"I said, I trust Kushina." The Third Hokage still replied in that calm tone.
Danzo snorted upon hearing this, turned, and left the Hokage Office.
Homura Mitokado also flicked his sleeve and departed.
Utatane Koharu sighed at the sight and said, "Hiruzen, why are you protecting the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki so much? This isn't like you!"
"Koharu, compared to Homura and Danzo, I've always trusted you more. Since you asked, I won't hide it from you.
The Third Great Ninja War is about to end, and Minato has made great contributions in this war. I am very optimistic about Minato becoming the next Hokage."
Utatane Koharu's expression changed slightly after hearing the Third Hokage's words.
"Hiruzen, you want to nominate Minato Namikaze to be the Fourth Hokage?"
"It's not me nominating; the choice of Hokage is never decided by one person. It depends on the opinions of everyone in the Village. I just personally favor Minato Namikaze more."
"What about Orochimaru? Isn't he your most favored disciple? Why don't you choose him?"
"Orochimaru and Danzo did some things they shouldn't have. One of my reasons for assigning him to the Land of Bears battlefield this time was to separate him from Danzo for a while, hopefully breaking their connection."
"Things they shouldn't have done? What did they do?" Utatane Koharu pressed.
"They touched the Shodai(1st)-sama's cells."
"What? This..."
"To be honest, I also bear some responsibility for this. When the Third Great Ninja War first broke out, the Village was plagued by internal and external troubles. Danzo repeatedly proposed to me that he wanted to research the Shodai(1st)-sama's cells to improve the Village's strength. After much deliberation, I implicitly agreed."
"Then Danzo approached Orochimaru?" Utatane Koharu asked.
The Third Hokage nodded.
Utatane Koharu didn't know what to say at the sight.
"Koharu, to be frank, I didn't expect Orochimaru to be interested in the Shodai(1st)-sama's cells and even research them with Danzo.
His actions have already touched upon the Village's taboos, especially since his teammate is Tsunade, the Shodai(1st)-sama's granddaughter. That's why I deliberately assigned Orochimaru to the Land of Bears battlefield."
"Hiruzen, I understand your thoughts. I know what to do." With that, Utatane Koharu also turned and left.
Two days later, the Konoha Camp at Mount Kikyo received a reply from the Third Hokage, instructing them to bring the two Jinchuriki back to Konoha.
Jinchuriki were good bargaining chips, and Konoha certainly wouldn't let them go.
Jiraiya and the others sent Fubuki and Han back to Konoha and handed them over to the Anbu Ninja.
After that, it was time for negotiations between Konoha, Sunagakure, and Iwagakure.
As the defeated parties, it was only right for Sunagakure and Iwagakure to cede territory and pay reparations.
However, Sunagakure was truly poor, located in the desert with no money or food. Konoha was well aware of this.
So Konoha's demand was simple: two-tenths of Sunagakure's future mission rewards were to be handed over to Konoha. The Sunagakure representative's heart bled upon hearing this demand.
But circumstances were stronger than people; Sunagakure no longer had the ability to fight.
The continuous defeats had plummeted the morale within Sunagakure to an all-time low, and the Sunagakure Ninja made no mention of avenging the Third Kazekage's death.
So, despite their unwillingness, Sunagakure still agreed to Konoha's demands.
After signing the treaty, the war between Sunagakure and Konoha completely ended, and Konoha returned Sunagakure's Ichibi Jinchuriki.
Next was Iwagakure. Both the Four-Tails and Five-Tails Jinchuriki were in Konoha's hands, so Konoha naturally demanded more compensation.
Iwagakure also suffered heavy losses in this war, but compared to Sunagakure, the Land of Earth had better conditions in all aspects, so Iwagakure gritted its teeth and agreed to the reparations.
After signing the contract, Iwagakure would come to Konoha in a few days with the compensation money, exchanging money for people.
At this point, the war between Konoha and the other Four Great Ninja Villages only involved Kumogakure and Kirigakure.
After the negotiations with Sunagakure and Iwagakure concluded, the Third Hokage immediately issued an order, announcing that all Konoha Ninja who fought against Sunagakure and Iwagakure could return to Konoha Village.
Some of these Ninja had gone to the battlefield at the very beginning of the war and hadn't seen their families for six or seven years.
For a time, many were eager to return home, wishing they could immediately go back to Konoha and reunite with their families.
However, apart from the Konoha Ninja on these two battlefields, the Konoha Ninja in the Land of Bears and the Land of Frost could not relax their vigilance.
Uchiha En and Orochimaru returned to the Land of Bears battlefield after resting in the Village for two days.
Minato Namikaze also returned to the Land of Frost battlefield two days later.
Upon returning to the Land of Bears battlefield, Uchiha En immediately found Asana and told her about his experiences at the Uchiha Clan meeting and the Battle of Mount Kikyo.
Asana sighed after listening, "Your return to the Village was truly dangerous! A slight misstep could have led to big trouble."
"Indeed! But in the end, it's still because my strength isn't enough. If I had Uchiha Madara's power, I wouldn't have to worry about these schemes and could just push through directly."
"True, the Ninja World ultimately respects strength above all else!" Asana agreed.
"By the way, speaking of Uchiha Madara, Asana, how is your research on the first hokages cells coming along?" Uchiha En asked.
"It's going smoothly, but..."
"But what?"
Asana hesitated and didn't elaborate. She smiled and said, "Nothing, I'll tell you after I confirm it in a while!"
Uchiha En nodded and didn't ask any more questions.
After parting ways with Asana, Uchiha En turned his attention to his status panel.
With the attribute points gained from over a month of text games and killing enemy Ninja in the Battle of Mount Kikyo, Uchiha En now had 165 attribute points. He poured all of them into Eye power.
Now, Uchiha En's panel looked like this:
Chakra Amount: 434
Constitution: 197
Eye power: 600
Life Force: 39
Nature Affinity: 4
Level: Lv42 (33/70)
Attribute Points: 0
Uchiha En estimated that with his 600 Eye power, he should be invincible among Three Tomoe users, perhaps even able to contend with Uchiha Fugaku's Mangekyo.
Assuming no surprises, he should be able to naturally awaken his Mangekyo Sharingan with just 400 more attribute points added to Eye power.
War is cruel. Even after Sunagakure and Iwagakure surrendered, Kirigakure and Kumogakure remained in a stalemate with Konoha for more than half a year.
During this half-year, both sides were in a state of fighting and negotiating.
Nevertheless, after half a year of wrangling, Konoha, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure successively signed ceasefire agreements.
However, Konoha did not sign the ceasefire agreements for these two battlefields as the victor, so there was no mention of compensation.
But regardless, for Konoha, the Third Great Ninja War had completely ended.
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