Hearing Hagoromo's account, everyone was stunned—this twist was truly unexpected!
Sasuke asked gravely, "If members of Gaka organization got involved, Kakashi wouldn't just stand by and do nothing. Could it be… members of the Xu organization interfered?"
Hagoromo's face darkened. "Aizen confronted Leader-sama for a while. By the time he left, everything had already happened!"
Naruto looked guilt-ridden. "If we hadn't been focusing on unlocking our potential, Grandpa Hagoromo, you wouldn't have lost the Underworld!"
Internally, Hagoromo sighed. Although he couldn't defeat Isshiki and Momoshiki together, if Seiki hadn't lost the permanent Truth-Seeking Balls in the parallel world, and if Naruto and Sasuke hadn't drained part of his strength, he definitely wouldn't have fallen so quickly!
Of course, these details were for him to keep to himself—he saw no need to speak them aloud.
Shaking his head, Hagoromo said, "I was the one who lost the Pure Land. How could I shift the blame onto you? Besides, since it's already happened, discussing it further is pointless. We should focus on stabilizing the situation as soon as possible."
"Yeah… the current situation really is a total mess…" Naruto nodded unhappily, then heard a familiar voice speaking again.
"Former Elder Danzo, Danzo… Right! Woof woof, hurry up and come out woof!"
"Danzo?" Naruto muttered. "I remember Father mentioned him—he apparently once oppressed both Father and Kakashi. He *is* a bad guy."
"Not just *seems like*—he *is* trash!" Neji recalled the scene from his childhood when his father had been forced into servitude, gritting his teeth in anger.
Still seemingly unsatisfied, Neji jumped onto a nearby rooftop, activated his Byakugan, and after scanning from above, finally dragged Danzo back.
After retrieving Danzo, a caretaker thanked them repeatedly. "Thank you so much for helping me find him… Hmm, aren't you Leader-sama's disciple? I think I saw you at the World's Strongest Ninja Tournament!"
Neji smiled. "That's right, I'm…"
"Don't tell me—let me guess!" The caretaker became excited. "You must be Lord Naruto!"
Neji's mouth twitched slightly. "No, not at all!"
"Oh~ Then you must be Lord Sasuke!"
"Let me repeat—my name is Neji Hyuga! Look at my Byakugan—I'm from the Hyuga Clan!"
At Neji's nearly hysterical roar, the caretaker chuckled sheepishly. "I got carried away and forgot. Oh right, what was your ranking at the tournament again?"
Neji's angry expression immediately froze. He coughed twice. "That's not important. Anyway… Hey, wasn't this guy involved with the Akatsuki back then? Why wasn't he executed?"
Talking about Danzo, the other person's attention was successfully diverted.
"Well, who else could it be—he used to be the Hokage!" Since the soul inside Danzo's body was now that of a dog, the caretaker didn't feel the need to cover for him. "To preserve the dignity of the previous Hokages, his matter had to be handled discreetly. Besides, isn't being 'diagnosed as mentally ill' already a rather cruel punishment for someone like him?"
Neji snorted with cold disdain, "He got off easy. Take him back to the hospital first. Once we locate his actual soul..."
At that moment, Hagoromo suddenly spoke up, "You're saying his soul was transferred? No, his soul feels extremely stable—it's a human soul!"
Hearing Hagoromo's words, everyone shuddered.
If this person really was Danzō, then didn't that mean...
The nurse looked alarmed at first, but quickly recovered, "But just now he actually peed on a utility pole! And he didn't feel nauseous or vomit when he heard the word Hokage!"
Sasuke suddenly interjected, "His body is trembling slightly, which means he did react—he's just suppressing the physiological response!"
The nurse exclaimed in realization, "Right! With Elder Danzō's abilities, he could have achieved a lot in eight years!"
Naruto tentatively called out, "Hokage... Hokage... Ho..."
Sure enough, Danzō's body trembled more and more violently. Finally unable to keep feigning ignorance, he roared furiously, "Enough! Shut up!"
Only then did everyone finally confirm—it was truly Danzō himself!
Realizing this, they couldn't help but feel a chill.
To escape unnoticed, he had actually pretended to be taken over by a dog and peed on a utility pole—how ruthless!
Were all the older generation of ninja this ruthless?
Danzō's eyes darkened. Even if his Chakra wasn't sealed, there was no way he could defeat this group of people.
So he simply gave up trying, shouting, "Just you wait! I will return! I will correct the mistakes of Shimaseki!"
Neji could hardly bear to listen, "Mistakes? You, a traitor, actually have the audacity to say that?! It was precisely because of our teacher that the Alliance was able to develop to what it is today!"
"Talking about the Alliance this and the Alliance that," Danzō cried out bitterly, "but in name it's an Alliance—yet in reality, all the other shinobi villages have already perished!"
"Isn't that good?" Naruto joined in, "The whole world has become one family—no wars, no pain, everyone can live peacefully and happily every day!"
"Of course it's not good!" Danzō clenched his fists, "To forget history is to betray! Other villages have killed so many from Konoha—why should we share peace with them? Seiki Shimaseki should have enslaved them all, leaving only Konoha standing!"
Everyone frowned. They couldn't fully understand the hatred carried over from the previous generations, so this question was hard to answer.
At that moment, a sigh floated over from a distance, "Even now, are you still deceiving yourself, Danzō?"
Hearing the familiar voice, Danzō turned his head, "Hiruzen, what do you mean?"
Hiruzen replied solemnly, "You keep talking about Konoha, but have you ever truly put Konoha in your heart?"
Without waiting for Danzō to argue, he continued, "Perhaps you did have such thoughts once, but gradually you used 'for Konoha' as a self-hypnotizing excuse. It seemed like no matter what you did, you could always use this excuse to justify yourself!"
"But if you truly care about Konoha, you should be able to face Seiki's contributions to Konoha, and face the changes Konoha has undergone... Ask anyone in Konoha — do they prefer the way things are now, or want to go back to how they were?"
Because of the commotion caused by them, quite a crowd had already gathered around.
"Return to the past? What was so great about the past?"
"I still prefer our current life!"
"That's right! Konoha has suffered pain, but it has also caused it. If we go by what he's saying, then only the people from those small countries are clean!"
Hearing the surrounding discussions, Danzo remained silent without speaking.
"You don't dare ask because deep down you already know the answer," Hiruzen said solemnly. "The changes Seiki brought to Konoha and to this world are definitely not mistakes, but miracles. This miracle is the legacy of a hero!"
When they heard what The Third said, Naruto and Sasuke automatically thought of the parallel world and nodded, "Teacher is definitely a hero!"
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