When the Ninja Academy students, instructors, and guards of the Konoha exchange group each returned to the learning hall, a piece of news that could not quite be called a bolt from the blue, but at the very least could be considered a blow to the head, entered everyone's ears.
The First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, had been summoned back to the present world from the Pure Land by Kirigakure using the forbidden technique created by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju—Edo Tensei. Moreover, he would continue staying in the human world for a period of time in the future.
This thunderous, utterly insane and bizarre news, no matter what angle one looked at it from, caused all the Konoha ninja inside the learning hall to boil over.
These ninja, born in different periods of Konoha's history, surged grandly into the room that Jiraiya and Tsunade had temporarily arranged for Hashirama Senju. They wanted to see the appearance of this most legendary ninja of Konoha with their own eyes, and they also wanted to receive answers from his mouth to some things they had always been curious about.
Obviously, such an activity could not be missing Uchiha Itachi.
However, considering his current tiny arms and legs, he very rationally waited until everyone who had gone to visit Hashirama Senju had been driven off to dinner. Only then did he hold a notebook filled with various questions and politely knock on Hashirama Senju's door.
"Um, is Lord First here?"
"Oh? There is even such a young child in this exchange group?"
Although he had been surrounded by dozens of Konoha ninja asking questions for an entire afternoon, Hashirama Senju still looked full of energy.
He glanced toward the door, then very kindly waved to Uchiha Itachi, signaling that he could come in.
Uchiha Itachi walked into the room properly, bowed to Hashirama Senju, and only then sat down opposite him.
Hashirama Senju first looked at the notebook Uchiha Itachi had clearly prepared in advance, then looked at the red-and-white fan crest of the Uchiha clan on his clothes. His eyes immediately lit up.
"You are a child of the Uchiha clan?"
"Mm, yes, Lord First. I am Uchiha Itachi. I am six years old…"
"Whoa, the Uchiha clan truly is impressive. No matter the era, such outstanding geniuses appear among them."
While sighing emotionally over the flourishing scene of talents emerging generation after generation from the Uchiha clan, Hashirama Senju pushed a plate of snacks in front of Uchiha Itachi. He had asked Kakashi to buy them to entertain the younger Konoha students.
Then he asked with concern, "You did not come over together with the children from the other clans in the village. Is it because your relationship with them is not very good?"
"They think I am too young, and I think they are too childish. So that is how it ended up."
Uchiha Itachi did not deny this point. Instead, he spread open his notebook, preparing to ask Hashirama Senju the doubts in his heart one by one according to the order he had planned.
But Hashirama Senju looked at the solitude and pride on Uchiha Itachi's face, which were completely different from his young appearance, and lightly sighed.
Then he supported his cheek with one hand and calmly asked him, "Then is the Uchiha clan still as incompatible with the other people in the village as they were when the village had just been founded?"
Uchiha Itachi's fingers, which were turning the pages of his notebook, stopped.
"Sigh… Whether Madara is there or not, the pride of the Uchiha is still the same as always."
Hashirama Senju rubbed his brow and could not help feeling a headache over the Uchiha clan's overly troublesome personality.
Uchiha Itachi, meanwhile, stared tightly at Hashirama Senju and asked in a slightly cold voice, "Did someone tell you about the Uchiha clan, Lord First?"
"The boys from the village are all quite tactful. They would not go so far as to deliberately bring up something that would only make the atmosphere cold the first time they met me face to face."
Hashirama Senju sighed helplessly and pointed with his finger at Uchiha Itachi himself, whose expression shifted slightly.
"I simply saw in you the pride of the Uchiha clan that has not changed from the past to the present."
"The Sharingan is one of the strongest Kekkei Genkai. Its uniqueness means the pride of the Uchiha clan is destined to be engraved into their souls and bloodlines. At most, some people wear it openly on their faces, while others are a little smarter and know to hide it deep in their hearts… Rei Kaguya's evaluation of you people is truly quite fitting."
"You have met the Fourth Mizukage… That makes sense. Only with his permission and under his watch would there be no need to worry about everyone from Konoha exploding because you returned to the present world."
Uchiha Itachi lightly patted his forehead, then flipped past the first two pages of his notebook.
Pointing at a question written crookedly on the third page, he asked Hashirama Senju, "Then, since you have already met the Fourth Mizukage, do you think he… is someone worthy of trust?"
"Why ask such a question?" Hashirama Senju was somewhat curious.
"Because… I am very concerned about some of his words and actions."
Uchiha Itachi lightly bit his lip, his expression rather complicated.
"He said that the major shinobi villages are walking corpses still living in the Warring States Period. And after hearing such an outrageous statement, Lord Jiraiya and Lady Tsunade, who have long been famous throughout the shinobi world as two of the Konoha Sannin, were both unable to refute him."
"After that, in the Ninja Academy he personally reformed, he specially established an elective course with the highest assessment difficulty. Yet the goal of that course is to restore and study the past history of the shinobi world. It has nothing to do with improving a ninja's personal strength…"
"But you passed that assessment, correct?"
Hashirama Senju recalled that when Jiraiya had explained to Tsunade how he was summoned through Edo Tensei, he had incidentally mentioned this topic. Understanding something, he asked.
"Yes."
Uchiha Itachi nodded. Then, with a very confused expression, he said, "I know that the Fourth Mizukage must have a deeper meaning behind doing this, but I do not know what that deeper meaning is… Lord Jiraiya is worried that I am too young and lack experience. If I study by the Fourth Mizukage's side, he fears I will be influenced too deeply and gradually lose my own thinking. But everything he himself has experienced does not seem sufficient to allow him to remain unaffected before the Fourth Mizukage's wild and unconstrained thoughts either."
"So I wanted to ask you, someone with richer experience, and someone who once creatively proposed the concept of a shinobi village…"
"Should I go and attend the course he created?"
"Hmm. This question truly is rather difficult to answer…"
Hashirama Senju stroked his chin and thought for a long while before finally speaking again.
"Before giving you a concrete answer, Itachi, first tell me this. Why would a child your age want to participate in an exchange activity that other clan heirs fear and avoid? Or rather, why do you have such a deep obsession with Rei Kaguya?"
Uchiha Itachi fell silent for a moment.
Then, with an emotion even he could not clearly describe, he said in confusion, "At first, perhaps I simply wanted to understand why he was able to make Brother Shisui Uchiha, who once loved the clan and village so deeply, betray the village and clan without hesitation and become a member of Kirigakure."
"But now… I want even more to know what exactly he wants to do."
"Mm. If that is what you think, then I believe attending the course he personally created should be a good choice."
After listening to Uchiha Itachi's words, Hashirama Senju let out a long breath and slowly said, "For a child like you, who is full of confusion and at the same time has a heart as blank as white paper, he actually has little need to deceive you. He only needs to place before you some clues that only he can connect, then tell you how to search for the truth within them. That alone is enough to unknowingly draw you to his side."
???
Three huge question marks visibly appeared on Uchiha Itachi's young face.
"Lord First, you… are you being controlled by someone!?"
"I should not be, right?"
"Then, then why would you say something like that? Something almost equivalent to pushing me toward Kirigakure and the Fourth Mizukage?"
"Oh, so that is what you are struggling over…"
Hashirama Senju struck his palm as if suddenly realizing it, then laughed carefreely.
"Because this is unavoidable. Along with Kirigakure's rise, Rei Kaguya's philosophy and thoughts will inevitably spread to every corner of the shinobi world through all kinds of channels and forms. Do not even mention Konoha. Even Iwagakure and Kumogakure, which are currently openly hostile toward Kirigakure, as well as Sunagakure, which remains neutral, will all become targets for him to spread his thoughts, no matter how strictly they guard against it."
"Since it is impossible to avoid people coming into contact with Rei Kaguya's wild, unconstrained, and era-surpassing thoughts and thereby walking toward unknown paths, then studying and understanding his way of thinking as early as possible is imperative."
"And talented youths like you may indeed be easily drawn to him during the process of learning. However, within you also lies the possibility of truly understanding and absorbing Rei Kaguya's thoughts, then surpassing the blue that gave rise to you and deriving your own thinking and innovations."
"And that possibility of surpassing the blue is the true key to defeating Rei Kaguya."
Listening to Hashirama Senju's grand and even almost costless method of victory, Uchiha Itachi could not help taking a deep breath. Then, in what could be called a rather negative attitude, he quietly asked in return, "Then what if, among us, no one appears who can surpass him on the ideological level?"
"No one? Would that not prove that he is the most correct person? Since he is right, then you would have no need to worry about anything else. You could simply follow by his side with peace of mind."
Hashirama Senju waved his hand freely and smiled at Uchiha Itachi, whose face was full of worry.
"Allowing the most correct person to change the current state of the shinobi world—no matter how you think about it, that cannot be considered a bad thing… Whether this person is Rei Kaguya of Kirigakure, Uchiha Itachi, Jiraiya, or Kakashi Hatake of Konoha, or some ninja from Kumogakure or Iwagakure, none of that matters."
"As long as the shinobi world is moving in a better direction, and our descendants can live in a more beautiful world, then even if Konoha has to become a stubborn stone crushed beneath the wheels of history, there is nothing unacceptable about that."
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