Chapter 59: Chapter 59
"This matter has already spread through the front line. The seven ninja swords are there as proof. It can’t be fake."
The Sandaime shook his head and slowly exhaled smoke.
"The younger generation really is something."
"But how did he do it?" Homura frowned. "A month ago, he was still a bottom-tier genin. After disappearing for some time, he suddenly returns as a terrifyingly powerful ninja! What exactly happened during that gap?"
His words made everyone in the room fall silent.
They were all political creatures.
Anything outside their control naturally made them uneasy.
"There is no question, he has a problem."
Danzo, who had been silent until now, finally spoke.
His voice was firm and cold.
"We must dig out everything he experienced during this period. Only then can we make sure he has no intentions of harming the village."
At that point, Danzo looked toward the Sandaime’s face behind the drifting smoke.
"This is not something you should do yourself, leave it to me. Root exists to be buried in darkness, while you, as Konoha itself, only need to stand in the sunlight."
He made it sound righteous, almost noble.
The Sandaime did not speak right away, he merely narrowed his eyes and looked at Danzo.
Danzo stared right back without backing down.
For a moment, the atmosphere in the room turned strange.
Homura and Koharu exchanged a look.
Both instinctively sensed that something was off, so they lowered their eyes and quietly turned into silent statues.
"Heh. Danzo," the Sandaime finally said, his tone was calm and relax. "I think you know very well why that boy became what he is now."
"I don’t know what you’re talking about."
Danzo’s face was dark as iron, his voice hard and cold.
But a bad feeling had already risen in his heart.
"Did you truly think I knew nothing about the things you and Orochimaru were doing in secret?"
The Sandaime shook his head and sighed.
"In the past, at least you still knew where the line was. You didn’t touch people from the village. But recently, you’ve grown more and more reckless... Danzo, you crossed the line."
"Heh..."
Danzo let out a cold laugh, his voice full of mockery.
Was this not simply because results had appeared, and now Hiruzen wanted to pick the fruit for himself?
Yet he made it sound so dignified.
"Then what does the Sandaime Hokage intend to do?"
"We’ll follow Jiraiya’s suggestion and leave the boy under his guidance."
The Sandaime sighed softly.
Danzo was ruthless enough, but his heart was too narrow.
Whenever he encountered a talented person, he wanted to lock them tightly in his own hands, with no regard for that person’s will.
He raised people like tools, like expendable resources.
That method might work on ordinary ninja.
But against a rare talent like Kiriya, it would only backfire.
Worse, it might bring disaster to Konoha.
The more talented someone was, the prouder they tended to be. And Kiriya was a boy who had been denied and pushed down for years.
His life in Konoha had likely left plenty of anger buried inside him.
Still, judging from how he had saved Might Duy and his son, he still held goodwill toward the village.
At a time like this, they needed to strengthen that bond as quickly as possible.
If they tried to crush him with force instead and let his heart go cold, then whether Konoha gained fortune or disaster from him would be impossible to say.
The lesson of Konoha’s White Fang had already been painful enough.
"Hiruzen, he could be a spy sent by the enemy," Danzo insisted, still unwilling to give up control over Kiriya.
"Don’t be ridiculous, Danzo."
Hiruzen chuckled lightly.
"Who would be extravagant enough to use a talent like that as a spy?"
A teenager already brushing against the threshold of Kage-level strength, while also possessing the Wood Release kekkei genkai.
What force would be willing to simply hand over someone like that?
Were they not afraid that once they sent him out, he would never come back?
"He has also awakened the Sharingan," Danzo said, still making one last attempt. "You know exactly what that clan is like. He is a walking time bomb! He must be held tightly under control, or one day, he will turn around and bite us all."
"..."
Aside from Danzo, the other three drew in sharp breaths.
Senju power.
Uchiha blood.
That boy had somehow combined two of the strongest bloodlines in the shinobi world, and he had grown this well on top of it.
What was this supposed to become?
Was he trying to defy common sense itself?
"Then that makes it even more impossible to leave him to you!"
The Sandaime abruptly stood, leaning forward slightly as he stared Danzo down.
"That child must form the deepest possible bond with Konoha. And you, Danzo, are the last person suited for that job."
Intelligence indicated that Kirigakure was currently planning a major operation.
How could Hiruzen possibly allow Danzo to make a move against Kiriya at such a critical moment?
He would not destroy his own walls from the inside.
The lesson of the White Fang was already enough.
Creak, creak.
Danzo clenched his teeth so hard they ground together. His nails dug into his palm, but he did not seem to feel it.
He stared hard at the old friend before him.
When he saw no softness, no hesitation, and no room for compromise on Hiruzen’s face, he knew the matter could not be forced.
So he turned and left.
"Hiruzen, you will regret this."
"Time will prove everything."
The Sandaime closed his eyes, his expression calmer than it had been all day.
"Send the order! Deliver the First Hokage’s notes to the front line, along with my letter. They are to be handed to Senju Kiriya in person."
...
Two days later.
The jōnin responsible for delivering the Sandaime Hokage’s scrolls arrived at the front-line camp where Konoha and Kirigakure were clashing, and he met Jiraiya, who was in the middle of handling military affairs.
"Oh? The old man was surprisingly straightforward this time."
Jiraiya looked at the scrolls, then glanced at the respectful jōnin standing beside him and casually waved a hand.
"All right. Take those to the kid yourself."
The jōnin gave a respectful bow and left the tent.
After stepping outside, he began asking around the camp for Kiriya’s location.
"Oh, you mean Kiriya-sama? He’s in the wounded barracks right now," a genin replied with a smile.
"Kiriya....sama?"
The jōnin repeated the title, finding it a little hard to believe.
As far as he knew, Kiriya was only a teenage boy.
Why did everyone here sound so respectful when they talked about him?
When he arrived, he finally understood.
Kiriya was seated behind a low table, and injured shinobi were lining up one by one in front of him.
Whenever one stepped forward, he casually cast a medical technique, and the wounded ninja immediately bounced back up, lively and healthy as if nothing had happened.
"This... What powerful medical ninjutsu. That speed, that healing effect... Has he already caught up to Lady Tsunade?"
The jōnin felt an unprecedented shock.
It was not strange for Lady Tsunade to be incredible.
She came from an extraordinary background, had exceptional talent, and had spent years training.
But how had this boy done it?
At that moment, the jōnin truly understood how unfair the world could be.
Sometimes, the gap between two people was even bigger than the gap between a person and a dog.
Once the shock faded a little, the jōnin also understood why everyone in the camp respected Kiriya so much.
On a battlefield full of danger, a healer this powerful was someone you treated like an idol.
Even if you did not need him yourself, your friends, family, or comrades eventually might.
Because of Yang Power: Everflowing Vitality, Kiriya had taken less than two days to become one of the most respected people in the entire camp, second only to Jiraiya himself.
"Hm? Are you here for treatment too?"
Kiriya looked over the jōnin who had approached and frowned.
"If you’re not sick or injured, don’t come over and clog the line. I’m working here. Move, move."
"Um..."
The jōnin smiled awkwardly.
"I’m a special envoy sent by the Hokage-sama. I’m here to deliver something to you."
"Oh, it finally arrived!"
Kiriya’s eyes lit up.
He walked over to the injured shinobi who were still waiting, gave each of them a quick cast of Yang Power: Everflowing Vitality, finished healing them, and then dragged the jōnin away.
The remaining crowd stared at one another, completely speechless.
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