“Have you all noticed something?”
Aoba Hayashi lowered his voice mysteriously.
“Elder Danzo is already in his fifties or sixties…
yet he’s still single.”
The others nodded seriously.
Hayashi continued,
“And have you noticed that Lord Third Hokage is also living alone now?”
The four girls nodded again.
Tenten tilted her head in confusion.
“So?
What’s strange about that?”
“Oh, it’s a huge problem.”
Hayashi leaned in with a mischievous grin.
“I think their relationship is anything but ordinary.”
“They might even be secret lovers.”
“Huh?”
Tenten stared at him in disbelief.
“Hayashi , what kind of nonsense are you talking about?
They’re both men!”
The others looked at him with equally baffled expressions.
Hayashi simply raised a finger and shook it.
“Who says two men can’t be together?
That’s discrimination.”
“True love can transcend both gender and age!”
“…”
For a moment, Tenten, Ino, Sakura, and Uzuki Yugao all stared at him in horror.
The exact same terrifying thought surfaced in all four of their minds.
“Q-Hayashi …”
Yugao hesitated before asking nervously,
“You…
don’t actually like boys, do you?”
The other three immediately perked up their ears, terrified of hearing an answer they didn’t want.
Hayashi’s entire face twisted into one of pure disgust.
He genuinely couldn’t understand why she would ask that.
“Why would you think I like boys?”
He called them his little girlfriends all the time, yet they still doubted his preferences?
“Well…”
Yugao looked embarrassed and quickly changed the subject.
“It’s just that…
you seem pretty enthusiastic about this sort of thing.”
“But I don’t think your theory makes sense.”
“Lord Third Hokage actually had a wife.
She passed away a few years ago.”
“And every time I’ve seen Lord Third Hokage and Elder Danzo together, they’re arguing.
They don’t seem like that at all.”
“Heh.”
Hayashi chuckled.
“If something like that were obvious enough for everyone to notice at a glance, how could it stay a secret?”
“And think about it.”
“Even though Elder Danzo constantly argues with Lord Third Hokage and always makes him angry…”
“…the two of them have remained together all these years.”
“Doesn’t that prove something?”
“As for Lady Biwako’s passing…”
“I think that’s exactly what caused everything.”
“Huh?
Why?”
All four looked completely lost.
“Have you ever heard the saying that spending enough time together leads to love?”
Hayashi exchanged glances with them before grinning and launching into his explanation.
“You have to remember…”
“Lord Third Hokage and Elder Danzo grew up together.”
“They were childhood friends.”
“They studied under the same teacher.”
“They even served together as the Second Hokage’s personal guards.”
“They fought side by side through life and death.”
“After decades together, they’d developed an understanding beyond what ordinary people could imagine.”
“And then…”
“After Lady Biwako passed away, Lord Third Hokage was devastated.”
“He was drowning in grief.”
“And at that exact moment…”
“Danzo took advantage of the opportunity and stayed by his side.”
“Because of the bond they’d built over so many years, even their arguments couldn’t damage their relationship.”
“In fact, those arguments only strengthened it.”
“So tell me…”
“What kind of love is truly unbreakable?”
“Hiss…”
The four girls all sucked in a sharp breath.
As they pieced together Hayashi’s reasoning, they suddenly realized…
His logic actually seemed airtight.
Could it…
…actually be true?
Th-This…
This was way too outrageous.
Two old men…
Meanwhile, Hayashi looked even more excited, his eyes sparkling.
“It was like dry firewood meeting blazing flames.”
“Once it started, there was no stopping it.”
“But because of who they were, if they openly expressed those feelings, it would create an enormous scandal throughout the village.”
“So they buried that love deep inside their hearts.”
“But they buried it so deeply…”
“…that eventually they couldn’t even recognize each other’s feelings anymore.”
He suddenly turned to Yugao.
“Big Sister Yugao.”
“When you accompanied your jonin captain to submit missions…”
“Did you ever notice any details about how Lord Third Hokage and Elder Danzo interacted?”
“What details?”
Yugao asked blankly.
“Whenever Elder Danzo enters the Hokage’s office…”
“…does he ever knock?”
“I…
I don’t think so.”
Truthfully, Yugao wasn’t certain.
She hadn’t witnessed it many times.
Hayashi’s words had simply guided her toward that conclusion.
“And whenever they argue…”
“…has Danzo ever won?”
“Well…”
“It always seems like Elder Danzo storms out looking furious.”
That much Yugao had personally witnessed.
Hayashi’s smile widened.
“Exactly.”
“That’s how they show their love.”
“They’re accepting each other.”
“And I’m willing to bet…”
“At the beginning…”
“It was Elder Danzo who fell in love first.”
“Why?”
All four girls asked at once.
By now, they were completely immersed in the gossip.
“Because Elder Danzo never married.”
“He keeps running into the Hokage’s office for no apparent reason just to argue.”
“And every single time, he slams the door on his way out.”
“That’s obviously just his way of getting Lord Third Hokage’s attention.”
“Add all those little details together…”
“It’s obvious.”
“Danzo had an unrequited crush.”
“He waited for his chance.”
“And little by little…”
“…the two of them finally got together.”
The moment he finished speaking, Hayashi suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
He immediately looked around the room.
Nothing seemed unusual.
After scratching his head in confusion, he dismissed it.
Smack!
“I knew it!”
Yugao suddenly slapped her fist into her palm, wearing an expression that screamed I’ve figured everything out.
“Ever since Lady Biwako passed away…”
“Lord Hokage has stayed alone in the Hokage Building.”
“Most people only visit him when they have missions to report.”
“But Elder Danzo…”
“Even when he has no official business, he still finds time every week to visit the Hokage Building.”
“I bet Lord Hokage was eventually moved by Danzo’s unwavering devotion.”
Everyone stared at Yugao in stunned silence.
Even Hayashi .
…You actually managed to make the whole thing logically consistent?
Still, he didn’t interrupt.
Honestly…
This was kind of hilarious.
It suddenly reminded him of his college days in his previous life.
After lights-out, he’d stay up in the dormitory with his roommates, making up the most ridiculous stories imaginable.
Time really never came back once it was gone.
For some reason, Hayashi suddenly felt a little nostalgic.
Wait…
why am I getting emotional?
It’s not even midnight yet.
“I never imagined…”
“…that Lord Hokage and Elder Danzo shared such a touching story…”
“Waaah…”
“So touching…”
While everyone else was still trying to process the horrifying image of two old men in that sort of relationship—and feeling vaguely uncomfortable just thinking about it—
Sakura, hopeless romantic that she was, burst into tears again.
Hayashi froze.
Then he looked at everyone else’s expressions.
Wait…
You’re all actually believing this?
This wasn’t going to become an actual piece of Konoha’s unofficial history decades later…
was it?
But now wasn’t the time to worry about that.
He needed to comfort Sakura.
As for how…
Naturally, the answer was another even bigger bombshell.
“Sakura, let me tell you something.”
“There are actually quite a few people in Konoha with this kind of preference.”
“In fact, it’s practically a tradition that’s been passed down since ancient times.”
“For example…”
“The First Hokage and Uchiha Madara.”
“Jiraiya and Orochimaru.”
“Kakashi and Guy.”
“Come on.”
“I’ll explain them one by one.”
“Back then, Uchiha Madara couldn’t win the First Hokage’s love, so…”
“The Second Hokage also once had a love-hate relationship with an Uchiha, which is why…”
“One of the Legendary Sannin, Orochimaru, ultimately chose to defect because Lord Jiraiya never understood his feelings…”
“And then there’s the complicated love triangle between Kakashi, Might Guy, and a certain unnamed Uchiha…”
…