Minato is holding his head with an annoyed expression while looking at the documents in front of him. The 9 Tailed Fox incident has caused a lot of problems.
While the number of victims isn't very high, thanks to Zoro's quick action to move the fox away without damaging more of the village, different problems arise now.
The reflection of sharingan in the fox's eyes when he was under Obito's control made people think badly of Uchiha now even though it was also Uchiha Police Force that moved very quickly to control the situation during the incident as it was their duty.
Minato knows that there are some people who used this incident to damage Uchiha and most likely his reputation as the Hokage.
After all, the jinchuuriki is his wife and he failed to protect her during her labor, so someone could attack her and release the fox to attack the village.
Minato is very smart, so he knows the hidden agendas of some people in the village. However, it's hard for him to make a move on them without concrete evidence.
Furthermore, those people have high-ranks in the village. If he moves rashly, the village will be put in danger instead as a civil war might happen.
It's also very hard for him to do things because it hasn't been long since he became the Hokage and he also doesn't come from a big clan. So his power in the village is actually not too big.
When he is having a headache, thinking of what to do in this current situation, someone suddenly knocks the Hokage office door impatiently. The Anbus hiding in the room are wary, but Minato signals them to relax.
"Come in."
The door opens and a green-haired teenager enters the room. Minato sighs in relief and smiles as he looks at the familiar face. But then he frowns seeing Zoro's annoyed expression.
"What's wrong, Zoro-kun? I thought you had left the village."
"I had. And I would have gone very far if not for you guys."
"Huh? Us? What do you mean?"
"Tsk! Don't feign ignorance, Hokage! You sent people to attack me and now you act like you know nothing? Wow, simply wow."
Zoro acts as if he doesn't know that the ones attacking him were Root members which weren't under Hokage.
He acts oblivious because it shouldn't be known by common people outside the village. It will be more strange if an outsider like him knows the internal structures of Konoha.
"W-wait a minute! Zoro-kun, I never send anyone to attack you."
"Really? Then I guess these corpses aren't Konoha ninjas then."
Zoro opens a scroll and releases the corpses of the Root members he killed. The Anbu ninjas hiding in the room come out immediately, ready to protect the Hokage.
"This is.... Eagle, check who they are."
"Yes, sir."
The man with an Eagle mask comes forward to check the corpses.
"T-they are our ninjas, Hokage-sama. But they are members of Roots."
"What?! Root members?"
Minato is surprised to know that Root members are attacking Zoro.
"Are you saying they aren't your men?"
"No, they are a member of a personal organization in this village."
"What? There are personal organizations too? How complicated. Fine, let's say I believe what you said. But it's still a fact that they are ninjas from this village."
"Did they really attack you, Zoro-kun?"
"Are you saying I'm lying? The fact that I fought and killed them quite far from the village should be enough. Why would we fight very far from the village like that unless they were chasing me after I left the village? There was no way I was the one chasing them by seeing the location, after all. You can check if we really fight far away from the village by following my trace."
Minato looks at one of the Anbu ninjas before the ninja suddenly disappears. He wants to check before the Root moves to erase any remaining evidence.
"I'm sorry for what happened, Zoro-kun. But it's really not me who sent them to attack you. There's no way I will attack someone who not only saved this village, but also my wife."
Thanks to Zoro's suggestion to put half of the 9 Tailed Fox's chakra in Kushina's body, she survived even after having the fox taken out of her body.
However, now she is half-paralyzed, most likely the side-effect of getting the Tailed Beast taken out of her body and she even fought the fox after that.
If they put the whole 9 Tailed Fox into her body, not just half of its chakra, then Kushina won't be able to control it and it would come out again, which would truly kill her.
She even struggled to keep half of the fox's chakra inside her body even with Minato's help to seal it, so they were glad they didn't put more.
"So, if they are not under your command, then who?"
"That's.... What are you planning to do after knowing who their leader is?"
"Who knows? Maybe I'll go say hi. I've told you, right? I always hold my grudges and repay my debts."
"Please don't do anything rash, Zoro-kun! I promise I will handle this matter, so can you leave it to me?"
"How long?"
"Uh, I'm not sure, but I will do my best."
"Tsk! Then at least you can tell me who it is, right? You know that I can just ask around later, so why don't you tell me?"
"Sigh, it's Mr. Danzo, one of the village's advisors."
"Heh, an advisor has a personal army, huh? How funny? Do they all have an army each? Hahaha, they might be planning to rebel against the Hokage then."
Zoro just laughs while he leaves the office, leaving Minato who has a complicated expression.
Even without Zoro saying it, Minato has always thought of such a possibility. After all, Root is different from clans as it is built by recruiting ninjas from various clans and even the orphans.
Furthermore, there is a problem with its funding. Clans usually have businesses and they have been long established, so they have their own sources of funds.
But Root is Danzo's personal team and he doesn't have any big business to fund the whole organization. Their fund actually comes from the village, which is strange because the village can't even command them directly.
"Just what was the 3rd Hokage thinking when he approved this?"
Minato still doesn't understand why the 3rd Hokage allowed Root to be formed and even funded it. No matter how close the 3rd with Danzo, it still shouldn't be a reason to use the village fund for a personal squad.
He doesn't want to accuse the man he respects, but Minato thinks that it's possible for the 3rd to get benefits from this, like a share of the fund.
"I really need to reform the village. But it will be very difficult and take a long time if no miracle happens."
That miracle will happen soon because as Zoro said, he always holds his grudges. It was clear from the Root members' actions that Danzo doesn't have any good intentions towards Zoro.
Knowing that guy's character from the story, Zoro assumes that Danzo wants to use him or at least check if he is a threat.
Too bad for Danzo, Zoro hates being used and questioned forcefully. It is different from when the Iron Daimyo called him and gave him a job as an informant.
The Iron Daimyo sent his people officially and in public without hiding his intention. But Danzo was doing it secretly and even tried to force Zoro when he didn't comply.
Just from the way he approached, Zoro can already tell that Danzo's intention isn't good at all. Zoro doesn't like keeping problems, he likes to solve them as quickly as he can, so he will do something about Danzo soon.
"Story, fate, or whatever, I don't care. I'll just do whatever I want even if it changes the original story too much. This is my life, after all. Besides, I've done too much to even care about it now."
Saving Kushina and Minato was never his intention. He never cared about it, but the situation forced Zoro to participate in that event and the result is like that.
Now another important character is trying to mess with him. He doesn't care who it is, but he won't let anyone mess with him because he loves himself and lives for himself.
It's night now and Zoro is eating ramen in Ichiraku. He hasn't left Konoha yet after meeting Minato. Soon, he finishes his meal and walks on the dark street with Torao on his head.
"Let's go, Torao. Time to do post-meal exercise."
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Chapter 62. Own Path
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