Tejima Shinichi fell silent.
Head lowered, he watched the leaf-scattered shards of light on the ground while a storm raged inside him. The news had struck so hard he didn't know how to respond.
Was this really the Third Hokage he knew —one who usually wavered between compromise and force?!
So decisive, so… utterly uncompromising?!
He slowly lifted his head, looked at the old man whose back seemed suddenly straight again, and asked with mixed feelings,
"…Is it worth it?"
He paused, weighing his words, then finally spoke.
"I know something of Root's history… it has dealt with countless shadows for Konoha. To go this far for a single Genin —break completely with Danzo Shimura, even risk the long-standing balance inside the Village… is the price too heavy?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi met Tejima's searching gaze without replying at once.
He simply drew deeply on his pipe, letting the acrid smoke swirl through his lungs as though tasting the bitter aftertaste of decades of power struggles.
After a long moment he slowly exhaled a ring of smoke.
"Worth it."
Two simple words, yet they carried the weight of a mountain.
"Shinichi, you ask if it's worth it…" Hiruzen's conviction hardened, "then let me tell you what 'worth it' truly means."
"Where the leaves dance, the fire burns eternal. That flame will keep illuminating the Village and sprouting new buds." He quietly recited the creed etched into every Konoha Ninja's bones. "But who should kindle that flame? Whose future should it light?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes locked onto Tejima Shinichi.
"The young are tomorrow's hope, the shoots about to break soil. We elders should hack away brambles and shield them from storms so they can grow freely beneath the sun —not, while they're still tender, hurl them into dark furnaces to be forged into cold tools, or treated as disposable 'containers' that can be swapped out and sacrificed at will!"
At the word containers Hiruzen's voice sharpened, criticism undisguised.
"Danzo was wrong —disastrously so! He saw only darkness as the way, equated control with protection, and staked the Village's future on ruthless exploitation and sacrifice of individuals. He had already betrayed Root's original purpose!"
A faint hoarseness crept into Hiruzen's voice, as though reopening an old scar.
"And once… I was wrong too. I thought maintaining surface peace and internal balance, even tolerating certain shadows, was a necessary 'wisdom'. I underestimated how fast darkness spreads, how power corrodes the heart… I indulged Danzo's obsession and even silently condoned tragedies that should never have happened."
Regret flickered in Hiruzen's eyes, then was replaced by firmer light.
"But mistakes must not be allowed to continue! Sacrifice must not be the fate forced upon the next generation! The true Will of Fire is legacy, protection, belief in the infinite possibilities of tomorrow —not strangling the new era's buds with the cold calculus of the old!"
Hiruzen stepped forward; the tremendous aura of the "Shinobi Hero" rolled out again, making Tejima's heart pound.
"I am the Third Hokage, a Ninja raised bathing in the wills of the First and Nidaime! I may have hesitated, compromised, but my resolve to protect Konoha and these children has never wavered!"
"If one day Konoha needs someone to stand forth and trade life for the Village, for a future for all of you youngsters…"
Hiruzen's voice rang out, adamant and grand:
"Then I, like the Fourth back then, will stand at the very front without hesitation! With this worn body I will burn my last light and heat to pave the way ahead for you!"
"That… is what it means to be Hokage!"
"That… is the Will of Fire I understand and pledge to defend with my life!"
When the words fell, even the quiet little park seemed to fall still.
Tejima Shinichi gazed at the Third Hokage, whose aura now blazed.
He didn't doubt the old man's sincerity or his willingness to sacrifice for the Village.
After all, in the original timeline this elder had indeed given his life when Orochimaru attacked, fulfilling the Hokage's duty by sealing the First and Second and trying to take Orochimaru down with him.
That resolve was beyond question.
Yet to Tejima that very sacrifice was, in part, the bitter fruit of Hiruzen's own political philosophy and past indulgence.
Why?
Imagine: the self-proclaimed number-one Village in the Ninja World, during its prestigious Chunin Exams, had a defense so flimsy that Orochimaru —leading a handful of elites from Hidden Sand, some Otogakure, and one rampaging Tailed Beast—threw everything into chaos.
It was almost unbelievable, a laughing-stock.
In Tejima's judgment, Sunagakure couldn't possibly have sent a true army deep into the Land of Fire; that would've been suicide.
The so-called invasion was essentially Orochimaru's scheme, bolstered by part of Suna's forces plus a poorly controlled Shukaku released from an imperfect Jinchuriki.
Yet such a lineup had charged straight into Konoha's heart and wrought massive havoc?
Where was the Village's early-warning network?
Where were the standing defense forces?
What were those elite Konoha clans doing?