The sunset bled all over the Hokage Rock, turning those stone faces a sick, heavy red. Shimura Danzo hobbled out of the Hokage Tower (the big-dick symbol of Leaf power) leaning on his cane like it was the only thing keeping him upright.
Hiruzen had just pinned another black mark on him. Danzo froze, that one milky eye locked on the giant mugs carved up there, especially his old teacher, Tobirama, the Second Hokage.
Icy wind whipped his robes. Every old war wound woke up and started screaming, phantom pains like knives in the dark.
That pain mixed with fifty years of buried bitterness and regret, gnawing his heart like a goddamn viper.
If only…
That split-second he hesitated during the rear-guard clusterfuck. One goddamn heartbeat slower, and Hiruzen (that smug monkey) jumped in first, yelling the words that rewrote everybody's future.
One blink, and Hiruzen became the Third Hokage, parked his ass in the big chair for decades while Danzo rotted in the shadows.
Protecting the Leaf with "Root" tactics, eating every curse and smear the village could spit.
"Teacher… Hiruzen…" Danzo's cracked lips barely moved, voice a rasp only he could hear, soaked in bone-deep regret and a lifetime of obsession. "Watch me. One day my face gets carved up there, right next to yours!"
He crushed the cane handle till his knuckles went ghost-white. Hiruzen wasn't just old; he was senile, soft as overcooked ramen.
"Cloud snagged Uchiha blood today and liked the taste. Tomorrow they'll come for Hyuga eyes, then the Nine-Tails jinchūriki again."
Danzo sneered, murder bubbling up. "Keep rolling over for those bandits, beg for peace with your belly up, and they'll just piss higher on your face!"
"Even a toddler gets that, Hiruzen. You don't deserve the hat anymore."
Killing intent flashed in his dead eye, then he melted into the thickening dusk.
Inside the Hokage office, smoke hung so thick you could chew it. Hiruzen sucked his pipe like it owed him money, then blew it out slow.
The haze blurred the road-map wrinkles on his face. His eyes drifted to the Rock outside, complicated as hell.
"Teacher… if you saw the shit I've pulled these years, would you regret handing me the keys?"
"The village is running on fumes. We need a breather, not another war…"
He's the Hokage. Push for all-out war with Cloud? Leaf bleeds out, and he's the asshole who has to fall on his sword, forced to resign again.
As for Makoto Uchiha… Danzo's his oldest buddy. No way he lets Sharingan slip out of the village.
…
Next day, Leaf publicly roasted Cloud for using the ceasefire talks as a smoke screen to pull slimy-ass theft.
Not only did they trash the village, they tried to jack Hyuga Byakugan and straight-up kidnapped an Uchiha descendant!
Leaf demanded Cloud cough up Makoto Uchiha immediately, no conditions, plus a groveling apology for the scumbag move.
The statement was fire, every word a hammer, showing backbone Leaf hadn't flexed in years. But it was all thunder, no rain.
Besides the press release? Crickets. No army on the border, not even a halfway decent envoy to scream in their face.
The "tough stance" was paper-thin and laughable.
Hiruzen had just finished bullshitting the Fire Daimyo's skeptical questions, wondering how Cloud would squirm, when they answered with a bitch-slap that left the whole Leaf council reeling.
Cloud's reply was pure gangster-level shameless.
"Destruction? Blood theft? Total bullshit! Our delegation was on best behavior, never went near Hyuga or Uchiha!"
"Makoto Uchiha? Who the fuck is that? Leaf just invented a name to frame us?"
Then the knockout punch: Cloud flipped the script, painted themselves the victims.
"Leaf's the one with no peace boner! You brutally murdered our delegation head and illegally detained our diplomats! That's a declaration of war on all of Cloud!"
"Hand over the killer, the Hyuga main-house grand elder's corpse, NOW. Or Cloud's armies steamroll the Fire Country till one of us is dust!"
The upside-down, deer-for-horse gall of it shattered Leaf brass's worldview.
Even Hiruzen, the Professor, saw black spots, temples throbbing, damn near crushed his pipe.
Pissed? Sure. But the man was a pro. He swallowed the rage and humiliation like a bitter pill.
Fight now? Leaf didn't even have a decent field commander. What, send the Hokage himself?
Dodge the blade. Eat the L for now.
He kept chanting it: As long as Danzo handles Makoto and the Sharingan stays home, we swallow this shit. All for the Will of Fire.
Publicly, they ran a half-assed op in the Hot Water Country.
On that sideshow battlefield, a bunch of Hyuga branch-house ninjas (who knew saying no meant a cursed seal to the brain) charged like kamikazes. Cloud and Leaf scratched each other up, nobody lost much.
The "symbolic" clash fizzled out quick.
The ceasefire treaty? Toilet paper. But the real joke: the actual state of war between Leaf and Cloud ended with a twisted middle finger.
Leaf couldn't afford round two. Cloud couldn't either.
Third Shinobi World War closed with Leaf eating a clown-shoe sandwich.
The shinobi world map quietly redrew itself.
Thanks to the First Hokage, Hashirama, the goddamn God of Shinobi, Leaf had started as the undisputed superpower lording over four great villages.
After two world wars, Leaf bled hard but still fought one-against-many and came out on top, keeping the crown.
But under Hiruzen and his F4 crew, that iron grip slipped through their fingers like sand.