Chapter 96: From now on

 "Sigh...Eiji I think you are misunderstanding something...you leaving the village is the best outcome for you..." - Tsunade interfered, seeing how the overly prideful Homura and Koharu wouldn't admit that they are partly at fault for neglecting Danzo's growing influence.

"You are saying that, but how would you feel if you have to suddenly leave your family behind?" - Eiji

"But just think about it...with you being an ex-Hokage from now on, the other villages will assume that you know some sensitive information and want to obtain it no matter what. And if they harm your parents because of that, would it be worth it for you to stay?" - Tsunade

"That's..." -Eiji

"Furthermore, if you don't leave the village, you will be heavily restricted for your own safety...so we thought about how we could help you out for all the trouble you got into because of Danzo while making it seem like a punishment to the outside world." - Tsunade

Eiji sighed.

He already knew that.

In fact, he thought in the past about leaving the village, but now that it suddenly happened, he couldn't help but think about the grief this would do to his parents.

Humans are often unreasonable beings, instead of doing the right thing and knowing what to do, they would come up with all kinds of excuses to not do it.

For example, if you have a bag of expired potato chips that are inedible, you would think "but I already paid money for it..." (this definitely did not happen to Choji).

Furthermore, leaving the "comfort zone" like in Eiji's case is especially hard.

In this life, he grew up in Konoha and got to love the village, with all the awesome restaurants, amazing views, etc.

But after thinking about it, in the end, his desire to make sure the world doesn't end because of him messing the future up was stronger, so he made his mind up.

"Alright..."

"Good...the official explanation will be that you killed Danzo and wanted to overthrow the Daimyo, but after being found out you fled. This will make you officially an S-rank Rouge Ninja for Konoha, but we will make sure that no Anbu or higher rank will actually try to arrest you. However you still have to hide your identity from now on..." - Homura

"S-rank? Wow, I'll be a celebrity...anyway can I visit my parents before I leave?" - For the first time Eiji showed an expression like a child his age would, leaving Tsunade doubtful again if she actually overestimated him.

"*Cough*We can't let that happen in case someone sees you, or it would raise suspicion against the official explanation. But we can allow you to write a letter..." - Homura

"Tsk, how stingy...anyway is this all then? If yes, I hope I will never see you again! May you get blessed with even more wrinkles and bladder problems!" - with that, Eiji left the Hokage Office.

"I never imagined something like that from both of you, considering that you often sided more with Danzo than Sarutobi-sensei. I thought you would insist on having him kept under constant surveillance so that he won't do anything you consider what's against the village's interest. Or did you two grow generous after the whole Danzo fiasco?" - Tsunade glared questioningly at both of them.

"It was the most sensible choice since we can't risk him growing resentful of our village...this was why you did it right, Homura?" - Koharu

"Actually, he was too annoying and getting on my nerves..." - Homura whispered that more for himself than to actually reply.

"YOU WHAT?!" - Koharu started to angrily shout at him and exercised her fist against him.

___

"Hm? Did you wait for me or something? That's really cute, but I'm into girls, you know?" - When Eiji left the Hokage Office, he saw Sasuke standing there in his usual "cool" pose with arms crossed and eyes closed, leaning against a wall.

Not long ago he was questioned over his involvement in killing Danzo, but he only told what Eiji advised him to.

After he was let go, he waited for Eiji since he needed to ask him something.

Anyway, after hearing Eiji's annoying way of speaking, he opened his eyes and said: "Sure took you long enough...was the interrogation that hard?"

"More annoying than hard...anyway, what are you gonna do from now on?" - Eiji squatted next to him and looked at the night sky.

"You said that Danzo did it behind the Hokage's back, but I'm not really buying it, so I have thought about destroying Konoha...but then I noticed there is a feeling much stronger than revenge...I just...want to see Itachi..." - Sasuke was unusually open to Eiji.

Eiji thought that it might be to the fact, that he really helped him with his revenge and that he grew softer after knowing about having still a loving brother alive out there, who did everything to protect him.

But Eiji also noticed what Sasuke's other goal was by saying that.

He hoped that Eiji would tell him the location of Itachi.

Thinking about it, Eiji smiled and said: "I actually don't care if you destroy Konoha, since I'm leaving anyway..."

"..."

"I'm just joking...anyway if you want to see him, your best bet is probably to join Orochimaru, since that snake bastard was part of this gloomy organization Itachi currently is part of...though he may not tell you and his information isn't really that reliable..."

"But you know his location too, right?" - Sasuke didn't buy Eiji's excuse for knowing all kinds of stuff "cause I'm Hokage", but he didn't care how he knew as long as Sasuke could use Eiji's knowledge.

Eiji was surprised.

He mentioned Orochimaru so that Sasuke would join him how it was supposed to be.

But now it looked like Sasuke wasn't thinking about joining Orochimaru.

After thinking for a while, he got up from squatting and faced Sasuke.

"Well, I have some information...it's reliable, but the catch is that I only know where he will show up in about 3 years."

"That's good enough, better than gambling on Orochimaru to tell me...you said you are leaving? Not long ago I was prepared to leave this village as well, so what do you plan on doing from now on?" - Sasuke looked straight into Eiji's eyes.

"Hmm, I plan to look for the dragon temple while training in the meantime..." - Eiji

"I will look for this dragon temple with you if you teach me sage mode. Training with you made me way stronger than all the time I spent in this rundown village."

"Hehehe, alright, but only if you call me sensei from now on!"

"Hell no."

'Sasuke having Mangekyo Sharingan plus potentially Kotoamatsukami in the future and now even learning sage mode, won't he become too op? Compared to that, Naruto will only learn to make a bigger ball after 3 years...yeah let's not think about it...' - Eiji thought amused about how strong the difference between Naruto and Sasuke will be in 3 years.