03

At the Hokage office

"Hiruzen, I'm telling you, now that Sakumo is back in the village, he is a big danger to your power."

These lines were spoken by Danzo Shimura, the head of ROOT and a powerful ninja of Konoha. He was wearing bandages on the right side of his face, hiding the Sharingan he had stolen.

Currently, he only has one Sharingan, which he took from Uchiha Kagami in his dying moments.

Danzo had originally planned to harvest a lot of Sharingan from the Uchiha clan in the second ninja war by sending them to fight against the Kiri, but Hiruzen sent them to Suna instead.

Being proficient in the use of fire-type jutsu, Uchiha would have faced defeat at the hands of Kiri.

This was still something he could ignore. He could kill them off one by one. Though that would take a long time, it was still better than nothing.

The main problem arose when Sakumo killed two strong ninjas of Suna, boosting both Sakumo and the Uchiha clan's popularity.

'If they keep on growing like this, they will be a big obstacle on my road to becoming the fourth Hokage.' Danzo thought in his mind.

"Ha! What threat to my power? I will not be Hokage after a few years and will retire soon. It would be best for Konoha to have a Hokage who is feared by the nations and is loved by his people, wouldn't it?" Hiruzen replied and asked Dnazo, putting him in a difficult place.

Hiruzen was not an idiot, otherwise, he would not have lived so long in the Ninja world. He had seen through Danzo trying to make himself the next Hokage.

But the only thing Hiruzen could do was stop getting involved in his plans anymore. He did not have the heart to kill his only friend alive but he also could not let Danzo's ambitions become true.

Danzo glared at Hiruzen when he said the words. He got up and said," Hiruzen, this decision will end up being expensive for you."

"Don't worry, I have enough money to deal with it HAHA." Hiruzen laughed it off as he made a joke.

Danzo angrily left the Hokage's office after a snarl.

Remembering his joke just now, Hiruzen thought,' I'm making dad jokes now, huh?'

As he was about to start doing his paperwork again, someone knocked on the door.

"Come in," Hiruzen said.

Fukuzaki walked in with a bundle of pages in his hand, bowed once and said," Lord Hokage, this is the result of today's graduation exam."

Fukuzaki handed over the pile of sheets that he was carrying.

Hiruzen went through them and read the result.

"So, Minato was at the top and Yukan was second."

"Yes, Lord Hokage. Although both, Yukan and Minato are strong, the main difference is between their ninjutsu. Yukan's ninjutsu talent is very weak. He is someone who would be perfect for using a weapon like a sword." Fukuzaki explained since he knew more about the students than Hiruzen.

"...just like his father," Hiruzen said in a very low voice, making even Fukuzaki not be able to catch it.

"Ok, you may leave now," Hiruzen said.

Fukuzaki exited the office quickly and what remained in the room was Hiruzen looking at Minato and Yukan's results.

'Minato should go under Jiraiya when he comes back and as for Yukan….'

-At the same, in a restaurant-

Shikaku, Yukan, Minato and Kushina were eating happily while Choza was sitting there, not moving and just looking at the others eating.

"Hey Choza, don't you want to eat some?" Shikaku asked as he ate a piece of meat while looking at Choza.

"I don't have the money to pay the bill," Choza complained as he turned his head to look outside the window.

"Ah, don't worry about that, eat first," Shikaku said.

The naive Choza started eating happily, but Shikaku was planning an act of revenge.

He wanted Choza to know the pain he went through, only when one experiences the other's pain does he truly understand them.

After everyone finished eating, Shikaku asked Choza," Hey, do you want some dessert?"

Choza alone had eaten more than what the other four had eaten together.

Choza felt Shikaku's attitude was getting weird, but he still agreed to have some dessert. How could he reject food?

After the dessert that only Choza ate, he was in a state where he could not even move anymore.

"Now, should we pay?" By the time Choza lifted his head to ask the others, they had already left and what Choza had was some money in the places they were sitting in, an angry owner glaring at him and a mop beside him.

After a moment of silence and awkward staring at each other, Choza asked the shopkeeper," Mr owner, how many days do I have to mop?"

" 2 weeks." The owner said.

By now, the other four had already gone far and were walking at a leisurely pace.

Minato and Kushina were feeling bad and decided to help Choza out the next day, Yukan did not care about it at all while Shikaku was satisfied.

Not long after, Shikaku parted ways and went toward the Nara clan's land.

" Well, from tomorrow, we will go different ways, huh?" Minato said. He had a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Well, it is not like we would never meet again." Yukan tried to comfort Minato.

"Hmm. Well, bye, both of you, I'll see you guys tomorrow." Minato parted ways after saying.

Kushina and Yukan walked on the road, alone, for some time.

Finally, a smile on Yukan's face broke the moments of silence.

Seeing his smile, Kushina asked," Why are you smiling?"

Yukan replied," Nothing, I just remembered our first meeting."

Kushina blushed when she heard Yukan.

Kushina and Yukan had met for the first time two years ago when Kushina had just come to the village.

Back then, Kushina was running through the streets and did not see what was in front of her which caused her to collide with Yukan.

She fell right after the collision and Yukan had to help her back up.

Back then, Kushina was very embarrassed, her face turned red all over, like a tomato.

The next day, when Kushina went to the academy for the first day, she met Yukan and was nicknamed 'Tomato' by him.

But Yukan always teasing her had a good effect on her.

Due to him, the strongest in the class always being friendly with her, she was not bullied by the other boys and was not called any other nickname by others like how she was supposed to be.

Kushina had realized this and was thankful to Yukan, but since he called her tomato, she also had to keep a nickname for Yukan. Finally, she started calling Yukan 'idiot'.