man… that job melts your brain!"
"Useless." Hiruzen cursed him with a laugh. Then he pulled out a scroll and handed it to Orochimaru.
Orochimaru took it. "Sensei, what is this?"
"This is Danzo's report against you," Hiruzen said softly. "About you secretly researching forbidden Wood Style experiments, stealing important village ninjutsu, embezzling Konoha research funds, building your own faction…"
The warm atmosphere froze.
Orochimaru's slit pupils narrowed without him meaning to. He accepted the scroll, his emotions rising and dropping like a violent wave.
"Heh…"
He flipped through it quickly and thought, This is bad. But he kept his face as calm as he could.
Danzo had embellished plenty, but the main points weren't wrong.
Orochimaru had done those things.
His mind spun.
Why would Danzo sell him out?
Danzo had participated too. If Orochimaru blew up, did Danzo think he'd somehow walk away clean?
"Sensei," Orochimaru asked, his voice turning hoarse despite himself, "you don't think this is real, do you?"
"Let me see." Tsunade leaned in and snatched the scroll.
Jiraiya looked too. Their expressions slowly grew complicated.
Damn.
It really was written convincingly. The so-called evidence chain was detailed enough to stand up to scrutiny.
"Based on what I know of you, it's nine parts true and one part false," Hiruzen said. He lit his pipe and exhaled a dense stream of smoke. "Danzo probably shoved some of his own mess onto your head too, especially the funding part."
"You've scammed him for research funds plenty of times, haven't you? I can practically feel the resentment dripping off the page."
Orochimaru's eyes flickered.
He couldn't read his teacher's intent.
Was that tone meant to warn him? It didn't sound like Hiruzen wanted to punish him harshly.
"Snake," Jiraiya groaned, rubbing his forehead, confusion filling his eyes. "What are you trying to do? Are you going to defect?"
If Danzo was right, Konoha already had a small group of Orochimaru's loyal supporters, with money and jutsu resources in hand.
If it kept going like this, Orochimaru really could build his own hidden village one day.
"Sensei, Orochimaru might go too far sometimes, but he wouldn't do it on purpose. There has to be a misunderstanding!" Jiraiya rushed to defend his friend. "You can't trust Danzo completely!"
Tsunade nodded along. "Sensei, you can't listen to Danzo's word alone. Orochimaru might be getting set up."
Warmth slid through Orochimaru's chest.
They bickered all the time, but when it mattered, Jiraiya and Tsunade still stood up for him.
"Enough. Orochimaru hasn't crossed any line that can't be walked back," Hiruzen said, setting the tone. "After the Second Great Ninja War, the bond between us… slowly grew distant."
Weariness showed on his face.
And with it, the performance began.
"After the Kushina incident, I started thinking about a question I didn't want to face."
"What you did was wrong, hiding it from me as Hokage. But the overall direction wasn't wrong."
"You thought I was too conservative, too rigid, so you went and did it yourself in secret. Right?"
Hiruzen took a drink. "The three of you are here tonight, so let's speak like we're behind closed doors."
"In the past, why was I so conservative?"
Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya met Hiruzen's eyes, then slowly shook their heads.
"Because change always costs something," Hiruzen said. "And change isn't always good."
He drew in a deep breath from his pipe. "I was never more than a man of average talent. Yet I was lucky enough to inherit the Third's responsibility. So I was lost, from the day I became Hokage."
"I was afraid too. I was afraid I'd fail as Hokage. I didn't have the First's overwhelming power. I didn't have the Second's wisdom. But I still became Hokage."
"So I refused to adjust the Second's policy framework. All I could do was throw myself into work, handle everything personally, because I was terrified of betraying the previous generation's will."
"But the village didn't develop well."
"During the Second Great Ninja War, I even thought about escaping." Hiruzen gave a self-mocking smile. "I wanted to be a charging jonin, killing enemy after enemy, dying on the battlefield with a hero's name… just so I wouldn't have to carry this pressure."
He chuckled softly, bitter.
"Someone noticed, didn't they? When I was young, I was built like Jiraiya. A strong, sturdy kid. Then I spent a few years as Hokage, and even my height started shrinking. I was still middle-aged, and I already looked like an old man."
Tsunade's expression grew heavy. She was more sensitive than the others, and she could feel the suffocating weight in his words.
Jiraiya felt it too. He hated paperwork, and just hearing this made it hard to breathe.
Orochimaru listened in silence, eyes fixed on his teacher. Some of the resentment buried in his chest began to loosen.
Sensei… he had his own hardship too.
"Then, after the Hidden Cloud Village incident, I dreamed of Lord Second." Hiruzen's voice stayed steady. "In the dream, he cursed me out."
"He said, 'Monkey, how can you be this cowardly? If every generation of Konoha doesn't believe it can surpass the last, the village will die sooner or later!'"
"When I woke up, I thought about it for a long time." He tapped ash from his pipe. "Rather than some ghostly visit, it was probably my subconscious."
"It's not too late to make up for it."
"Starting now, I'll change Konoha. Whatever benefits the village, I'll do it. Whatever stands in my way, I'll remove it."
"Including the cowardly part of myself."
His tone was calm, but his eyes looked like something was burning behind them.
The three Sannin had never seen Hiruzen like this.
Hard. Cold. Decisive.
Like a man made of steel.