Chapter 217: Each One More Ridiculous Than the Last
Out of the blue, Hiruzen Sarutobi said something that left Danzo completely baffled.
"Go see her?"
Danzo stared at the Hokage, his weathered face twisting into a deep scowl of suspicion. His old friend wouldn't spout such strange directives without good reason; the core of the issue absolutely had to lie with those fabled Rinnegan eyes.
Wasting no time, the Finance Minister spun on his heel and marched straight toward Konoha Hospital. He bypassed the bustling lower floors and headed directly to the top-floor ward, an area currently suffocated by a heavy, hidden Anbu guard.
Inside the sterile room, the little girl was already fast asleep, her breathing soft and even. Danzo only needed a single, piercing look at her resting face before he abruptly turned and marched right back out the door.
By the time he burst back into the Hokage's office to face Hiruzen again, his usual stoic demeanor had completely fractured. His tone bordered on frantic excitement.
"Hiruzen, why didn't you say so earlier?!" Danzo slammed a hand on the desk. "If you had just told me, I wouldn't have wasted breath arguing with you. It's Stelle! Look at her, Stelle has returned. That child has to be her reincarnation, right?"
Hiruzen slowly exhaled a plume of smoke. Following Senju Tetsuya's crackpot theory that the girl was somehow the secret love child of the Fourth Hokage and Uchiha Kagami, did Danzo now genuinely believe she was Stelle's reincarnation?
Each theory was more ridiculous than the last.
If Orochimaru were here to witness this circus, the snake Sannin would undoubtedly assume the child was just another bizarre product of a genetic laboratory.
Hiruzen shook his head, a helpless, weary weight settling in his shoulders.
The tragic sacrifice of the Fourth Hokage remained a jagged hurdle lodged in all their hearts. The guilt was a collective poison. Because back then, if even a single broken link in the enemy's chain of deception had been discovered in advance, they wouldn't have lost their brilliant Fourth Hokage.
But under the absolute, blinding protection of the powerful Fourth, the village's upper echelon had grown complacent. They had all lost their necessary, paranoid vigilance, unexpectedly committing fatal errors they never should have made, all at the exact same time.
"The age doesn't match up, Danzo," Hiruzen said softly, his voice raspy. "Before Stelle sacrificed herself, that child was already born. Otherwise, how could Uchiha Kou have possibly hidden the Rinnegan in her eyes?"
That simple logic hit Danzo like a splash of ice water. After his brief spike of feverish excitement, the Finance Minister quickly cooled down, his single visible eye narrowing.
Yes, it was biologically impossible.
It was just that the circumstances were entirely too coincidental. A little girl who looked exactly like Stelle, carrying the legendary Rinnegan, who just happened to appear right inside Konoha's walls—it reeked of a massive, complex conspiracy.
But then again, those were the Rinnegan. Who in their right mind would ever be willing to use the eyes of a god as a mere pawn in a political scheme?
Therefore, by sheer process of elimination, all these wild coincidences had to be exactly that—just coincidences.
"Where is her intel?" Danzo demanded, holding out an expectant hand. "Let me see it."
Hiruzen reached into his desk and tossed over a tightly bound sealing scroll.
Danzo caught it, broke the seal, and unrolled the parchment. He compared the intelligence point by point, his eye darting across the ink as he carefully analyzed and scrutinized every minute detail. To his absolute surprise, he found that it really was just a freak coincidence; there wasn't a single logical flaw or discrepancy in any part of the girl's background.
Hiruzen returned to his high-backed chair and sat down heavily. "My intention is to find someone suitable to adopt her first, and then train her slowly. Once she has a family, friends, and companions she genuinely cares about, she will naturally integrate her loyalties into Konoha."
"Adoption?"
Danzo's eye rolled slightly as he squinted in deep thought. A moment later, he leaned forward, his expression dead serious. "Hiruzen, hand her over to me. I will personally train her into Konoha's absolute strongest and most loyal Ninja."
For some inexplicable reason, the moment those words left Danzo's mouth, an image of Uchiha Kou violently flashed across Hiruzen's mind.
It couldn't be helped. The Danzo standing before him dealt with ledgers and budgets every single day. He had never married, never raised children—the man practically wanted to marry the village treasury.
His only known 'experience' in training a Ninja was the terrifying Uchiha Kou, a weapon forged by the Danzo Shimura of that twisted parallel timeline.
Hiruzen's gaze suddenly became incredibly strange, filled with a creeping horror.
Uchiha Kou's chillingly resolute words seemed to echo right beside his ear, dripping with brainwashed fanaticism.
'I am a Root Ninja, codename Kou, the most outstanding Root Ninja trained by Danzo-sama.''Sandaime-sama is the leaf bathing in the sunlight, while the Root led by Danzo-sama is the Root buried deep in the ground.''As Ninjas protecting Konoha from the darkness, we should naturally sacrifice everything for the Village.''The darkness of the Root is the other side of the Will of Fire.''Everything Danzo-sama does is for the Village!'
As those eerie, fanatical images superimposed themselves over the innocent sleeping face of A-Mu, Hiruzen violently shuddered. He slammed his pipe onto the desk and decisively refused, his voice leaving no room for argument.
"You are not suitable!"
Danzo knew Hiruzen entirely too well. Having cooperated for decades and dedicated their entire lives to Konoha, they shared a deep, unspoken understanding. Danzo felt the exact shift in the room the moment Hiruzen's gaze changed from contemplative to horrified.
And he damn well guessed the exact reason why.
Danzo's face flushed, his chest tightening with an incredibly stifling sense of indignant frustration.
"You're thinking of Root, aren't you?!" Danzo barked, pointing an accusing finger. "That was done by the Danzo of the parallel world! What does that have to do with me, Danzo Shimura, the Finance Minister?! Wasn't it you who agreed to let him do it in that parallel timeline anyway?! What exactly do you mean by this look?!"
So the 'me' in this timeline isn't the one refusing, Hiruzen muttered to himself in his heart, choosing to ignore his old friend's outburst.
"Regardless of timelines, your ideas have always been far too radical," Hiruzen countered smoothly. "Stelle's arrangements for the Nine-Tails are more than enough to prove that her gentle approach is the most correct path forward."
It was an obvious truth. While other hidden villages could only rely on sealing away their Tailed Beasts into miserable Jinchuriki, in their village, the terrifying Nine-Tails was currently acting as a guardian beast who received a monthly salary and voluntarily helped them protect Konoha's borders.
Thinking of Stelle's bizarrely gentle policies—the well-treated Uchiha Kou, the financially compensated Nine-Tails, and the monumental contributions they had made to Konoha—Danzo ground his teeth, forced to admit that the absurd method was highly effective.
"Fine," Danzo snapped, crossing his arms. "Then who exactly do you plan to have adopt her? This person must be absolutely reliable."
"Let Sakumo do it." Hiruzen picked up his pipe again. "That child's tragic childhood experiences were entirely inseparable from Ninjas, and subconsciously, she hates our kind. It just so happens that Sakumo doesn't want to be a Ninja anymore. Letting Sakumo adopt her can be considered a fortunate twist of fate for both of them."
Having not heard that legendary name in a very long time, Danzo blinked, feeling a strange sense of unfamiliarity wash over him.
"He won't be willing to get involved in these messy matters again," Danzo warned.
"It doesn't matter. I will pay him a personal visit," Hiruzen said, his tone resolute. "Combined with that child's special circumstances, he will definitely agree."
Hiruzen was confident he could persuade the White Fang. To be entirely honest, if Sakumo saw that face—a face so identical to Stelle's—he wouldn't be able to refuse either.
Later that morning, just as the local eateries were preparing to open for business, Hiruzen walked into a modest ramen restaurant named Miraku-ya.
At this early hour, the shops lining the street were only just rolling up their blinds and were not yet serving customers.
Inside, Sakumo Hatake was wiping down the tables. In the small, cozy ramen shop, the wooden surfaces were polished to a gleaming shine. The layout and furnishings of the room were incredibly simple, entirely devoid of any flashy style, yet the atmosphere gave off a deep, comforting sense of groundedness.
The fire was already roaring in the kitchen, thick white steam billowing out from the massive pots. The rich, mouth-watering scent of simmering pork bone broth wafted through the air, wrapping the room in warmth.
Sakumo wiped the wood with slow, deliberate care, acting as if he wasn't merely cleaning a table, but carefully maintaining some vitally important artifact. He attended to every single spot, not even missing the underside of the corners.
Looking at him now, no one would ever imagine that these steady hands—currently wiping tables and kneading flour dough every single day—had once swung a short blade with a terrifying, world-shaking killing intent.
Upon seeing the familiar, robed figure walking through his doorway, a brief flash of surprise crossed Sakumo's dark eyes. He quickly masked it, stepping forward to offer a polite bow.
"Good morning, Hokage-sama. The shop isn't open just yet. If you want to eat ramen, please come back in an hour."
His tone was perfectly respectful yet incredibly distant. It was no different from how any other civilian shop owner in the district would act upon seeing the Hokage drop by for a visit. It was as if he truly didn't know the man standing before him, recognizing him only as the supreme leader of the village.
This was actually the first time Hiruzen had formally stepped foot inside this ramen shop; previously, he had always sent masked Anbu to buy his takeout from here.
Hiruzen didn't let Sakumo's icy, professional tone deter him. Using the same warm, familiar voice he had always used with his elite commander, he spoke slowly. "Sakumo, I want to discuss something important with you. Could we go up to your second-floor lounge to talk in detail?"
Sakumo hesitated for a fraction of a second, his jaw tightening slightly before he gave a stiff nod. He turned, walking into the kitchen to lower the fire under his broth, and then led the Hokage up the narrow wooden stairs to the private lounge.
The moment they sat down across from each other, the hidden Anbu stationed outside instantly raised a shimmering, anti-eavesdropping barrier around the perimeter of the small ramen shop.
The sudden flare of chakra caused the polite, civilian calm on Sakumo's face to instantly vanish, replaced by a hardened edge.
"Sakumo, there is something I desperately need your help with," Hiruzen began.
Sakumo refused without hesitating for even a single second.
"Hokage-sama has found the wrong person," Sakumo said, his voice flat and devoid of emotion. "I am just a cook now, and I cannot help you with anything regarding the village. If Hokage-sama is hungry, however, I can go downstairs and prepare a bowl of hot noodles for you."
"Sakumo, don't be in such a hurry to refuse," Hiruzen sighed, his eyes heavy with the weight of the past. "This matter... it can only be handled by you."
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