121 Responsibility towards the future

"Ehhhh….??????" Naruto stared at Minato with his mouth wide open.

"Oh, that's a great idea," everyone in the room agreed.

Hashirama and Tobirama, in particular, turned towards Orochimaru,

"…" Orochimaru was silent for a few seconds.

"I won't do anything to interfere," Orochimaru said following which he looked towards Naruto.

"Good for you, Naruto-kun," Orochimaru said with a hint of smile…

("Back to that same, strange smiling expression I see…") Naruto thought.

Naruto was pissed at Orochimaru before; however, after hearing such good news from his dad, Naruto was more than happy to let things slide.

"I like that idea, in fact, I will stay back as well,"

"How about you, brother?" Hashirama asked.

"I will stay back too," Tobirama said emotionlessly.

"That's great!" Hashirama said after a burst of hearty laughter.

However, everyone else in the room was surprised.

"You both are staying back as well?" Hiruzen asked.

"Don't get this wrong, but we will be staying back only till the end of the fourth ninja world war after all this problem was caused by Madara though it was actually the mother of the Sage of six-paths behind everything."

"So We have decided to use this opportunity to train those young ones for the upcoming battle especially for the ones after the war," Hashirama said.

"Grandpa…" Tsunade was elated to have Hashirama staying back in the village along with his brother.

"Naruto…"

"No, Hokage-dono." Rasa arrived beside Naruto.

"Thank you for saving my life the other day, and thank you for being a wonderful friend to my children…" Rasa bowed towards Naruto.

"NO!" Naruto immediately prevented Rasa from bowing towards him.

"It's a great honor to have a friend like Gaara, and I am proud of it," Naruto said.

"Then allow me to say this,"

"In this lifetime, The Sand shall forever remain the Leaf's ally till destruction do our villages apart!"

"This, I swear in the presence of all the Six Hokages," Rasa swore an Oath.

Everyone in the room was happy at this moment,

"Orochimaru!" Hiruzen called out.

"Hmm…?" Orochimaru turned towards Hiruzen.

"After seeing your actions during the fourth ninja war and the years after it, I have decided to let the matter be, even if you deserve death for using your subordinate's lives," Hiruzen said.

"However, I will never forgive you for toying with everyone's life in this timeline and the previous," Hiruzen said.

"I never expected anything, to begin with anyway…" Orochimaru replied with a faint smile.

"Jiraiya!" Hiruzen called out.

"Mm?" Jiraiya looked towards Hiruzen.

"Bring Kakashi, Gai and that boy Kabuto here."

"Especially Kabuto!"

"Got it!" Jiraiya walked towards the door.

(Knock!)

(Knock!)

(Knock!)

Someone had knocked on the door at this moment.

Jiraiya opened the door revealing two young boys.

"Sasuke and…"

"Jūgo!" Naruto pointed a finger at the orange-haired boy who stood next to Sasuke.

("Looks like he was acquainted with Jūgo in the future…") Sasuke thought following which his gaze shifted to the figures in front of him while he stared in silence.

("What is this feeling I am getting…") Sasuke thought as his eyes landed on Minato after a moment.

The feeling was intensified as he concentrated his gaze on that yellow hair of Minato's.

"hehe…" Minato smiled towards Sasuke.

"Sasuke,"

"What brings you here?" Hiruzen asked from the back.

"Hokage-sama,"

"I need a favor," Sasuke said in his usual arrogant voice.

"Hmm…" Hiruzen looked towards the boy who stood next to Sasuke.

"I see you've met Jūgo, Sasuke-kun…" Orochimaru smiled towards Sasuke.

"Orochimaru," Sasuke stared at Orochimaru with an arrogant gaze.

After taking a look at Naruto's memories, Orochimaru did not feel the desire towards Sasuke's body anymore, but he rather admired the future Sasuke. However, after seeing this Sasuke, he only felt pity especially after seeing Naruto's memories till the present including the time Naruto confronted Sasuke after arriving at this world, he knew that Sasuke could be dyed in any color easily, as he was swayed by emotions, not to mention the current Sasuke was unaware of the Uchiha's sad past.

Tobirama also had the same impression of Sasuke.

("That Danzō, I never knew he would stoop low,")

("The Uchiha clan was a lost cause, but they still had the potential for better things…") Tobirama sighed following which he looked towards Hiruzen.

("After that brat leaves, I will address this issue as a number one priority.")

("So that's Uchiha Sasuke… huh?") Hashirama thought of the future Sasuke who would protect the village as he roamed the world.

("To think this kid who will become such a splendid ninja, was dragged down by my brother's subordinate, Danzō…") Hashirama looked towards Tobirama, with a look that explained that he wanted to have a talk with Sasuke.

Tobirama immediately shook his head, denying Hashirama of the conversation he wanted to have.

("Well, we do have a lot of time on our hands, so I suppose we can have that conversation later as well…") Hashirama thought.

Meanwhile, Sasuke kept staring at Orochimaru.

"Don't Worry Sasuke-kun; I am not after your body anymore…"

"You could say I am an ally of the leaf now," Orochimaru said.

"Sasuke!" Naruto called out.

"…" Sasuke looked towards Naruto.

Naruto nodded indicating that Sasuke could trust Orochimaru's words.

Jiraiya knew that from now on there was nothing to worry about, after hearing Orochimaru's words.

Jiraiya then walked out of the room to bring the trio that were mentioned.

"What request might you have, Sasuke?" Hiruzen asked.

"I want to know if this boy can live in the village,"

"If you are worried about housing, then he can live in my house," Sasuke said.

"Sasuke, considering your earlier participation in the top-secret S-rank mission, I will give you the reward and fulfill this request of yours," Hiruzen said.

"Mm!" Sasuke nodded following which he turned around to face Jūgo.

"Let's go!" Sasuke said.

"Mm!" Jūgo nodded as he walked along with Sasuke…

*Door Closes*

Hiruzen looked towards Naruto,

"Naruto, from what we have seen earlier, would you like to share your memories with Shikamaru and Sasuke?" Hiruzen asked.

Naruto thought for a moment.

"For now, I want Shikamaru to enjoy his life as much as possible since it would be too early to burden him or Sasuke with any events after the fourth ninja world war…" Naruto said.

"I see, even if Shikamaru were to be told, the real problem would be Sasuke…" Hiruzen murmured.

"More than Sasuke, aren't we supposed to be concerned about another person?" Tobirama asked.

Hiruzen felt a headache on its way.

He walked towards the window and pulled out a smoke pipe from his pocket.

*Lights up smoke pipe*

Hiruzen inhaled from the smoke pipe and let out a puff of smoke, as he stared out the window towards the Hokage mountain faces…

Tobirama and Hashirama also walked towards the window and took an in-depth look at the developments that took place in the village over the years and slowly compared it with the images they had from naruto's memory.

("The tiny village that I had built...,")

("The village that exists now, would develop to such an extent…") Hashirama stared at the village as he compared it to the village he had seen in Naruto's memories.

("He wasn't kidding when he said that developments during his time was a hundred times the current pace.")

The trio then looked towards the Hokage mountains.

They visualized seeing the nine Hokage faces, especially the sixth Hokage's face.

("To think he would go after the Hokage seat without any reservation…") the two thought of Kakashi's position as the sixth Hokage which was, in fact, a temporary position that Danzō was in when Tsunade had passed out.

"It's a good thing that my granddaughter recovered just in the nick of time, however, the boy Kakashi was not bad at all,"

"I agree!" Tsunade appeared beside Hashirama.

"To receive such good praise from the Raikage after Danzō's despicable actions…"

"The sixth does deserve his title," Hashirama said.

Tobirama's thoughts revolved around Sasuke's battle in the Five Kage conference and how he killed Danzō later on, only to find out the truth behind his brother's death from Obito.

"I may not have favored the Uchihas,"

"However, Danzō forcing a boy of such caliber to commit a mass genocide all by himself is something I would never approve,"

"Even more despicable is the fact that he had those eyes on his right hand and the boy Shisui's eyes in place of his right eye…" Tobirama commented.

"Hm…." Hiruzen turned towards Orochimaru.

"…" Orochimaru stared back at the three.

"I may have helped him with that, but the fact remains that both our jutsus, be it my resurrection through curse marks after being killed or the Izanagi are flawed!"

"If you want to blame a person, then blame him alone," Orochimaru said.

"I guess Orochimaru does have a point…" Hashirama said.

Hiruzen had complex thoughts as he compared the younger Danzō that was always a step behind him, to the willy old fox he was now.

"About him…" Naruto interrupted.

However…

(knock!)

(Knock!)

(Knock!)

"Come in," Hiruzen said.

The door opened to reveal an old man with shaggy black hair, a bandaged right eye with a cross mark on his chin. He stood with a walking stick in his left hand while his right arm was covered with a black robe from his feet up to the right shoulder.

("Danzō!") Everyone stared at him.

Orochimaru, however, had an evil smile.