Chapter 81
It didn't take long before the Third Hokage couldn't enjoy his time away from work anymore. In the end, the mission requests picked up speed, as more and more of them were successful. And the word quickly spread of Konoha's shinobi skill and their worth.
It was a short but pleasant period of time when the village could relax and train without a worry. Everyone seemed to use it in one way or another. Some mastered the skills they honed for years, and others learned new skills. Time wasn't wasted at all.
Regretfully, Hiruzen was barely able to learn how to control his strength at that time. All he did was get used to the pain of the rebound of the enormous power he could use now. But he still couldn't control it, so either he used all his power or none at all.
Though he was happy that he no longer broke things accidentally. And he managed to build up some muscle in that short time. He never felt better; the stress that was killing him slowly was finally alleviated. Even his hair stopped getting grayer.
Finishing reading the last reports for today, he sighed in relief as he put down his hat on the table. Everything had worked out in the end. Somehow, his plans produced excellent results. It seemed he was the only one who was surprised by it.
As dangerous as the mission requests were, in that short time, the level of shinobi had risen. None of their training was for nothing. And with more and more shinobi learning medical ninjutsu, the casualties were almost nonexistent.
And even if they couldn't treat some of the injured on the spot, with Tsunade directing the hospital staff, there wasn't an injury that couldn't be treated. As long as they returned to the village alive, they would be saved.
In the end, he did it. He achieved his goal of bringing up the village from near destruction, and peace seemed to be never-ending now. None of the other villages was even showing signs of acting up. And even the Daimyo was happy with the status quo.
There was nothing else for him to do. So, for the last time, he left the office. Enjoying the chilling wind of autumn, he greeted the citizens of Konoha as he passed by them. The shinobi running on the rooftops landed on the ground to greet him, too.
Hiruzen only nodded with a smile at them as they passed by him. Soon, he entered the home of Hiashi Hyuga. The Hyuga clan's residence was completely dismantled, and now the former head lived in a humble abode.
"Hokage-sama." The twin brothers seemed to have quickly noticed Hiruzen's arrival and came out to greet him.
"It's good to see that both of you are doing well." Hiruzen could only smile as he found the once-rigid and expressionless Hyuga clan head was now sporting a relaxed smile. "How are your little ones doing?"
Neji was already three years old, and Hiruzen heard he had already started learning Hyuga clan taijutsu. Not only that, but people had started calling the child a genius, able to grasp even the most complicated forms.
At first, Hiruzen was going to go to Hizashi and give him a piece of his mind about forcing a child who had barely learned how to walk and speak to learn one of the strongest taijutsu styles in the village. But somehow, the father's and the uncle's expressions were different from what he expected.
"Thank you for your concern," Hizashi replied. "And truthfully, I don't know what to do, Hokage-sama."
"Hmm? Explain yourself." Had he pushed the boy too hard, and now there were some complications?
"My son, having seen my training, started copying it. Not wanting him to get hurt, I corrected his forms, but now he keeps begging me for more and more techniques to teach him. I am at a loss as to what I should do, as it is far too early for him to learn any more."
"Huh?" Of course, after all, it was Konoha; every household had a child prodigy, and he shouldn't even be surprised by now. "I would like to see the boy myself, if you would."
"Of course, Hokage-sama."
As he was led through the humble abode, he noticed a few servants. Two women, who seemed to take care of the household. They weren't forced to do so; it seemed they chose life as servants even though they were from the Hyuga clan. Well, there was no longer the Hyuga clan, but the name remained.
"This way."
Once they entered a secluded area behind the main house, Hiruzen wanted to laugh at the scene he witnessed. Those little bastards were showing off, weren't they? It didn't look like either Hizashi or Hiashi was worried about the boy that much.
And why would they? Before Hiruzen was a boy practicing basic taijutsu with the biggest smile he had ever seen. It didn't look in the slightest like the boy was struggling. No, there was only wonder and joy in the boy's eyes.
When Hiruzen trained, it was out of necessity or fear. He needed to learn things to survive, and he needed to learn them to be able to do his duty as the Hokage. But to the boy, it was nothing but joy as he tried to learn a palm strike.
There was nothing else in his eyes. No worry, no fear, nothing of the sort. Hiruzen was envious of that boy. He wished he could have been able to train himself with the same eyes as Neji did. But it was far too late for him; there was no innocence left in him to truly enjoy such a thing.
"Let's leave him be." Hiruzen didn't interrupt the boy's training. "As long as it doesn't harm the boy, it shouldn't be a problem to let him continue his training. But consult with Tsunade about it before you try to teach him anything else. And also make sure the boy studies other things. I don't want a battle maniac who doesn't even know how to read or count."
"Yes, Hokage-sama," Those little... They truly were showing off and seemed happy that Hiruzen acknowledged Neji.
Before leaving Hiashi's residence, he visited the lady of the house and Hinata, who was a bundle of cuteness as she hid herself in her mother's arms out of shyness. Hiruzen wanted nothing more than to spoil the girl at that moment, but he had other things to check on.
…
The Uchiha clan was, as always, busy, as Hiruzen would have expected of them. They were people of extremes. Everything they did, they took to the extreme. And they were now the strongest clan in Konoha, possessing most of the manpower and authority in the village.
But Fugaku was running his clan tightly, not letting even a single shinobi of the clan overstep boundaries. And he seemed to make sure that they were deserving of the strongest title, making children who were still in the academy, and those who didn't have any duties, train relentlessly.
Even from quite a considerable distance, Hiruzen could hear the ruckus in their personal training grounds. And those who weren't training were running errands for the clan. Unlike the previous Hyuga clan, the Uchiha did not have servants.
So, it was mostly younger and weaker clan members who were bullied into doing chores around the clan residence. Even while the village entered a peaceful period, the Uchiha clan ignored it and were even busier.
As core members of the ROOT, they had even more work than ever. There was no way Hiruzen wouldn't send them out to watch the other villages. He already had a scare with Suna; he needed to be more careful of the unexpected things that others might do.
"Ah!" Hiruzen's thoughts were interrupted when a girl carrying a bucket of water tripped and fell near him.
"Calm yourself." Before the girl or the bucket could touch the ground, Hiruzen appeared before them and caught them. "There is no need to rush anywhere. I'm sure wherever you need to go can wait for you."
With a disarming smile, Hiruzen helped the girl back on her feet and tried to hand her the bucket of water. But since he was holding it with one hand from the bottom, when the girl reached for the handle, she instead pushed it, and the bucket tipped over.
Hiruzen looked at his lower half, now completely drenched, and let the bucket roll away. The girl stood there completely in shock, not even able to breathe. She knew exactly who Hiruzen was and what she had just done.
"Well, that's a first." Hiruzen laughed at the absurdity of the situation. "You completely got me, little girl. The Uchiha clan sure has amazing talent among their children."
He was completely humiliated in the middle of the street, surrounded by the Uchiha clan. That must have scared the poor girl completely. Hopefully, this much would put her at ease. It would surely be one of the stories circulating in the village; the girl would be completely embarrassed by it.
Gathering wind and fire chakra inside his body, Hiruzen quickly evaporated the water on his clothes. Patting the girl's shoulder with another laugh, he left for Fugaku's residence. It had been some time since he had seen Naruto, and he wanted to see how he was growing.
When Hiruzen finally reached Fugaku's home, he was met by Mikoto Uchiha. It seemed she was waiting for him. They quickly entered the house, and Mikoto ushered him into the living room, where Fugaku was dealing with two kids, each of them on one of his knees.
He was trying to make sure they ate some kind of porridge, but all the kids were doing was throwing it at each other. Fugaku didn't even try to stop them, as his dead-tired eyes looked into the empty air.
"Hah, I only left them for a minute." Mikoto sighed as she quickly took the kids and wiped their faces. "Fugaku! Wake up."
"Eh? Oh, Hokage-sama, you're here."
This man was supposed to be the most powerful shinobi the village had right now. Yet Hiruzen felt nothing but pity for him at the moment. A tired man who was completely at his limit. That was all that was left of the strongest shinobi of Konoha.
"Here, some tea." Mikoto presented him with a cup.
"How are Sasuke and Naruto doing?" Hiruzen asked as he drank his tea.
"As you can see, full of energy."
No longer just babies, now at two years of age, they had some strength in them. All they did was fight each other over toys, not letting each other have anything. They completely ignored Hiruzen, a stranger to them, and continued their fight.
"I see why all the toys are made of soft material." If any of these toys had any hardness, those kids would have killed each other by now. "Ah, well, it seems they are growing healthy."
Hiruzen didn't dare smile as he enjoyed his sweet tea, as both Mikoto and Fugaku looked like they were at the end of their lifespan. Probably only Hiruzen knew why those kids were always fighting each other. It seemed they still had some memories from their past lives.
Hopefully, by the time they grew up, they would exhaust their hate for each other. And since it didn't seem like he should bother those two parents with his small talk, Hiruzen drank his tea silently and observed the children for a while before leaving.
…
Sitting on his stone head at the Hokage monument, Hiruzen overlooked the village. It was as peaceful as he had ever wanted it to be. A place where children could grow at their own pace. Where they could play, train, or fight each other without a worry in the world.
"Isn't it nice?" Hiruzen asked into the empty air. "It is all I ever wanted. But it comes with a price that only I can pay. So, did you come here to take it all away from me, Madara Uchiha?"
"You realized it is a genjutsu?" A masked man materialized within a space, standing before Hiruzen.
"It uses my memories to create a world where I would be completely trapped without even realizing it. But you want information, so you used my desires to move me around. That made you make a few mistakes. I would never put down my hat; it's something I have to carry until I directly pass it on to someone else. And Mikoto's tea was always bitter; you were so focused on Naruto that you ignored that detail. So, did you find what you were looking for?"
The lone eye, completely red, was looking straight into Hiruzen's eyes. It seemed that his old habits of paranoia about making the slightest movement wrong paid off in the end. Hiruzen was a person with severe anxiety, so he always remembered every detail and thought about them extensively, wondering if he had done or said something wrong.
So, all this time, he had been filled with a sense of déjà vu. And the moment he put down his hat on the table and thought he was leaving his office for the last time made him realize that something was wrong. He desired to do so, but there was no way he would have done something like that.
As fake as he was, all of it had become part of him. The duty and the responsibility, the heavy weight of that hat, were real to him. This whole life was now part of him that he couldn't disregard, no matter how much he desired it.
Now, the question was, what should he do in this situation? He was still trapped in a genjutsu. And he knew the capabilities of this man staring Hiruzen down. There was no victory for him here. But he wasn't completely at the mercy of this man either.
A.N. As always, thanks for reading and supporting me, so I can continue writing without any concerns, and if you want more, up to seven more chapters, you can support me on pa treon. com \ ironwolf852.