"So, this is why you brought Kakashi Hatake here with Itachi Uchiha's assessment pass to ask me about course-related matters?"
Looking at Kakashi Hatake and Jiraiya, who had arrived uninvited, Rei Kaguya's clone, who was inside the independent library specially established for the Restoration and Research of Shinobi World History course, placing sorted document scrolls onto the shelves, turned his face sideways and asked with a speechless expression.
"Well, do not be too serious about this kind of thing, Lord Mizukage…"
Jiraiya very skillfully laughed it off and said with an awkward chuckle:
"That child is only a six-year-old brat in the end. Even if his family agreed to let him participate in the exchange project in Kirigakure because of various reasons and concerns, as the leader of Konoha's exchange team, I still have to help him properly check things before he makes a choice, right?"
"And the truth?" Rei Kaguya ignored Jiraiya's clowning and looked at him calmly as he asked.
"The Uchiha clan is Konoha's Uchiha clan, not Kirigakure's Uchiha clan… At least, that is still the case now."
Jiraiya also put away his joking tone and gave his answer with a serious expression.
"It seems you people quite approve of this shinobi village system created by Hashirama Senju… It has clearly only been formally established for a few decades, yet it can already make you ignore or even forget the fact that the major ninja clans still fought independently and stood alone several decades ago."
Rei Kaguya was not too surprised by Jiraiya taking out the standpoint of shinobi villages as his answer. He simply reached out and took a document scroll written by predecessors of the Hozuki clan from the bookshelf beside him, one that recorded certain matters from the early days of Kirigakure's founding. As he flipped through it, he spoke unhurriedly.
"The times are developing. We shinobi also need to learn to accept new things… If one always clings to hatred and concepts from the past without letting go, that is a very dangerous thing."
Hearing Jiraiya say this, Rei Kaguya first let out a disdainful sneer. Then he looked sideways at him and asked with ill intentions:
"Oh? From the sound of it, Jiraiya, you seem to think Konoha has done fairly well in that regard?"
"Probably… at least above passing, I suppose?" Jiraiya touched his nose and gave the score in his heart as low as possible.
"Passing? Then your grading standards are truly lenient enough to make one sigh, Jiraiya."
Rei Kaguya looked at Jiraiya with somewhat pitying eyes and sighed:
"If your Konoha had truly achieved a passing mark in letting go of hatred and old concepts, then Madara Uchiha, who had already been persuaded by Hashirama Senju, should have become one of Konoha's Hokage across the generations, instead of being forced to leave the village alone after abandoning his clan.
"Likewise, within the Third Hokage's core advisory team, there should have been elites from the Uchiha clan. It should not have been completely monopolized by people like Danzo Shimura, Koharu Utatane, and Homura Mitokado, who only knew how to think of ways to suppress and target the Uchiha clan."
"Even the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, who did comparatively better in this regard, still made the serious mistake of forcing Madara Uchiha, a core combat force who could be moved and changed by Hashirama Senju, into becoming a rogue ninja who hated Konoha…"
At this point, Rei Kaguya paused slightly. Then, looking at Jiraiya, whose face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and Kakashi Hatake, who stood beside him with a helpless wry smile, he asked with a slightly rising tone:
"Now, do you still think Konoha can receive a score above passing when it comes to letting go of old hatred and concepts, Jiraiya?"
"As expected, I was right not to let Itachi Uchiha come looking for you…" Jiraiya helplessly patted his cheeks, allowing his face, which felt as if it had been slapped through the air several times, to recover from numbness. "If that brat, who has not even formed his own concepts yet, followed by your side for a long time and was influenced by you, he would probably fall even faster than that Shisui Uchiha, wouldn't he?"
"Lies do not wound people. Truth is the sharp blade."
Rei Kaguya smiled playfully and narrowed his eyes as he said:
"If merely allowing Itachi Uchiha to see the truth deliberately concealed by others is enough to make him develop anger and hatred toward Konoha, then it only proves that there are large enough problems with Konoha's own actions… Do you still remember what I told you on the first day you came to Kirigakure?"
"I have seriously thought about what you said." Jiraiya shook his head and said firmly, "Konoha and Kirigakure, although both have yet to walk out of the smoke and flames of the Warring States Period, and both have inherited many wrong concepts and traditions passed down from that era… in the end, there is still a difference between them."
"If there truly is a difference, then on what basis did Danzo Shimura and his Root grow so powerful?"
Rei Kaguya let out a flippant whistle, then teased lightly:
"Do not forget. The mastermind behind Kirigakure becoming the Village of the Bloody Mist was Madara Uchiha, a ghost lingering from the Warring States Period. But Root, which took root in the deepest darkness of your Konoha, was personally created and developed by Danzo Shimura, a disciple of the Second Hokage who inherited the Will of Fire himself…"
"Think about it. Since your village could internally give birth to Danzo Shimura and Root, things that do not treat comrades from their own village as human beings, does your so-called Will of Fire truly have anything worth praising? It has long since become an excuse and tool used by Konoha's higher-ups to eliminate dissidents and fight over power."
Never before had Jiraiya felt such intense hatred toward the existence of Danzo Shimura and Root as he did now.
He was not a hypocrite capable of turning a blind eye to truths already placed before him. When Danzo Shimura, a man who could be said to bear all the darkness of the shinobi world, was placed on the table as evidence proving that Konoha's Will of Fire had already decayed and rotted, no matter how many reasons he had in his heart to excuse the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and Konoha, he could only swallow them all back down with extreme unwillingness.
In the end, it turned into a long sigh.
However, what Jiraiya did not quite expect was that Kakashi Hatake, whom he had originally thought would show some dissatisfaction or even anger because of this, instead maintained a calmness highly consistent with his own—and even surpassing it.
Or perhaps it should be called coldness.
At a time when even Jiraiya himself had to rely on several deep breaths in a row to recover his breathing and emotions, Kakashi had not shown any anger or dissatisfaction from the very beginning.
It was as if what Jiraiya and Rei Kaguya were discussing was not his hometown and the Konoha he had once wanted to burn everything for, but a village like Sunagakure or Iwagakure that had nothing to do with him at all.
Rei Kaguya also noticed Kakashi Hatake's abnormality. With great interest, he shifted his gaze to this number one technician of Konoha, whose life trajectory he had already changed drastically, and asked in a slightly guiding tone:
"Is there nothing you want to say, Kakashi Hatake?"
"Something I want to say?" Kakashi Hatake tilted his head. For some reason, on his young face filled with exhaustion, an expression somewhat clear and hollow slowly appeared. "Lord Mizukage said that Konoha's Will of Fire has nothing worth praising, and has already become a tool used by the higher-ups to eliminate dissidents and fight for power… Then, do you believe that it had nothing worth praising from the very beginning, or that it only lost its value after it decayed?"
"Hm. That is a rather good question."
Rei Kaguya revealed a somewhat surprised expression. He looked Kakashi up and down, observing his dispirited appearance that seemed heavy with lifelessness. Then he answered thoughtfully:
"The Will of Fire after its decay truly has no value. But perhaps we can investigate exactly when it began to decay."
"How do we investigate that, Lord Mizukage?" Kakashi Hatake's hollow voice carried a trace of curiosity.
"By asking someone who personally experienced that era."
Rei Kaguya put away the scroll in his hand and answered with a soft laugh.
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