Will of Fire

Senju Tsunade, radiating a queenly aura, stood at the podium and began to size up her classmates.

Every child who met her gaze lowered their head under her aggressive stare.

When she looked at Shiraishi Yoshijo, he was lost in thought.

She's flat-chested, as expected. How did she get so big later on? This isn't scientific; it's truly one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Naruto world.

But Tsunade is only six this year, right? It seems normal not to have breasts yet?

So, am I the one who's abnormal?

By the time he snapped back to reality, Tsunade had already sat down next to him and extended a hand.

"Senju Tsunade. Pleased to meet you."

"Shiraishi Yoshijo. Likewise."

After the simple greeting, Shiraishi Yoshijo began to drift off again.

This time, his mind wasn't filled with lewd thoughts; he was seriously contemplating his future.

As a contemporary of the Sannin, should he try to build a good relationship with them?

If he wanted to climb the ranks within the Konoha system, building those connections was absolutely necessary.

After all, they would eventually become the pillars of Konoha. With them as his backing, it would be hard not to thrive.

But that came with a host of problems.

First of all, the Sannin were all disciples of the Third Hokage.

Being close to them meant he would also become part of the Hokage's faction, and success would inevitably require him to pay a price.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, and he understood that principle well.

Konoha was currently at peace, but he knew this was only a fleeting respite.

The Second and Third Great Ninja Wars were both meat grinders.

When the time came, he would inevitably have to charge into battle for the Third Hokage. He had no confidence that he would survive on the battlefield; in fact, he didn't even want to go.

With the advantage of his foresight, becoming a powerful ninja wouldn't be difficult.

But then what?

Spend his life running across battlefields for the so-called Will of Fire until the wars ended?

What a joke. Even a general can't avoid dying on the battlefield.

He knew his own character; he possessed absolutely no Will of Fire, and in fact, he treated it like trash.

In his view, if the Infinite Tsukuyomi was the ultimate genjutsu, then the Will of Fire was a genjutsu of an even higher order.

"Hey, buddy, want to go grab a drink after work?"

"There's something I need to tell you. I got too drunk yesterday and accidentally killed your parents."

"What? You bastard, I'll never forgive you! For the Land of Fire, for the Will of Fire, I will destroy you!"

"Actually, I have the Will of Fire too, I just drank too much yesterday..."

"You have the Will of Fire too?"

"I've dreamed of becoming Hokage since I was a child, I just drank too much yesterday..."

"Since you also have the Will of Fire, as long as you sincerely apologize to me, I might consider forgiving you."

"I'm sorry. I swear I'll never drink again. I hope you can forgive me."

"You're really never going to drink again?"

"Really!"

"Fine. Under the light of the Will of Fire, I forgive you."

Don't think this is a parody; Naruto's actual actions were even more magical.

Nagato destroyed Konoha, but Naruto's "Talk no Jutsu" was invincible, and he talked Nagato to death.

It was only because Nagato used the Rinne Tensei no Jutsu on Konoha that Naruto became a hero of the village.

What if Nagato hadn't known the Rinne Tensei no Jutsu?

You have to remember that Naruto was prepared to turn enemies into friends with Nagato at the time. If he had let Nagato go, he would have been thrown into a Konoha dungeon for the rest of his life, no doubt about it.

As for the relationship between Obito and Naruto, there's no need to even mention it. Naruto ended up saving Obito, which completely shattered his worldview.

Then there was that other unfortunate soul, Uchiha Itachi.

He was a genius at using genjutsu, only to be hypnotized by the Will of Fire himself.

Killing his father, killing his mother, and slaughtering his entire clan—there was no one else like him.

Thinking of this, Shiraishi Yoshijo's mouth twitched. He called it perverted in his heart, and even his gaze toward Tsunade changed.

He was an ordinary person. He might become extraordinary in the future, but he felt that even if he became invincible, he could never be that kind of saint.

To be safe and extremely cautious, Shiraishi Yoshijo decided to draw a clear line between himself and the Sannin.

"That Tsunade, I don't think you're suitable for sitting here."

The moment those words left his mouth, Shiraishi Yoshijo felt that things were about to go south.

Sure enough, when Tsunade heard this, the flesh on her face began to twitch, and her knuckles cracked as she clenched her fists.

The next second, Shiraishi Yoshijo grabbed his things and scurried away.

Confirmed: this is a woman I cannot afford to provoke.

Finding a new seat, Shiraishi Yoshijo felt quite happy, thinking he had finally escaped the Will of Fire and was only one step away from the grand finale.

Before he could even enjoy it for a minute, the classroom door opened again, and Orochimaru walked in, dressed in white.

Honestly, the young Orochimaru was still quite cute; he only looked slightly worse than himself.

Shiraishi Yoshijo was still feeling smug in his heart when, unexpectedly, Orochimaru sat directly next to him and reached out a hand.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Orochimaru. I know you're a ninja from the Shide Clan. I'm very interested in your clan's secret techniques. Please take care of me in the future."

He's already targeting my clan's secret techniques?

Heh, expressionlessly packing up his things, Shiraishi Yoshijo prepared to find another seat when the homeroom teacher pushed the door open and walked in.

He was a middle-aged man with a fierce face who looked like he wasn't easy to talk to.

Shiraishi Yoshijo, who wanted to change seats, hesitated and reluctantly reached out to shake Orochimaru's hand: "Shiraishi Yoshijo. As for 'taking care of me,' don't bother."

Take care of me? I'm afraid you'll take care of me right onto your experimental table, Shiraishi Yoshijo thought to himself.

He felt that he and the Sannin were naturally at odds; they were all sticking to him, and he couldn't hide from them.

"A boy?" Orochimaru looked quite surprised, his expression looking rather adorable.

You thought I was a girl, so you sat next to me?

Naive!

Glancing at Orochimaru with annoyance, Shiraishi Yoshijo slumped over his desk, feeling like life had no meaning.

He had just escaped the Will of Fire, only to fall into the eyes of a pervert. How unlucky.

The homeroom teacher tapped the blackboard twice and began his self-introduction: "I am Ikeda Kawano. From today on, I will be your homeroom teacher. First, welcome to the academy. Next, we will begin roll call."

During roll call, he unexpectedly heard a familiar name: Hiruko.

After the boring roll call session ended, Kawano began distributing textbooks.

Shiraishi Yoshijo flipped through them; they were all simple popular science knowledge about chakra, along with some history and humanities.

Next came the tedious enrollment procedures, and a busy day passed quickly.

After school, Shiraishi Yoshijo rubbed his eyes and walked out of the school, yawning.

Having been so bored that he slept on his desk all day, he still felt drowsy.

Back home, Shiraishi Eizawa was sitting in the courtyard drinking tea, smelling of alcohol. Seeing Shiraishi Yoshijo, he waved for him to come over.

"How was school?"

"Quite boring."

"This was your choice, so don't complain. Actually, I was more optimistic about the Anbu training class, but you seem to resist the Anbu. Can you tell me why?"

Why? Of course, because of Danzo.

Shiraishi Yoshijo rolled his eyes and decided to be honest: "Danzo is not a good person. He has ulterior motives."

Shiraishi Eizawa poured him a cup of tea, was silent for a moment, and said, "I met Danzo today and fought him."

You fought Danzo and actually managed to come back alive?

Shiraishi Yoshijo, who was drinking tea, sprayed it all out, staring at him in disbelief.

"Are you out of your mind? I don't know what position Danzo holds now, but he must be high-ranking in the village. You've even been stripped of your ninja qualifications, yet you dared to fight him?"

Shiraishi Eizawa smiled: "Konoha is composed of various ninja clans, and we are one of them. Even the Hokage cannot boss the ninja clans around; he is merely a representative of the interests of us clans."

"Danzo isn't even the Hokage, so why couldn't I fight him?"

Tsk tsk, listen to that. He doesn't even put the Hokage in his eyes, let alone a mere Danzo?

What do you have to back that up? Just the status of a ninja clan?

Hey, hey, there are only two of us left. If you keep causing trouble like this, can I even live to adulthood?

How much do you weigh? You're drunk to this point, is your brain okay?

Shiraishi Yoshijo looked at him as if he were an idiot. Shiraishi Eizawa, stared at by him, became annoyed and raised his hand to give him a flick on the forehead: "You know nothing about our clan."

After thinking for a moment, Shiraishi Eizawa said helplessly: "It's time for you to know some things, otherwise you really won't take our clan seriously."

"During the Warring States period, there were hundreds of ninja clans of all sizes within the Land of Fire, the strongest of which were the Uchiha and the Senju."

"The strength of these two clans lay in the strength of their leaders: the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, and the Asura of the ninja world, Uchiha Madara."

"The strength of these two people exceeded the common sense of ninjas; they were simply like gods reborn."

Shiraishi Eizawa's eyes glowed when he mentioned these two men.

"I once witnessed their battle; to say it was world-destroying would not be an exaggeration. Any ninja standing before them became nothing more than the light of a firefly, not daring to even consider them an enemy."

It was clear that Shiraishi Eizawa held these two in high regard.

Shiraishi Yoshijo curled his lip. Knowing the plot as he did, he was well aware that in the future, two Konoha genin cheaters would be even stronger than these two.

The strongest ninjutsu in the ninja world was Naruto's Talk no Jutsu: the enemy is my friend, and my best friend is my greatest enemy.

Sasuke's cheat was clearly that the money hadn't been paid in full, so he simply gave in, and the two of them lived out the rest of their lives happily and harmoniously.

A truly realistic story.

"But they died. Both of them died. The Uchiha no longer have Uchiha Madara, and the Senju no longer have Senju Hashirama. So, who is the strongest ninja clan in the Land of Fire?"

Shiraishi Eizawa pointed at himself: "It is us. Do you know how strong our Shide Clan was at its peak?"

"Just in terms of active jonin, our clan accounted for more than one-fifth of Konoha. If you add in those who were inactive and the jonin who were affiliated with our clan, even if the leaderless Senju and Uchiha joined forces, they would still be no match for us."

Was the Shide Clan really that strong?

Shiraishi Yoshijo expressed his doubts, tilting his head as he tried hard to recall the clansmen from his memories; it did seem like there were quite a lot of them.

But the past is the past; what matters most is the present.

A ninja clan with only two people left shouldn't be acting like a big shot. A hero shouldn't dwell on past glories—the more you talk about them, the faster you die!

"It's a pity that your grandfather couldn't become Hokage after Senju Hashirama died, otherwise..."

"Wait!" Shiraishi Yoshijo felt like he had just heard some incredible information: "Are you saying that Grandfather competed with the Second for the position of Hokage?"

This was a lot to take in, and Shiraishi Yoshijo was a bit stunned. No wonder the Shide Clan declined so quickly; it turned out the root of the problem was right here.

"In terms of strength and popularity, your grandfather was no worse than the Second. Why wouldn't he compete?"

Heh, Shiraishi Yoshijo had nothing to say.

The Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, was a ruthless character.

Not to mention his arsenal of forbidden techniques, the key was his cold and decisive political maneuvering.

Senju Hashirama and Senju Tobirama were light and shadow; the duo of Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō were streets behind them.

And even they managed to play the entire Uchiha clan into extinction.

Shiraishi Yoshijo just couldn't understand why people who were perfectly fine would be so shortsighted and insist on walking down a path to their own destruction.

Senju Tobirama was essentially a powered-up version of Shimura Danzō!