Hearing Arata say this, Sakumo instinctively didn't believe it at first. But recalling the many shocks Arata had already given him earlier, he immediately put away any lingering sense of underestimation.
At the same time, Sakumo remembered that spatial ninjutsu Arata had used before—one that could hold tens of thousands of Uzumaki clan members in a single space. If that was the case… perhaps it really could accommodate all the refugees from the disaster zone as well?
At this point, even Inuzuka Hidetaka no longer dared to casually mock him. Arata's performance had simply been too outrageous—almost every time Hidetaka opened his mouth, he ended up getting slapped in the face by reality.
Before Sakumo and the others could voice their doubts, the warm-hearted Uzumaki clansmen had already started speaking up.
"Humph! Arata-sama saved three hundred thousand disaster victims!"
"I was completely speechless when I saw it—three hundred thousand people, rescued just like that!"
"They may have all been civilians, but they were living, breathing human beings! Only someone as benevolent as Arata-sama would save them!"
"Compared to Sarutobi Hiruzen, I say Arata-sama is far more suitable to be Hokage!"
"Alright, alright—this is the gates of Konoha after all. Let's at least give that old bastard a bit of face."
"That senile old thing who relies on seniority—I'd say he's not far from being removed from office!"
...
This time, Arata didn't let the Uzumaki continue speaking. After all, this was still Konoha's home turf. If they kept humiliating Hiruzen like this, that old fox would probably be unable to restrain himself and come out personally.
In Arata's perception, that old man was indeed still in Konoha—and at this very moment, Hiruzen was using the Crystal Ball to monitor the village.
Arata was absolutely certain that the old man had heard everything being said here, and that he knew perfectly well what was happening.
And things were exactly as Arata sensed.
Inside the Hokage's office, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen, was staring darkly at the scene unfolding within the Crystal Ball.
Originally, he had merely wanted to see whether Sakumo would seriously carry out his orders. He hadn't expected to run straight into Arata's return.
He had been praying all along that the opponent—possibly Uchiha Madara—would kill Arata over on Uzushio. But now that Arata had come back alive, it was obvious that this hope had been completely dashed.
Whoever that opponent was, at the very least, Arata had fought him to a standstill.
Although Hiruzen was convinced that the one capable of controlling the Nine-Tails, someone whose strength likely reached the peak of the super-Kage level, was none other than the long-missing Uchiha Madara, he absolutely refused to believe that the so-called "Asura of the Shinobi World" had failed to kill Arata.
He would rather die than admit that.
Because doing so would only prove that he himself had been blind.
He had let a super-Kage-level seed slip through his fingers—failing to recruit him, allowing Danzō to constantly provoke him, and even personally approving the assassination mission against Arata back then.
No matter what, he refused to admit that his own misjudgment had brought such a monstrous enemy upon himself.
But regardless of how unwilling he was to accept it, the matter had already settled into an undeniable fact.
And just as he was thinking about how to get Arata killed, Arata's next actions made Hiruzen's face darken even further.
Arata was actually poaching his people—right in front of him!
Of course, it was right in front of him. Hiruzen had already begun to suspect that Arata possessed the ability to monitor the entirety of Konoha. Otherwise, how could Arata have arrived so precisely—so coincidentally—at the very spot where Hiruzen had planned to assassinate Uzumaki Mito?
Everything pointed to one thing: Arata's sensory ability was terrifyingly strong, possibly even surpassing Mito's. Otherwise, how could Mito herself have been unaware of the assassination attempt, while Arata knew about it?
The so-called "corner-poaching" was, of course, referring to Hatake Sakumo.
He was currently Hiruzen's most trusted subordinate.
Sakumo's strength could be said to have been cultivated by Hiruzen's own hands. Aside from his own son, Hiruzen had invested enormous resources and effort into Sakumo—precisely so that when he grew old, he could push Sakumo to the forefront as Hokage, while he himself retired peacefully behind the scenes.
That way, he wouldn't need to handle daily affairs, nor personally step onto the battlefield, yet he could still control both the daimyō and the Hokage—the two greatest powers of the Land of Fire.
But now, Arata was standing right before Sakumo, constantly belittling Hiruzen, even dragging the Uzumaki clan in to help him do so. How was that not poaching his corner?
What's more, Hiruzen had just had a disagreement with Sakumo. If Arata pressed the issue now, there was a very high chance Sakumo's loyalty would begin to waver.
At that point, Hiruzen might lose this valuable chess piece as well.
His three personally trained disciples—the future Sannin—had already become distant from him. Aside from responding to official summons for war, they rarely spoke to him anymore.
Hiruzen knew very well that those three had already gone their own way.
If even Hatake Sakumo defected to Arata's side, then Hiruzen would truly have no allies left.
The only person he could still deploy might be Danzō, an actual Kage-level combatant.
As for Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, those two were merely jōnin-level at best. Against Arata, they wouldn't even qualify as cannon fodder.
And Hiruzen's own son—although possessing elite jōnin-level strength and considered outstanding among his peers—was simply incomparable to Arata, whose power had already reached the super-Kage realm.
Unfortunately, no matter how furious he was, Hiruzen had no way to deal with Arata now. Arata's strength was right there—super-Kage peak. Even if Hiruzen had ten times the courage, he wouldn't dare confront Arata head-on.
He wouldn't even dare to label Arata a missing-nin.
Because if he did, Arata might openly attack Konoha without restraint. Facing an assault from a super-Kage-level peak powerhouse, Hiruzen had no confidence whatsoever that he could hold the village.
In that case, he wouldn't even be able to cling to the little time he had left as Hokage.
Even though he already sensed that the overall situation was slipping out of his control, he still wanted to sit in the Hokage's seat for as long as possible.
As for the fact that so many Uzumaki clansmen had survived, Hiruzen felt nothing but resentment.
In his heart, he was already thinking that he would have to find a chance to eliminate them sooner or later.
Otherwise, these Uzumaki people—who knew far too much about what he had done in the past—would inevitably spread the truth throughout Konoha. When that happened, his situation would become even more unfavorable.
Of course, he no longer had the guts to kill the Uzumaki openly now. With Arata backing them, he could only look for opportunities bit by bit.
As for Arata's talk about disaster relief, Hiruzen cared even less.
Even if those civilians had been saved, it wouldn't affect any future Hokage elections.
Because although Hokage selection appeared to be democratic, only Konoha's residents were qualified to participate—and those people had long since been thoroughly "educated" by Hiruzen.