Outside the Sky Screen, the entire Shinobi World erupted. Shinobi stared in disbelief and launched into frantic discussions.
"My god! Lady Mito really saw things clearly! She laid bare all of Konoha's future darkness with every word!"
"She understood everything! Everyone was praising the First Hokage's greatness, but only Mito saw that he'd already put the cart before the horse!"
"Exactly! A village is supposed to protect its people, not demand that people sacrifice themselves for it! The First Hokage had it completely backward!"
"No wonder Konoha had so many dark secrets in later years! Root's darkness, the clan massacre, sacrificing those at the bottom to protect those at the top!"
"All of it was selfish political maneuvering disguised as 'for Konoha's sake'!"
"This was where it all began! Hashirama personally established the worst possible rule-as long as it was for the village, anything could be forgiven!"
Others watched Hashirama, who thought of Madara both unconscious and awake, his heart full of guilt, and could not help sighing.
"Honestly, the First Hokage really held Madara closest to his heart! That bond lasted a lifetime!"
"Even after striking him down himself, he never let him go in his heart!"
"What a shame. In his heart, the village always came before everything else, before his closest friend, before his family!"
"He thought big, sure, but he was far too obsessive. So obsessive that he got swept up in his own noble intentions. I could never agree with that!"
"Neither could I. Was Uchiha Itachi thinking the same way?"
"No questions about right or wrong, no questions about why-as long as he thought it benefited the village!"
Light and shadow shifted rapidly across the Sky Screen as the years quietly passed.
The battle at the Valley of the End concluded, and news of