Chapter 189: The Hokage is Dead, Where is the Assistant?
"Was he wrong to shout? Why are you taking your anger out on him?"
Danzo Shimura stepped out from the heavy shadows of the office, his single visible eye cold and unyielding. "The village cannot remain leaderless. Especially at a time like this. We must stay calm, Hiruzen. Losing control serves no one."
Stepping forward, Danzo grabbed Hiruzen by the shoulders and forcefully shoved him down into the Hokage's high-backed leather chair. Without asking for permission, he snatched the crimson-and-white Hokage hat from the desk and shoved it onto Hiruzen's head.
"What you need to do right now is shoulder this burden," Danzo ordered, his voice tight. "You need to hold everything together and handle the aftermath. Stelle did what she had to do. Now, it is our turn."
"What about Kagami?!" Hiruzen ripped the hat off his head, slamming it onto the mahogany desk.
"He is in no condition to do anything right now." Danzo's eye narrowed. Sometimes, he truly loathed Hiruzen's personality—a humility so extreme it bordered on sheer hypocrisy. "If you honestly think he hasn't been provoked enough, then by all means, go drag him out of the Uchiha compound. Bring him here and politely ask him: 'Stelle died covering our retreat, and a nation cannot go a single day without a ruler. Why don't you become the Hokage?' Go on, Hiruzen. Let's see how he reacts."
The bitter truth hung heavily in the air. The one hit hardest by this tragedy was undeniably Uchiha Kagami.
Their rescue forces had arrived far too late, finding nothing but a devastated battlefield soaked in blood. The only intelligence they managed to scrape together came from the forcefully extracted memories of a few captured enemy Jonin. Just reading the written reports of that brutal last stand was unbearable enough for the rest of them. But Kagami? With his Sharingan, he possessed the ability to perfectly read and experience the memories of others. He had been forced to watch the entire agonizing process of Stelle's death through the eyes of her killers.
He had watched her fall, completely helpless, unable to reach through the illusion and save her. It was a cruelty beyond words.
"Let's just... leave it at this for now," Hiruzen muttered, his voice cracking. "We will discuss the Hokage succession once the immediate aftermath is handled."
He slumped back into the chair, the fight draining out of his posture. A rare, hollow daze settled over his features. It was the exact same look of crushing helplessness he had worn the day their teacher, Tobirama Senju, had sacrificed himself as a decoy.
What did it feel like to have a truly invincible companion? It was incredibly, dangerously relaxing. It felt as though he never needed to think too deeply or worry too much; he only had to follow in her footsteps. Stelle had handled everything for them, shielding them from the darkest parts of the ninja world, just as Teacher Tobirama once had. Her presence had been a reassuring anchor.
Now, that anchor was gone. It was his turn to step to the very front, to become the towering tree that shielded Konoha from the violent winds and bitter rain.
But could he actually do it?
The passionate dream of becoming Hokage that had burned so brightly in his youth was finally within his grasp, yet the sheer weight of it was suffocating. It pressed down on his chest, leaving him breathless. Those who came before him had done impossibly well, elevating Konoha to the absolute pinnacle of the ninja world and forcing the other Four Great Nations to cower before their might. A sickening sense of cowardice gnawed at Hiruzen's gut. He was terrified that he was simply too mediocre, that his hands would be the ones to ruin generations of blood, sweat, and sacrifice.
"Why talk about it later?" Danzo snapped, refusing to indulge his old friend's self-pity. "The power has already been handed over to you. Can you drop the hypocritical act for one minute? Do not think I am blind, Hiruzen. When Stelle officially took the mantle of the Fourth Hokage, you moped around for days. You were depressed because that was the position Teacher Tobirama originally intended for you."
"Do you really have to bring this up right now?!" Hiruzen roared, slamming his palm against the solid wood of the desk with a sharp crack.
"If not now, then when?" Danzo shot back, leaning over the desk. "Do you dare look me in the eye and say you don't want to be Hokage?!"
Danzo could not read minds. He could not fully comprehend the crushing pressure paralyzing Hiruzen's heart. He only knew cold, hard pragmatism. Right now, forcing the most suitable candidate into the Hokage's seat to stabilize the village and restore order was the only thing that mattered. Konoha had to survive.
Hiruzen shot up from his chair, knocking it backward. "I do want to be!" he bellowed, his voice echoing off the walls. "And as if you never wanted it?! Back in the Land of Lightning, when Teacher Tobirama passed the title to me, your face turned so dark it looked like your entire world had shattered! You think I didn't notice?!"
Chest heaving, Hiruzen pointed a trembling finger at his oldest rival. "You clearly obtained the intelligence! So why didn't you go to her rescue?! If you had just mobilized your forces and gone, there might have been a chance! She might still be alive!"
Danzo's mind went entirely blank. A toxic, suffocating wave of self-blame and agonizing regret took root in his chest, spreading like poison through his veins.
But he did not physically falter. He couldn't afford to. Even Hiruzen had completely lost his composure. If both of them broke down now, Konoha would tear itself apart in the ensuing chaos. Someone had to remain the unfeeling stone.
Taking a sharp, ragged breath, Danzo ruthlessly shoved down the grief threatening to claw its way up his throat. "Fine. Fine! You've finally said it, haven't you?" he roared back, his usually stoic voice cracking. "When the intelligence reports were being summarized, I saw the way you looked at me. I knew you were thinking it. And now you've finally spit it out!"
A bitter, ugly sneer twisted Danzo's features. "So this is how it is. You, Hiruzen Sarutobi, start shifting the blame the second you feel guilty, right? And because we are old friends, I am just supposed to stand here and take it? Fine! Let's shift the blame together! I am certainly not the only one drowning in this mess!"
He stepped around the desk, getting right into Hiruzen's face. "What about you?! Weren't you stationed in the Land of Earth? You were led around by the nose like a stray dog by two Jinchuriki! You didn't notice a single flaw in their diversion! What right do you have to judge me?!"
"And what about Sakumo?!" Danzo continued, spit flying from his lips. "The Hidden Sand Village's frontlines were completely empty! Such a critical battle report—the fact that their entire main force had vanished—was intercepted and replaced with fake intel right under his nose! Is the great Anbu Captain just a useless waste of rations?! If the correct intelligence had actually reached Stelle's hands, she never would have stepped into that encirclement alone!"
"But the most impressive failure of all is Kagami!" Danzo mocked, his eye wide and manic. "He was entirely surrounded and still didn't notice a damn thing! He should have taken every single elite from the Land of Lightning battlefield and died in the mud alongside Stelle! At least that would have saved him from locking himself in his room, weeping like a half-dead coward!"
"Shut your mouth!"
Hiruzen's fist lashed out, moving faster than thought, and smashed directly into Danzo's jaw with a sickening crunch.
The sheer force of the sudden blow sent Danzo staggering backward. His boots caught on the rug, and he crashed hard onto the floor, his vision swimming with stars. For a split second, shock wiped his face blank. Then, the shock melted into pure, unadulterated fury.
Spitting blood, Danzo scrambled to his feet and lunged. He tackled Hiruzen around the waist, using his momentum to slam the older man brutally into the floorboards.
He wanted a fight? Fine. They would have a fight. For shinobi, wasn't it perfectly normal to communicate through violence when words failed? And it just so happened that after today, they would never be allowed to fight like this again. The absolute dignity of the Hokage could not be violated. A shinobi could not simply brawl with their village leader.
And so, two Kage-level experts rolled around in the center of the messy Hokage office, trading savage punches and vicious kicks. They abandoned all ninjutsu, all refined technique, and all grace. They scuffled and tore at each other's collars, brawling exactly like the angry, desperate children they used to be on the training grounds decades ago.
The muffled, wet thuds of fists connecting with flesh echoed through the sealed room, accompanied only by the ragged, desperate gasps of their heavy breathing.
Neither knew how much time passed. Minutes bled together in a haze of bruised knuckles and split lips. Finally, as if receiving some unseen signal, the two men stopped. In perfect, exhausted tacit understanding, they released their grips on each other's ruined robes and slumped onto their backs against the cold floorboards.
Staring up at the ceiling, they both couldn't help but think of Stelle. If that shameless woman were here right now, watching them roll around like rabid dogs, what would she do?
She wouldn't stop them. She would definitely be sitting on the desk, kicking her legs and egging them on with a mouthful of snacks.
'Hit him, hit him! Come on, Hiruzen, pull his hair! Poke his eyes! Go for the groin!''Wow, Danzo, why is your taijutsu still so incredibly lame? Next time, please don't tell people you were trained by Teacher Tobirama. It's embarrassing. I unilaterally announce that you've been expelled from the lineage!'
Groaning, Hiruzen pushed himself up from the floor. He limped over to where the Hokage hat had been kicked into a corner during the scuffle, picked it up, and carefully dusted it off before placing it gently on the desk. His bruised gaze swept across the utterly ruined office—overturned chairs, scattered scrolls, and cracked floorboards.
A bitter, aching smile touched his bloody lips. "If she knew we made such a mess of her office... she would definitely give us both a beating."
Danzo sat up, wincing as he wiped a smear of blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. Slowly getting to his feet, he began picking up the scattered classified documents. He smoothed the crumpled parchment out on the desk and pressed them down firmly with a heavy stone paperweight.
Just as Jiraiya had once said—how could anyone ever truly get used to parting?
The truth was, no one could. It wasn't that these hardened veterans weren't grieving; they were simply burying that grief deep within their bones, locking it away behind walls of duty. The mountain of political and military crises laid out before them didn't afford them the luxury of time to mourn.
A brutal fight, with no apologies offered, and no "I'm sorry" spoken. It was merely a brief, violent moment of indulgence for two old men breaking under the strain.
Ida Mutzuki was not just the Fourth Hokage. She was their most reliable companion, their anchor, and their dear friend. And now, she had sacrificed herself to save them all.
The world would just have to forgive them for this single moment of lost composure as they bid a silent farewell to the ghost of their friend.
Once the office had been somewhat restored to its former state, the heavy silence was finally broken.
Danzo turned to look at the new Hokage, his single eye devoid of all warmth. "Hiruzen. No matter how upset you are, I still have to say it." His voice was like grinding stone. "Stelle's death is a catastrophic blow to the village's morale. We need a more violent war. We need a target to vent everyone's anger and hatred."
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