Will of Fire

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

The ferocious Magma Demon Dog pierced straight through Sarutobi Shinosuke's chest without surprise.

It swiftly burned his flesh and organs into charred remains.

His already wide eyes opened even wider.

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

The gaping hole in his chest, which had nearly blown him in half at the waist, had already foretold the battle's final outcome.

When Uchiha Chisen slowly pulled his arm free, Sarutobi Shinosuke's body lost all support and collapsed to his knees before heavily falling facedown onto the ground.

"Shinosuke!!!"

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

Tears filled Sarutobi Hiruzen's fierce eyes, and his breathing quickened. Even his aged, wrinkled hands trembled incessantly as he tried, in this way, to hold on to his eldest son's life for just a little longer.

"Cough... cough cough..."

Sarutobi Shinosuke, hanging on by his final breath, slowly turned his head. His blurred gaze fell upon Uchiha Chisen, who stood nearby.

"Cough cough... Your Justice..." he said in broken intervals. "It really is... decisive enough... So the things I did were that morally depraved in your eyes? Thinking about it carefully, ha, they really weren't good things..."

"Chisen..."

"The only thing wrong was that your position differed from ours. You cannot... stand alone against the entire Shinobi World. Your Justice... is something many people cannot tolerate. You must turn your Justice into Konoha's Justice! But you... it seems you never listened to my teachings."

"Old man..."

"Cough cough... You don't need to hand me over to the Yamanaka Clan to rifle through my memories. Everything this brat tells you afterward is true. He has always been able to see through good and evil."

"Clearly, I'm dying from magma burns..."

"But my body feels so cold..."

"...So cold."

When Sarutobi Shinosuke used every last ounce of strength to slowly close his eyes, his breathing finally came to a complete stop.

Until the very last moment of his life, he still held opposing views toward Uchiha Chisen's "Justice."

He did not believe Uchiha Chisen was wrong.

But...

He did not believe it was right, either.

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

He raised his head and met Uchiha Chisen's gaze, his teeth clenched tight. His pupils quivered slightly, and blood vessels filled the whites of his eyes.

The words Sarutobi Hiruzen spoke at that moment were practically forced out through sheer effort. "Was there any need to make things this irreconcilable? Couldn't you have discussed anything with this old man, the Hokage? Was there any need... any need to kill Shinosuke?"

"He was this old man's eldest son! He was once your Jonin instructor! Chisen! Even if your Justice has made you so cold-blooded that you never consider the bond between master and student, couldn't you at least consider this old man's feelings?!"

Question after question, shifting from unbearable grief at first to an enraged roar by the end.

Sarutobi Hiruzen could no longer tell what he was feeling.

Nor could he decide how to handle this matter.

"Third Hokage, I am a member of the Konoha Military Police Force." Uchiha Chisen stared at Sarutobi Shinosuke's corpse. Under the surrounding firelight and crimson glow of magma, no one could make out the expression in his eyes.

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

Sarutobi Hiruzen remained silent for an unknown length of time.

Under the watchful 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 wrong? At the brink of death, Shinosuke himself had already said that Chisen was not wrong.

Rage filled Sarutobi Hiruzen's heart.

It even carried a chilling killing intent.

He was the leader of a village, but he was also a father. Countless thoughts urged him to directly give the order for the Anbu Ninja behind him to swarm forward and execute Uchiha Chisen on the spot.

But...

Shinosuke's final words had already blocked off such an action. Shinosuke had admitted that he had committed sinful acts that were beneficial to the village, yet morally corrupt on a personal level.

Sarutobi Hiruzen could not tell... Had Sarutobi Shinosuke spoken nonsense in a daze as death clouded his mind?

Or had Shinosuke spoken those words with his last shred of reason?

If it was the latter, then Shinosuke's purpose was likely to grant legitimacy to Uchiha Chisen's act of killing him as [Absolute Justice], wasn't it?

Shinosuke...

He had fulfilled the final duty of a Jonin instructor.

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

Sarutobi Hiruzen let out a deep sigh.

Is this the final message you left this old man, Shinosuke?

Sarutobi Hiruzen's thoughts were a tangled mess.

He had lived for so many years, and he even had grandchildren, 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...

Again and again, for who knew how long.

"Uchiha Chisen. Tomorrow, give this old man a detailed operation report. Hand it over to the Anbu. You need not come see this old man."

In the end, he said those words.

"Lord Hokage!" After a brief stunned pause, an Anbu Ninja from the Sarutobi Clan anxiously cried out beside Sarutobi Hiruzen. "Sarutobi Shinosuke was one of your right-hand men!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen lowered his eyes.

"Lord Hokage..." Just as the Sarutobi Clan Anbu Ninja was about to urgently say something else, a hand suddenly landed on his shoulder. He turned around in astonishment.

Hatake Kakashi, also wearing an Anbu Mask, gave a slight shake of his head.

"Let Lord Hokage calm down by himself."

Kakashi's expression was complicated as he said, "What Senior Shinosuke said before his death already counted as last words. Lord Hokage also understood Senior Shinosuke's final message. Although he stood on a different side from Uchiha Chisen, at the very end of his life, he still expressed his admiration for this former student."

"He was also willing to become a fallen leaf that burned to ashes, nurturing the student he saw as the most rebellious. Senior Sarutobi Shinosuke truly upheld Konoha's [Will of Fire]. With his life, he was also telling his student that Konoha's Will of Fire was not much inferior to Absolute Justice."

Having said that,

Kakashi turned his gaze toward Uchiha Chisen and discovered that this "teacher-slayer" had already turned and left.

Uchiha Chisen's departing footsteps were very clear.

Yet 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 Senior Sarutobi Shinosuke nor Uchiha Chisen was wrong.

—That was a thought that suddenly surfaced in Kakashi's mind.

Then the question was, what had gone wrong?

If neither of them was wrong, then was the Shinobi World itself at fault?

Kakashi could not understand.

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

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

"Yes, Senior."