Hiruzen Sarutobi fell into an armchair in his office, tired but also feeling oddly invigorated from deep satisfaction at the same time. The day was exhausting, but it was so worth it.
The alliance was signed. The negotiations finished. The terms... were acceptable. Konoha would lose some, for sure. But that was okay. It was a small price to pay for their western flank to be secure again. The Second War had certainly taught them that the West was their weakness. In rivers of blood of their valiant ninja.
Hiruzen softly sighed. Never again, he mentally uttered as he pushed these depressing thoughts away. He had spent many sleepless nights with them, and nothing productive ever came out of this state of mind.
Despite the small distaste at the back of his mind, a small, accomplished smile full of deviousness appeared on his wizened face. Pushing the Yotsuba boy to marry the Suna Princess was a tricky move. It was a gamble. And even he had a hard time believing how enormously and easily it paid off.
Truly, S-rank the boy might be, but he was still a green whipper-snapper that could be easily led by his nose. Combat power could take a person only so far. Tobirama-sensei had taught him and Danzo that extensively.
Hiruzen knew he had won the second he presented the idea as a means of stopping the Fourth War from erupting. Ren was not that hard to read. As stand-offish and spurning of authority as he appeared, he had the Will of Fire in spades. He cared. And that was his most praiseworthy trait, but also his downfall.
It was a pity. Under a different set of circumstances, Hiruzen could imagine them working together. Reshaping Konoha to be stronger and better, to reach new heights. He could see Ren be the next Hokage candidate, and truthfully? The boy had the inner fire necessary to forge the village into something truly spectacular.
He was much like Tobirama-sensei in that regard. For all the disregard the history books had for the Second Hokage due to their love of elevating the First as the mythical hero figure who established the village, Hiruzen knew it was not Hashirama who made Konoha prosper.
Hashirama established and protected the village in its infancy, but it was Tobirama who built the foundation it stands on to this day. It was he who established and helped form the Academy, the ANBU, the Medical Corps, the T&I, and several other vital departments in the village. It is his techniques that fill the majority of the Forbidden Scroll, his research that made Konoha better than its competitors in pretty much every ninja field. And much, much more. The value of Tobirama's life's work was literally priceless. The man was the biggest genius Hiruzen had the pleasure of knowing.
Ren Yotsuba was of a similar mold. Only when it came to the Sealing Arts, but that was enough. In ten, twenty years, if the boy is still alive, he is going to change the world. People like him always did.
Hiruzen humbly thought he was a prime example. He forced the villages to increase the graduation age of their ninja academies. He made them bend to his will because his way was simply better.
He also knew that many would question his sanity if they knew his thought process regarding this. After all, why give the boy to Suna if he was so sure of his value?
And that's where the problem lay. Even the strongest tree can have grievous trouble growing if its roots are infected.
Danzo had taught Hiruzen that lesson quite thoroughly. Sadly, there was not much Hiruzen could do about that particular issue. He had realized it too late, and the infection his old friend propagated was... is far too entrenched.
Hiruzen refused to make the same mistake. Ren Yotsuba could not be allowed to create his own power base within the village. Not with his brand of brilliance. Not with his fledgling support base that he gained far too fast and easily for anyone's comfort. Not with his clear ambitions to change Konoha at a fundamental level.
There was enough trouble with so many political sides vying for their own benefits. The village did not need another major player similar to Danzo. It could break it.
He did what he did for Konoha's stability. The fact that his own political ambitions would become significantly easier to accomplish with him gone was just a happy coincidence.
It's why Hiruzen orchestrated the small falling out Ren had with Tsunade during their first meeting. It should not have been that easy to alienate them. A complaint here and there to Tsunade during a friendly leisure talk over a bottle of sake about how difficult Ren was to manage made her stubbornness flare. She had never been one to take being told 'no' well. Predictably, she approached the situation in exactly the way that would make the already wary Ren totally uncooperative, and voila.
It barely took a few sentences.
Hiruzen couldn't keep the small, fond chuckle down as he remembered that. He decided he would need to chastise his dear student for letting herself be manipulated so easily once this debacle was over.
Fortunately, that would no longer be necessary. He taught her well. It might have taken her a few days, but she eventually figured out her mistake, and she was not at all pleased with him right about now.
But that shall pass. This was not the first time Tsunade threw her little 'I am not speaking with you!' temper tantrum his way. And he surmised it will not be the last either.
She was going to understand his actions in time. The last thing Hiruzen wanted was for Ren to gain Tsunade's confidence, like Danzo had his for so long.
What frightened Hiruzen was the fact that Ren's approach would have most definitely worked if not for him countering his moves. He had already wowed several clans with his clever seal devices, earning their... well, not full cooperation, but definitely their respect.
He had already somehow trained two S-rank kunoichi. Although it was questionable whether that accomplishment was more because Ren was a great trainer or because the two girls were simply that talented. After all, both of them were the heiresses of their clans with many resources available to them, and their combat style relied heavily on their clan's techniques and advantages.
Even Hinata, who used lightning release with enough finesse to astonish even the Raikage into wanting to have children with her. It was long ago theorised that the Hyuga would be incomprehensibly astonishing at proper elemental techniques if they got their collective heads out of their traditional asses long enough to try using their precious eyes for something else than secretly peeking into other people's bedrooms.
Hiruzen was more than a bit doubtful that Ren could pull a similar stunt with students from civilian backgrounds. He knew how hard it was to train a prodigy into an S-rank. And he knew it was significantly easier if said prodigy was from a clan. Between Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade, Hiruzen had a lot of experience in this regard.
Nevertheless, the two S-rank girls ensured that Ren's power block easily jumped to the forefront of the village's political landscape. Getting an 'in' with Tsunade would make the boy practically untouchable and a shoo-in for the next Hokage position. He would be able to act as he pleased within Konoha. And with his ambition? The village would start changing. Worse yet, many would not like that.
Just his stunt with these... Secrebo boxes. Hiruzen was not going to claim that they were not good for Konoha. Because they definitely were, and R&D was having a lot of fun, trying to figure them out. But their existence also displeased many smaller clans and seal suppliers. They only tolerated it because the Secrebos could not fill the village's demand, so their efforts were still relevant. Their money-making livelihood was still there. But they were not stupid. They knew how easily Ren could take that away from them, and they did not like it. Their lifeline was threatened.
But what if the boy pushed harder? Hiruzen knew he wanted to do that. His actions were not those of someone willing to back down and de-escalate. No. Instead, he was damn sure Ren wanted to escalate beyond the point of reason. The foolish youngster simply did not grasp the consequences of his actions.
The boy wanted to drag Konoha toward progress, damn to hell that a quarter of the village would be seething and frothing at their mouth, sharpening their knives in frustration at having to adapt to these changes.
Ren Yotsuba had to go. Let him be the Sunagakure's problem. Konoha did not need a civil war.
Oh, the boy was going to make Suna stronger, kicking and screaming if necessary. That much was certain to Hiruzen. Ambitious men like Ren were easy to predict, and Hiruzen already knew Ren was most likely to betray Konoha. That was okay. His actions would also indirectly strengthen the Western defense of Konoha. It would benefit the village. And Hiruzen doubted Ren could make Sunagakure a rival to Konoha. They were the weakest major hidden village for a reason.
Hell, Hashirama would not be able to drag Suna to prominence even if he changed the desert into a forest. They did not have the manpower, the connections, and the resources to compete. What they did have was a mountain of problems. It was going to take at least a decade for them to stabilize, and well... Danzo was still alive. His interference would simply have to be more discreet going forward.
Hiruzen's eyes were involuntarily drawn to a scroll on his desk as his mind strayed to the old warhawk. He had found it in his office during the lunch break.
Allying with Danzo after all that had happened between them was not something Hiruzen ever thought possible, yet here they were. They had planned for Danzo to go to the Capital after the alliance issue was finished.
There, Danzo could easily even the odds and concessions Konoha had to make for Suna by getting the Fire Daimyo's Ministers and nobles to restrict some trade with the Land of Wind as a punishment for the attack on Konoha... which was within the Land of Fire.
The Wind Daimyo would get angry, and he would no doubt blame Suna before taking his anger out on them by decreasing the resources he was providing them. The nobles would also be very unhappy about it, and they would know who to blame for the situation, too. There. The odds would be evened again, and all would be well in the world.
That should diminish the benefits of Suna having an increased trade with Konoha. It would also make Suna more dependent on this increased trade, and thus, dependent on Konoha.
But it had to happen now. Before the Suna council, or whoever was in charge of that clusterfuck of a village right now, managed to get their Daimyo to sit down with them and negotiate some sort of agreement. Before they could restart their economy with the new influx of missions and requests. Before they could make inroads with the local nobles or merchants and forge connections.
Otherwise, the Suna's dependence on Konoha was only a distant dream.
Unfortunately, some sort of issue cropped up with that plan, and Danzo had to go to the Capital even if it meant missing the Suna delegation and the alliance negotiations. At least, that's what the man wrote in his message.
Hiruzen huffed in amusement as he thought about how that must gall Danzo. He no doubt wanted to push for his own designs during the peace talks.
It almost didn't fit in Danzo's way of behaving that Hiruzen had constructed in his mind, but all the overly extensive hidden checks and safe words in the message that only Hiruzen and Danzo knew about proved that the scroll came from the old warhawk.
Or somebody who could read his mind, Hiruzen chuckled with an indulgent eye-roll.
His absence made the situation even better because, without Danzo, Hiruzen could push his own agenda during the talks. Things were truly looking up for him as of late. Well, he did lose a hand, so he guessed it was high time for him to get some positive karma back. He even started fixing his relationship with Asuma, and it was going well.
The village was safe. He was reconnecting with his son. His problems were solved with ease. His schemes were going well. What more could an old fool wish for? It had been decades since life went this well for him.
Hiruzen closed his eyes in relish as he relaxed into his seat, putting his smoking pipe into his mouth with a satisfied sigh.
'I love when things go well.' He happily thought.