Sakumo's body seemed to shift almost imperceptibly, but he neither turned around nor spoke.
"Even Lord Hokage hasn't taken a stance..." Only after a long while did he speak, his voice hoarse and dry as scraping sandpaper. "What would a child like you know?"
"I don't know much about lofty principles." Uchiha Makoto looked at a patch of wilted weeds in a corner of the courtyard.
"But I do know that if it were me, and my teammates were dying, I couldn't just stand by and let it happen to chase some lousy map that might not even be useful. However important a mission is, can it matter more than a living person's life?"
Sakumo remained silent.
"There was never any absolute right or wrong in this world to begin with."
Uchiha Makoto continued, as though talking to himself, yet also as though speaking for Sakumo's benefit.
"Is killing on the battlefield wrong? Is protecting your comrades wrong? Sometimes, right and wrong depend only on which side you're on. What matters more is... what you truly had in mind."
He turned to look at Sakumo's seemingly frozen profile. "I think heroes should be judged by their intentions, not their actions."
"All you were thinking about then was saving your comrades. That's enough."
"As for the consequences... once you've made your choice, you just have to shoulder them. What good does hiding here regretting it do? Can it turn back time, or shut up the people cursing you?"
He paused, then said the most important thing of all. "Whatever other people want to say is their business. If you believe you weren't wrong, prove it through your actions. Use the blade in your hand and your achievements in the battles to come to prove that your choice wasn't cowardice, but another