The moment Minato Namikaze returned to the village carrying the glory of a decisive victory, Hiruzen Sarutobi felt everything was firmly under control.
Now all that remained was for Konoha to publicize Minato’s achievements, hold a grand celebration, and let the shinobi returning from the battlefield experience the honor of fighting for the village.
Those who had never gone to war would naturally begin to admire them.
Then everyone would gather in front of the Hokage Building, where he—the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi—would deliver another speech on the Will of Fire.
“Wherever the leaves dance, the fire burns on.
The fire’s light will continue to illuminate the village, allowing new leaves to sprout.” To put it bluntly, the message was simple: the younger generation represented the future, while the older generation should trust and protect them.
The sacrifices of the older generation were not meaningless—they would inspire the youth to become the pillars who carried the future.
As for why it was always the young who fought on the battlefield while the elderly in positions of power remained comfortably in Konoha, slowly growing old—that wasn’t the important part.
The point of propaganda was propaganda itself.
The old guard had spent their entire lives fighting for Konoha.
Surely they had earned the right to enjoy themselves now.
Words and actions were two different things.
It wasn’t that the Third Hokage was unwilling to die heroically.
If Konoha truly needed it, he would gladly lay down his life at the proper time.
But right now…
The village still needed him.
Since the establishment of the Konoha Ninja Academy, this had been the largest battle in which Academy graduates formed the backbone of the fighting force.
How well they had actually performed on the battlefield wasn’t important.
After all, Konoha had won.
As for how they had won, nobody would know for a while.
And even after the truth came out, it would certainly have undergone a generous amount of artistic embellishment.
Hiruzen firmly believed that.
Victors never advertised their own humiliations.
By then, this victory would undoubtedly become a glorious tale of Minato Namikaze leading Konoha to an overwhelming triumph.
And this was precisely the moment to demonstrate Konoha’s military strength to the great shinobi clans.
To let those arrogant elites witness the power of Konoha’s unity.
Normally, civilian shinobi were scattered throughout the village and seemed insignificant.
But after returning from the battlefield, once thousands of them gathered together…
The pressure they created was immense.
“A hundred people can clog the roads.
A thousand can blot out the sky.
Ten thousand can make even the bravest lose heart.” The assembly of several thousand shinobi was enough to make the noble clans feel as though dark clouds were pressing down upon the city.
These weren’t ordinary daimyō soldiers who had simply traded farming tools for weapons.
They were shinobi.
Even an elite Jōnin could die if enough Genin attacked at once.
With a force like this under Konoha’s banner…
The balance of power within the village truly seemed about to change.
Using the Telescope Technique, Hiruzen watched the clan heads and elders stare at the grand celebration in stunned silence.
A wave of satisfaction welled up inside him.
So…
you’ve finally seen the strength behind my policies.
These people had always opposed him.
Surely after today, they’d think twice before acting so brazenly again.
Today I’ll show you all something.
The reason I use your clan shinobi isn’t because I have no alternative.
It’s because I’m doing you a favor.
I have plenty of people to rely on.
Just look at those proud Uchiha.
They looked furious…
Yet completely powerless.
Anger was the hallmark of the incompetent.
“Hm?” The Uchiha were moving.
They were heading toward the commercial district.
It’s nothing.
They’re probably joining the celebration to demonstrate the Uchiha’s goodwill.
A sign that they’re finally softening.
“Hm?
Orochimaru’s there too?
He’s meeting with the Uchiha’s newly appointed clan leader?” Still nothing to worry about.
Although Orochimaru had developed more and more ideas of his own over the years, he still belonged to the Hokage’s Faction.
As long as their interests aligned, Hiruzen couldn’t see any reason for Orochimaru to betray him.
Years of shared bonds, coupled with mutual interests, made such a possibility nearly unthinkable.
Besides…
Wasn’t Minato arriving at just the right moment?
With Minato’s charisma, he was the perfect embodiment of the Will of Fire.
These newly arrived Uchiha had never been especially close to Konoha’s own Uchiha Clan.
If Minato could inspire them with the Will of Fire…
Then when another conflict like the Naraku Yomi Incident arose in the future, the burden would once again fall upon the Uchiha.
What should we call it?
“Itachi Uchiha Stirs the Tide?” Not bad.
Not bad at all.
The only regret was that Hiruzen couldn’t hear Minato’s explanation of the Will of Fire firsthand.
“Hm?” “What happened?” “Why is everyone so worked up?” Then he relaxed.
Ah…
the Uchiha.
People naturally disliked them.
Just look.
They’d gone and provoked public outrage again.
At this rate, Konoha would have even less room for the Uchiha in the future.
Hopefully they’d learn their lesson.
“…Wait.” “What now?” After cursing the Uchiha, shouldn’t the crowd become fired up and gather at the Hokage Building for him to uphold justice?
Why had everyone suddenly gone silent?
“Hm?” “What happened now?” “Why isn’t Minato speaking?” “Why has that Uchiha Kei taken the stage instead?” Just what kind of dangerous ideas is he preaching to the village?
As expected…
The Uchiha truly are a cursed clan.
No matter when or where…
They always managed to make themselves detestable.
Should I stop him?
For a moment, the Hokage hesitated.
He prided himself on understanding everything about the Uchiha.
Yet he had never once met this suddenly emerging young man named Uchiha Kei.
Still, everything he’d learned through intelligence reports left him with an inexplicable reluctance to meet the boy.
It was an instinctive aversion.
Even Hiruzen himself couldn’t understand where such intense dislike came from.
He knew Uchiha Fugaku well.
Fugaku looked tough on the surface, but in Hiruzen’s eyes, he was inwardly so weak that he lacked even the resolve of an ordinary woman.
Without making the slightest show of force, Hiruzen could suppress him until all that outward toughness amounted to nothing.
But Uchiha Kei…
The intelligence reports left Hiruzen utterly perplexed.
The boy’s way of thinking was fundamentally incompatible with the mindset of a shinobi.
Countless times, Hiruzen had imagined holding a conversation with Kei.
Whether he approached him gently…
Or forcefully…
No matter the scenario, Hiruzen could never convince himself that he would emerge victorious in a battle of ideas.
Those mental rehearsals weren’t baseless.
Judging from Kei’s everyday actions, the young Uchiha possessed a complete and internally consistent code of conduct.
And that code…
Was something Hiruzen simply couldn’t understand.
The gap was one of perspective.
But it also made Hiruzen realize that someone with a fully developed worldview could only be overcome through an even stronger set of convictions.
Trying to debate such a person with half-believed ideals and untested rhetoric would only result in his own arguments being torn apart.
If that happened…
The very ideals that inspired all of Konoha would be stripped bare by this young Uchiha before being trampled into the dirt.
That was something Hiruzen absolutely did not want to see.
Or perhaps…
Deep down, even Hiruzen himself didn’t truly believe enough in his own arguments to challenge Kei with them.
Because if he couldn’t defeat this boy intellectually…
There would be only one option left.
Destroy him physically.
That alone wasn’t the frightening part.
The frightening part was this: Hiruzen could use such methods against Uchiha Fugaku because he was certain the clan head lacked the resolve to drag both of them to their deaths.
But he would never dare treat this boy the same way.
The consequences of Root’s earlier misstep had already taught him that lesson.
Uchiha Fugaku…
Was the sort of man willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of the Uchiha Clan.
But Uchiha Kei…
Was the sort of man who would sacrifice absolutely everything else just to stay alive.
Not just the Uchiha.
Even Konoha itself fell within the scope of what he was willing to sacrifice.
That, by itself, wasn’t the most terrifying part.
The truly terrifying thing…
Was that there were actually people willing to follow him.
People willing to lay down their lives for him.
What a complete damn nightmare.
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