Chapter 278 Minato's Choice

Konoha's great victory in the Battle of Kikyō Pass not only drove Sunagakure's Shinobi completely out of the Land of Fire, but also captured many prisoners on the mountain, including a small part of Sunagakure's Shinobi and a large number of Land of Wind's civilians.

And Sunagakure's Shinobi's withdrawal from the Land of Fire also means that the war between the two countries will end with Konoha's victory, and it was Orochimaru who brought all this!

So naturally, Orochimaru's fame reached its peak in an instant. When he returned to the village with the captives, countless civilians in Konoha cheered at his return.

Hiruzen is standing on the rooftop of Hokage Tower. When looking at this scene, there was a bit of solemnity and hesitation in his eyes.

The war with Sunagakure has come to an end for now, so the Anbu he sent to assist Orochimaru has also returned a little earlier.

From Anbu's mouth, Hiruzen noticed some dark figures on the ground.

'Root!'

Hiruzen's thoughts gradually drifted to the past.

More than 40 years ago, not long after Konoha was established, Shodaime Hokage, Senju Hashirama, who was known as the God of Shinobi, passed away. After his death, Konoha lost the Wood Release and its position in the Shinobi World plummeted. Not long after, a war broke out, Nidaime Hokage also died, and then Hiruzen inherited the Sandaime Hokage's position.

In order to improve the village's strength as quickly as possible, Hiruzen agreed to Danzō's request and allowed him to establish the Root under the name of 'Anbu Training Department'. Later, in order to prevent the threat of Kyūbi rampaging, Hiruzen and Danzō used Hashirama's cells to do human experiment together in an attempt to breed a new Wood Release Shinobi!

Yes, in addition to Danzō, Hiruzen also used Hashirama's cells to do human experiments!

Unfortunately, all their human experiments failed, and all the volunteers, who were experimental subjects, died without exception.

Hiruzen had no choice but to stop the experiment, and then sealed the experimental data and records as a black history.

After the Second Shinobi World War broke out, Hiruzen's three disciples, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade obtained the title of Sannin.

At the same time, Danzō's Root also became active, collecting corpses and captives everywhere. When Hiruzen saw this, he thought to himself, 'Old friend, are you secretly conducting human experiments behind my back?'

Because of that, Hiruzen sent Orochimaru to Danzō as his personal follower. The first is to show his trust and respect for Danzō, and the second is to monitor Danzō and whether his Root were continuing to do human experiments!

Through Orochimaru, Hiruzen confirmed that Danzō did not continue his research, perhaps because of guilt. Later, Hiruzen put more trust on Danzō and the scale of power decentralization became larger and larger. It didn't take long for Hiruzen to find a reason for Orochimaru to leave Root.

Hiruzen thought it was over, until now.

From the Anbu's report, he found that in addition to Anbu's Shinobi, Danzō's Root's Shinobi also followed Orochimaru to the Sunagakure Battlefield.

Moreover, after arriving at the battlefield, Orochimaru even broke up all the Anbu's Shinobi and transferred them to various units, but Root's Shinobi were all left by him to act as his guards!

In other words, Orochimaru trusts Danzō's Root more than Hiruzen, his own teacher's Anbu!

After confirming the close relationship between Orochimaru and Danzō, the hurt Hiruzen can't help but doubting the credibility of the information that Orochimaru sent back when he was monitoring Danzō at Root.

'Has Danzō really stopped the human experiments?'

Then, Hiruzen immediately checked the number of corpses recorded in the logistic records of the Konoha's main camp after Orochimaru arrived at the frontline, and found that there were a lot of Konoha's Shinobi's corpses, but none of Sunagakure's Shinobi!

It must be known that before Orochimaru arrived there, they captured a lot of Sunagakure's Shinobi's corpses, and even living Sunagakure's Shinobi captives, but after Orochimaru arrived at the frontline, no corpse was seen, let alone living captives!

It was clear that they were all taken by Orochimaru.

Thinking about these things is extremely terrifying, and Hiruzen did not dare to imagine it.

Of course, all this may also be due to his own carelessness.

Hiruzen's heart felt heavy, but just in case, he still had to investigate, but unfortunately, at this time, the Land of Earth, and the Land of Lightning declared war on Konoha one after another, instantly diverting all Hiruzen's attention.

As early as when Konoha's wars against Sunagakure and Kirigakure broke out, Hiruzen had already dispatched a large number of Shinobi to guard the border, but when the war really broke out, the problems that should be exposed were still exposed.

For example… the lack of high-level combat power of Konoha's elite Shinobi!

The two giant clans of Konoha, Hyūga Clan and Uchiha Clan, are still dragged along the coast of the Land of Fire by Kirigakure, and cannot be taken away.

Although the war with Sunagakure is over, several years of war has also consumed a lot of high-level combat power in the village, coupled with Tsunade's fear of blood, Jiraiya's laziness, and Orochimaru's "suspiciousness", Konoha's high-level combat power can almost can be counted on one's fingers!

Hiruzen thought for a while, and finally thought of a hot man.

"Hokage-sama!"

Minato still has his short golden hair that covers his ears, and his blue eyes are as deep as the sky.

"Minato, how is your development of Flying Thunder God Technique?" Hiruzen cut straight to the point.

"It's done!" Minato said with a smile.

Hiruzen's eyes gradually lit up: "Very good, Minato, it's so timely!"

As the village's Jōnin, Minato naturally knew about the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning's declaration of war, so when he heard something from Hiruzen's tone, he immediately said seriously: "Hokage-sama, please allow me to serve on the front line!"

Hiruzen nodded in relief, and said: "The Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning, which side do you plan to choose?"

Minato squinted his eyes slightly: "The Land of Earth!"

Minato's Flying Thunder God Technique speed is unparalleled in the world, whether it is the Land of Lightning's Kumogakure's Shinobi or the Land of Earth's Iwagakure's Shinobi, there is no difference, but in comparison, the Land of Lightning's Kumogakure's Shinobi are mostly good at Taijutsu and Kenjutsu, and their reflex is very fast, while the Land of Earth's Iwagakure's Shinobi appears to be a lot of 'clumsier'. Comparing the two, it is natural for Minato that Iwagakure's Shinobi is easier to kill.

Hiruzen immediately agreed, and he also assigned all the Anbu's Shinobi, who had followed Orochimaru to the Sunagakure Battlefield, to be under Minato's command!

After Minato left Hokage Tower, he immediately went to say goodbye to Kushina, and then headed towards the Land of Rain with the Anbu.

...

A few days later, Danzō returned from the Land of Rain and immediately took Hiruzen, Koharu and the others to a meeting. The first thing was to recommend Orochimaru, who had won the Battle of Kikyō Pass as the Commander-in-Chief, to command Konoha's army in the war against Kumogakure!

If it was before, Hiruzen might have agreed directly, but now, he has already suspected that Orochimaru and Danzō were still carrying out human experiments behind his back. If Orochimaru is put on the frontline, God knows what he will do in order to collect the experimental subjects.

Of course, the most terrifying thing is not this, but that Orochimaru is the heir recognized by the outside world. Once Orochimaru makes great achievements on the battlefield again, then Orochimaru's obtaining Yondaime Hokage's position will be a sure thing!

When Orochimaru becomes Hokage, those human experiments sealed by Hiruzen are likely to reappear in Konoha in an upright manner!

Hiruzen smoked from his pipe calmly, refused Danzō with a faint expression, and said with stern righteousness that Orochimaru has just returned from the Sunagakure Battlefield and should rest for a while, and then, he took advantage of the situation to send Ino–Shika–Chō.