Malphegor
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HTP: Ch. 18
🕑 Added 2025-05-26 22:00:42 +0000 UTCDon't tell me... the Child of the Prophecy is an old man? Jiraiya chuckled at his own ridiculous thought. He stood inside the Hokage's office, watching Hiruzen energetically handling documents while calmly and efficiently issuing instructions to the waiting ANBU.
Things like:
"The construction quality of the Ninja Academy must be strictly monitored."
"An assassination mission? We don't take on that kind of dirty work."
"Konoha's security standards are far beyond those of those backwater rogue villages."
"Have the secretary's office revise the speech for the school opening ceremony again."
"A protest from Ōnoki? He can stuff it."
"Suna's compensation isn't enough. Send it back. Playing the victim won't work. Have Chiyo redo it. Gaara must be sent here to learn the Will of Fire."
In the past, the figures of the two elders, Homura and Koharu, were often seen in the Hokage's office. Now, they were nowhere to be found. When asked, the answer was: "They just can't keep up with the pace of Hiruzen anymore."
Truly, he was a restorer of prosperity.
"Jiraiya, you're here." Hiruzen finally spoke after finishing the stack of papers. "I called you here to ask you to bring Tsunade back."
Jiraiya had already suspected as much. He said, "She might not be willing to return."
Originally, he had gone to find Tsunade because he didn't want to be Hokage himself, and after Hiruzen's death, the village had been left leaderless. Back then, he had confidence he could persuade her to return and take charge. But now Konoha was flourishing, and Hiruzen, in his current state, looked like he could continue leading for quite some time. In such circumstances, she might still choose to run away.
To be honest, if it weren't for the upcoming "Academy City Cultural Victory" plan, something that deeply aligned with his tastes, he would have gone back to wandering and writing after dealing with Orochimaru.
He was also an educator of the shinobi world.
Hiruzen took a puff from his pipe, slowly exhaled a ring of smoke, and said, "Only you have a chance of convincing her. The village is under great pressure lately, Kumo and Iwa have been testing our borders with growing ambition. We need more top-tier combat strength to anchor the village."
"With your current strength, I doubt you're actually afraid of them," Jiraiya said with a smile, a hint of teasing in his tone.
"To them, I'm already just an old man. The way I appear now may be just for show," Hiruzen sighed, a bit of helplessness in his voice.
"It's not that I fear war now. It's that I worry if war breaks out, it will derail my reform plans. If I can intimidate Ōnoki and A, that would be ideal. The current Konoha has a broader future, we can't afford to be dragged into the quagmire of war."
Jiraiya nodded in understanding. Then he suddenly stepped forward, resting both hands on the desk and staring seriously at his teacher:
"Then what exactly is going on with you? Don't tell me Orochimaru was actually right?"
He finally asked, his tone unusually serious. If he didn't get a satisfactory answer, he might very well walk out then and there.
"Of course not."
That question hit Hiruzen right in the heart. Walking in splendor in the dark, how frustratingly ironic.
He had a personality much like Jiraiya's, lecherous, flamboyant, always wanting to show off. Holding in such a huge secret without being able to brag about it had been eating him up.
In front of his closest student, revealing a bit of his true nature was no big deal.
As for keeping such a secret tightly guarded from prying eyes? Well, he was still the Hokage.
He chuckled smugly. "Jiraiya, I... might actually be the Child of the Prophecy."
He began explaining the information he'd obtained from another world and said that Itachi would soon carry out the first interdimensional mission.
The skies above Konoha were no longer confined to the narrow world of ninjas.
And also... "Jiraiya, your Icha Icha no longer impresses me. I've found a much broader world now."
Jiraiya listened with a complicated expression, occasionally interjecting with questions… until he couldn't hold back anymore. "No way! I have Icha Icha universally loved!"
---
The window beside the hospital bed was open, and the white curtains swayed gently in the wind.
It was a double room. On the cabinet between the two beds sat a bouquet of flowers and a newspaper, clearly, someone had already visited.
Sasuke looked at Kakashi in the bed next to his and couldn't help but speak, "Don't tell me you're the weakest among the jonin."
Kakashi was flipping through Icha Icha, his cheeks slightly red, whether from reading the book. After thinking for a moment, he replied, "Well... I wouldn't put it that way. I just let my guard down."
"But we're the only two in the hospital, right?" Sasuke pointed at the newspaper on the cabinet. He already knew that Itachi and Kisame had been defeated, and that Kisame had been captured alive.
"After we passed out, the other group won. Unfortunately, that bastard still got away. But maybe that's for the best, revenge is something I should carry out with my own hands."
Kakashi, who had already guessed what had happened, wasn't too concerned. He turned to the next page of his beloved book and casually said, "Guy has always been strong, you could even say he's the strongest in Konoha. I could ask him to train you, you know."
The strongest in Konoha… train me… Sasuke was briefly tempted.
But the image of Guy and Lee in their full green spandex glory was still too much for him to accept. He fell into an intense internal struggle.
"Kakashi-sensei! Sasuke! We came to visit you!" The loud voice of the brash Naruto rang out as he opened the door to the hospital room. Sakura was with him.
"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura greeted politely, placing a bouquet of flowers by Sasuke's bed. "Are you feeling okay?"
"No serious problems."
"Bringing instant noodles to visit a patient is outrageous. Sakura's much more considerate," Kakashi remarked dryly, noticing Naruto putting down a cup of ramen on the cabinet.
"This is a limited edition! You're not going to see this handsome face for a while, after all!" Naruto smiled as he adjusted his forehead protector, meeting Kakashi's gaze. "Gramps personally assigned me and Jiraiya-sensei an S-rank mission. We'll be heading out soon!"
S-rank mission… Sasuke felt a fresh wave of envy.
"What? That means Team 7 is going to be separated again?" Sakura grumbled unhappily.
"Gramps said he's assigned a very intimidating jonin to temporarily replace Kakashi-sensei."
"You mean Yamato? His stare is a little scary, but he's actually a gentle guy," Kakashi nodded, showing he understood.
"But you seem pretty fine to me. You don't look like someone too injured to lead a team."
Kakashi kept reading his novel. "It's worse than it looks. Genjutsu mostly causes psychological damage. I'll need some time to recover."
"I see... Then I hope you get well soon, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said with concern.
Then stop reading your dirty book already! Inner Sakura screamed internally.
What Kakashi didn't say was, when his mind was hit by Itachi's Mangekyō Sharingan, he discovered that Obito's eye held far more potential than just the three tomoe. He needed time alone to explore that.
"How strong is this new captain?" Sasuke frowned and asked.
"He used to serve under me. I'd say we're about evenly matched," Kakashi said, taking the apple Naruto had peeled for him. "Thanks. You've really matured."
"Are you bragging again?"
"Ah, how could I?"
The sound of Kakashi munching on the apple followed.
Sasuke clicked his tongue, expressionless. Another former subordinate? Another 'evenly matched'?
Inside, Sasuke was growing restless, he desperately wanted to get stronger.
Even if it means that damn green jumpsuit... Damn it, no. I still can't. My hatred isn't enough yet...
---
There were only two days left before Itachi would embark on his "Summit War of Marineford" interdimensional mission.
He had quietly placed his training notes, Uchiha clan secret scrolls, and the summoning jutsu scrolls at the Uchiha compound. The next time Sasuke returned and looked through the scrolls, he would rediscover them.
In the current situation, there was no need to force him to grow through hatred anymore. That had been a last resort. Now, with Danzō gone, Konoha could let Sasuke grow up normally and healthily.
With his talent, even without a Mangekyō Sharingan, he could still become an extraordinary ninja.
Itachi truly believed that.
The Mangekyō Sharingan was merely a shortcut to power, and one that came with a terrible cost.
After all, none of the Hokage in history became powerful through Sharingan. If they could do it, Sasuke could too, if he was simply given the time to grow.
While tracing Sasuke's daily habits, he had once stumbled upon Sasuke's written answers from the Chunin Exam, and couldn't help but sigh with emotion.
He truly has the makings of a Hokage.
As for himself, a criminal, even imagining such a future was unthinkable. But Sasuke, he might just become the next Hokage.
If not the Fifth, then maybe the Sixth. Let me pave the road ahead for you.
