20 Chapter – 20: Hiruzen Sarutobi

[Third person POV]

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi was leisurely sitting in his office smoking pipe while thinking about the ongoing war.

He had recently gotten a report that the situation seems to have stabilized, but he knows that it is only a facade. The First Ninja War had left all five villages devastated. In the coming years even though peace existed, all villages lacked the required funds they needed to boost themselves back to their previous levels. This caused all villages to want to fight for territories to get more resources and Konoha being the strongest and geographically well placed became a popular target. This war will not stop that easily. All it needs is a little push and things will get only worse for Konoha.

Currently, Konoha is already fighting three-way with Ame, Suna, and Iwa. And with Tsunade retiring from combat, made things much worse for Konoha. Although that old geezer from Iwa will not want to join forces with Kumo or Kiri because of the fear of getting stabbed in the back, If they somehow band together, Konoha will face the same fate as Uzushiogakure.

He still feels sad about what happened to Konoha's long-term ally. At that time, as the Hokage, his only thought was if he were to assist Uzushiogakure, Konoha will have to face a war with all other great villages. So, he thought to save as many Konoha ninja lives as possible and gave up on their ally.

When he thinks about his only female disciple, his face turns ugly. He feels like he owes her too much, Konoha owes her too much.

'I couldn't protect her clan members being killed one by one until only she is left,'

'I couldn't protect her grandmother's clan too,'

'I couldn't protect her little brother'

'And now I couldn't do anything when her lover also gave his life for the village.' He thinks.

Many people have sacrificed their lives for the village and many people have lost loved ones ever since the village was first built. But he thinks no one sacrificed more than the Senju and especially her.

He has always treated her like his own daughter, not just her he has treated all his disciples as his own children, but she has a special place in his heart that no one else can take. That is why it hurts him so much to see her like this.

'Danzo, if you dare to try anything funny with her, I will forget our years of friendship,' He thinks as a heavy murderous aura radiates from him which he immediately retracts, 'Jiraiya should be done teaching those orphans, I will get him to return, maybe he can try to help her, even if he doesn't want to I will drag him this time,'

Just when he was having a talk with himself, a shadow in Anbu clothes rushes in and kneels in front of him.

'Isn't this… did something happen to Tsunade?' He tenses, "What happened?"

"Hokage-sama, someone attacked Tsunade-hime inside Senju compounds. We don't know who did it, she is currently unconscious but appears to have no external injuries."

"How? Weren't you protecting her?" He releases the pressure of a Kage making it hard for the poor anbu to even breath.

"Hokage-sama this…"

"Let's go, we will have all the time in the world to talk about this later, but for now, I need to see what happened," He says and rushes towards the Senju compound.

'Did you really lose your mind Danzo? For your own sake, hope it's not done by your people…' He thinks.

While he is rushing at full speed towards the Senju compound, Tsunade has already been cleaned of all the blood and moved to a different room where she was lying peacefully on the bed.

When he gets in and sees her, he feels as if his heart is being squeezed and baleful chakra unconsciously starts to spread from him.

"Hokage-sama, please calm down! Tsunade-hime needs to rest, we shouldn't disturb her!" the medical-nin says with a respectful yet reprimanding tone.

Hiruzen calms himself down and takes a long look at Tsunade before turning towards the anbus, "Follow me"

"Hai Hokage-sama."

"Report! What in heavens name happened?"

"Hai," the anbu who was tasked with Tsunade's security starts to explain, "Today when Tsunade-hime was returning from Konoha hospital, she saw a kid getting injured on the street and her blood phobia started to act up. Just when I was about to make my move and take Tsunade-hime back to the Senju compound, a kid suspiciously approached her and started talking to her."

"Seeing her calm down after talking to him, although I was suspicious, I didn't interfere directly and choose to observe as per your command. After that, they walked to the Senju compound together. Just after reaching the gate, the kid started running towards the village exit. Thinking he might be a spy from other villages, I decided to follow him and sent the signal to gather other anbus to guard Tsunade-hime, while I rushed after the kid."

"When I successfully caught up to the kid, he suddenly turned into smoke and disappeared. I suspect it was a shadow clone the enemy had sent to gather intel on Tsunade-hime and they already know that Tsunade-hime cannot participate in further battles, which is extremely detrimental to Konoha."

"When the clone disappeared, I realized it was a distraction and rushed back to the Senju compound. Before I got back to the compound, the others were already treating Tsunade-hime," he explains with his head bowed the entire time.

Turning his head over, Hiruzen looks to the other anbu.

Understanding the gesture, the other anbu says, "When I received the signal to gather, I rushed towards the Senju compounds at top speed and reached it in about a minute. When I went inside, I found her unconscious and covered in blood."

"When I checked clearly, there were no injuries on her. So, the perpetrator should have gathered blood and somehow splashed it all over the room suddenly, intending to make blood phobia act up. After confirming she is indeed unable to battle, the perpetrator must have immediately left the scene as I didn't see anyone there when I entered."

Hiruzen who was silent the entire time says, "Let's wait for Tsunade to wake up, we will know what exactly happened then."

---------------------------------

Rant time:-

One of the best things about Naruto according to me is, I still find new stuff every time I read or watch the anime. Last week when I was reading the manga, I noticed something and wanted to share it with you guys.

You know of Seven Deadly Sins right? Kishimoto-sensei has created many characters that truly fit these traits in the Narutoverse (cannon). I don't know if it was intentional, but I do think it's cool. I will leave a line for each sin, comment who you think is built to represent that trait. Let's see if yours is the same as mine!

pride,

greed,

wrath,

envy,

lust,

gluttony,

and sloth.

- Silver

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