Late into the night, Hiruzen finally finished processing the day's paperwork and couldn't help but stretch his arms.
As he leaned back, a satisfying pop echoed through his aging bones, easing the deep exhaustion accumulated over the hours.
"Finally, I can head back early and get some rest tonight." Hiruzen turned, casting a glance out the window behind him.
The night view was pleasant. Though it couldn't be considered early, it wasn't overly late either.
Standing up, he neatly stacked the documents on his desk. He picked up his pipe from the edge of the table, took two blissful puffs, and began humming a little tune as he made his way toward the exit.
However, before his hand could even grasp the doorknob, a sudden, heavy knocking broke the silence.
Hiruzen's face fell.
You have got to be kidding me.
Again? In the middle of the night?
Could these people not wait until sunrise to report their duties?
Despite the silent complaints running through his mind, he manually pulled the door open.
Uchiha Itachi stood right outside. He had been preparing to push the door open the moment he heard an answer from within.
To his surprise, the door swung open ahead of schedule.
The two found themselves staring blankly at each other.
"Uh... Lord Third," Itachi said, quickly adjusting his composure to break the awkward silence.
Seeing that the visitor was Itachi, Hiruzen's chest tightened slightly. He stepped aside, leaving the doorway clear. "Come inside. Let's talk."
Itachi nodded and stepped into the Hokage's office.
Hiruzen closed the door behind them, clicking his tongue softly. "When a man gets to my age, he loses the boundless energy you youngsters possess. I truly hope that next time you have an issue, you can pick an hour when the sun is actually up. This old man was just preparing to turn in for the night."
Looking at the neatly arranged files on the desk, Itachi allowed a brief, albeit strained, smile to touch his lips.
"Understood. Next time, without fail, Lord Third."
"Would you like some tea?" Hiruzen offered.
In the past, Itachi would have politely declined. But tonight, he remained quiet for roughly two seconds before looking up. "I'll have a little, thank you."
Hiruzen looked at him with a glimmer of surprise in his eyes. He chose not to comment on it, simply nodding as he went over to brew the tea.
Hot water was a constant staple in the office. Within a few minutes, Hiruzen placed a freshly brewed cup in front of Itachi.
The two sat facing each other on the sofa, both holding their respective teacups. Neither seemed inclined to speak first.
After a long pause, Itachi abruptly shattered the quiet. "Lord Third, how many wars have you personally participated in?"
Hiruzen smiled, a wave of reminiscence washing over his gaze. After a moment, he replied, "Countless small skirmishes and grand campaigns. If you asked me to number them all, I truly couldn't give you an accurate count. However, as for the three Great Shinobi World Wars, this old man fought in every single one of them."
Itachi nodded slowly, pressing further. "In your eyes, Lord Third, what does war represent?"
"The loss of cherished family, friends, teachers... comrades you once shared food and drinks with, ruthlessly stripped of their lives on the battlefield until they are nothing but cold corpses. Peaceful villages reduced to smoking ruins. In the end, whether you are the party that instigated the conflict or the one forced to defend against it, everyone walks away broken and scarred. We all become sinners."
Hiruzen spoke with absolute, raw candor.
"Even at my age, I am occasionally jolted awake by nightmares in the dead of night. In those dreams, the dead comrades whose faces I should have long forgotten come back to life. They whisper directly into my ear, asking me... exactly when I plan to join them."
"So, Lord Third, you despise war as well, correct?" Itachi asked.
"Are you asking the Hokage, or are you asking Sarutobi Hiruzen?" Hiruzen countered, looking directly at the youth.
"Both," Itachi answered without a shred of hesitation.
"As Sarutobi Hiruzen, I am weak. I can tell you quite frankly, Itachi, that I fear war. I have absolutely no desire to step onto another battlefield. Therefore, I possess a visceral, deep-seated hatred for it," Hiruzen said softly.
"And as the Hokage?" Itachi fell into a brief silence before asking.
"I despise it just as much. I have always believed that any Kage who resorts to war as a primary resolution for conflict is an unqualified leader. As the Hokage, the entire weight and responsibility of this village rests upon my shoulders. Signing a declaration of war is mechanically effortless, it requires nothing more than a few strokes of a pen on a piece of paper. But following those pen strokes, the entire village is dragged into the abyss. My precious subordinates, the village I love so dearly, the civilians I cherish... any of them could lose everything in the crossfire. As the Hokage, how could I possibly not hate war?"
Before Itachi could formulate a response, Hiruzen's tone suddenly dropped, growing heavy and resolute. "Yet, there are times when war becomes entirely unavoidable. When pushed to the absolute brink, no matter who holds the title of Hokage, they must not, and cannot, show fear! If the situation demands it, this old man is fully prepared to initiate a war with his own two hands."
Itachi remained quiet for an extended duration, seemingly parsing the weight behind those words. Eventually, he murmured, "I see."
Hiruzen took a sip of his tea, turning his sharp gaze back onto the young shinobi. "What about you, Itachi?"
"I loathe war," Itachi stated, his voice perfectly level.
"Is that so? That is a fine trait to have." Hiruzen didn't press the matter, offering nothing more than a gentle smile.
The room lapsed back into a profound silence as both men quietly sipped their tea, the atmosphere growing increasingly suffocating.
After about five or six minutes, Itachi spoke up again. "Lord Third, I once read a line in a book: 'How can the weeping of a single household compare to the weeping of an entire province?' What are your thoughts on this, Lord Third?"
Hearing those words, Hiruzen's eyes turned momentarily vacant, his mind flashing back to his meeting with Diarmuid a few days prior.
Itachi kept his eyes locked onto Hiruzen, noticing that the Hokage seemed to be completely zoning out.
He didn't disrupt the older man's train of thought, choosing to sit quietly and wait.
After what felt like an eternity, Hiruzen snapped back to reality and spoke softly. "I have a very dear friend. A few days ago, we found ourselves debating a very similar philosophical question. He told me that out of everything he had ever read across countless texts, the single phrase he detested the most was: 'We took some detours.' Do you comprehend the true meaning behind those words?"
Itachi knit his brows slightly, shaking his head in confusion. "I do not."
"I didn't grasp it initially either," Hiruzen murmured. "But he explained it to me afterward. Those few simple words can embody the collective tragedy of an entire era. A single 'detour' can mean that thousands, tens of thousands, or even more human lives paid a staggering, unbearable price. When you look at it through that lens, does it not make the very book in your hands feel infinitely heavier?"
A wave of conflict, blending profound confusion with sudden realization, flickered across Itachi's eyes. After a long pause, he nodded. "Then as of now, I find myself deeply detesting that phrase as well."
"Indeed." Hiruzen nodded in agreement, though he immediately countered with a separate thought. "Yet, books often contain another phrase: 'We failed.' The sheer weight and devastation hidden behind those two simple words, Itachi... might be even more impossible to accept."
Itachi's facial expression shifted drastically as he continuously analyzed Hiruzen's words, turning the underlying logic over and over in his mind.
"Just as you asked regarding the weeping of a single household versus an entire province... it truly is a horrific choice to make, especially when brought directly before me as the Hokage," Hiruzen noted, a self-deprecating smile gracing his features.
Itachi remained silent for a moment before letting out a slow, heavy sigh. "My apologies, Lord Third."
"To me, it feels precisely like being forced to choose between 'We took some detours' and 'We failed.' Itachi, tell me, what is the exact nature of the burden a Hokage must carry on his shoulders?" Hiruzen posed the question openly.
Ever since Itachi was a young child, Hiruzen had recognized his extraordinary nature, famously noting that the boy already possessed the macro-philosophical thinking of a Hokage.
And right now, Itachi fully grasped the hidden implication behind Hiruzen's words.
"The burden on your shoulders... is to willingly bear the staggering weight behind 'We took some detours,' ensuring that the words 'We failed' can never be written into history. Is that correct?" Itachi answered, his heart filled with an agonizing ache, yet simultaneously experiencing a strange sense of liberation.
"This is exactly why I constantly tell others how brilliant you are. If the circumstances allowed for it, you truly should have become the Hokage, Itachi," Hiruzen spoke softly.
Itachi refrained from speaking further. Staring down at the reflection dancing upon the surface of his tea, the hesitation and deep uncertainty in his eyes gradually solidified into absolute, unshakeable resolve.
"The weeping of a single household versus an entire province... what a choice." Holding his teacup, Hiruzen stood up and walked over to the grand window, gazing out into the dark night. He murmured under his breath, "The world... truly is a cruel place."
"Lord Third, I encountered someone within the borders of Konoha today." Itachi's gaze cleared completely as he addressed the silhouette of Hiruzen's back by the window.
Hiruzen turned around, holding his cup as his demeanor hardened. "Who was it?"
"The masked man who claimed to be Uchiha Madara all those years ago, the one who instigated the Nine-Tails' attack on Konoha," Itachi revealed grimly.
A sharp, dangerous light flashed across Hiruzen's eyes. "He is currently within the village? Is he related to what happened with Shisui?"
"I interrogated him directly, but it does not appear to be his doing," Itachi reported.
Before Hiruzen could interject, Itachi pressed onward. "He seems to possess an impossibly deep understanding of our village's classified intelligence. He extended an invitation for me to join forces with him. Furthermore, from what I have gathered, his primary objective for coming here is the Uchiha clan."
"The Uchiha?" Hiruzen's brow furrowed tightly as a sudden, realization struck him.
Son of a... That absolute bastard Diarmuid. The "outsourcing" he had casually brought up before... could he have literally meant handing the contract over to this self-proclaimed Uchiha Madara?
Piecing together the exact context of their prior conversation, the more Hiruzen analyzed the theory, the more plausible it became.
You are a certified genius, Diarmuid!
When he paused to look at it objectively, having this specific entity execute the deed was an absolute masterstroke. He was the perfect, ultimate scapegoat.
After all, the man already harbored a legendary vendetta against Konoha. If he went ahead and wiped out the Uchiha clan... well, wouldn't that seem entirely organic and logical to the rest of the world?
Unaware of the chaotic thoughts racing through the Hokage's mind, Itachi continued, "The questions we just discussed have made your final stance clear to me, Lord Third. Knowing your position, it is safe to assume that Shimura Danzo's recent advances toward me were fully sanctioned by you as well, correct?"
Hiruzen snapped out of his musings and looked back at Itachi, meeting the youth's piercing, crystal-clear gaze head-on.
Saddled with a deep sense of shame, Hiruzen closed his eyes tightly. After a long moment, he opened them, staring directly back into Itachi's eyes with absolute, unyielding solemnity. "Yes. It was me."
Upon receiving the confirmation, a faint, melancholic smile actually played on Itachi's lips. He shook his head slightly. "Is this the reality of a Hokage? You have carried a heavy cross, sir."
Hiruzen froze entirely, the wave of shame hitting him with even greater intensity.
"Compared to the sacrifice you are making, I am nothing, Itachi." Hiruzen averted his gaze, turning his head back toward the window.
Itachi didn't offer a direct reply, choosing instead to state his final terms. "I have received the definitive answer I required from you today. I will officially accept this mission. However, Lord Third, I have but one single request."
"Speak," Hiruzen urged.
"My little brother, Sasuke..." Itachi paused momentarily, the words catching in his throat before he forced them out. "I leave him entirely in your custody."
"Konoha will protect him with its life," Hiruzen replied softly.
Though his voice was barely a whisper, the conviction behind it was absolute.
At the very least, for as long as Hiruzen drew breath, Sasuke would remain perfectly safe within the borders of Konoha.
"Then you have my deep gratitude, Lord Third. Upon the successful completion of this mission, I will inevitably be branded a rogue ninja. I intend to infiltrate the masked man's organization, becoming one of them so I can investigate the true conspiracy operating beneath the shadows for the sake of Konoha," Itachi declared.
This time, Hiruzen offered no verbal response. He simply kept his eyes trained on the glowing moon outside, remaining silent for a very long time.
Itachi placed his teacup down on the table, leaving nothing but a few dregs at the bottom. He rose from the sofa, casting one final glance at Hiruzen's broad, solitary back.
"Please take care of yourself, Lord Third," he said softly.
With his piece said, Itachi walked to the door, pulled it open, and stepped out into the night.
Throughout it all, Hiruzen never spoke another word, nor did he ever turn around to watch the boy leave.