Aomi looked at Sarutobi Asuma, who was extremely serious, sighed, and instead of answering his question directly, he asked back:
"Asuma, what is your true confusion in your heart?"
Aomi sat down under a rock, gesturing for Asuma to sit next to him, gazing at the bustling Konoha Village not far away.
"Your father is the current Third Hokage of the Hidden Village of Konoha, and was appointed as a successor by the Second Hokage. Growing up beside him, you should be deeply infused with the Will of Fire, so why would you ask such a question?"
Asuma slowly sat down beside Aomi, and the prosperity in his eyes seemed so void from his perspective.
"Aomi, precisely because I am the son of the Third Hokage, I have doubts about the Will of Fire..."
Asuma smiled bitterly, pointing to the Uchiha Clan emblem on Aomi's clothes, saying self-deprecatingly:
"I'm not afraid of you laughing at me, Aomi. If you weren't from the Uchiha Clan, even if you were so proficient in the Will of Fire, I wouldn't dare come to you."
"If I voiced my doubts to anyone else, my father would know everything I said the next day, and then he would either harshly scold me or give me a rough beating."
Aomi laughed: "You are quite an honest person, Asuma."
"You are right. The Uchiha Clan is in such an awkward position in Konoha nowadays that even if I could gain your father's favor, I would not risk talking to him about this. After all, it would mean sowing discord between you and your father."
Asuma nodded awkwardly.
Aomi patted his shoulder and stared at him: "It has nothing to do with the Uchiha Clan or Konoha..."
"Asuma, I assure you, no one else will know what you said today. I swear on the honor of the Uchiha Clan."
Hearing this, Asuma immediately became solemn: "Thank you, Aomi."
Swearing by the clan's honor is a very reliable guarantee for a millennia-old ninja clan like the Uchiha.
But when Senju Tobirama heard this, he let out a cold snort.
If it were another Uchiha saying something like this, he might barely believe it three out of ten times...
But since the one making the vow is Aomi, Tobirama felt that the credibility is about the same as if he swore by the honor of the Senju Clan; essentially, it can be said that the baseline is very flexible.
"Hey, did I accidentally insult myself..." Tobirama was stunned, realizing the blind spot.
"Aomi, it is precisely because my father is the Hokage and my brother is the Head of the Anbu that I can see and hear things in this village that many others cannot..."
Asuma fished out a crumpled cigarette from his pocket, lit it skillfully, took a deep drag, and said with a distant gaze: "Do you know about Root?"
"That is a division of the Anbu, controlled by Hokage Assistant Shimura Danzo. I once had several friends, some of whom were commoners and some from the ninja clans, but they were all selected by Root later on."
Aomi nodded: "Being selected by the Anbu isn't a good thing?"
Sarutobi Asuma exhaled a puff of smoke:
"Good thing? They disappeared from Konoha thereafter. I asked their elders, but their family said they were dead, with hatred and resentment in their eyes."
"I don't think my friends wanted to join the so-called Root. Their past dream was to become Hokage..."
Aomi remained silent, nodding slowly.
This was indeed the style of Shimura Danzo, abducting the geniuses he valued, brainwashing them at a young age to turn them into tools.
Not just commoner ninjas but even those from the ninja clans find it hard to resist Shimura Danzo's demands. Even the Yamanaka Clan, closely allied with Sarutobi Hiruzen, had to contribute their clan's geniuses to this Hokage Assistant.
At the mention of Shimura Danzo's name, Senju Tobirama's heart stirred, his face gradually darkening, pondering deeply.
"Moreover, Aomi, as a member of the Uchiha, have you heard of Wood Release?"
Seemingly emboldened by Aomi's earnest vow, Asuma's words grew more daring:
"Orochimaru, Shimura Danzo, and my father tried to replicate the Wood Release of the First Hokage for Konoha, and embarked on human experimentation."
"Initially, this project was official; many members of the Senju Clan volunteered and cooperated actively with this research, even many commoner ninjas voluntarily joined."
Aomi waved his hand and slowly said:
"Asuma, there's nothing inherently wrong with human experimentation. The village and your father aimed to strengthen the village's power, which doesn't violate the Will of Fire, as it's voluntary."
Asuma slowly shook his head:
"Later, the experiment was halted. I don't know the exact reason, but I heard it was due to low success rates, resulting in many ninja casualties."
Aomi nodded knowingly: "The effort doesn't always yield results, Asuma."
"The power of the First Hokage is so alluring that any Hokage would wish to recreate Konoha's past glory, but they just failed, which doesn't mean anything beyond that."
Asuma sighed heavily: "Aomi, do you think I don't understand these things?"
"But after the experiment was halted, some ninja with Senju bloodline I once knew mysteriously disappeared from Konoha. Where do you think they went..."
"Did they go to Root, or did they continue sacrificing in this secret experiment? I want to know if those who disappeared later volunteered."
"And the extortion by Root, the secret human experimentation, these are just the tip of the iceberg."
"Do all these align with the Will of Fire?"
Aomi squinted his eyes, patting Asuma's shoulder, slowly saying: "So, what you are truly confused about is..."
"In your daily life at Ninja School, the Will of Fire you learn is so bright and just, without a speck of dirt or blemish."
"But due to your family and background, you witness the darkness buried deep within the village, which conflicts with the Will of Fire learned by most Konoha ninjas, leaving you unable to understand what the Will of Fire truly is."
Asuma nodded vigorously; Aomi's summary struck a chord with him.
If one has never seen brightness, one can endure darkness.
But Asuma, having witnessed darkness, harbored doubts about the brightness before him.
As a young man with independent thoughts, Asuma had his own ideals, but his background presented him with disparate information, causing him deep confusion and pain.
"Asuma, give me one..." Aomi didn't answer Asuma's question but instead asked for a cigarette.
Asuma silently nodded, lighting one for Aomi and another for himself.
The son of the Hokage and a genius of the Uchiha.
This strange pair sat atop the mountain, gazing at the hustle and bustle of Konoha, silently smoking cigarettes.
At that moment, a certain bond seemed to have formed...