Something was off. Way off.
Minato's current style is clearly off! Forget it, it's hard to explain. If someone has to take the blame for this, he'll probably be the one who can't escape it.
"Minato!"
"Kaze!"
Kaze tightened his grip on the sword, while Minato picked up a kunai. Their gazes at each other grew fiercer.
"Alright, that's enough. Call it a draw for the two of you," Orochimaru's figure suddenly appeared between them and said.
"If this goes on, the poison in your bodies will cause irreversible damage."
After being interrupted by Orochimaru, the two of them suddenly remembered that they were supposed to be good brothers.
"Hey, are you okay, Minato? I didn't accidentally hurt you, did I?"
"I'm fine, Kaze. Quick, drink this antidote. I'm really sorry just now."
Kaze downed the antidote in one gulp and asked curiously,
"By the way, Minato, when did you poison me? I didn't notice at all."
"At the beginning," Minato replied with a shy smile. "The python was poisonous, and the poison would seep into the body slowly through contact."
"I see!" Kaze showed a look of sudden realization.
"Alright," Orochimaru clapped his hands to get their attention.
"Both of you performed very well just now. I'm quite satisfied. That's it for today."
"Yes, Lord Orochimaru (Teacher)," the two replied respectfully.
Different from Kaze who called Orochimaru "Lord", Minato had inherited part of Orochimaru's legacy, so he respectfully addressed him as "Teacher".
In the Hokage's office,
Tanzō pointed at the military map on the table and traced a route to the Land of Earth with his hand.
"Currently, the Iwagakure army is entangled in the Land of Rain, and their rear is exhausted. If we send troops along this route to the rear of Iwagakure, we might be able to severely damage Iwagakure Village in one fell swoop!"
"No," Hiruzen took a deep puff of his pipe and shook his head.
"Konoha needs to recuperate now, not provoke an enemy as strong as Sunagakure."
Bang!
"You're too weak, Hiruzen!" Tanzō slammed the table hard and said coldly.
"Are we just going to let the matter of Iwagakure Village's previous surprise attack on Konoha go like this?"
Hiruzen exhaled a puff of smoke, looked up at Tanzō, and calmly uttered the words he had repeated countless times.
"Tanzō, I'm the Hokage."
These words hit Tanzō's sore spot. He gritted his teeth in anger and wished he could punch Hiruzen right then and there.
"You'll regret this, Hiruzen!"
The above conversation was so complicated that Maoqiu will simplify it for you guys.
Tanzō: Plan
Hiruzen: No
Tanzō: Weak
Hiruzen: Hokage
Tanzō: Regret
Tanzō and Hiruzen stared at each other for a long time, their gazes almost locked, but neither of them showed any sign of backing down.
"Humph!"
Tanzō let out a disdainful snort, stuffed the map away in a huff, and flicked his sleeves, about to leave.
At this moment, Hiruzen behind him called out to stop him. "Tanzō, wait a moment."
When Tanzō turned around, Hiruzen stood up and said with a smile on his face.
"It's been a long time since our two families had a meal together. Why don't you bring Kaze and come to my place for a get - together some other day?"
Tanzō was about to refuse immediately, but looking into Hiruzen's sincere eyes, on a whim, he agreed.
"...Alright."
Tanzō left in a hurry. A figure silently emerged from the shadows and approached Hiruzen.
This was a young man of sixteen or seventeen, looking heroic, and somewhat similar in appearance to Hiruzen.
Sarutobi Nagare, good ol' son of Hiruzen Sarutobi, good ol' brother of Asuma, and the father of Konohamaru.
"Father, in my opinion, Tanzō just wants to take away your power by starting a war. You have to be on guard against him."
Nagare stared at the direction where Tanzō had left, a flash of disdain crossing his eyes.
As a squad leader of the Anbu and the son of the current Hokage, he knew a lot of Tanzō's dirty secrets and looked down on this man from the bottom of his heart.
Seeing that his father remained unmoved, Nagare continued, "Moreover, he has been getting very close to Orochimaru recently. It seems they are plotting something. Aren't you worried at all?"
"Alright, Nagare, stop talking." Hiruzen interrupted his son, with a look of reminiscence and emotion on his face.
"If it weren't for Tanzō back then, I couldn't have secured the Hokage position; and without his years of work in the shadows, I wouldn't have been able to uphold this large - scale Konoha."
"But..." Nagare wanted to say something more to remind his father to beware of Tanzō.
"That's enough. You don't understand the relationship between me and Tanzō. Don't mention this matter again."
"...I understand, father."
Shimura Residence.
After Kaze returned home, he saw Tanzō sitting angrily on the throne - like chair and shivered in fear.
He thought he'd done something wrong and offended his father, and nearly ran away right then.
"Kaze, how was your training today?"
Seeing his son come home, Tanzō's expression gradually softened. He didn't want his negative emotions to affect his son.
Kaze carefully sized up Tanzō for a while and found that he wasn't angry with him, then he finally relaxed.
"Father, I was just about to tell you about this." Kaze said.
"I've made remarkable progress in my training this year. Not only have I improved in all aspects, but I've also learned your... Sexy..."
"Cough, that is, Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere."
"Oh, really?" Tanzō was a bit surprised when he heard this and looked at Kaze suspiciously.
What his son said was way different from what Orochimaru told him.
According to Orochimaru, Kaze's progress was slow, and what he learned were mostly empirical things, with little substantial improvement.
"Of course it's true. If you don't believe me, I'll show it to you." Kaze patted his chest and said with certainty.
Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere!
Kaze took a deep breath, turned towards the window, and made a 'tu-tu-tu-tu-tu' sound while executing the Vacuum Sphere jutsu quite skillfully.
"Not bad!" Tanzō's eyes lit up. He was very satisfied with Kaze's performance, and the gloom in his heart was somewhat alleviated.
You know, even he himself didn't learn the Vacuum Sphere, the ancestral jutsu of the Shimura family, until he was an adult.
"It seems that Orochimaru is quite modest. He's a nice young man," Tanzō thought.
"Father, I feel like I've reached a bottleneck in my training," Kaze asked tentatively. "What do you think...?"
A father knows his son best. As soon as Kaze stuck out his butt, Tanzō knew what he was planning.
"Alright, if you don't want to train, just say so. Then, you can go back to Root and lead the team again."
After pondering for a moment, Tanzō added, "Take Minato Namikaze with you. Don't let him get too close to Orochimaru."
"I understand, father," Kaze replied with a complicated mood.
Although he had known this day would come, he still couldn't imagine it.
No way! Which Naruto fan could have ever imagined this!
The great Fourth Hokage, the upright and noble Minato Namikaze, would actually join Root and become Tanzō's lackey?!
It's all messed up! The plot has completely deviated from the original!
"By the way," Tanzō said again. "Come with me to Hiruzen's house for a meal in a few days."
"Go to Uncle Hiruzen's house for a meal?" Kaze repeated.
In his mind, the first face that came to mind wasn't the old face of the Third Hokage, but that of Sarutobi Nagare.
His family and the Sarutobi family were like old friends. But for some reason, that little punk Sarutobi Nagare had always been hostile to him and given him the cold shoulder.
Kaze couldn't put up with this kind of treatment. When they were alone, he directly swore at Sarutobi Nagare's whole family.
As for how harsh the swearing was...
Well, let's just say that if the adults from the two families hadn't rushed over after hearing the commotion, Kaze might have been beaten to a pulp by Sarutobi Nagare.
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