North of Kage Rock, Konoha.
Qingguang followed Tsunade as she strolled through a forest where there were almost no buildings to be seen, only greenery and shady trees everywhere.
Only a few narrow paths wound along the streams.
After walking for more than ten kilometers, they finally spotted a dark-brown wooden house in the distance, surrounded by a bamboo fence.
"Does Senior Momoka really live in a place like this?"
"The old woman likes her peace and quiet. Come on, let's go in."
Tsunade led the way and pushed open the bamboo gate.
As soon as they stepped inside, they saw an old woman lying in a wooden chair, leisurely basking in the sun.
The chair rocked gently back and forth, making her jet-black hair sway.
Senju Momoka opened her eyes, her sharp gaze landing on Qingguang.
For an instant, Qingguang felt as if the old woman could see right through him.
"You're... Kagami's child, Qingguang?"
"Yes, Senior Momoka."
Momoka stood up and brushed down the hem of her simple blue robe. "Let's go inside and talk. It's getting cold, and my old bones can't take being out here for too long."
After taking off their shoes, Qingguang and Tsunade sat on the tatami. Momoka took a seat across from them.
"So this is the child who made you decide to run for Fourth Hokage," Momoka said with a smile, looking at Tsunade.
"What? Can't I want to become Hokage for my own sake?"
"My grandfather was Hokage, my granduncle was Hokage, and my teacher was Hokage. I want to become Hokage too, and protect this village. What's wrong with that?" Tsunade argued, making her case.
Qingguang kept quiet and remained a bystander.
"Pah, who are you trying to fool?"
"You're a lazy little girl who does nothing but drink and eat. You've even picked up your grandfather's bad gambling habit. Do you really have what it takes to run for Hokage?"
Senju Momoka knew Tsunade all too well. Though she didn't see Tsunade often, she had secretly protected the girl throughout her childhood.
She had lost count of how many assassins from other countries she'd stopped from killing her.
Tsunade leaned closer and raised a hand to Momoka's ear, whispering, "Ahem, Great-Grand-Aunt, cut me some slack. Don't say all that in front of my little brother."
Momoka shook her head with a soft laugh. "I know. This is probably the only time you'll call me Great-Grand-Aunt."
"If you really decide to become Fourth Hokage, the Senju Clan will naturally give you its full support."
"I've already spoken to Itsuki about this. You can trust him."
There was nothing wrong with what she'd said, but Tsunade felt uncomfortable when she heard it. Her brow furrowed.
"Great-Grand-Aunt, when Grandpa dissolved the Senju Clan, it was so that no Hokage like my granduncle would take office again."
"Konoha belongs to everyone, not just the Senju."
"Otherwise, commoner ninjas would never get the chance to rise."
As Hashirama's granddaughter, Tsunade had inherited the Will of Fire in the truest sense.
This wasn't the Will of Fire written by Hiruzen Sarutobi in the Ninja Academy textbooks.
After hearing her, Momoka didn't scold Tsunade. Instead, her gaze grew distant, and she sat quietly for a while.
"Just as I thought. The older you get, the more you dwell on the past. You're just like your grandfather was."
"But do you really think what your grandfather did back then was right?"
Before, Tsunade would have firmly believed that it was. But just yesterday, at the Jonin meeting, she'd seen the true faces of the village's leaders with her own eyes.
The Senju Clan had dissolved itself in the hope that other Ninja Clans would follow its lead and integrate with the common people. But this was what things had become.
Without the Senju Clan, the other Ninja Clans hadn't gotten along better with the common people. Instead, after Hashirama and Tobirama had passed away, they'd divided up everything in the village with even less restraint.
That was because the towering presence known as the Senju no longer stood above them.
As for the Uchiha, they'd been struggling to protect themselves and had been in danger until recently. Only in the past few days had their relationship with the village begun to improve.
Seeing Tsunade fall silent, her fists already clenched, Momoka lowered her eyes.
"Your grandfather was the one who led the decision to dissolve the Senju Clan. He was good in every way, but he was too kind. He thought far too highly of people."
"Even though your granduncle and I opposed it again and again, by then, most of the clan had already accepted your grandfather's ideals. They'd become obsessed with them. It was the very foundation on which Konoha had been built. If the Senju hadn't dissolved, the clan would have split apart, and its members might even have killed one another."
"Just like... your grandfather killed Madara. He would have killed those clan members too."
She recounted the memories she'd buried deep within herself, one by one.
Momoka remembered all too clearly how Hashirama had looked when he returned from the Valley of the End that day, battered and broken.
His crimson armor had shattered and fallen away, his under-armor riddled with holes. As rain fell around him, he clutched his long blade tightly, blood running along its edge and dripping to the ground with the rain.
His eyes were bloodshot with grief, and bloody tears ran down his cheeks. Yet his expression was as fearsome as a demon's as he repeated the same words over and over.
[If they threaten the village, I will show no mercy—even to my brothers, my friends, or even my own children.]
At that moment, Tobirama and Momoka understood: dissolving the Senju Clan was Hashirama's will, the unbreakable will of the "God of Shinobi."
That was also why Momoka had remained silent in the village, never interfering in any of its decisions. She had even been exceptionally strict with her own son, Senju Itsuki.
He had become Jonin Squad Leader through his own efforts alone. Momoka had even put obstacles in his way more than once.
Everything was a precaution she and Tobirama had left in place to keep Konoha from becoming obsessed all over again.
Medical ninjas, the Jonin Squad, and ninjas who had either inherited the Senju name or not—all of them were connected through Senju Itsuki, the central figure.
As long as the Senju didn't interfere with the interests of the other Ninja Clans, the dissolved clan wouldn't be feared by those clans or Hiruzen Sarutobi.
And Itsuki's conduct in the Jonin Squad—upright and impartial, without letting personal feelings sway him—was exactly what Hiruzen Sarutobi and the other clans wanted to see.
Only with a "Commoner Ninja" like him in that position would no individual clan receive special treatment. Not even the Hokage.
At first, when she'd heard Momoka's words, Tsunade had thought the old woman was slandering her grandfather. But after hearing all this, she finally understood: if her grandfather Hashirama had been pushed to it, he really might have done such a thing...
"So all of this was a safeguard you and Granduncle left behind?"
"If Qingguang hadn't convinced me, and I hadn't decided to become Hokage, what would have happened to this plan?"
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