"Right and wrong, merit and fault—none of that is yours alone to judge!"
"I told you, I would investigate exactly what happened. Tobirama Senju was merely acting on impulse, and fortunately, he did not commit any grave mistake!"
"I will punish him!"
Facing Shisui's questioning, Hashirama Senju's tone remained unhurried, as though Uchiha Shisui's accusations were nothing more than unreasonable troublemaking.
He still spoke in the tone of a Hokage, as if Tobirama Senju's attempted wrongdoing had been a minor matter—and one that had caused no consequences, at that.
"Heh... are you still Konoha's First Hokage?" Shisui sneered before speaking again. "There were no serious consequences because someone stopped him, not because this is something you can brush aside so lightly."
"In your eyes, do the village's people not matter?"
Uchiha Shisui looked at Hashirama Senju, his voice filled with confusion and resentment.
The Hashirama Senju recorded in history was not like this. He had been willing to sacrifice anyone for the village, and to prevent the Senju Clan from growing too powerful, he had directly folded them into the common populace to show his respect for civilians.
But...
Now, it seemed he was not what Shisui had imagined.
"It's not what you think!" Looking at the enraged Shisui, Hashirama Senju merely shook his head with a bitter smile. "If sacrificing these people could restore peace to Konoha, then I believe it would be worth it!"
Hashirama Senju said it as though it were only natural.
In an instant, the way Uchiha Shisui looked at Hashirama Senju changed.
That made sense.
Having come through the Warring States Period, having emerged from mountains of corpses and seas of blood to create a village, he was naturally a supreme powerhouse with convictions of his own.
Sacrifice the lesser self to fulfill the