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The cool evening air of Konoha brushed against his Hokage robes as he walked through the streets of the village, the rows of buildings illuminated by the setting sun as they cast long shadows across the lands.
Hiruzen's eyes turned to the myriad of shops in the process of shutting down. He observed them all one by one and noted how each of them was different from the other. How far Konoha had come, it reminded him. There had been barely any shops of any kind when he was young.
"Good evening, Hokage-sama." A fellow villager passed by him, bowing respectfully. Hiruzen returned his greetings with a smile.
More and more villagers went by all hurrying towards their own respective houses as the sun set, each on of them pausing to give their own regards. As he trudged through the streets, the laughter and conversations flowing around him, Hiruzen felt a dash of melancholy run through him.
This was the village that Lord First had dreamt about: a secure place for the innocent, for the weak, to spend their lives without a twinge of worry of whether they'd live to see the next day or not. That worry had clouded the minds of everyone born in the Warring States period, but Hashirama-sensei had went above and beyond to prove that they could all live peacefully together.
But peace never lasted, and it wouldn't last now either. A grimace appeared on Hiruzen's wrinkled face, twisting his expression. The greed and insecurity of humanity truly knew no bounds.
The burden of a Hokage was a heavy one, knowing that each decision he made could theoretically spell the doom of everyone living here.
Pursing his lips, Hiruzen marched forward towards his destination, his feet having walked the same path a thousand times. It was surreal to imagine the changes that had occurred in the same place just a few decades past. The road was no longer dirt and mud cobbled together; the trees had thinned and lessened and the walls were more colorful.
Despite of all these changes, the feeling of his love for his village never changed. It was home. A home he would sacrifice everything to keep safe.
And so Hiruzen continued walking, the feet having memorized the path after countless hours of walking on it. His mind heavy with the knowledge of the war ailing the shinobi nations.
Lost in his thoughts, it didn't take him long to reach his destination.
The massive wooden gates of the Senju Clan compound stood before him, high and mighty in their power. The wood of the gates bore the same Chakra signature as that of his late teacher, the First Hokage.
He stood before the gates, staring at the massive Senju Clan sigil engraved on the wood, contemplating. This was the very same place where he had met Hashirama-sensei and Tobirama-sensei for the first time. He had been young then, barely five years of age, and his memory of that event had grown blurry and distorted, yet it could never leave his mind completely.
The Sarutobi clan had just joined this new, fledgling village and he was brought along by his father to meet the Senju brothers. Hiruzen had been, admittedly, a little terrified of them—their reputation had not escaped his little ears even as a child—but they had been nothing except kind and helpful.
A rueful smile made its way onto his face as he reminisced about the better times, before reminding himself that he had wasted enough time pondering on useless thoughts.
Taking a step forward, Hiruzen pushed open the gates and stepped inside. He took a moment to admire the barriers placed around the compound, Mito-sama's and Tobirama-sensei's work, no doubt. If anyone else had tried to step inside, they would have found themselves in a very perilous situation. The compound was undoubtedly one of the safest places in the entire village, having the additional protection of being located at the heart of the village.
Hiruzen's eyes flickered towards the invisible barriers that encompassed the entire compound with curiosity. To test his hypothesis, he sent a pulse of Chakra towards them, noting something new.
Someone else had added new barriers on top of the existing ones.
'Was it Mito-sama? No, not quite,' he mused and looked at the barriers while rubbing his chin before sending another pulse of Chakra to confirm his thoughts. Hiruzen raised his eyebrows at the discovery–
"Pretty neat, isn't it? They are my newest creation," a familiar voice called out from behind him. Smiling, he turned around to come face to face with the speaker.
Sitting peacefully on a high-backed chair in the garden with his palms neatly folded on top of each other was the grandson of his sensei. The boy's long brown hair fluttered against the wind gently and his eyes remained closed, but a smirk was present on his face.
It was almost frightening just how similar he looked to Hashirama-sensei. Even their chakra signature was alike, almost indistinguishable from the surrounding chakra of the trees and air, making it almost impossible to sense had it not been for the massive reserves. There was no other person that had chakra similar to these two.
"It is indeed an incredible piece of work," Hiruzen smiled and walked towards him. "Especially for someone as young as you; not many people could even make such sealing barriers, much less integrate them into the original existing ones as seamlessly as you have."
The warm, brown-colored eyes stared into his as the boy's eyes fluttered open with amusement dancing through them. "What can I say? I am learning from the best, after all."
The brown-haired Senju stood up from his chair and raised his arms above his head to stretch; the sounds of joints popping permeated the air before he lowered them again to stare at Hiruzen. "And of course, not many are as talented as Hidetada Senju."
With a shameless smirk, the now-named Hidetada took a few steps towards his right and turned his back towards him to stare at the colourful koi swimming joyfully in the crystal-clear water of the pool.
The wind traveled gently between them, filling the comfortable silence with the sounds of branches and leaves fluttering against each other.
With his arms loosely behind his back, Hidetada looked up from the exotically colored koi to send a glance back at him. "It's good to see you again, Hokage-sama, but I doubt you have come here just to meet me."
Hiruzen's eyes flickered guiltily towards the borders of the compound as he searched for the correct answer. "I cannot even visit the grandson of my sensei now? Is that too much to ask for?"
Calmly, Hidetada turned back towards him with a mirthless smile on his lips. "You can cut the act and get straight to the point. Am I going to be sent to the war or not?"
A wizened sigh escaped his lips before Hiruzen looked up with hard eyes into Hidetada's. "No. The answer is still no."
The smile on his face widened as a grim chuckle escaped Hidetada's mouth. "The war that was started because of me, and I cannot even participate in it?"
Hiruzen pursed his lips and replied without missing a beat, "You are an important asset to the village. We cannot and will not be taking any risks, no matter what."
"Do you know how many people are dying because of me?" Hidetada grit his teeth, trying and failing to control his anger. "Do you understand how many lives I could save!"
"That is beside the point–"
"Butsuma, Itama, Kawarama, Toka, and many, many more, they all died because of me!"
Hidetada snarled and swung his hand through the air with his chakra flaring wildly around him. "You know how it feels, knowing I could be stopping this war right now? Knowing I could have done something, anything, to save my fellow clan members! Knowing that they all died because of me!"
The trees and plants started to move and rumble agitatedly as Hidetada's anger reached new heights and his chakra started to flare erratically. "I feel pathetic, I feel helpless, and most of all, I feel disgusted."
Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, he continued his tirade. "I feel disgusted at myself for sitting here on my ass like a feeble damsel in distress and doing absolutely fucking nothing!"
With a grimace, Hiruzen could do nothing except listen to the Senju heir's angry remarks. How could he say anything or defend himself when he himself knew that everything Hidetada was saying was correct?
"I think I understand it now. This was your plan all along, was it not? To make sure that the Senju Clan weakens itself, to make sure–"
Hidetada's accusation was sharply cut off as Hiruzen flared his own chakra and looked at him with indignation. "Know your limits, boy. I may let you speak your mind as you are the inheritor of my sensei's will, but accusing me of treason..."
They both stared at each other in a tense silence. Without saying anything, Hidetada rubbed his face tiredly before falling back onto his chair bonelessly. "I apologize. That was a bit too far, even for me."
Forming a snake hand sign, Hidetada molded his chakra swiftly to make a chair made out of Wood Release appear right behind Hiruzen. "It's just... I suppose the stress of the war is getting to me. I just wish you would allow me to decimate the enemies' frontlines and not keep me locked up here in this village."
With a tired sigh, Hidetada leaned back in his chair with his arms resting comfortably on the chair's arms and closed his eyes, the grim lines on his face relaxing.
Without another word, Hiruzen sat down on the chair made for him through Mokuton. He made note of the chair's comfort; it was surprisingly soft even though it was made out of wood.
"You yourself know the consequences if we allow you onto the battlefield, and that is ignoring all the risks that already exist."
Hidetada rubbed his forehead tiredly and took a breath in to calm himself. "You think I haven't thought about that already? I have spent days and nights agonizing over these decisions."
Leaning back, Hiruzen stared at the soothing movement of the leaves swaying above him. In that moment, he wondered whether becoming the Hokage was worth it at all. The only thing this position had brought to him was death and gloom. Having to stare at his shinobis' faces knowing that they were never going to return was not for the weak.
Furthermore, the difficult decisions that decided the fate of entire villages were, without a doubt, even more troubling for his heart.
"It comes down to the minute differences that each action will cause, does it not? The shinobi villages are targeting any and all things that possess even a drop of Senju blood in an attempt to find you and kill you to put an end to the Senju bloodline."
The calm rustling of the trees as a strong wind passed by them made Hiruzen pause before he started again. "Yet even so, they are still divided and fighting amongst themselves to further the borders of their nations that were assigned to them by Hashirama-sensei."
A moment passed between them as he stared at Hidetada's serene face. The similarities between those two were staggering; it was like seeing a much younger version of his sensei.
"They fear me."
This was the crux of the matter, the matter that had been one of the major reasons for the start of the Second Shinobi World War. Hidetada opened his eyes to stare at Hiruzen grimly and parted his mouth to speak again in his calm tone. "No, that is not accurate. They fear what I could become, what I have become."
Without pausing, he continued, "These pathetic creatures look at me and what do they see? The insurmountable shadow of my grandfather. They see the shadow that casts itself across all regions of the shinobi world and they feel dread. After all, it was through the mercy of Hashirama alone that allowed them to form their pathetic little nations."
Hiruzen pondered upon those words as he leaned back into his chair. The First Hokage had been an anomaly, an anomaly so powerful that even today, almost twenty years after his death, the entire world still feared his ghost. It was difficult to imagine that the kind and gentle Hashirama could have enticed such fear among Konoha's enemies; then again, he had never truly seen him in action.
There were many good reasons as to why the shinobi villages had hated him. Not many people, alive or dead, could even look into his eyes and not feel fear. Hashirama-sensei had been just, yet he had loved his own village the most. He had taken all of the good, fertile lands and the strongest tailed beasts for himself and his village, leaving the rest of the villages with nothing but scraps to fight among themselves for.
No one had dared to go against Konoha as long as Hashirama had been alive.
The moment the news of his death had escaped the guarded borders of the Hidden Leaf Village had perhaps been one of the most celebrated days among the general populace of the other Hidden Villages.
"You know, the thought of becoming a rogue ninja has crossed my mind."
Hiruzen's face became stone cold as he stared at Hidetada.
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Word Count: 2268.
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