"...How quick."
Frowning as he read the scroll in his hands, Hiruzen remarked.
"Claiming that Amegakure has nothing to do with Danzo's death and that they will announce the identity of criminal to the every corner of the village..."
He couldn't help but sigh,
"I suppose that will do for now."
At best, the scroll, which was Hanzo's message to Hiruzen, was taking a neutral stance. It was telling that they won't side with or go against Konohagakure in this Third Shinobi World War—that Danzo's death was just a happening.
It was a reasonable decision, Hiruzen thought. After all, Amegakure suffered heavy losses during the Second Shinobi World War, and regardless of how they may benefit from siding against Konohagakure, a recovery was a must for them.
"And now,"
Hiruzen stared ahead at where Jiraiya was standing,
"Jiraiya... I believe that we have many things to discuss."
By Hiruzen's sides, Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, his advisors and teammates of the long past, were seated.
Facing them was Jiraiya, who stood grimly.
"What have I told you about training people outside our village? Look at what one of them did, costing us one of the greatest forces that we had."
Koharu shouted,
"You groomed our enemies, Jiraiya!!"
Homura shook his head in disappointment.
"...Is it that surprising that Danzo died?"
And to them, Jiraiya responded coldly, putting them in shock.
"W-What?"
"He's garnered hatred from many. Acting based on selfishness, he, under the facade of 'shadow of Konohagakure', acted on his behalf to attain the seat of Hokage. Act blind as much as you want, but Hiruzen-sensei, you know just well how cruel and wrong his actions were."
"Jiraiya..."
"This was bound to happen. If Konohagakure requires the help of such a vile creature to sustain... perhaps it is better to—"
"Jiraiya!!!"
Hiruzen yelled as he stared at Jiraiya in disbelief.
"What blasphemy are you trying to sprout out at us?!!"
"...My apologies."
Sighing, Jiraiya held his forehead tiredly. Casting his eyes back on the three of them, he asked in that of exhaustion,
"There is nothing that I can do to something that already happened. What do you want me to do? Kill myself to make amends?"
In Jiraiya's view, this village was sick.
No, this entire world—he was sick of it.
In every village and nation, those who sat at the top were corrupted and biased individuals who desired values that Jiraiya considered superficial.
In addition, he had an idea of why Akashi killed Danzo. After all, when he investigated the case of Akashi being Hanzo's grandson, he discovered that Danzo was somehow involved.
It was simply meant to be this way. No, Jiraiya was glad instead—that Akashi, through his help perhaps, managed to overcome the adversity named Danzo. Stripping away the affiliations whatsoever, Jiraiya knew that human-to-human, Akashi was closer to the concept of good than Danzo ever was.
The so-called patriotism that these elders were demanding to Jiraiya... it was already non-existent in him. Maito Dai's imprisonment was the last straw.
"Our situation in war has worsened because of you. If Danzo has fallen, we need a replacement for him, someone just as capable of making an appearance so that the morale of our ninjas will be heightened."
"...Morale? Isn't it too late for that?"
Jiraiya bickered,
"The moment you decided to send children to the battlefield, our morale dropped below the dead bottom."
"...That isn't the case in discussion right now!"
Koharu refuted, to which Jiraiya ignored.
Sighing, Hiruzen continued,
"Namikaze Minato. That apprentice of yours seemed to be talented. Given his growth, within 3 years or so, he will grow as a capable shinobi—the powerhouse sufficient to serve as a replacement for Danzo."
"..."
Jiraiya frowned at that.
'Minato is the replacement of no one,'
Thought Jiraiya, but knowing that Minato's dream was to become the Hokage of this village, he couldn't dare to speak his thoughts into words.
"Train him with your full capability, Jiraiya... enough such that he'll be capable of..."
Hiruzen paused momentarily as he stared Jiraiya in the eye,
"...Killing that shinobi named Akashi."
"..."
And to that, Homura and Koharu were surprised. Homura spoke reluctantly,
"It seems that you intend to make him the future Hokage."
Koharu nervously asked,
"What of... Orochimaru then?"
Orochimaru was currently the most active shinobi whose names were spoken all across Konohagakure for his feats in this war. His tales were spoken by many civilians, and many, beyond the thought that he's the strongest Sannin among the three, thought that he would become Hiruzen's successor and inherit the title of Hokage.
Furthermore, after Team Hiruzen was disbanded, Orochimaru served as a member of Black Ops, Anbu, as well as a member of ROOT under Shimura Danzo himself.
Now that Danzo was dead, the power over ROOT would likely fall under...
"We cannot risk an internal warfare during the wartime. Funnily enough, it is because of this reason, along with Orochimaru's rising popularity and fame, that I am restrained from acting out to seize ROOT from Orochimaru."
Hiruzen knew very well that Orochimaru had changed—that he had an ulterior motive.
"A grandeur ambition is worthy of praising for, however, if it doesn't consist of the wellbeing of Konohagakure... it is but a worthless one, unfit for the title of Hokage."
Staring at the stoic Jiraiya with cold eyes, Hiruzen stated,
"You should know this much as well, Jiraiya."
"...Of course."
'If you have such an insight... why haven't you bothered to see through the deceits of Danzo?'
Jiraiya felt his frown deepening.
'And even now...'
__________
In the deep and dark area of Konoha, termed the Konoha Strict Correctional Facility, one man silently sat with his wrists chained and his body injured.
Through his dirty and unkempt hair, his eyes exhibited nothing but a dull quality, full of denial.
"Me..."
He whispered through his hoarse voice,
"...A prisoner?"
"And I believe, that you are walking on the right path."
This man, Maito Dai, chuckled dully upon recalling such a phrase.
"...How foolish."
He believed Konoha to be righteous. However, such a belief, he realized, was naught but patriotism—one that was indoctrinated in him since he was young.
"Everything is rotten about this place."
Within his dull gaze, a fury appeared.
"The structure, the system, the people..."
"Maito Dai."
"You betrayed the village, and blatantly walked in our main entrance without a single remorse... what blasphemy."
"...And the Hokage himself."
Dai remembered all the discrimination that he received. He then remembered all the efforts he made to set away such discrimination, to be accepted within society.
Look what that led to. Now, here he was, with his son, Gai, left alone up there by himself, to receive the same treatment as him, to be branded the son of a criminal.
However, in the end, there was nothing he could do. He realized all this far too late.
In resignation, his eyes closed, locked up in this prison with no hope left in him.
__________
"...Are you sure about the information?"
Unable to believe what he heard, the leader of the Village Hidden by Rocks or Iwagakure, Tsuchikage, furrowed his brows.
"Danzo... is dead? That crook?"
"It is highly likely, Tsuchikage-sama. Several sources of information that we collected from all matched."
"Hm... interesting. If anything, I expected him to die the latest."
Mumbling to himself, this Tsuchikage of short stature, Onoki of 'Both Scales', revealed an amused smile.
"By whom?"
"It is by a new ninja who has recently made an entry in the bingo book. Akashi of the 'Red Blade', currently wanted with a 100 million ryo on his head; 50 million from Konohagakure, 20 million from Amegakure, and surprisingly... 30 million from us."
"...What?"
"It seems that this boy has a connection with Jiraiya. He temporarily joined them and defeated our platoon."
Upon hearing this, Onoki was placed in another confusion.
"...And he killed Danzo?"
"It seems like such is the case."
"HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"
Onoki burst into a boisterous laughter.
"Jiraiya, that fool!!!"
Wiping his tears, he snorted,
"Well, I suppose that that's the so-called 'will of fire' for you."
Eventually, Onoki calmed down. Stroking his beard, he hummed in a thought,
"But if Danzo is no longer there, Konoha must have taken a huge blow. Someone in his position is bound to have many responsibilities, and even a temporary halt in management results in a huge loss, especially during wartime."
Standing up, Onoki ordered,
"Call upon the council."
__________
"...Danzo died."
Sitting in an office, the brawny Raikage A—the leader of the Village Hidden in Cloud or Kumogakure—remarked.
"What do you think of this, son?"
"This is our chance."
Standing in front of the Raikage, his son, also named A, immediately replied with vigor.
"This time around, we will be winning for sure. Our military is unmatched, and Konoha is in a state of decline. If we don't act now, when would we?!"
Raikage nodded in agreement.
"Well said."
__________
"The chaos never ends in this world. Getting worse and worse, it is perhaps the worst storm to ever come."
Holding Ryuma by its hilt, Akashi grazed its blade with his other hand.
"Within the reality, I found an ideal. Immersed in ideal, I awoke back to the harsh reality."
"Going through many things, perhaps the changes I brought unto this world thus far have gone more bad than good. However, what then, is good? What does it mean to be bad?"
Turning around, Akashi faced three familiar faces, those whom he could call his family.
Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato.
"None of them matter to me anymore. The complex thoughts won't reach anywhere. After the journey, all that's left in me is this one simplistic thought—"
—that whoever disrupts our peace will pay.
"...What?"
Yahiko's eyes shook.
Konan and Nagato looked back and forth between Akashi and Yahiko nervously.
Akashi smiled weakly.
Since separation, their paths diverged.
One received care from an adult, training in peace and growing his dream of achieving the peace that the past Akashi spoke of.
Another went through countless hardships, thrown into the middle of nowhere. He traveled to many places and had many life-and-death battles. In the end, he learned how foolish the dream of peace was.
"I..."
Yahiko finally managed to mutter out words.
"You are our family, Akashi. No matter what, we would always be together. But this... idea of yours..."
He, grimacing, replied,
"...I cannot agree to it."
Turning away, Yahiko stormed off with a complex swirl of emotion in his eyes.
Having half-expected such a response, Akashi simply turned, having his back face Konan and Nagato who remained on the spot.
"I saw, many times out there,"
He then spoke, causing Konan and Nagato to perk up.
"The light beyond the red cloud."
"The future where we can laugh, the future where we can become stronger than those ninjas, the future where we can eat as much as we want, certainly exists."
Akashi thought of the countless blood that he drew with the sword in his hands.
In the end, he too has become one of those adults that he despised. For the sake of his survival and well-being, he killed others.
That primal instinct, one that causes all hairs on his body to stand up, to react hostility with his own...
He finally came to understand them. The reason why war exists, why peace over the entire world is impossible, is because the resources are limited.
When someone gains, someone loses. Speaking of righteousness is nothing but a delusional thought, for as you gain and provide for your family, someone loses and faces a dark fate.
"However,"
Akashi then spoke,
"Just as such things exist in this world, so do the kindness."
He was alive only thanks to them, those who offered kindness to him when he was weak and powerless.
"And so, there is no need for a grand dream of making this entire world peaceful."
He grasped his heart,
"Simply act based on what your heart tells you to do. When your people are attacked, protect them. When someone is receiving the wrong treatment, help them. I believe... that that's what it means to achieve peace—the peace within your heart."
Such was the essence of life.
"...I am not sure if I understood that completely, but,"
Konan slowly nodded,
"I find myself resonating with it."
Nagato, on the other hand, seemed reluctant, speaking as he looked down,
"...This nation needs peace. I still believe in that."
Thus, with the reunion and newfound clash of ideals, life continues to fly on, unpredictably.
And before they realized... three years had passed by.