Konoha.
The Hokage’s Office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi slumped back into his office chair, his chest heaving violently.
All the clues in his mind violently collided and intertwined at this moment.
Finally, he pieced together a truth that sent chills down his spine.
Why Tsunade, with all her fierce pride, would view a mere civilian Chunin with special regard.
Why she preferred avoiding debt collectors outside rather than leaving Chiba behind, insisting on keeping him by her side.
It wasn’t because Chiba possessed any exceptional medical talent.
The excuses written in that letter were utter nonsense!
The only reason Tsunade had taken him as her disciple was because he carried the bloodline of the Senju clan!
Hiruzen Sarutobi gripped the armrests of his chair tightly, his knuckles turning white from sheer force.
The Senju clan.
They were the founders of Konoha.
And the clan of his teacher, Tobirama Senju.
Yet now, this terrifying clan had left behind such a formidable bloodline!
Less than two years!
Tsunade taking Chiba out of the village amounted to barely over a year at most!
In such a brief span of time, Chiba had actually grown from an utterly unremarkable civilian Chunin to such a terrifying level?
To severely injure three elite Anbu merely through the aura of his released chakra?
What frightening strength!
Hiruzen Sarutobi knew full well that even he himself could not accomplish such a feat.
What did this signify?
It meant that the purity of Chiba’s bloodline was absurdly high!
The power contained within his body had quite likely already surpassed Tsunade’s!
Perhaps…
Hiruzen didn’t dare think any further down that line of thought.
Those two towering figures seemed to manifest in his mind once again.
The First Hokage, Hashirama Senju.
The Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju.
Was the Senju clan truly about to produce another monster capable of reshaping the landscape of the ninja world?
Right at that moment—
BANG!
The solid wood doors of the Hokage’s Office were violently slammed open, crashing into the walls with a heavy echo.
Danzo Shimura crossed the threshold, striding aggressively into the office.
Behind him followed two Root ninjas wearing blank masks.
“Hiruzen!”
“You are far too slow!”
Danzo’s voice was cold and hard as iron, laced with undisguised fury.
He had clearly received the news as well.
Root’s intelligence network was never inferior to Anbu’s; in certain aspects, it was even sharper.
Danzo walked up to the desk, staring down imperiously at Hiruzen Sarutobi.
In his sole exposed eye flickered a manic light.
Just half an hour ago, his Root subordinates had reported what transpired at the village gate, as well as Chiba’s movement toward the old Senju clan compound.
In that instant, Danzo felt as though he had been slapped brutally across the face.
He had been played by Tsunade!
A year ago, the Root operatives he sent to keep watch suffered one dead and one injured.
He had assumed it was merely Tsunade’s hot temper at play, refusing to be monitored by the village.
He had assumed Chiba was truly just an insignificant waste.
To avoid escalating conflict, he had withdrawn his surveillance personnel.
Yet who could have imagined!
It was all a smokescreen concocted by that madwoman Tsunade!
That useless Chunin was actually a remnant of the Senju clan!
“Hiruzen, look at what you have done!”
“A bloodline of the Senju clan wandered under your very nose for sixteen years!”
“And you were completely oblivious!”
Danzo slammed his cane heavily against the floorboards.
Strike after strike, as if pounding directly on Hiruzen Sarutobi’s taut nerves.
“Danzo. Watch your language. This is the Hokage’s Office.”
Hiruzen Sarutobi raised his head, his eyes ice-cold.
Danzo didn’t care for it in the slightest.
He let out a cold laugh.
“Hokage?”
“If you could actually run this village properly as Hokage, you wouldn’t allow such a dangerous individual to act so insolently within Konoha.”
“Hand Chiba over to me.”
“Let him join Root.”
“I will use my methods to forge him into Konoha’s sharpest weapon!”
Speaking up to this point, Danzo abruptly leaned forward, pressing both hands onto the desk, his tone overflowing with unquestionable arrogance.
“In your dreams!”
Hearing those words, Hiruzen Sarutobi blurted out almost instinctively.
He understood his old classmate far too well.
Danzo’s craving for the title of Hokage had reached a morbid, pathological level.
If Chiba were permitted to join Root—with the horrifying power Chiba currently displayed, coupled with his status as a Senju—Danzo would unequivocally exploit Chiba to threaten his position.
“Danzo. Do not push your luck.”
“Chiba is Tsunade’s disciple and a ninja of Konoha.”
“He is not a tool for you to use in your power struggles.”
Deep warning resonated in Hiruzen Sarutobi’s voice.
“A tool?”
Danzo laughed out of pure anger.
He straightened his body, his remaining eye filled with mockery.
“Hiruzen, oh Hiruzen.”
“Have you gone senile in your old age?”
“Do you think the current Chiba is still that civilian Chunin you can manipulate at will?”
“Do you think he is still that unremarkable brat sitting in the Academy?”
Danzo pointed his finger at the bloodstains on the floor—left behind by the three Anbu who went to fetch Chiba.
“Open your eyes and look!”
“Is this reverence for the Hokage?”
“Is this loyalty to the village?”
Danzo took a deep breath, lowering his voice.
“Furthermore… have you ever stopped to consider one thing?”
“How could he possibly become this strong in a little over a year?”
Hiruzen Sarutobi’s heart thrashed wildly.
This was precisely the question that had been haunting him with terror moments ago.
Yet Danzo callously tore away the veil.
“The bloodline of the Senju clan is not like the Uchiha’s Sharingan!”
“Those Uchiha lunatics only need a bit of trauma; once their eyes awaken, their power skyrockets overnight.”
“But what does the Senju clan rely upon?”
“The physical body!”
“Chakra!”
“These things are determined from the moment of birth and require long years of grueling temperance and refinement!”
“Even if Tsunade were determined to teach him…”
“Even if he trained without sleep every single day…”
“It would still be impossible for him to turn from a useless Chunin into a monster who can cripple Jonin with mere presence in a little over a year!”
These words struck Hiruzen Sarutobi’s chest like a heavy sledgehammer.
He could not refute them.
Because Danzo was right.
In the world of ninja, strength never came without cause.
The transformation of one’s physique and the accumulation of chakra could never be achieved overnight.
“The only explanation…”
“This Chiba has been feigning weakness all along!”
“He hid his true strength!”
“He fooled the Academy instructors, fooled his team leaders, and even fooled you, the Hokage!”
“He hid himself for sixteen whole years!”
Danzo narrowed his eye, murderous intent surging beneath the surface.
As Danzo’s words settled, a dead silence descended upon the Hokage’s Office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi remained silent, but fine beads of cold sweat seeped from his forehead.
If the reality was indeed as Danzo described, then Chiba was far too terrifying a person.
A child who went to the battlefield at the age of ten.
Facing the brutal meat-grinder that was the Third Shinobi World War, he had actually managed to suppress his power.
Watching his companions die with his own eyes, watching himself be pushed into desperate straits—
What terrifyingly deep scheming!
What frighteningly resilient temperament!
“Why did he conceal it?”
Danzo pressed forward relentlessly, granting Hiruzen Sarutobi no room to catch his breath.
“Because from the bottom of his heart, he never trusted you as Hokage!”
“He does not acknowledge your rule!”
“Now, do you still dare claim to be Konoha’s Hokage?”
Danzo’s words pierced straight through to the core, digging out every single fear buried deep within Hiruzen Sarutobi’s heart.
After Chiba returned to the village…
He did not return to his home in the civilian district, nor did he come to report at the Hokage’s Office.
Instead, he headed straight for that desolate Senju clan compound.
He had even brutally struck down the Anbu sent to convey orders without hesitation.
Was this returning to the village?
This was unequivocally a show of force!
This was declaring the return of the Senju clan to him, the Third Hokage!