"If you didn't die back then, why didn't you keep leading us?"
The black-awning boat began moving toward the opposite bank. Hashirama Senju wielded the long pole, and with a single push of the bamboo against the riverbed, the boat glided smoothly forward.
The river parted along either side of the hull with a gentle swishing sound.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat inside the boat, his bamboo hat resting on his knees, the river breeze lightly tousling his graying temples.
At last, he asked the question that had weighed on his heart for more than a decade.
If my teacher was still alive, if he hadn't died back then, how could Konoha have ended up like this?
How could Minato have died?
How could the Uchiha have been wiped out?
How could I still be sitting in that seat at my age?
Hashirama poled the boat along, gathering his thoughts.
The bamboo pole swept through the water, trailing a string of tiny splashes.
Only after a moment did he begin explaining everything.
"I met the Great Toad Sage, a wise being who could see visions of the future."
Hiruzen Sarutobi's pupils contracted slightly.
The Great Toad Sage, the ancient patriarch of Mount Myōboku, had lived for over a thousand years. Even the Sage of Six Paths was said to have sought his counsel on prophecies.
When Hiruzen was young, he had heard Jiraiya mention an old toad on Mount Myōboku who could see the future in his dreams, but he had never imagined that the First had personally met that sage.
"The Great Toad Sage told me," Hashirama said evenly, as though recounting an old incident that had nothing to do with him, "that the Child of Prophecy, the one foretold to change this world's destiny, had died."
Hiruzen Sarutobi was shocked.