The night deepened, and Konoha Village shed the hustle and bustle of the day. Scattered lights, like stars, dotted the well-arranged buildings, outlining the village's tranquil silhouette.
On the observation deck atop the Hokage Rock, the view was wide. The night wind was biting cold, carrying both the scent of the village below and the freshness of the distant forest.
Hiruzen and Shura stood shoulder to shoulder, appearing peaceful, yet with undercurrents surging.
The Third Hokage, in his white Hokage's robe, swayed slightly in the night wind, the pipe in his hand glowing and dimming intermittently.
Shura, standing shoulder to shoulder with him, still wore his black robe, his face covered by the cold, hard white three-eyed fox mask, silently overlooking Konoha below.
In the shadows behind them, Yamato, the Anbu Commander, personally led the team. Several Anbu elites directly under the Hokage lurked silently in the darkness, like hibernating leopards.
Their gazes were locked on the black-robed figure, Chakra flowing subtly within their bodies, their bodies tense, ready to respond to any possible emergency situation.
Although Shura held a formal diplomatic invitation, and although the Third Hokage seemed to be speaking calmly with him, no Konoha's Ninja dared to take this dangerous man, who had attacked the Hyuga, severely damaged Kumogakure, and single-handedly established the Land of Stars, lightly.
Every wisp of wind in the air seemed to stagnate like a taut string.
The tedious matters regarding the specific procedures of the Joint Chunin Exams, the quotas for participating teams from each country, venue arrangements, security coordination, etc., had been basically agreed upon in the brightly lit Hokage's office earlier.
Moving here now was clearly not to continue discussing details.
"In my old age, this is my only hobby. Shura-dono, you don't mind, do you?" Sarutobi Hiruzen took new tobacco from his pocket and slowly filled his pipe, his movements carrying the particular steadiness of the elderly, and also a hint of procrastination, as if weighing his next words.
"Go ahead." Menma's voice came through the mask, calm and unruffled, giving nothing away.
He didn't even turn his head, his gaze still fixed on the myriad lights below. His posture was less that of an invited guest, and more like a king inspecting his own domain.
Hiruzen lit his pipe and took a deep drag. The orange-red flame flickered briefly in his aged yet still shrewd eyes.
He slowly exhaled smoke, his gaze also turning towards Konoha in the night, and said slowly, "A few years ago, after Jiraiya returned from his travels, he had a detailed conversation with me about his experiences in the Land of Stars. He mentioned many changes in your country… social stability, orderly people's livelihoods, even radiating a vitality completely different from traditional great nations."
"I was quite amazed when I heard it."
Hiruzen paused, as if recalling Jiraiya's description at the time, his tone carrying a hint of complex emotion.
A few years ago, after escaping from Amegakure, Jiraiya had gone to the Land of Stars with Ajisai and had an in-depth exchange with Shura, although they eventually parted on somewhat unpleasant terms due to differing philosophies.
But Menma had not stopped Jiraiya from traveling in the Land of Stars.
And Jiraiya had recorded the customs and social conditions of the Land of Stars in his writing, sending a letter to Hiruzen, giving him a clearer understanding of the Land of Stars.
Hiruzen also knew that his other student, Tsunade, now seemed to be permanently based in the Land of Stars' prosperous gambling city, spending her days with sake cups and dice.
But Tsunade rarely communicated with Konoha, and had never revealed to him the intelligence about Minato and Kushina being resurrected with the Edo Tensei.
If he knew those things, he could not possibly be so calmly viewing the scenery and conversing with Shura at this moment.
Menma just stood quietly, his mask facing Konoha, like a silent listener, or an onlooker.
The night wind blew his Nine Masked Svaha cloak, which flapped loudly.
Seeing him unmoved, Hiruzen continued along his own line of thought: "In my spare time, I have also flipped through some works that originated from your country. The 'revolution' philosophy expounded in them is completely different from the thousand-year tradition of the Ninja World… quite astonishing."
"Although I cannot fully agree, I do admit there are thought-provoking points. However..." He changed the subject, his tone becoming deep and slightly helpless.
"Since its founding by the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama-sama, Konoha has shared weal and woe with the Land of Fire, depending on each other for survival. This is not only a covenant... our path, our choices, are already deeply rooted here. This is the foundation of Konoha's establishment, and also our..."
"Just say 'the ancestral laws cannot be changed', Third Hokage-dono. Why be so indirect and circuitous?" Menma suddenly spoke, his tone plain, yet like a precise scalpel, instantly dissecting the warmth and helplessness carefully wrapped in Hiruzen's words.
"Cough, cough..." Caught off guard by this direct and almost rude interruption, Hiruzen choked on his smoke, couldn't help coughing twice, his aged cheeks reddening slightly, whether from choking or some other reason.
He had intended to use more emotional terms like 'Will of Fire', 'tradition', 'bonds' to elaborate Konoha's position, attempting some kind of gentle confrontation or defense at the ideological level, but he hadn't expected the other party to not fall for it at all, piercing the glossy veil with one sharp comment.
It seemed a soft snort came from beneath the white three-eyed fox mask.
Menma still didn't look back, but his words came clearly and coldly: "Konoha has long been deeply bound to the ruling class of the Land of Fire, the nobility and Daimyo System. They thrive and suffer together. You are one of the biggest beneficiaries of this system, so naturally you cannot betray your own class."
"So, you cannot, like the Land of Stars, completely shatter the shackles of the old era, uprooting the Daimyo, nobles, and corrupt bureaucrats who suck the blood of the common people. Because doing so would be tantamount to denying the very foundation of your own existence. Am I right, Third Hokage-dono?"
Hiruzen's fingers holding the pipe tightened slightly.
The other party's words were sharp as a knife, stripping away all high-sounding reasons, revealing the cold, cruel reality.
He could not refute it, because it was the truth.
Konoha's strength was inseparable from the financial and material support of the Land of Fire, and maintaining this support system were precisely those 'vermin' that Shura regarded as must be eradicated.
Hiruzen saw the strength of the Land of Stars, and also saw the advantages of the Land of Stars' system.
But revolution?
Such thing is easier said than done.
Even the Sarutobi Clan alone had marriage ties with many nobles of the Land of Fire, let alone other Ninja Clans.
But once revolution occurred, it would mean shaking the foundation of the country, meaning unpredictable turmoil and sacrifice, meaning potentially making enemies of other Konoha's Ninja Clans, even the entire traditional world.
Konoha could not afford it, and he, Sarutobi Hiruzen, could not make that decision.
Silence spread between them, broken only by the howling night wind and the faint chirping of insects in the distance.
The Anbu in the shadows seemed to lighten their breathing. Yamato's palms were slightly sweating as he nervously watched the situation.
After a long while, Hiruzen seemed to have calmed down. He took a drag of his pipe, changed the subject, and his tone regained its calmness: "Then, Shura-dono, in your opinion, what is 'peace'? You wage war, annex other countries… is that what you call 'peace'?"
He wanted to know where this man's ambition and the boundaries of his philosophy lay.
"Peace?" Menma finally slightly turned his neck, the mask seeming to tilt towards Hiruzen.
"Third Hokage, are you referring to the rules set by your First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, back then… dividing the Five Great Nations, distributing Tailed Beasts, maintaining a fragile peace under terror balance?"
His tone suddenly carried unconcealed mockery: "How ridiculous and pathetic a self-consolation. Such a fragile peace, yet you have glorified it for decades."
"Sir, watch your words!" Hiruzen's expression darkened, his voice also becoming stern.
Hashirama was his lifelong revered teacher, the God of Ninja who had created Konoha and the current structure of the Ninja World. He would not tolerate desecration, especially in such a contemptuous tone.
"Watch my words?" Menma's voice suddenly rose, carrying an icy, mighty momentum that actually suppressed Hiruzen's anger.
"The God of Ninja, Senju Hashirama… what a great reputation! Possessing the absolute power to end the chaotic era and unify the entire Ninja World, yet what did he do? He distributed Tailed Beasts like toys to other great nations, calling it 'balance'… and what was the result?"
"Third Hokage, you have experienced all the Great Ninja Wars. You tell me, from the founding of Konoha to the present, just over sixty years, how many great wars have swept the entire Ninja World in these sixty-plus years?"
He didn't need Hiruzen to answer... he gave the cold answer himself: "Three! The scale, scope, and death toll of each far exceed any melee between Ninja Clans in the Warring States Period! In the Warring States Period, most of those who died in battle were Ninjas. But in these three Great Ninja Wars, how many of those who died on the battlefields, in the famines, plagues, and displacement caused by war, were defenseless civilians?"
"This number, I'm afraid, even adding up all the deaths from the two hundred years prior might not match it, right?"
"Is this the 'peace' left by Senju Hashirama? Replacing small-scale, high-frequency skirmishes with more efficient, more brutal wars… is this what he brought to this world?"
Hiruzen's chest heaved violently a few times. He wanted to refute, but found his throat a little dry.
What the other party listed were cold facts, doubts that had occasionally surfaced in the depths of his own heart, which he had forcibly suppressed.
The First Great Ninja War, the Second Great Ninja War, the Third Great Ninja War, which had ended just ten years ago...
Mountains of corpses and seas of blood, villages and towns desolate, how many families broken, how many children orphaned...
These images flashed through his mind, making his arguments appear so pale and feeble.
"Did your wars, sir, cause fewer deaths?" Hiruzen, after all, was a Hokage who had weathered many storms, quickly steadying himself and questioning sharply.
"The Land of Bears, the Land of Demon, the Land of Swamps, the Land of Snow... and the great war with the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth five years ago! Every step of the Land of Stars' expansion has trodden on piles of white bones! Is this the 'path to peace' you seek?"
Facing Hiruzen's questioning, Menma seemed not to be angered, only speaking with almost stubborn certainty: "You only see the temporary pain of war, yet you selectively ignore the 'rebirth' after the pain."
"Indeed, the rise of the Land of Stars has been accompanied by war and death, but this is the necessary cost of revolution! Bloodshed is unavoidable in any revolution that overturns the old order."
"But you don't see, or perhaps you are unwilling to see, that in today's Land of Stars, with tens of millions of citizens, can they have a house to shelter them from wind and rain on a cold winter's night? Can they be guaranteed at least one full meal a day? No longer need to worry about the exorbitant levies of nobles and Daimyo, no longer fear the unwarranted disasters of Ninja Warfare? The elderly cared for, the young educated, farmers have their land, workers have their jobs..."
"Can you guarantee these things? Can the Land of Fire guarantee them? Can Konoha guarantee them?"
His voice was not impassioned, but every word weighed a thousand pounds, striking Hiruzen's heart.
To eat well, dress warmly, and not be bullied… these are the most simple, most direct desires of ordinary people.
Hiruzen fell silent again. The pipe in his mouth seemed to lose its flavor.
He remembered scenes from his youth, when he passed through certain areas of the Land of Fire on missions.
Ragged refugees, wastelands strewn with corpses, farmers sallow and emaciated from noble exploitation...
He also remembered the orphanage in Konoha, the ever-increasing number of children without fathers or mothers. Many of them were not Konoha's orphans, but children of ordinary civilians who had died of poverty, disease, or noble persecution within the Land of Fire.
Konoha could, within its own scope, try to shelter civilians and give relatively generous treatment to children with Ninja Talent, but for the countless civilians on the vast land of the Land of Fire, for the deep-seated ills of this country, what he could do was limited.
And the peaceful and stable social form of Shura's Land of Stars stood in stark contrast to the social turmoil of other countries.
"Senju Hashirama ended the Warring States Period that lasted for centuries, creating a new order of one country, one village. No matter how many problems this order has, he was ultimately the pioneer of that era." Menma's voice sounded again, exceptionally clear in the night wind, carrying a grand and firm will.
"And I merely wish to do the same thing."
"To end this era that, despite its appearance of peace, remains chaotic, unjust, and filled with war and oppression."
"To burn this rotten old world clean with necessary blood and fire! Then build a brand new Ninja World."
"This is my Ninja Way!"
On the observation deck, the night wind grew stronger.
Hiruzen was silent for a long time, just smoking his pipe quietly, looking down at Konoha, the village he had guarded all his life, his gaze complex and unreadable.
This clash of philosophies had nothing to do with force.
Yet he found that the 'Will of Fire' he had believed in for so many years, limited to one country, one village, appeared so narrow-minded before Shura's 'Will of Stars'.