Konoha.
The Hokage’s office.
Sarutobi Hiruzen collapsed into his chair, his chest heaving violently.
Every clue in his mind intertwined and collided in a frenzy.
At last, he pieced together a truth that made his blood run cold.
Why had the proud and arrogant Tsunade taken such a special interest in a civilian-born Chūnin?
Why had she been willing to keep Chiba by her side even while fleeing debt collectors?
It was not because Chiba had some talent for medical ninjutsu.
The excuses in that letter were all bullshit!
The only reason Tsunade had taken him as her disciple was that he possessed the Senju Clan’s bloodline!
Sarutobi Hiruzen gripped the armrests so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
The Senju Clan.
They were the founders of Konoha.
They were also the clan of his teacher, Senju Tobirama.
Yet this terrifying clan had actually left behind such a formidable descendant!
Less than two years!
Even by the most generous estimate, Tsunade had taken Chiba away from the village only a little over a year ago!
How could Chiba have risen from an unremarkable civilian-born Chūnin to this level in such a short time?
He had severely injured three elite ANBU simply by releasing the pressure of his chakra?
What terrifying strength!
Sarutobi Hiruzen knew perfectly well that even he could not accomplish such a feat.
What did that mean?
It meant the purity of Chiba’s bloodline was astonishingly high!
The power within his body might very well have already surpassed Tsunade’s!
Perhaps even…
Sarutobi Hiruzen did not dare continue that thought.
Two towering figures once again appeared in his mind.
The First Hokage, Senju Hashirama.
The Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama.
Was the Senju Clan about to produce another monster capable of reshaping the shinobi world?
Just then, the solid wooden door to the Hokage’s office was rudely shoved open with a loud bang.
It slammed into the wall with a dull thud.
Shimura Danzo crossed the threshold and strode into the office.
Two blank-masked Root ninja followed behind him.
“Hiruzen!”
“You’re too slow!”
Danzo’s voice was as cold and hard as iron, his anger undisguised.
He had clearly received the news as well.
Root’s intelligence network had never been inferior to the ANBU’s.
In some respects, it was even more responsive.
Danzo walked up to the desk and stared down at Sarutobi Hiruzen.
A crazed gleam flickered in his exposed eye.
Only half an hour earlier, his Root subordinates had reported what happened at the village gate and informed him that Chiba was heading toward the former Senju Clan compound.
Tsunade had played him!
A year ago, the Root agents he had sent to monitor them ended up with one dead and the other wounded.
He had assumed Tsunade had simply lost her temper because she did not want the village monitoring her.
He had believed that Chiba was truly nothing more than insignificant trash.
To avoid escalating the conflict, he had withdrawn his surveillance team.
But who could have imagined that it had all been a smokescreen created by that madwoman, Tsunade?
That worthless Chūnin was actually a surviving member of the Senju Clan!
“Hiruzen, look at the fine mess you’ve made.”
“A descendant of the Senju Clan has been living right under your nose for sixteen years!”
“And you never noticed a thing!”
Danzo struck the floor heavily with his cane.
Each blow seemed to strike Sarutobi Hiruzen’s already taut nerves.
“Danzo, watch your language.
This is the Hokage’s office.”
Sarutobi Hiruzen raised his head, his gaze cold.
Danzo was not intimidated in the slightest.
He sneered.
“Hokage?”
“If you were a competent Hokage, you wouldn’t have allowed such a dangerous man to act so wantonly in the village.”
“Hand Chiba over to me.
Let him join Root.
I’ll use my methods to turn him into Konoha’s sharpest weapon!”
As he spoke, Danzo suddenly stepped forward and planted both hands on the desk, his tone leaving no room for argument.
“Dream on!”
Sarutobi Hiruzen blurted out the words almost instinctively.
He knew his old classmate far too well.
Danzo’s desire for the position of Hokage had reached a pathological level.
If Chiba joined Root, Danzo would undoubtedly use the terrifying strength he had displayed, along with his status as a member of the Senju Clan, to threaten Sarutobi Hiruzen’s position.
“Danzo, don’t push your luck.”
“Chiba is Tsunade’s disciple and a ninja of Konoha.”
“He isn’t a tool for you to use in your struggle for power.”
Sarutobi Hiruzen’s voice carried a stern warning.
“A tool?”
Danzo laughed in fury.
He straightened, his single exposed eye filled with mockery.
“Hiruzen, oh Hiruzen.
Have you gone senile?”
“Do you think Chiba is still the civilian-born Chūnin you could manipulate at will?”
“Do you think he’s still that unremarkable brat from the Ninja Academy?”
Danzo pointed at the bloodstains on the floor, left behind by the three ANBU who had gone to find Chiba.
“Open your eyes and look!”
“Does this look like reverence for the Hokage?”
Danzo took a deep breath and lowered his voice.
“More importantly, have you considered one thing?”
“How could he have become so strong in just over a year?”
Sarutobi Hiruzen’s heart jolted.
That was the very question he had been afraid to confront.
But Danzo mercilessly tore through the thin veil of pretense.
“The Senju Clan’s bloodline isn’t like the Uchiha’s Sharingan!”
“Those Uchiha lunatics can experience a little trauma, awaken their eyes, and see their strength skyrocket.”
“But what does the Senju Clan rely on?”
“Their bodies!”
“Their chakra!”
“Those things are determined at birth and require years of refinement!”
“Even if Tsunade devoted herself to teaching him, even if he trained every day without sleep, he couldn’t possibly go from a useless Chūnin to a monster capable of severely injuring a Jōnin with his aura alone in just over a year!”
The words struck Sarutobi Hiruzen’s heart like a heavy hammer.
He could not refute them, because Danzo was right.
In the shinobi world, power never came from nowhere.
Transforming the body and accumulating chakra could not be accomplished overnight.
“There’s only one explanation…
Chiba has been pretending all along!”
“He concealed his strength!”
“He deceived his teachers at the Ninja Academy, deceived the ninja who led his team, and even deceived you, the Hokage!”
“He’s been hiding it for sixteen years!”
Danzo narrowed his eye, killing intent surging in its depths.
As Danzo’s voice faded, the Hokage’s office fell into deathly silence.
Sarutobi Hiruzen said nothing, but beads of cold sweat emerged on his forehead.
If the truth was really as Danzo claimed, then Chiba was far too terrifying.
He had gone to war at ten years old.
Even amid the brutal meat grinder of the Third Shinobi World War, he had managed to suppress his own power.
He had watched his companions die before his eyes and allowed himself to fall into desperate situations.
What terrifying cunning!
What incredible endurance!
“Why did he hide it?”
Danzo pressed forward relentlessly, giving Sarutobi Hiruzen no chance to catch his breath.
“Because deep down, he doesn’t trust you, the Hokage!”
“He doesn’t acknowledge your rule!”
“Now, do you still dare call yourself the Hokage of Konoha?”
Danzo’s words pierced straight through the heart, dragging every fear buried within Sarutobi Hiruzen into the open.
After returning to the village, Chiba had neither gone to his home in the civilian district nor reported to the Hokage’s office.
Instead, he had headed straight for the desolate remains of the Senju Clan compound.
He had even shown no mercy when he seriously injured the ANBU sent to deliver the Hokage’s orders.
How could this be called a simple return to the village?
It was clearly a show of force!
It was a declaration to him, the Third Hokage, that the Senju Clan had returned!