"Why?" At this point, a slightly hoarse voice from Sarutobi Hiruzen finally broke the silence. "Tsunade, do you really view the village I govern with such contempt? Is it only when you are utterly disappointed in me that you attempt to replace me, hoping to become the Fifth Hokage of Konoha?"
Tsunade finally spoke as well: "Old man. When you were young you did quite well as Hokage; I have no objection. Back then Konohagakure did indeed flourish. Although it suffered several wars, it could recover its strength afterward."
"I know you sacrificed a great deal for Konoha, and made compromise after compromise. When you were young, in order to return Konoha to the zenith it once knew under Grandpa, you enacted many risky measures and turned a blind eye to certain things."
"At that time you believed that when the benefits of certain things outweighed their negatives, it was acceptable to turn a blind eye. Later on, you could deal with those people gradually."
"But…"
Tsunade lifted her eyelids and fixed her gaze on Sarutobi Hiruzen: "You only did the first part; you did not do the latter. Those people you turned a blind eye to received the benefits from your past indulgence, and did not receive the consequences they deserved."
"The countless evils Keizumi has unearthed in the village are merely the tip of the iceberg of the disasters you left behind in your era, old man. It's not that you were unwilling to settle those accounts—you simply no longer had the ability to."
"Those people have already taken deep root in Konoha. Some of their interests are even completely entangled with yours. To purge them would be equivalent to purging yourself."
"So you chose to pretend that everything you once turned a blind eye to had never happened. If not for Keizumi's sudden emergence—if not for his insistence on Absolute Justice—"
"Time would have erased all memory and all sin. No one would have known what they had done, and even you would have forgotten."
"That…"
"Is wrong."
Tsunade slowly exhaled. Having spoken at length, her throat was dry, and after taking a light sip of sake, she continued, "If this continues, Konoha will keep sliding downward. The true meaning and belief of the Will of Fire will be deliberately distorted by certain people."
"The evils entrenched beneath Konoha will take you—the Hokage—as their nourishment and umbrella, growing ever stronger under its shelter, spreading their roots and shoots."
"Old man, the resolve you've shown in your later years already proves that you're no longer capable of resolving such a crisis. You can't even manage the role of a patcher properly anymore."
"Perhaps it's time for you to let go of all this—to entrust the village's future to the younger generation."
"To let the village undergo a slightly more radical baptism."
Sarutobi Hiruzen interjected, "Tsunade, this radical baptism you speak of—is it Keizumi's Absolute Justice?"
"Yes."
Tsunade admitted candidly, "There may be more than one way to save Konoha, but for now, the only one I can see is this."
"Moreover, it's not just Konoha that needs saving. The entire shinobi world is, in truth, not much different from Konoha's current state."
"Grandfather Hashirama… what he cared for back then wasn't only Konoha. He cared for the entire shinobi world. Sometimes, I can't help but feel that Keizumi and my grandfather are quite alike in some ways."
"But their personalities are entirely different, which naturally makes their ways of handling things somewhat different as well."
Sarutobi Hiruzen remained silent for a long time.
"Give this old man ten more years," Sarutobi Hiruzen said earnestly. "If Keizumi is willing to cooperate with me, willing to follow my direction, I believe that with my methods and Keizumi's power, we can also rid Konoha of its chronic afflictions."
Tsunade smiled. "Why shouldn't it be you cooperating with him? Why shouldn't it be you listening to him? Wouldn't that achieve the goal just the same?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen took a deep breath. "Everything must have a distinction between primary and secondary. This old man cannot allow Absolute Justice to become the 'main' principle of Konoha while letting the Will of Fire become the 'secondary' one."
Tsunade said, "Old man, that's the difference between you and me. You're too sentimental—you care too much, and your concern for Konoha is mixed with too many other things."
"Whether you're willing to admit it or not, that's the truth. Otherwise, why do you think that fool Jiraiya refused to inherit your mantle no matter what?"
"That idiot may have been coaxed to death and back by a bunch of toads, but sometimes his thoughts were pure—he simply didn't want to become someone like you are now."
Sarutobi Hiruzen froze in place.
Tsunade slowly stood up, patted the dust off her clothes, and continued, "If you truly don't want to abdicate, then why not have two Hokage at once? You hand over part of the Hokage's authority to me—you're Hokage, I'm Hokage—and you can stand aside and watch what changes I can bring to Konoha."
"If the changes I make satisfy you, then hand over the rest of the power to me, and you can retire in peace."
"If you're not satisfied, then we can compete again. When the time comes, we'll see who the people of the village truly support."
"Or…"
Tsunade looked down at Sarutobi Hiruzen from above. "We can skip all the detours and fight right now. Whoever's fist is stronger, whoever has the greater support of shinobi—that person will be the Hokage of Konoha."
Tsunade reached out and touched her bare, pale neck.
She exhaled deeply. "Since I've already given that man my word, I can't let him down, can I?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen's expression went rigid.
…
Land of Water.
A certain port.
"Keizumi-senpai! We've arrived in the Land of Water!" Izumi turned her head excitedly and called out to Uchiha Keizumi.
Then she saw that Keizumi was fiddling with something shiny.
Looking closely—
It seemed to be a pendant.
...
"When it comes to Kirigakure's Blood Mist Policy, it wasn't like this in the past."
As their feet stepped onto the Land of Water's territory, Biwa Jūzō spoke with a complex tone. "The prototype of the Blood Mist Policy already existed in Kirigakure long before the Fourth Mizukage came to power."
"But back then, the village only used it as a way to select more elite shinobi, and it didn't extend that policy to the entire country."
"Nor did it ever lead to repeated purges and exterminations of Kekkei Genkai shinobi throughout the Land of Water…"
At this point, Biwa Jūzō's tone paused.
He lifted his head to gaze at the gloomy skies of the Land of Water, then looked once more at the dead and lifeless atmosphere of its harbor—the listless dockworkers and fishermen whose eyes seemed to have lost their light.
Taking a deep breath, he continued, "But not long after the Fourth Mizukage took office, the Blood Mist Policy was carried to its extreme by him—becoming even more radical than before."
"So extreme that even quite a few among the Seven Ninja Swordsmen couldn't bear it. That's why… most of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen who survived the Third Shinobi World War eventually chose to defect."
"The severe, far-reaching effects of the Blood Mist Policy spread outward from Kirigakure to the entire Land of Water. The nation's strength quickly declined, and the people gradually sank into misery."
"I used to think all of this was the Fourth Mizukage's personal cruelty, but now I've realized that behind it all was actually Uchiha Obito."
At some point, Biwa Jūzō's fist had already clenched tight.
If he had been satisfied with Kirigakure's current state—indifferent to the Blood Mist Policy and blind to the ruin of the Land of Water—then…
He would never have chosen to defect, nor to join the Akatsuki.
It was precisely because Biwa Jūzō loved Kirigakure and loved the Land of Water—
That he could no longer bear the monstrous Blood Mist Policy of today.
"Phew…" After letting out a long, heavy breath, Biwa Jūzō's gaze darkened. "Uchiha Keizumi, may I ask—what was Uchiha Obito's motive for deliberately turning Kirigakure into this? If he wished to extract benefits from the village, shouldn't a prosperous Land of Water yield far more than a ruined one? I really don't understand."
Uchiha Keizumi had already put away the pendant.
Looking at the harbor's stiflingly heavy atmosphere, he slowly spoke. "You don't need to try to guess Uchiha Obito's thoughts with the logic of an ordinary person. Everything he did had a very simple purpose—he wanted revenge on the entire Land of Water."
Biwa Jūzō froze. "Revenge?"
Uchiha Keizumi said, "The Konoha kunoichi Nohara Rin, whom Uchiha Obito loved one-sidedly, had the Three-Tails forcibly sealed inside her by Kirigakure shinobi under Uchiha Madara's control. On the surface, it was to make the tailed beast rampage through Konoha once it returned. But Nohara Rin, unwilling to let herself destroy the village, chose to die by letting Hatake Kakashi kill her."
"Uchiha Obito personally witnessed the girl he loved being killed by Kakashi. He came to hate Kakashi, hate Konoha, and also hate Kirigakure. In his eyes, the true culprits behind Nohara Rin's death were the shinobi of your Kirigakure."
"So…"
"This was his so-called revenge. He never intended to gain any benefit from Kirigakure. He simply wanted Kirigakure—and the entire Land of Water—to feel the same pain he once felt."