The Will of Fire

"You filthy fox demon! You still think you can become Hokage? Dream on!"

"Only the Third Hokage is worthy of being called the strongest Hokage. Who do you think you are, saying something like that? You really don't know your place!"

"You're at the bottom of the class every time we have an exam. I don't know where you get the confidence!"

"Naruto-kun..."

Hyuga Hinata sat in the back row. Seeing this, worry appeared in her eyes.

Qiushui walked slowly up to the lectern and swept his gaze over the students. In a stern voice, he asked, "Why are you laughing at Naruto's dream? Has he ever laughed at you when you shared your own dreams?"

The classroom fell silent for a moment. Then one student stood up, unconvinced. "Teacher, you might not know this, but he's that fox demon from the village."

"The teacher knows." Qiushui gazed at him calmly. "But what does that have to do with you laughing at his dream?"

The student opened his mouth, but couldn't find anything to say.

Qiushui looked around the classroom and asked, "I have a question for you. Naruto is the fox demon you call him, but over the years, has anyone here ever seen him hurt another person?"

Silence.

The students who had laughed the loudest, the ones who regularly threw stones at Naruto, insulted him, and shoved him around, all found themselves thinking back over their actions.

Where had they gotten their impression of Naruto?

Warnings from their parents, whispers from the neighbors, the looks on the adults' faces...

But if they were asked to name one bad thing Naruto had done to hurt someone, they couldn't think of a single one.

"None of you have, have you?" Qiushui answered for them, his voice softening. "You shouldn't judge someone just by what other people say about them. You should look at how they behave."

Naruto felt as if he had a nuclear bomb in his eyes. He turned and stared blankly at Qiushui, who seemed impossibly tall to him, as if his whole body were glowing.

Qiushui didn't pursue the students who had mocked Naruto, nor did he go out of his way to comfort him. He simply began the day's lesson as naturally as ever. "All right, go back to your seats. After listening to you introduce yourselves earlier, I noticed that many of you dream of becoming Hokage. Your other teachers may have already told you about this, but today we're going to continue learning about the Will of Fire. Does anyone know who came up with it?"

The question of who had come up with the Will of Fire plunged the classroom, which had just been so noisy, into silence again. Some students looked up at the ceiling, some lowered their heads and pretended to read, and some knew the answer but were afraid of getting it wrong and embarrassing themselves in front of their classmates.

Sakura Haruno was a top student, so she immediately raised her hand. Ino Yamanaka, sitting beside her, wasn't about to be outdone and raised her hand too.

Naruto also raised his hand right away, then blurted out an answer. "I know! The Will of Fire must have been thought up by a Hokage!"

Sakura and Ino immediately joined forces and glared at Naruto.

Naruto noticed their unfriendly looks and instinctively swallowed.

Qiushui smiled and nodded in approval. "Naruto's right. The Will of Fire was indeed proposed by the First." He paused, then continued seriously, "But you need to understand: what gave rise to the Will of Fire? What does it really mean?"

The classroom fell quiet. Sensing the change in their teacher's tone, the students unconsciously sat up straighter.

"Every few years, the Shinobi World is plunged into war over resources. In places you can't see, countless predecessors have shielded you from danger with their own flesh and blood. You can live in peace, study safely at school, and go home to a hot meal because of their efforts and sacrifices."

"To protect those behind them, regardless of the cost to themselves—that selfless spirit of giving is the Will of Fire."

These children had never experienced war, but children in the Shinobi World tended to mature early. They didn't fully understand the weight of their teacher's words, but they could sense it, and they vaguely felt the meaning behind those sacrifices.

After a moment, one student spoke up. "When I grow up, I want to become an excellent ninja who embodies the Will of Fire, and protect the village just like our predecessors!"

"After school, I'm going to visit those heroes at the cemetery!"

"I'll come too!"

Qiushui watched them and nodded with satisfaction.

He knew that old coot, the Third Hokage, was surely spying on him from his office with a crystal ball, so he had made sure the lesson fit the Will of Fire to a tee.

Qiushui had received nine years of compulsory education, and he could see that there was nothing wrong with the Will of Fire itself. The problem was the people who used it as a pretext to justify their own misdeeds.

For example, Shimura Danzō, the Pot Kage, who stabbed Susanoo with a Kunai, used Izanagi like the Substitution Technique, and sealed a bridge with his life in a fit of anger.

"Well said." Qiushui gestured for everyone to quiet down. "Next, I'll tell you how the First put an end to the era of chaos, why the Second Hokage founded the Ninja Academy, and how the Third and Fourth Hokage protected the village during the wars. I'll also tell you how all three of them earned everyone's recognition and became Hokage. Once you've heard it all, you'll understand what the Will of Fire truly looks like."

He told the stories of the Hokage with lively descriptions, now rousing and passionate, now warm and measured. Every so often, he slipped in a few jokes, turning what could have been a dull history lesson into something thoroughly entertaining.

Four class periods passed in the children's attentive silence and laughter.

Qiushui had always hated teachers who ran over time, and he practiced what he preached. The moment the bell rang, he announced decisively, "Class dismissed."

When the bell rang, quite a few students were stunned.

"Huh? Class is over?"

"That was so fast!"

"Didn't we just start?"

Inuzuka Kiba stayed in his seat, unusually not rushing out to get some air.

He looked down at his open notebook and saw several neat lines of notes.

Tsume Inuzuka stared at the words for a few seconds, hardly able to believe them himself.

The Inuzuka Clan were free spirits by nature. They loved running through wide-open spaces and hated being cooped up in small, enclosed rooms.

In his four years at school, this was the first time he had listened so attentively through an entire class—not, two classes.

Shikamaru Nara, sitting in the back row, hadn't laid his head down to sleep for once. He was sitting unusually straight, a serious expression on his face.

He thought this teacher's lessons were pretty interesting.

Beside him, Choji Akimichi was tearing into a bag of chips. He usually spent class either sleeping or eating, but he had actually paid attention for both periods. Even he found that hard to believe. As soon as class ended, his stomach began protesting loudly, so he could only start stuffing his face.

Aburame Shino sat in the corner, expressionless as ever. He made no unnecessary movements, rooted to his seat like a meditating monk.

The area around Uchiha Sasuke's seat was quite lively at that moment.