Third Hokage took a deep drag from the pipe in his hand, continuously producing secondhand smoke.
As Itachi finished speaking, a chill could not help but rise in his heart.
The look he directed at Itachi held both fear and joy.
Fear came from Itachi taking the initiative to propose the annihilation of his own clan; anyone who saw this would feel a chill and dread.
Joy!
It was his gratification at seeing the results after years of laying out plans in the ninja academy.
The academy textbooks and the speeches he gave were meant to brainwash the younger generation, yet he had not expected the brainwashing to be this successful—successful enough that someone was willing to kill their own family for the Will of Fire he wove.
Third Hokage was the longest-serving Hokage, yet he was also the Hokage who had seen the least battlefield action; the people he had killed with his own hands did not equal those of Kakashi or Itachi.
He had only been on a battlefield once!
That was in the first war, and even then, it was by the side of his teacher, Second Tobirama.
He had not secured the position of Hokage through combat power, but rather through the Will of Fire and Danzo.
Those in the village who could be brainwashed by the Will of Fire were Third Hokage's own people. Those who could not be reached by the Will of Fire would be done away with by Danzo, the Darkness of the Shinobi.
Looking at Itachi, Third Hokage felt the joyous satisfaction of an old farmer harvesting after hard work, but right at that moment he thought of his son, Asuma Sarutobi, and a headache immediately struck him.
The Will of Fire was an illusion he cast upon the people of