The Third Hokage's attempts to bring the Third Shinobi War to a peaceful end are shattered when the envoy from Kumogakure, invited into Konoha as a guest to help negotiate a peace settlement, attempts to kidnap the infant Hinata. In the face of his own self-doubt and the rising voices of the clanheads demanding a change in leadership, Sarutobi Hiruzen steps down in favor of his greatest student, Orochimaru of the Sannin.
Torn between his own personal ambitions and the impositions of duty...