In the Hokage Building, the First Hokage propped his head on one hand while idly stroking the head of a little yellow dog with a glossy coat sprawled across his lap.
Big Yellow squinted in contentment, his tail giving the occasional lazy wag.
Hashirama's gaze, however, was unfocused. He stared blankly out the window at Konoha's orderly streets, where an undercurrent of excitement stirred, his thoughts already far away.
Had he... really been wrong before?
The thought wound around his heart like a vine, refusing to let go.
A few days earlier, after the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, had been "revived," Naruto had held a lengthy, frank conversation with them.
What they discussed went far beyond an ordinary tactical discussion or situation report.
Naruto had spoken of his insights into the Shinobi World's current state, offered a scathing criticism of the false "peace" of the past, and laid out a vision so vast it was startling.
With Konoha at its center, they would use overwhelming power to sweep away every obstacle, end the Shinobi World's division and warfare at their roots, and establish an unprecedented, unified ninja order.
At the time, Hashirama had opposed it almost instinctively, without a moment's hesitation.
He had lived through the bloodiest clan conflicts of the Warring States Period and had ended that era with his own hands, founding Konoha alongside Madara Uchiha.
He firmly believed that peace came from understanding and coexistence, while conquest by force would only breed deeper hatred and fiercer resistance.
What he had pursued all his life was a bond between people's hearts, between one village and another.
What unsettled him even more was that some of Naruto's words-especially his resolve to shatter the old order through absolute power and build a new world, and the methods he intended to