Tsunade fell silent for a moment, then said slowly, "I know what you're trying to say, but I can tell you this: most of the conspiracy theories about the old man aren't true."
"The old man isn't the type who likes scheming and plotting. He's just…"
"Just what?" Rowan asked curiously.
Tsunade hesitated, then finally sighed and said, "Putting it in your terms, the old man is just plain bad at the job."
Rowan let out an involuntary laugh. That answer caught him off guard.
Tsunade continued, "The Senju clan being reduced to just me happened for two reasons. One was that the Senju bloodline gradually merged into Konoha. The other was the Wood Release experiments."
"Back then, in order to recreate Wood Release, my second granduncle studied my grandfather's cells. Quite a few clan members volunteered for the experiments, and the casualties were terrible."
"In the end, he had no choice but to seal away the research and let the Senju fully integrate into Konoha."
"So after Nawaki died, I was the only Senju left."
"As for the Uchiha massacre, they brought that on themselves. It was Uchiha Obito and Uchiha Itachi working together."
"The old man definitely played a role in pushing things along, but at the root of it, it was still because he was bad at the job."
"You've read the story too. You know the old man was basically shoved into the Hokage position by my second granduncle."
"Not long after handing him the title, my second granduncle died in battle."
"So the old man never really knew how to be a good Hokage."
"He didn't have my grandfather's strength, and he didn't have my second granduncle's methods. All he could do was huddle together with Danzo and the others and take things one step at a time. That's how Konoha slowly declined into what it is now."
"You can call him weak. You can say he was incompetent, that he didn't know how to be Hokage, or even that he was stupid. But you can't call him evil."
Well… damn.
Rowan really hadn't expected Tsunade to see Hiruzen that way.
Not bad, just incompetent.
That was not exactly a flattering evaluation.
But the more he thought about it, the more Tsunade seemed to have a point.
Even though Hiruzen was Tobirama Senju's student, he had never been trained as a successor.
At the time, Tobirama was still in his prime and hadn't even started thinking about grooming an heir.
But things changed faster than anyone expected. No one thought that right after Hashirama Senju's death, the First Great Ninja War would break out like that.
And no one expected Kinkaku and Ginkaku to suddenly launch a coup while Tobirama and the Second Raikage were negotiating an alliance, leading to both their deaths.
Hiruzen had no choice but to take power in a hurry and steer Konoha's giant ship through the chaos of the ninja world.
So in that sense, some of the baffling and questionable decisions he made were understandable.
Incompetence, really, was the greatest original sin.
Rowan asked curiously, "There's actually something else I've been wondering. What do you think about Hiruzen never going to the battlefield? Ever since becoming Hokage, it feels like he's basically never gone to war in person."
"Meanwhile, the Kage of other villages all went out and fought for their villages."
"A lot of people online think he was traumatized by war and too scared of dying."
"That's why when Kumogakure pressured Konoha, he had no choice but to hand over Hizashi Hyuga's corpse as an apology."
Tsunade rolled her eyes and snorted. "Do you know what a Kage means to a village?"
"The moment a village loses its Kage, no one can predict how much chaos that village will fall into."
"Not going to the battlefield was the right call."
"The Kage of other villages went to war not because they loved fighting, but because if they didn't go personally, there was no way they could win."
"So they had to go, because their villages didn't have enough strength left to keep them in the rear, holding the line and directing the war."
Rowan let out a low sound of understanding.
That actually made sense.
In Naruto, Konoha was the undisputed protagonist village, so it never really ran out of geniuses.
Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Uchiha Shisui, Jiraiya, Orochimaru, Tsunade, Sakumo Hatake, Kakashi, Might Guy—Kage-level fighters kept popping up one after another.
The other villages didn't have anywhere near that kind of talent pool.
What did Sunagakure have?
Other than the Kazekage of each generation, who else was there? Old Lady Chiyo counted. Her brother counted. Pakura counted too.
Who else? Hard to remember.
Iwagakure was the same. Aside from the Tsuchikage of each generation, all they really had were the Four-Tails and Five-Tails jinchuriki.
Then just when a talent like Deidara finally showed up, the Akatsuki lured him away.
And as for Kirigakure, there wasn't even much to say. The Seven Ninja Swordsmen sounded impressive, but Might Duy kicked four of them to death, and the remaining three either ran or defected.
That village was a complete mess. Under those circumstances, if the Mizukage could still afford to sit safely in the rear, that would be a miracle.
The only village doing relatively well was Kumogakure, but even there, the truly strong ones were basically just the Raikage and the Eight-Tails. Oh, and the Two-Tails too.
Below that level, fighters who could truly match a Kage were incredibly rare.
Meanwhile, Konoha was overflowing with talent, with powerful shinobi appearing one after another. No wonder Hiruzen could stay in the rear and avoid risking his life on the battlefield.
Too bad he was just a bit too incompetent, and as a result, even a Konoha stacked with strong people still kept declining.
"What about Naruto Uzumaki, then? What do you think about that?" Rowan asked again. "Do you think Hiruzen was basically training him like a dog? Minato Namikaze was a Hokage, after all. Are you telling me he didn't leave behind any private savings at all?"
"Then why was his son living off expired instant noodles and spoiled milk?"
Tsunade was starting to get irritated by all the questions. "Why are you asking me so much? How would I know what the old man was thinking? Maybe he really thought he was doing what was best for Naruto."
Then she immediately pressed him again. "More importantly, when are you connecting to a new world? I can't stand staying in this place for even one more day."
Rowan snapped back, annoyed, "Why are you rushing me? You think I want to stay in this dump either?"
To readers, Naruto was a world full of supernatural powers.
Wood Release, the Sharingan, the Byakugan, Susanoo, Sage Mode, the Tenseigan, the Rinnegan—each one flashier than the last.
But to a transmigrator, it was actually a pretty exclusionary world.
If you reincarnated there as a native of that world, that was one thing.
But if you crossed over physically like Rowan did, you could basically kiss ninjutsu and chakra goodbye.
After all, the humans in the Naruto world looked the same as humans on Earth, but they probably weren't even the same species.
What kind of human has a hundred and thirty trillion cells in their body?