Hiruzen Sarutobi looked like a 5th Division member watching Aizen's betrayal in real time.
Makoto's expression, on the other hand, hadn't changed in the slightest.
He spoke with all the leisure of a man discussing the weather. "Think about it, Sensei. Konoha's in this state now. Even if we pull off a victory, who's the one taking the fall? There's only one answer, and it's you. The outcome is the same as after the Third Great Ninja War: you step down from the Hokage seat, and someone else takes your place."
A brief pause, then he continued. "I've got zero interest in that chair, so the most likely candidates are the same two they've always been. Jiraiya, off wandering somewhere, or Tsunade. And this whole debacle becomes another stain on your record... though, let's be honest, you've already got quite the collection."
"So why not die here, in this battle?"
A thin smile crossed Makoto's lips. "The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, gave his life to repel the traitor Orochimaru, shielding his beloved village from the villainous forces of the Hidden Sound and Hidden Sand... That's how I'll frame it. Your legacy preserved, your legend sealed. Doesn't that sound so much better? Death solves a lot of problems."
"Rest easy, Sensei. After the funeral rites, I'll personally write a magnificent eulogy praising your accomplishments. You'll go down in history as the strongest Hokage since the village's founding."
The four Sound ninja maintaining the Four Violet Flames Formation stood frozen, their minds completely blank.
Orochimaru couldn't hold back. He threw his head back and laughed. "Ha ha ha ha! Junior, you're far more entertaining than I imagined."
A full thirty seconds crawled by before Hiruzen recovered enough to roar, fury cracking his voice. "Makoto! Has everything up until now been a lie?!"
Makoto raised an eyebrow. "Don't be so dramatic, old man. I'm only telling the truth. Compared to living on as the disgraced leader who let his village burn, wouldn't it be better to die a hero? I'm doing this for your sake, you know."
The words cut deep. And every one of them was true.
In the original storyline, even if Hiruzen had managed to defeat Orochimaru during the Konoha Crush, his fate wouldn't have been much better than death.
Danzo would have seized the opportunity to force him out of the Hokage seat. And regardless of whether Tsunade or Danzo succeeded him, Hiruzen would never again touch Konoha's highest authority.
Neither of them had Minato's temperament. Neither would tolerate a second sun in the sky.
Dying as a hero was, genuinely, the best ending available to him.
"Why do you possess the Mangekyou Sharingan?!" Hiruzen demanded, rage boiling over.
Makoto had already lost interest in talking to the old man. His gaze drifted lazily to Orochimaru. "It's about time, wouldn't you say, Senpai?"
"Heh heh... You heard him, didn't you, Sensei?"
Seeing the look of utter disgust on his former teacher's face, Orochimaru decided this trip to Konohagakure had been entirely worth it.
"Since my dear junior says so, let's not waste any more time."
The reanimated Senju brothers had already repaired their bodies, flanking Orochimaru on either side.
"Time to die, Sensei!"
Orochimaru's voice spiked to a shriek, and he charged alongside the two Edo Tensei Hokage.
Hiruzen was old. His body was well past its prime. And the psychological devastation Makoto had just inflicted weighed on him like a mountain of lead.
Less than three minutes.
That was all it took.
The supreme shinobi of his generation collapsed facedown, Orochimaru's Kusanagi Sword driven clean through his heart, pinning him to the tiles.
Makoto and Orochimaru stood on either side of the fallen Hokage.
Makoto looked down at him. "Relax, Sensei. Konohagakure will only grow more prosperous from here. Besides, you always loved saying it, didn't you? 'Where the leaves dance, fire also burns.' So let's put you and your Council of Elders to good use. Think of it as fuel for the village's future."
Hiruzen glared up at the student who had betrayed him, mouth opening to speak, but Orochimaru twisted the knife first. "Junior's right, you know. You and your cronies have been dragging this village to rock bottom for years. It can hardly get any worse."
Makoto added, with the serene calm of a man making funeral arrangements, "Worry not, Sensei. I shall take excellent care of your daughter-in-law, so put that out of your mind. Konohamaru, too. I'll raise him into the sharpest blade this village has ever seen. And if you get lonely down there... I can always send your son to keep you company."
Something seized in Hiruzen's chest. The fury he'd been choking on lodged there, refused to release, and with that final breath trapped inside him, the Third Hokage died.
Orochimaru snickered again. He couldn't help it.
This junior of mine... he's something else.
With Hiruzen dead and Orochimaru showing no intention of fighting that man, the Sound Four dropped the barrier.
Makoto turned the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan on Orochimaru. "I trust you understand which parts of today's events are worth mentioning and which aren't."
"Of course."
One glimpse of those spiraling patterns and Orochimaru straightened up fast.
Through his Living Corpse Reincarnation technique, he'd been swapping bodies to keep his flesh at its peak, but his spiritual energy weakened with every transfer.
Ocular genjutsu of the Sharingan's caliber was his worst nightmare. And after the toll today's battle had taken, picking a fight with Makoto now would be nothing short of insanity.
Still, Orochimaru's curiosity gnawed at him. Makoto wasn't an Uchiha. How was he switching freely between normal eyes and the Sharingan?
"Lord Orochimaru, Konoha shinobi are heading this way," Tayuya warned.
Orochimaru nodded, then glanced at Makoto. "Until next time, Junior."
Makoto's lips quirked upward. He flicked a hand in a lazy shooing motion, and Orochimaru's group took their leave.
As it happened, Kakashi and the others had spotted the Four Violet Flames Formation dissolving and assumed the battle was over. They arrived at a sprint, only to come face to face with Orochimaru's retreating party.
Every one of them froze.
What? Why is Orochimaru still alive?
The Hokage plus Makoto and his Mangekyou Sharingan... the two of them together, and they still couldn't take him down?
Then, from the rooftop of the arena, a wail split the sky.
"MASTERRR! OH, MASTER! WHAT A TERRIBLE WAY TO GO! YOUR STUDENT HAS FAILED YOU!"
Orochimaru stumbled midair and nearly plummeted from the sky.
Good lord. What an actor.
Kakashi and his group stood paralyzed.
Orochimaru seized the opening. Hands flew through signs, and a Summoning Jutsu brought Manda crashing into existence.
"Damn you, Orochimaru! Summoning me without so much as a warning again! You owe me a hundred live sacrifices after this!"
Manda snarled, then his colossal body, rivaling a Tailed Beast in sheer mass, plowed through the Konoha shinobi in his path. In seconds, the snake and its passengers had vanished from the village.
"Damn it!"
Several leaf ninja cursed and moved to pursue, but Kakashi stopped them. "The Hokage first. We need to see his condition."
The others saw the sense in that and rushed to the arena rooftop.
What they found was Orochimaru's Kusanagi Sword driven through Hiruzen Sarutobi from behind, pinning his body to the ground. The battered Third Hokage lay motionless on the tiles, eyes closed forever.
And Makoto's performance was still going strong.
"HEAVENS ABOVE! OH, MASTER! YOUR UNWORTHY STUDENT! FORGIVE ME, MASTER!"
His anguished cries sent a pang through every jonin and player who had gathered. Not a dry eye among them.
Airi Akizuki wiped tears from her cheeks and murmured to those around her. "I can't believe Grandpa Hokage is gone... Makoto must be devastated. He and the Hokage were always so close."
Marina nodded solemnly. "Mm. They really were."
"Makoto, please... don't grieve too hard."
Mrs. Yukinoshita stepped forward and clasped his right hand in both of hers, offering quiet comfort.
Yukino, meanwhile, stared at Makoto with an expression that couldn't quite decide what it wanted to be. The man was wailing like a dying bullfrog.
Something about this didn't add up.
"Wh-what happened, Makoto?" Kakashi approached, disbelief carved into every visible inch of his face. "With you and Lord Hokage fighting together, even Orochimaru shouldn't have been able to..."
"It was Danzo!" Makoto choked out between sobs. "That treacherous bastard Danzo! He and Orochimaru were working together from the inside! This whole invasion was their plot to murder our master and seize the Hokage seat! We had Orochimaru on the ropes, and then Danzo appeared out of nowhere and stabbed Sensei in the back!"
"Damn him! DAMN HIM! That snake Shimura Danzo, rotten to his very core!"
Asuma's face went crimson with fury. "WHAT?! That son of a bitch Danzo!"
Kurenai trembled with outrage. "We storm Root headquarters! Now! We avenge Lord Hokage!"
Genma Shiranui ground his teeth. "I've always said leaving that man in Konoha would bring disaster!"
Had Makoto named anyone else, the Konoha ninja might have paused to question the accusation.
But Danzo? That tracked perfectly.
Setting aside the fact that his hunger for the Hokage title was the worst-kept secret in the entire shinobi world, there was also the convenient pattern: every catastrophe the ninja world had ever suffered could somehow be traced back to Shimura Danzo.
The man was a walking causality weapon.
At that very moment, deep in the Root headquarters beneath Konoha, Danzo felt an inexplicable chill race down his spine.
What was that? Why do I suddenly feel so cold?
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