Will of Fire

Hiruzen Sarutobi stood on the high platform, delivering an impassioned speech to the children.

Below, most of the students were swept up in fervor, itching to immediately lay down their lives for the village and accomplish something earth-shaking.

Naturally, Ryosuke was absolutely not among those hot-blooded students.

Though he appeared focused and attentive on the surface, he found it incredibly dull inside.

When it came to Konoha's principles and ideology of development, he probably knew far more than Hiruzen Sarutobi speaking above them. If he went up there himself, he could likely achieve the same effect.

Whether in his past life or this one, speeches that appeared so solemn were ultimately nothing more than words meant to inspire and unite people, while sharing one's own ideals.

They differed somewhat from the grand declarations of studying for the rise of one's country from his past life.

Konoha's current political ideology originated with the First Hokage and was championed by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju: the Will of Fire.

Its general principle was to abandon the family and the individual as units, placing the village at the center instead.

Whether matters were great or small, one did not speak of the nation or oneself. Everything was for the village's development and future.

This ideology emerged to resolve the hidden dangers left behind by Konoha's hasty founding.

Konoha had once been a highly complicated force.

In fact, Konoha, Kumogakure, Sunagakure, and the villages of other nations had all been the same.

During the Warring States Period, although the entire Ninja World was divided by nations, wars were more often fought within those nations.

At that time, neither the Land of Fire, the Land of Water, nor the Land of Earth had so-called ninja villages within their borders.

All ninja clans served as military units, which resulted in extremely severe internal conflicts within every nation.

Near the end of the Warring States Period, the two strongest clans within the Land of Fire, the Uchiha and the Senju Clan, formed an alliance, established a village, and took in countless clans willing to join them.

Other nations followed suit, establishing their own ninja villages.

From that point on, the Warring States Period officially ended, and the Five Great Nations Period began.

War shifted from conflicts within individual nations to confrontation between nations.

And such a process of development naturally meant that the forces within Konoha were not harmonious.

They had all once been enemies, forcibly brought together by military strength and circumstance. No one accepted the others, and friction between the various clans within the village was a common occurrence.

At the time, Konoha still retained the Warring States Period mindset that the strong deserved respect.

Thus, after the wars temporarily ended and there were no external enemies to distract them, the village saw the Uchiha and Senju Clan contend for the position of Hokage.

The First Hokage had already realized that the village could not continue developing under such a strong-rule mindset. Otherwise, internal conflict might cause it to collapse and fall apart. Yet Madara Uchiha, who had founded Konoha alongside him, remained stubborn to the end.

With no other choice, they could only become enemies.

After that incident ended, the First Hokage of Konoha passed away. Tobirama Senju succeeded him as the Second Hokage and inherited his brother's ideals as well.

Madara Uchiha, the strongest of the Uchiha Clan, had already been dealt with by his brother. As the strongest man in the village, Tobirama Senju possessed absolute authority to promote this ideology.

It was also at this time that the Will of Fire truly appeared within Konoha.

That was the reason behind the emergence, origin, and development of the Will of Fire.

Several decades had now passed, and Konoha's upper ranks had firmly carried out this ideology. Many clans had also abandoned the notion of operating as clan-based units.

The most obvious example was the Senju Clan.

Nowadays, few people identified themselves as members of the Senju Clan. Part of the reason was that most Senju had died on the battlefield, but the greater reason was that they did not reject marriage with outsiders and had abandoned their surname.

The Senju Clan had completely integrated into Konoha.

Ten years after Konoha was founded, the Senju Clan led by example, giving up their so-called surname and reducing the wariness among the clans.

None of the Senju children born after that year bore the Senju surname, including Tsunade, one of Konoha's Three Ninja, and later her younger brother Nawaki.

Though they were Hashirama Senju's direct relatives, they did not identify themselves as Senju because they had given up the surname.

Ryosuke had learned this information from the Hyuga Clan's records after arriving in this world. It had not been recorded in the plot of his past life.

Only after speaking for more than an hour did Hiruzen Sarutobi finally end his lengthy address.

However, he did not immediately dismiss the gathering. Instead, he smiled and asked Naruto, whose face was filled with fighting spirit, what he wanted to do in the future after hearing all this.

What did he want to do?

Perhaps the desire to become Hokage had been planted from this very moment.

Hiruzen Sarutobi did not speak especially to any particular student. Aside from Naruto, he treated everyone else equally.

After the speech ended, the schoolteachers who had been waiting at the edge of the field began leading the students into the classrooms.

After entering the classroom,

Ryosuke chose neither a window seat nor a seat near the front. He walked straight to the last row and sat down.

To prevent the students in the back from having their view blocked, the classroom was arranged in a tiered layout, with each row raised above the one before it.

The last row, with its broad view, was also the highest point in the entire classroom. From there, he could take in the whole class and easily observe everyone in it.

"You don't have to keep following me. During your time studying here, you'll definitely need to make some friends."

Seeing Hinata obediently sit with him in the last row like a newlywed wife, Ryosuke spoke softly.

"Okay."

Hinata turned to look at Ryosuke. After thinking for a moment, she did not voice her hesitation and agreed directly. She moved farther forward and sat among the girls, beside Ino.

Have your own ideas—Hinata had always remembered every word Ryosuke said.

From her personal perspective, she wanted to sit beside Ryosuke, because that had always been her habit.

But considering her identity as the future clan head, she needed to socialize and build good relationships with the village's future generation.

Ryosuke watched Hinata, so different from the one in his memories, with a gratified smile on his face.

But soon, he shifted his gaze to the others, observing every person who entered the classroom.

Since the entrance test had not yet been conducted, the classes had not been specially divided and were assigned directly according to the seating order from earlier.

Even so, those from clans, including Ryosuke and the others, were still placed together.

A few children from ninja families had also luckily been assigned to the same class as them, such as Sakura Haruno.

If nothing unexpected happened, these would be the students of the future Elite Class.

Unless one of the ordinary classes truly produced a particularly gifted student like the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.

"Um... may I sit here?"

A cautious voice sounded beside him. When Ryosuke turned his head, he saw an uneasy face.