"Heh."
Looking at the expectant glint in Danzo's eyes, Hatani couldn't help but laugh again.
"I'm not afraid to go to the Root to confront your witness. But what about you? Do you have the guts to let Minato, Nawaki, Choza, and Inoichi—along with Lady Tsunade and the Lord Third—into the Root to watch the entire process?"
Hatani could no longer suppress the derision and contempt bubbling up in his chest. His face twisted into a mask of pure, unadulterated mockery as he delivered his final challenge.
"Do you dare?"
If Danzo's reaction to Hatani's previous "insolence" had been simple anger, his heart was now overflowing with pure killing intent.
He was the Darkness of the Shinobi, the feared commander of the Root. Despite his methods, his status ensured that he was a figure of respect and dread throughout the village. Even the Princess of the Senju herself, Tsunade—with whom he shared a mutual loathing—only ever offered him a cold shoulder or pointed silence. No one had ever dared to mock him so openly to his face.
For a lowly Genin, a civilian ninja with zero background or status, to humiliate him like this was utterly unacceptable.
"Enough—!"
Just as the killing intent in Danzo's eyes solidified into something physical, and his mouth opened to deliver a final sentence, the heavy office doors shrieked. It sounded as if they had been struck by a battering ram wielded by a dozen giants. The doors were torn from their hinges and sent whistling through the air, wedging themselves deep into the far wall.
The deafening crash made everyone—Danzo included—jump. Minato, the ever-loyal heir to the Will of Fire, flickered instantly to stand before Hiruzen Sarutobi, his eyes darting between the empty doorway and the windows in a state of high alert.
Hiruzen, however, recovered almost immediately. He patted Minato's shoulder with a weary, appreciative smile, signaling for him to stand down.
He knew this specific method of "opening" a door all too well.
Sure enough, a moment later, a frost-faced Tsunade strode into the office, her long legs clicking against the floor.
"Tsunade!"
A frustrated and angry Hiruzen prepared to defend his dignity as her former teacher, but his heart skipped a beat when several white-haired figures followed her into the room. Two of them had beards as snowy as their hair.
Tsunade and Nawaki were often called the "last blood of the Senju," making it seem as if the once-mighty Forest Senju clan had withered down to just two lone saplings.
But how could a clan that had survived the brutal Warring States period—an era where the average life expectancy was thirty and enemies specialized in hunting down the children of their rivals—truly be reduced to just two people?
The Forest Senju: One body, ten thousand shadows.
Unlike other shinobi clans, the Senju, under the vision of brothers Hashirama and Tobirama, had completely integrated into Konoha. They hadn't just joined the village; they had effectively become the village.
(Author's Note: Regarding the "disappearance" of the Senju clan, I suspect Kishimoto either couldn't find a way to explain it or was too lazy to fill the plot hole. Therefore, for this story, we are going with the theory that the Senju integrated into the civilian population. It might seem a bit far-fetched, but please bear with me.)
Only the direct lineage of Hashirama Senju retained the clan name; hence, Tsunade and Nawaki were the "last of the bloodline" in a titular sense.
However, as the saying goes: a starved camel is still bigger than a horse.
Konoha had been established for nearly forty years. Though the rest of the clan had integrated into the general population to live and die alongside the village, many elders who had survived the Warring States period were still very much alive.
As relics of a former age, some had embraced the new era and supported the Hashirama-Tobirama strategy of discarding the Senju name for the sake of Konoha's glory. But many others refused to let go of the past.
As time passed, these elders gradually faded from the spotlight, waiting for age to blow away their physical forms and their influence. But even so, anyone in Konoha who dared to underestimate them was destined to pay a heavy price.
Even the Hokage himself.
Their age and status were their armor. Aside from time—the most heartless force in the world—nothing could touch them.
So, when Hiruzen saw that Tsunade had actually brought out the last of the Senju elders, his scalp crawled. Even Danzo felt a chill run down his spine.
He hadn't expected Tsunade to go to such extremes just to protect a civilian Genin like Hatani.
But Tsunade hadn't summoned these "nuclear weapons" merely to save one boy.
"Sandaime. Tsunade tells us that when Nawaki was put in danger, it was because someone leaked his location in advance—and even compromised a top-secret supply route. Is this true?"
The woman sitting in the center of the sofa was an old lady with a slight hunch.
Though she was referred to as an "old lady," she was barely over sixty. However, a life spent surviving the Warring States and countless battles had drained her vitality, leaving her looking far older than her years.
"That... well..."
Faced with the interrogation, Hiruzen's expression became profoundly awkward.
He wanted to deny it, but the facts were cold and hard. Yet, as Hokage, admitting to such a catastrophic security failure would make him look utterly incompetent.
"The Senju have never been afraid to sacrifice for the village."
Looking at Hiruzen's hesitation, the old woman's face clouded with deep dissatisfaction. Her name was Toka Senju.
"Lord Hashirama and Lord Tobirama both gave their lives for this village. The Senju shinobi suffered the greatest losses during the First Great Ninja War."
"Yes. The Senju have always been the guardian deities of Konoha," Hiruzen replied solemnly, not daring to hesitate when his teachers were mentioned.
"Then I do not wish to see a Senju sacrifice themselves for the village while simultaneously having to worry about a knife being shoved into their back by their own people. Sandaime," Toka paused, her cloudy eyes suddenly becoming as sharp as kunai.
"Do not let the Senju's heart grow cold."
"I understand!"
Hiruzen felt a shiver of dread at the weight behind those words. He no longer dared to play dumb or act as a mediator for the sake of appearances.
"Rest assured, Lady Toka. I will personally order the Anbu to conduct a full-scale investigation. I will provide you with a satisfactory resolution."
He didn't promise her "the truth" or "the culprit"; he used the word "resolution." He knew Toka hadn't come here to micromanage his investigation, but to deliver a final warning.
"As for Nawaki... as a student of the first two Hokages, I swear on my life that such a thing will never happen again."
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