The Will of Fire

Uchiha Chisen's searing, crimson magma was not something a ninja's fragile, "glass cannon" body could withstand.

The savage Magma Demon Dog pierced Sarutobi Shinosuke's chest without the slightest surprise.

It swiftly burned his flesh and internal organs to charcoal.

It also made Sarutobi Shinosuke's already wide eyes open even wider.

He opened his mouth and vomited a mouthful of clotted blood.

The gaping hole in his chest, which had nearly blasted his body in two, already foretold the battle's final outcome.

When Uchiha Chisen slowly withdrew his arm, Sarutobi Shinosuke's body lost its support. He crumpled to his knees and fell heavily onto the ground.

"Shinosuke!!!"

A figure rushed over and immediately gathered the fallen Sarutobi Shinosuke into his arms.

Tears filled Sarutobi Hiruzen's fierce eyes, and his breathing grew rapid. His aged, deeply wrinkled hands kept trembling, as though he could somehow hold on to his eldest son's life that way.

"Cough... cough, cough..."

Clinging to his final breath, Sarutobi Shinosuke slowly turned his head, his blurred gaze settling on Uchiha Chisen beside him.

"Cough... your justice..." he said haltingly. "It really is... decisive enough... Were the things I did really that morally bankrupt in your eyes? Thinking about it, hah, none of them were good things..."

"Chisen..."

"The only thing wrong is that your position differs from ours. You can't... stand alone against the entire Shinobi World. Your justice... is something many people can't accept. You have to make your justice Konoha's justice! But you... never did seem to listen to my lectures."

"Old man..."

"Cough... you don't need to hand me over to the Yamanaka Clan to sift through my memories. Everything this brat tells you afterward will be true. He can still see through good and evil, just as he always could."

"I'm dying from being burned by magma..."

"But my body feels so cold..."

"...So cold."

When Sarutobi Shinosuke used all his remaining strength to slowly close his eyes, his breathing stopped completely.

Even in the final moments of his life, he still opposed Uchiha Chisen's "justice."

He did not think Uchiha Chisen was wrong.

But...

He did not think he was right, either.

"Chi... Chisen..." The agony of losing his son made Sarutobi Hiruzen's aged body tremble.

He raised his head to meet Uchiha Chisen's eyes, his jaw clenched tight. His pupils trembled slightly, and the whites of his eyes were webbed with blood vessels.

The words Sarutobi Hiruzen spoke at that moment were almost forcibly squeezed out. "Did you have to let things come to this? Was there nothing you could have discussed with me, your Hokage? Did you have to... did you have to kill Shinosuke?"

"He was my eldest son! He was once your Jonin instructor! Chisen! Even if your justice makes you so cold-blooded that you never spare a thought for the bond between teacher and student, couldn't you have spared a thought for me?"

Question after question went from unbearable grief to furious roars.

Sarutobi Hiruzen could no longer tell what he was feeling.

It was even harder to decide how he should handle this.

"Third, I'm a member of the Konoha Military Police Force." Uchiha Chisen gazed at Sarutobi Shinosuke's corpse. In the surrounding firelight and the crimson glow of magma, the expression in his eyes was unreadable.

He said slowly, "When I saw my former Jonin instructor fall into the abyss, all I could do was let him die knowing why. Nothing more."

Sarutobi Hiruzen remained silent for an unknown length of time.

Under the eyes of the large group of elite Anbu ninja behind him, he staggered to his feet and lifted his eldest son into his arms.

Could he say Uchiha Chisen had done something wrong? In his dying moments, Shinosuke had already said Chisen was not wrong.

Anger filled Sarutobi Hiruzen's heart.

It even carried a chilling killing intent.

He was the Kage of a village, but he was also a father. Countless times, he wanted to give the order for the Anbu ninja behind him to swarm Uchiha Chisen and kill him on the spot.

But...

Shinosuke's final words had already ruled out that course of action. Shinosuke had admitted to committing sinful acts that, though good for the village, were morally corrupt on a personal level.

Sarutobi Hiruzen could not tell... had those been the incoherent ramblings of Sarutobi Shinosuke's fading consciousness before his death?

Or had Shinosuke spoken with the last of his reason?

If it was the latter, then Shinosuke's aim had probably been to legitimize Uchiha Chisen's killing of him under [Absolute Justice], hadn't it?

Shinosuke...

He had fulfilled his final duty as a Jonin instructor.

Back then, he had failed to protect two Genin students who had made mistakes. Now, he had tried to protect his last student.

Sarutobi Hiruzen let out a deep sigh.

"Is this the final message you've left me, Shinosuke?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen's thoughts were in turmoil.

He had lived so many years and even had a grandson, yet he suddenly found himself bewildered by how human nature could be so complicated.

He clenched his fist, then loosened it.

Clenched it, then loosened it...

He repeated this for an unknown length of time.

"Uchiha Chisen. Give me a detailed report of your actions tomorrow. Hand it over to the Anbu. You don't need to come see me."

Those were the words he finally spoke.

"Lord Hokage!" An Anbu ninja from the Sarutobi Clan froze for a moment before calling out anxiously beside Sarutobi Hiruzen. "Sarutobi Shinosuke was one of your most trusted aides!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen lowered his eyes.

"Lord Hokage..." Just as the Anbu ninja from the Sarutobi Clan was about to say something else in his urgency, a hand suddenly landed on his shoulder. He looked back in surprise.

Hatake Kakashi, who also wore an Anbu mask, shook his head slightly.

"Let Lord Hokage have some time alone to calm down."

Kakashi's expression was complicated. "What Shinosuke said before he died was already his final message. Lord Hokage understood that message, too. Although Shinosuke's position differed from Uchiha Chisen's, in the last moments of his life, he still expressed his deep admiration for his former student."

"He was also willing to become a fallen leaf burned to ashes, nourishing the student he considered his most rebellious. Sarutobi Shinosuke truly embodied Konoha's [Will of Fire]. He also used his life to tell his student that Konoha's Will of Fire was not much inferior to Absolute Justice."

With that said...

Kakashi turned his gaze toward Uchiha Chisen and discovered that this "teacher killer" had already turned and walked away.

Uchiha Chisen's departing footsteps rang out clearly.

But Lord Hokage did not call out to stop him, nor did he order the Anbu ninja to pursue him. He merely held Sarutobi Shinosuke's gradually cooling corpse in silence.

Neither Sarutobi Shinosuke nor Uchiha Chisen did anything wrong.

That thought suddenly surfaced in Kakashi's mind.

Then the question is, what was wrong?

If neither of them was wrong, was this Shinobi World what was wrong?

Kakashi could not figure it out.

"Let's head back to the village, rookie."

Uchiha Chisen said slowly, "Tonight will be a sleepless night."

"Yes, sir."