Jiraiya ground his teeth.
It was that old bastard Danzo who had turned his three adorable students into what they were now!
One was dead, one had gone off the deep end and started calling himself a god, and the last had become quiet and withdrawn.
"Danzo, you really deserve to die!"
Jiraiya was practically beside himself with rage. He had already tried to imagine Danzo in the darkest possible light, only to discover that the man could always sink even lower.
He would stop at nothing to become Hokage!
"How could someone like you ever deserve to be Hokage? Even if I have to become Hokage myself, I'll never let you get another chance to touch that position. Never."
Jiraiya clenched his teeth.
He had absolutely no interest in becoming Hokage. In fact, the very idea repelled him from the bottom of his heart.
But if he had to choose between the two of them, then he would choose himself.
Danzo could never be allowed any chance of becoming Hokage.
In the original timeline, Jiraiya had died at Nagato's hands before the Six Paths of Pain invaded the Hidden Leaf Village. Otherwise, there was no way Danzo would have gotten the chance to become some so-called Fifth-and-a-Half Hokage.
He wouldn't have even gotten close enough to touch a single hair on the Hokage's robe.
"Dad."
Hatake Kakashi remembered seeing his father, Hatake Sakumo, after his own death in the diary.
The two of them had talked for a while and shared the feelings they had carried all those years.
Kakashi was gradually approaching the age his father had been back then. By now, he could understand much of what his father had gone through.
He no longer blamed Sakumo for taking his own life and leaving him alone in the world.
After receiving Kakashi's forgiveness, his father had finally moved on to the Pure Land.
In other words, his father was still waiting for him even now.
Only after receiving Kakashi's forgiveness would Sakumo be able to leave for the Pure Land in peace. For the moment, he was probably still sitting beside that little campfire halfway there, waiting for his son to report in.
"Dad, I probably won't be coming to see you so soon this time."
Hatake Kakashi murmured to himself.
This time, he wouldn't die so easily at the hands of Deva Path Pain.
He had watched the battle between himself and Deva Path Pain.
He had basically died after draining every last drop of Chakra from his body. The Mangekyo Sharingan technique known as Kamui consumed far too much Chakra.
It reminded him of how using Raikiri had once felt.
His Chakra reserves had increased dramatically since then, so Raikiri was no longer much of a problem. Kamui, however, would probably still be limited to only a few uses.
This time was different, though.
He had taken an entirely different path.
Rather than relying on ocular techniques, he was following the same path of swordsmanship as his father, Hatake Sakumo.
That style offered tremendous combat power while consuming far less Chakra.
A single slash from his blade could rival an ordinary A-Rank Ninjutsu, yet the Chakra cost was nowhere near that of a typical A-Rank Ninjutsu.
In the same battle, he would be able to last far longer than his original self.
And now that he knew Deva Path Pain's abilities in advance, he wouldn't be caught nearly as helpless.
There would be no need to fill the gap with his own life.
"No wonder he becomes the Seventh Hokage in the future. That determination to never give up…"
Uchiha Itachi sighed.
He no longer had the slightest doubt that Uzumaki Naruto would become the Seventh Hokage.
No wonder Naruto would be able to bring Sasuke back to the Hidden Leaf Village in the future, even after something as serious as abandoning the village.
"In that case, I really can entrust Sasuke to him."
Thinking about Sasuke's future, Uchiha Itachi couldn't help but feel relieved.
Still, the thought of Otsutsuki Indra left him with lingering doubts.
Unfortunately, he wouldn't live long enough to wait for the crisis involving the Otsutsuki to erupt.
All he could do was place his trust in Uzumaki Naruto.
He thought of the eye Shisui had entrusted to him.
For all this time, Itachi had never known who he should pass it on to.
Now he understood.
There was no one more suitable than Uzumaki Naruto.
Uchiha Sasuke had also fallen silent.
He watched as Nagato destroyed Konoha in the future. The terrifying power of Deva Path Pain had been displayed in full.
And in the face of that disaster, Uzumaki Naruto had fought with everything he had to save the entire village.
No wonder Naruto would become the Seventh Hokage while Sasuke would not.
Sasuke had left the village.
At the moment when Konoha needed him most, he hadn't contributed any of his strength.
At last, he understood where the problem lay.
But there was nothing he could say in his own defense.
Even so, a trace of envy rose in his heart.
He truly envied Uzumaki Naruto.
Sasuke also wanted to return to the village beneath the eyes of everyone and become its hero.
Did anyone really think he had never wanted to become Hokage?
Even a vengeful person like him had been influenced by the Will of Fire to some degree while attending the academy.
There had been a time when he imagined killing Uchiha Itachi and then becoming Hokage.
But the more he learned, the more impossible that dream seemed.
Especially after discovering that the Uchiha Clan had once planned a coup, only for Uchiha Itachi to slaughter the clan before they could act.
There was no way Konoha's leadership hadn't known about it.
Under those circumstances, did Sasuke truly have any chance of becoming Hokage?
The thought filled him with bitter resentment.
"That battle really was dangerous."
Seventh Hokage Naruto sighed as he remembered how close he had come to completely losing control.
That had also been the first time he truly recognized his own feelings.
The first time he realized Hinata was different from everyone else.
That had been close.
He had nearly lost his sweet, wonderful wife before they had even gotten together.
"Senpai, even now, I still don't know whether I managed to fulfill the promise I made to you and bring peace to the world."
Seventh Hokage Naruto murmured to himself.
He remembered the promise he had made to his senpai.
He would keep going, again and again, no matter what happened. If he ever found an opportunity for peace, he would seize it and never let go.
After all these years, and after the Shinobi World fought side by side during the Fourth Great Ninja War, the world had entered a long era of peace.
There were still occasional disputes, of course, but the Five Great Shinobi Villages had undeniably entered a period of peace.
Did that mean they had finally come to understand one another?
Seventh Hokage Naruto thought about it, then rejected the idea.
No.
This probably couldn't be called mutual understanding.
More likely, everyone was simply afraid of his and Sasuke's strength, so they had chosen to suppress their own ambitions.
It wasn't until several years after becoming Hokage that Naruto truly understood how the one-country, one-village system had emerged in the first place and how peace between the Five Great Shinobi Villages had originally been achieved.
It wasn't because the one-country, one-village system was more advanced than the old era, when the clans fought independently.
It was simply because Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara had beaten everyone into submission.
History really did repeat itself.
Back then, the villages had been crushed by the First Hokage and Uchiha Madara, and that had brought about peace.
Now, they were afraid of Naruto and Sasuke, so no one dared to start trouble.
Could that truly be considered fulfilling his old promise?
Or rather, was this peace any different from the peace his senpai had once dreamed of?
What was the difference between the peace they had now and the peace his senpai had wanted to create?
Well…
The villages hadn't all been blasted apart by the Ten-Tails, for one.