From Pirates to the Strongest Death God in Soul Society

Chapter 354 Sarutobi Hiruzen: If you don’t pretend, how can you become Hokage?
"Naruto?" Sarutobi Hiruzen was a little surprised when he heard this.

"Speaking of this, I have to question you, old man. What's going on?" Jiraiya said in a very unhappy tone: "No matter what, Naruto is the child of Minato and Kushina. He is obviously the son of the hero of the village, but you have ruined him all these years? He is helpless and bullied like this, don't you know how to do something about it? How can you be the Hokage?"

At this point, Jiraiya even slammed the table angrily and said, "He was delivered by Master Biwako himself. How could you treat him like this!?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen was completely speechless after hearing these words. His face turned pale and red and he remained silent.

"Hmph!" Jiraiya snorted coldly when he saw that the old man had nothing to say.

After a long while, Sarutobi Hiruzen said, "Kushina's pregnancy was a secret among secrets. Not even a few people in the village knew about it. Then, that incident happened and both the husband and wife were killed. Tell me, how can I tell the public that Naruto is the son of the Fourth Hokage? Did it just come out of thin air?"

Because Uzumaki Kushina is the previous generation's Jinchūriki, if she becomes pregnant and gives birth, she will become extremely weak and may be taken advantage of by external enemies. Therefore, from the very beginning, the fact that Kushina is pregnant is a secret among secrets, and only a very few people know about it.

Most people who know about this know that Uzumaki Naruto is the son of the Fourth Hokage.

Sarutobi Hiruzen couldn't tell people who didn't know about this. After all, no one knew that the Fourth Hokage's wife was pregnant. After the couple died, you suddenly said that they had a son. Isn't this embarrassing? How to explain it?

Before Jiraiya could speak again, Sarutobi Hiruzen said, "Moreover, the Fourth Hokage made many enemies during the Third Ninja World War. If he were alive, no one would dare to cause trouble for him. But he has already sacrificed himself. If those enemies knew that he had a son, Naruto would be in danger, wouldn't he?"

"Ridiculous reason!" Jiraiya totally disagreed with these things.

Even if we tell everyone about Naruto's identity as the hero's son, we should at least provide him with sufficient protection, right?

What kind of situation did Naruto end up in the village? It was outrageous.

However, Jiraiya did not continue to argue. Things had come to this point and all those words were nonsense. He had already expressed his stance, which meant that he was standing behind Naruto and supporting him. He believed that with his words, the current bad situation would eventually be changed in the future.

Seeing that Jiraiya no longer mentioned these things, Sarutobi Hiruzen was very tactful and did not continue to make excuses. Instead, he asked, "How can you be sure that Naruto is the child of prophecy you are looking for?"

"The Spirit Master told me," Jiraiya said softly.

After a short pause, Jiraiya continued: "Although I just got this answer not long ago, I feel relieved for some reason. If it is Naruto, I believe he will not let me down."

Jiraiya was actually relieved when he found out that Naruto was the child of prophecy he was looking for.

The protagonist of the first book he wrote, the son of his once proudest disciple, it would be great if he was the son of prophecy.

"Spiritual Master?" Sarutobi Hiruzen stroked his beard and said with emotion: "If it is what the Spiritual Master said, then it should be correct."

Sarutobi Hiruzen had only met Bane once, but this time was enough to leave a deep impression on him. Ling Zun was a ruthless man, an absolute boss. Didn't you see that even the Death God of Pure Land was chased and beaten by Ling Zun? One of his fingers was broken.

The Big Toad Immortal of Myōboku Mountain is at most on the same level as the White Snake Immortal of Ryuchi Cave.

But Ling Zun is a being more noble and mysterious than all of them, so what he says should be credible.

"So you want to accept him as your disciple?" Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at Jiraiya again and asked.

"That's right. Tomorrow I will go find Naruto and accept him as my apprentice." Jiraiya nodded, and then said: "Not only that, I will take him away from Konoha to practice. I don't plan to participate in this war in the Sand Village."

"You're not participating!?" Sarutobi Hiruzen said in surprise: "You are a very powerful fighter, this kind of thing..."

"Come on, don't be so lame. The Sand Village is not as powerful as the Kumogakure Village. Although it is also one of the five major hidden villages, don't you know what their level is?" Jiraiya said with disdain.

Although Konoha cannot be said to be in its strongest stage, after all, Konoha originally had two ruthless men, Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, who swept across the entire ninja world without a doubt.

Now that the Uchiha clan has perished and the Senju clan has retired, Konoha is not at its strongest period in history.

But it can definitely be called prosperous, and its hard power can indeed be ranked first among the five major ninja villages today.

Putting aside other things, attacking the Hidden Cloud Village might be a bit difficult, but attacking the Hidden Sand Village would be a piece of cake.

Looking at the five major ninja villages, the Sand Village is the weakest. The Daimyo of the Wind Country cuts the military expenditure of the Sand Village every year, so that Rasa has to go panning for gold to maintain the operation of the village.

Among the five major ninja villages, the Sand Village currently has the least number of ninjas, and apart from Rasa and a few old guys, there is almost no one who can be worthy of the title.

Before, at least he still had a tailed beast in his hand, which could be used as a deterrent force to the outside world. Now even the tailed beast has been snatched away by the Spirit Master.

The current situation of the Sand Village is that it has no money, no people, and no combat power.

Rasa was probably driven to desperation by this situation. He wanted to take a gamble and work with Orochimaru to take over Konoha. If it worked, his Sand Village could eat the flesh and drink the blood of Konoha, quickly grow stronger, and prove their value to the Daimyo of the Wind Country. After that, they could have whatever they wanted, and the future might be bright. On the contrary, if they didn't take this gamble, judging from the previous situation of the Sand Village, chronic death was a matter of sooner or later, especially for Rasa. If he died one day, the funding of the Sand Village would be even more of a problem, and the scale would have to be reduced. What would it be like to be one of the five major ninja villages at that time?
The Takigakure Village, which also possesses the tailed beasts, has been eyeing this location for a long time.

Salamander Hanzo is dead now, but before that, no one knew he was dead. According to that logic, Rasa might even worry that Salamander Hanzo would lead the Hidden Rain Village to attack and seize the throne of one of the five major ninja villages.

If you take a gamble, you might be able to turn things around. If you don’t, there is a high probability that you will die of chronic illness.

So after rejecting Orochimaru the first time, Rasa was ultimately unable to resist the temptation and chose to join forces with Orochimaru.

But it was obvious that he lost the bet, and since he lost, he naturally had to pay a sufficient price.

"In short, I don't care about the affairs of the Sand Village, and as for the Hokage, I won't be one." Jiraiya said in a very decisive tone.

"You traitor, what's the point of me training you?" Sarutobi Hiruzen slammed the table in anger.

"I will take Naruto away from the village temporarily. As for the position of Hokage, if you are really determined to retire, I will go find Tsunade." Jiraiya said in a deep voice.

"Tsunade?" Sarutobi Hiruzen, who was furious just now, regained his composure and said while stroking his beard, "Tsunade is indeed more suitable than an unreliable guy like you, but are you sure you can make her change her mind?"

Jiraiya and Tsunade were both his direct disciples, so for Sarutobi Hiruzen, either of them could take over.

Back then, he even favored Orochimaru more, but later he found out that Orochimaru was really a scoundrel. Sarutobi Hiruzen was already evil enough, but at least he knew how to whitewash it in public. But Orochimaru didn't even pretend, which was too much.

Sometimes, Sarutobi Hiruzen would think to himself that if Orochimaru had been willing to pretend on the surface, perhaps he would have made up his mind to make good arrangements for him.

If you don't even pretend, how can you become Hokage?
In this village, there are bound to be some people who are shady and corrupt, but as the Hokage, he is the face of the village, and his face must be clean.

Otherwise, if the people in the village heard that their Hokage was conducting human experiments, doing some taboo research, and even killing his companions, would this be acceptable?

Look at him, Sarutobi Hiruzen, walking in the village, who can't help but praise him?
His name is loud and famous, such as Ninja Hero, Ninja Doctor, and the Strongest Hokage of all time. The children in the village all call him "the kind old grandfather".

This is what Naruto should do and it’s the right label, okay?

"I'll try my best. That girl has been outside for so many years. You say she doesn't miss the village, but that's impossible. I'll make your 'illness' sound more serious and mention the Demonic Fate. I'm sure Tsunade will come back to the village even if it's just to see you for the last time. When she comes back, you can use the same tactics you used on me to deal with her. Isn't it easy? After all, I'm not easily persuaded by soft or hard tactics. But don't you understand Tsunade? She has a cold exterior but a warm heart. She's hard on the outside but soft on the inside. If you act like you're going to die, she won't be able to resist your pestering." Jiraiya said calmly.

"You have a point." Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't care that Jiraiya had exposed his 'conspiracy' and nodded to himself.

Speaking of which, Tsunade actually has more advantages than Jiraiya as the Hokage.

First, in terms of gender, she is a female. If she becomes Hokage, she will be the first female Hokage in the history of Konoha. This will surely greatly inspire the fighting spirit and ambition of the other female ninjas of Konoha. It is simply politically correct.

Second, Tsunade's identity advantage is also there. Although Jiraiya also has a very high prestige, he is indeed a little inferior to Tsunade. After all, Tsunade is the direct descendant of the Senju clan.

If Tsunade becomes the Hokage, it is almost foreseeable that the support of the Fire Nation nobles for Konoha will continue and even become stronger.

The influence of the Senju clan is no joke. They are now nobles. If their direct descendant becomes Hokage again, how could he possibly treat Konoha unfairly?

Thinking of this, Sarutobi Hiruzen changed his mind and agreed, saying, "Okay, if you can trick Tsunade back to be the Hokage, then naturally you won't have anything to do. You can do whatever you want, and I won't bother to pay attention to you. But let me be frank, I am indeed old, and even if I continue to waste time in this position, I don't have much time. The issue of the next generation of Hokage must be resolved, but you know the current situation. Apart from the two of you, who else do you think is suitable to be Hokage? Obviously, no one. Do you want to watch me give up the position to Danzo? So this is a death order. If Tsunade doesn't come back, you have to come back, do you understand?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen's words were very rude, but Jiraiya was unable to refute them.

There is indeed no one in the village who is suitable to be Hokage at the moment. Whether it is Kakashi or Nara Shikaku, they are both too young and do not have the prestige to overwhelm everyone.

The most important thing is that because he is young, he does not have strong forces to support him.

Take Kakashi for example. Sarutobi Hiruzen believed that he was indeed qualified to be elected Hokage since he had a good family background. But given Kakashi's current situation, there was a high possibility that he would be sidelined by Konoha's top management, advisors, Danzo and others.

Because his foundation and background are not enough, if the fresh blood of Naruto and his generation grow up and become the backbone of Konoha, then Kakashi will be truly qualified to become Hokage.

In comparison, Jiraiya does not have to worry about this problem, because for Jiraiya, Kakashi and others are his "foundation". With the support of Kakashi and other mainstays, Jiraiya can calmly compete with the so-called high-level officials of Konoha, and will not be sidelined as soon as he comes up.

Some people always say that when the Fourth Hokage came to power, he became a puppet of Sarutobi Hiruzen. But if you think about it carefully, the situation is not that simple.

Isn't Sarutobi Hiruzen also laying the foundation for becoming the Fourth Hokage? Without him, can the Fourth Hokage really hold on to that position? Can the young and even somewhat naive Fourth Hokage defeat Danzo? Can it be done without Sarutobi Hiruzen's guidance?
Of course, this is just Sarutobi Hiruzen's own idea.

What the truth was has been covered up by the past along with the sacrifice of the Fourth Hokage.

(End of this chapter)