The Third Hokage set down the report and fell into a long silence.
Outside the window, the streets of Konoha remained tranquil—cooking smoke curled into the air, children played and laughed—but beneath this calm surface, he seemed to already hear the distant beat of war drums.
A ten-year-old child, relying only on public information and his own observations, had managed to see through the coming storm with such clarity.
A genius strategist?
The Third Hokage turned the phrase over in his mind.
No.
More precisely—a natural-born top-tier strategist.
A strategist is forged on the battlefield, in intelligence reports, through repeated life-and-death struggles.
It is the crystallization of experience—instinct etched into the bones after countless decisions, countless failures, countless post-mortems.
Even the most talented individuals must go through that process.
Even someone like the First Hokage, a legend who pacified an era of chaos, grew through countless battles.
Even his teacher, the Second Hokage, the architect of Konoha's institutions, was tempered through repeated crises.
Both of the previous Hokage had suffered setbacks, been deceived, been betrayed, been schemed against, before gradually growing into who they became.
Talent may allow you to learn faster and comprehend more deeply, but it cannot replace experience itself.
But this child?
He had never experienced a great war, never participated in high-level decision-making, never been exposed to the core intelligence that ordinary people could never access.
All he had were fragments of information available to anyone—newspaper reports, idle gossip over tea, bits and pieces of border skirmishes, even everyday details that anyone could observe.
And yet, from these fragmented pieces—many of them mixed with false information—he had painstakingly assembled, deconstructed, and inferred, forcefully peeling back the surface of the shinobi world to reveal its underlying logic, seeing through the political motives and operational patterns hidden beneath the table by the leadership of the great nations and their villages.
Before the war that would sweep across the shinobi world had even ignited its first spark, he had already accurately predicted its trajectory, its scale, even the choices each faction might make at every point in time.
This was no longer something that could be described with the word "genius."
This was something close to terrifying—an innate, absolute insight into the times, into human nature, into war itself.
A natural-born strategist.
A natural-born top-tier strategist.
These two phrases echoed repeatedly in the Third Hokage's mind. After a moment, he withdrew his gaze and looked once more at the report in his hand, his eyes passing over the final line.
The Land of Fire and Konoha would inevitably face the combined assault of two great nations and their ninja villages in the early stages, and might even eventually be forced into a four-front war.
He fell silent for a moment, then let out a soft sigh.
"Someone."
"Yes."
"Notify the three advisor elders to come see me immediately."
"Yes!"
...
Inside the Hokage Tower's meeting room, the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, sat behind his desk, the pipe in his hand glowing and dimming intermittently.
Across from him, seated in three chairs, were Konoha's three advisor elders—Mitokado Homura, Utatane Koharu, and Shimura Danzō.
"Hiruzen, calling us here in such a hurry—what is it?" Koharu was the first to speak.
The Third Hokage did not answer directly. Instead, he nodded to the ANBU standing by the door. The ANBU understood immediately and stepped forward, presenting three identical documents, placing one in front of each advisor.
"There's a report here. Take a look first."
Homura pushed up his glasses and glanced at the cover, reading the name aloud: "Higashino Shinichi?"
Koharu also picked up the document, her brows lifting slightly.
Danzō glanced at the name on the cover and let out a cold snort. He did not open it immediately. Instead, he raised his head and stared straight at the Third Hokage.
"Higashino Shinichi? A ten-year-old brat—what valuable thing could he possibly write? Hiruzen, you called us here in such a hurry just to read some incomprehensible nonsense written by a child?"
"I've said it before—you've been far too indulgent with this boy. Letting him enter cooking competitions, letting him draw manga, stirring up such a commotion in the village—making everything noisy and chaotic. A ninja should focus on missions, on improving their strength, not waste time on these side paths! And you—not only do you not stop him, you keep indulging him!"
The Third Hokage did not respond. He simply took a slow draw from his pipe.
The office fell silent for a moment, filled only with the faint sound of tobacco burning.
Homura and Koharu did not speak either. They quietly opened the documents and began to read.
At first, both of their expressions were calm—just as Danzō had said.
Even if Shinichi was indeed a talented child, how much weight could the analysis of a ten-year-old carry?
But soon, Koharu's hand paused mid-page. Her brows began to knit together slightly. Her gaze lingered longer and longer on the paper, and her page-turning slowed.
Homura's reaction was more restrained, but the frequency with which he adjusted his glasses increased noticeably, his eyes fixed intently on the document.
Danzō noticed all of this. He glanced at Koharu, then at Homura. The expressions on these two old colleagues were ones he had not seen in a long time.
It was the look of people shaken by something.
Danzō frowned slightly. With a snort, he finally reached for the document on the table and opened it.
On the Inevitability and Timing Window of Sunagakure's War Against Konoha
The mocking curve still lingered at the corner of his mouth, but after reading for a short while, that curve stiffened slightly.
As he continued turning the pages, his movements slowed without him noticing, and his brows gradually tightened.
After a long time, Koharu was the first to lift her head. She gently set the document back on the table and looked at the Third Hokage, her eyes filled with deep shock.
"Hiruzen… this was really written by that child, Shinichi?"
The Third Hokage nodded.
"Did you show him the intelligence analyses from the advisory corps? Or let him access some internal documents?" Koharu pressed, her tone full of disbelief. "Without sufficient intelligence support, how could something like this possibly be written?"
The Third Hokage shook his head. "No. Everything he had access to was public information. This was written entirely by that child himself."
"And you should also understand—even the advisory corps might not produce something this thorough."
Koharu fell silent.
Homura also set down the document, removed his glasses, and rubbed his brow. His movements were slow, as if he needed time to process what he had just read.
"He figured all of this out himself?"
After a moment, Homura spoke in a tone of amazement. "Hiruzen… is this child a genius strategist?"
"A genius strategist?"
A cold voice cut off his amazement.
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