To compare oneself directly to the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, in any aspect whatsoever, was to step squarely on his sorest spot.
Shimura Danzo looked down at the child before him, whose strange blue-gray eyes carried a chilling, piercing coldness in their gaze.
Nariya Ueshima looked back with an expression of innocent and artless candor, as if he truly were just a naive little brat who had asked the question without a second thought.
Well, in truth, he had done it on purpose.
He deliberately poked at Danzo's pet peeve; after all, this hateful old geezer had been bitterly nursing a grudge ever since he lost the position of Hokage all those years ago.
Yet who told him to hesitate and show cowardice at the most critical moment?
And so Senju Tobirama had passed the mantle of Hokage to Sarutobi Hiruzen instead.
"Child, who do you think is stronger: Sarutobi... or Lord Hokage?"
Shimura Danzo, whose heart had been mercilessly stabbed by the child's question, lowered his voice and asked again.
Nariya Ueshima sensed the displeasure in that tone, but how could an ordinary child without special training possibly know how to read the room?
So he pretended to ponder for two seconds, acting as though he could not tell that Danzo was angry, and proceeded to twist the knife further in Danzo's heart. "I think Lord Hokage is a bit stronger."
Sure enough, Shimura Danzo's gloomy gaze grew even darker, but instead of flying into a rage on the spot, he pressed further, demanding, "Why?"
Hearing that seemingly calm yet murderously charged voice, the cold and aloof member of the Root Organization standing nearby was already breaking out in a nervous sweat.
Yet Nariya Ueshima's expression remained completely unchanged. "Because Lord Hokage's office is very big."
Shimura Danzo: "……?"
Root member: "……?"
Seeing the two of them suddenly freeze, Nariya Ueshima raised a hand to point toward the Hokage Office Building in the distance, his tone full of envy. "To be able to live in such a huge place, Lord Hokage must be truly amazing. And that Hokage Monument is huge, too."
With that, he paused, withdrew his gaze, and asked with sincere curiosity, "Is the place where Lord Danzo lives as big as Lord Hokage's? Come to think of it, Lord Danzo's face doesn't seem to be on the Hokage Monument... Why is that?"
Why? What kind of reason could there even be for that?
Wasn't it simply because the Hokage Monument only carved the faces of successive Hokage?
Lord Danzo was not the Hokage.
Besides, the Hokage did not actually live inside the Hokage Office Building.
Silently venting his inner complaints, that Root member went from breaking out in a sweat to breaking out in a cold sweat for the idiot-like child standing before him.
Who would have thought that this kid wouldn't speak until he had to, and every single word he uttered was something Lord Danzo disliked?
With such a foolish fellow, he had no idea what Lord Danzo possibly saw in him.
Meanwhile, Shimura Danzo, who had been insulted on multiple fronts, maintained a calm posture; ordinary people would have found it hard to detect any abnormality in him.
Only, Nariya Ueshima before him was no ordinary person, and so he clearly saw the muscles at the corner of Danzo's eyes twitching slightly.
Against the backdrop of those trembling wrinkles, it was plain to see that the latter's mood was profoundly unpleasant.
Yet, just as the Root member grew anxious, Shimura Danzo suddenly threw his head back and burst into loud laughter.
This laugh startled his subordinate all over again.
C-Could Lord Danzo have been pushed to laughter by extreme rage?
"We are the foundation that supports the great tree of Konoha."
A few seconds later, Danzo reined in his laughter and spoke, concise and to the point.
"From now on, you too shall become a ninja of the Root, and become our comrade."
These words were addressed to Nariya Ueshima. Hearing this, he realized with certainty that Danzo was indeed out recruiting kids everywhere, and had even set his sights on him.
Feigning incomprehension, he put on a goofy smile and nodded. "Thank you, Lord Danzo! Speaking of which, Lord Hokage did tell me to report to the Ninja Academy the day after tomorrow, and study to become a useful ninja!"
At these words, a vein bulged on the Root member's forehead. Feeling he could no longer endure this child's obtuseness, he immediately barged in without permission. "To receive a personal invitation from Lord Danzo is your utmost honor. Rather than standing at the same starting line as those kids at the school, you should follow Lord Danzo right now!"
"Nariya."
Almost the moment the Root member finished speaking, Hatake Sakumo's surprised voice rang out from the distance.
Recognizing that this uninvited guest was the troublesome White Fang of Konoha, Shimura Danzo's face darkened. Too late to scold his subordinate for talking nonsense, he took advantage of the moment the white-haired child in front of him turned his head in confusion toward the other side, signaled to his subordinate, and the two vanished from the spot in an instant.
Catching out of the corner of his eye that the cautious Danzo had been frightened off by the arriving White Fang of Konoha, Nariya Ueshima, who had played the fool and sparred with him for so long, let out a breath and then put on a surprised and well-behaved smile. "Uncle Sakumo."
Hatake Sakumo approached with a frown; for a split second just then, he thought he had seen an ANBU ninja near Nariya.
Because Danzo had been standing at a very clever angle in the mouth of the alley, Hatake Sakumo had not seen him there at all.
"What are you doing here?"
"Ah, I was talking to Lord Danzo. Huh? Where did he go?"
Danzo?
Hatake Sakumo was slightly startled. He quickly glanced toward the empty mouth of the alley as well. So the person just now was a member of the Root?
"Nariya, do you know Lord Danzo?"
Nariya Ueshima nodded, then shook his head. "I met him a few minutes ago. I was just walking along peacefully when the two of them suddenly popped out and scared me, and then they told me a bunch of things I didn't really understand."
Hatake Sakumo hurriedly asked what had been said.
Using a bewildered tone, Nariya Ueshima repeated Danzo's words.
Then he tilted his head in confusion and asked, "Uncle Sakumo, what is the Root?"
Hatake Sakumo lowered his head, lost in thought.
Hearing the question, he looked up again, smiled as he rubbed the young child's head, and changed the subject. "Forget about that, don't worry about it. By the way, you got a haircut."
"Yeah, because that idiot Obito said that if I kept my hair long I'd look like a girl, and he was afraid that kind of me would be targeted and kidnapped by some creepy old uncle."
"Hahaha……" Hatake Sakumo couldn't help laughing.
Thinking to himself that this kid really *had* almost been kidnapped by just such a person moments ago—fortunately he arrived in time, and fortunately the child was too innocent to grasp Danzo's true intentions.
With that thought, Hatake Sakumo let out a long inner sigh of relief, reached out to steady Nariya Ueshima's shoulders, and gave him a hearty, reassuring pat. "Lord Hokage mentioned you're starting school. Come on, I'll take you to buy your school supplies."
"As it happens, Uncle still has a few things he'd like to ask your thoughts on."
……
"Lord Danzo, as for a foolish child like that, this subordinate sees no need to bring him back for training."
"What's more, he even spoke insolently—"
Hearing this, Shimura Danzo, who had already returned to the Root Organization, narrowed his eyes, his gaze so deep that others could scarcely read it.
If he hadn't run into the White Fang spoiling things just then, he probably would have brought the child back by now.
And upon returning, the subordinate who had accompanied him was still full of indignant resentment.
"Rihei, do you think a child who just entered the village could possibly have enough scheming intent to deliberately say those things to me?"
"I see it as nothing more than childish ignorance."
"Besides, only a child as blank as a sheet of paper is easy to dye."
Hearing Danzo's words, the Root member named Rihei choked back his thoughts and muttered softly:
"This subordinate just felt that the child had nothing particularly special about him."
Shimura Danzo, with his penchant for collecting eyes, spoke up: "His eyes are the ones I want."