To be honest, Ye Chen's view of Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi was quite complicated.
When he first started watching the naruto anime, Ye Chen was still in elementary school.
He watched dozens of episodes out of order on Xingkong TV back then and was instantly captivated.
The plot, characters, and power system...
all completely mesmerized the young Ye Chen.
Later, for some reason, Xingkong TV stopped broadcasting naruto and switched to Detective Conan.
The plot of the latter seemed a bit too boring to the Ye Chen of that time.
He yearned more for the action-packed stories of naruto.
So, Ye Chen secretly broke open his golden pig piggy bank where he saved his New Year's money.
Using the money he had accumulated inside, he went to the bookstore and bought a twelve-volume set of the naruto manga.
It just happened to reach the end of the Chunin Exams, right at the start of the shippuden era.
He cherished it like a priceless treasure!
If you were to ask Ye Chen which arc of naruto he found the most exciting and enjoyable...
The first would undoubtedly be shippuden, specifically the debut of the Akatsuki Organization.
That was truly insanely cool and mind-blowing.
Up until Nagato's destruction of Konoha, it was at the level of a masterpiece.
After that, well, no comment.
Ranked second would be the Chunin Exams arc.
It was also the first major climax of the entire naruto storyline.
Countless characters made their stage debut, and the hype was off the charts.
When the young Ye Chen saw Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi willing to sacrifice his life to stop Orochimaru...
he was deeply moved by the character.
His favorability rating was at its max!
But later, as he got older and the entire naruto series concluded...
Ye Chen specifically read many naruto fanfictions.
The backgrounds of the vast number of fanfiction authors were certainly very diverse.
There were naturally Sandaime fans, and just as naturally, Sandaime haters.
Among them, as time passed after the original naruto manga ended...
the Sandaime haters almost became the mainstream.
Most naruto fanfictions from this period leaned toward interpreting the work through conspiracy and darkness.
There were many well-known arguments that even broke out of the niche circle, influencing anime viewers who didn't even read novels.
For example, that Uzumaki Naruto was intentionally neglected by the Sandaime; that the old fossil Hiruzen Sarutobi, in order to more easily control the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, could spread rumors so that Uzumaki Naruto's childhood was spent in a state of constant loneliness and helplessness.
This would make it convenient for him to appear as a kind angel to save Uzumaki Naruto, causing the latter to subconsciously depend on him.
Another example was that the Fourth Hokage's death was intentional on Hiruzen Sarutobi's part. After Minato Namikaze took office as the Fourth Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi refused to relinquish power, unable to let go of the authority in his hands, effectively turning Minato Namikaze into a puppet.
On the night of the 'Nine-Tails Attack,' he supposedly even deliberately delayed reinforcements, leaving Minato Namikaze with no choice but to use the Reaper Death Seal to reseal the Nine-Tailed.
There were many more of these dark-tinged arguments, too many to list.
In short, in works from that period, Hiruzen Sarutobi always appeared as an antagonistic figure.
At best, he was a protagonist with major flaws, whose role was to be face-slapped by the main character or have his mistakes corrected.
On Ye Chen's side, because he had read so many of these fanfictions, he couldn't help but look at Hiruzen Sarutobi through tinted glasses.
But after seeing enough, he developed his own new understanding.
To be honest, the biggest blame for Hiruzen Sarutobi's inconsistent image lies with Masashi Kishimoto.
This guy Kishimoto had many settings in the book that were inconsistent, and the subsequent retcons couldn't fix them at all.
This also forced later readers to fill in the gaps in their own minds after finishing the original manga.
Think about it.
What is the primary tone of the character settings in the naruto manga?
Everyone is a good person!
Let's count them. The first minor boss the protagonist team encountered was Zabuza Momochi.
He fought the protagonists to the death and acted so cold-blooded and ruthless.
Yet, just before he died, he held Haku's hand and was successfully redeemed.
The first major boss of the Chunin Exams was Lord Snake.
He performed human experiments, had a repertoire of disgusting Ninjutsu, and a greasy, slippery tongue and body.
Everything about him made people feel uncomfortable.
During the Chunin Exams, he allied with the Sunagakure to attack Konoha and personally killed his mentor.
Didn't he also get successfully redeemed in the Fourth Great Ninja War?
Uzumaki Nagato nuked Konoha into oblivion, yet he was redeemed.
Uchiha Obito was crazy for the entire manga, but in the end, he was redeemed.
Uchiha Itachi, who murdered his parents and slaughtered his clan, was also redeemed in the end.
Even the one and only designated scapegoat of the entire manga, Danzo Shimura—didn't he die saying 'I did it for Konoha'?
Perhaps only Ōtsutsuki Kaguya and Black Zetsu can be considered truly evil.
But they're aliens, so what can you do?
So, from the perspective of the author's original intent, Hiruzen Sarutobi could never be a villain.
But enough of that. Looking back into the Hokage Office...
Hiruzen Sarutobi's words were powerful and righteous.
Tsunade paused, not knowing what to say, and simply crossed her arms and turned her head away.
"Fine, let's not talk about this."
Seeing his secret crush argue with his old mentor again, while he himself had to seriously consider the problem of another comrade, Jiraiya felt exhausted, and his temples throbbed.
Ignoring the bickering between the two, he turned to Nara Shikaku and asked:
"Shikaku, you tell me which one to pick. I really don't know how to choose anymore."
In Jiraiya's mind...
the question of whether Orochimaru would attack Konoha could be answered with either a yes or a no.
Moreover, even if he didn't want to believe Orochimaru would do such a thing...
based on his understanding of Orochimaru—a man who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals—
the possibility of him doing something like this was extremely high!
So he simply handed the choice back to Nara Shikaku, acting as a mere tool.
"This question can only be answered by speculation; even I can't give a definitive answer."
"If I were to answer, I would choose Yes!"
Nara Shikaku replied. He looked around at the group and asked:
"Does anyone else have a different opinion?"
Everyone shook their heads; no one came forward to object.
It seemed everyone felt Orochimaru was the kind of person capable of doing such a thing.
"Alright, I understand."
Exhaling deeply, Jiraiya hid the fatigue on his face and spoke up:
"I'll answer then. If it's wrong, I'll take the punishment."
"Your Excellency, my answer is: A. He will!"
"Congratulations, that is correct!"
Ye Chen showed a smile and gave a slight nod.
Internally, Ye Chen finally breathed a long sigh of relief.
When he saw the group arguing earlier, Ye Chen's heart had been in his throat.
He was very worried that Jiraiya might choose 'No' out of blind trust in Orochimaru.
That would have resulted in another error in this set of five questions.
Fortunately, he eventually got back on the right track!
There's hope for getting all five questions right! High-tier prize pool, here I come!
Now it just depends on the last question. System, please give me a good one!
Full collection Avilable at low subscription patreon (Obito_uchiha)