Sixteen Years Old, The Fourth Generation of Mizukage

"Well, wait a minute, let me collect my thoughts."

Senju Hashirama raised his hand and signaled Kaguya Rei and Orochimaru to wait for a while, then he stretched his fingers and began to list and count the information he currently had:

"The Kirigakure Village, the fourth generation of the Mizukage of the Kaguya clan, and now it is Konoha fifty-one years. In other words, this is the world after my death for more than thirty years..."

Thinking of this, Senju Hashirama suddenly raised his head, looked directly into Kaguya Rei's eyes, and asked in a friendly tone like the uncle next door:

"Well, since the Kirigakure Village has been passed down to the fourth generation, and a surprisingly young young man like you is still the Mizukage, what about Konoha Village? To which generation of Mizukage has been passed down to Konoha Village? Already?"

"The fourth generation, the specific period of ascendancy is similar to mine. In terms of age, he is seven or eight years older than me, but he is still very young."

Kaguya Rei answered Senju Hashirama's question naturally. There was no estrangement or distance caused by the difference in stance between the two of them being Kirigakure and Konoha. It was not so much that they were talking to the deceased God of Ninja. The conversation was more like chatting with old acquaintances whom I haven't seen for many years, as relaxed and carefree.

"Oh? Has the ninja world reached an era where outstanding young people from the village can be allowed to rise to power?"

Hearing this, Senju Hashirama's eyes lit up, and while nodding slightly complacently, he asked curiously: "Then, please tell me again, which family the current fourth generation Hokage of Konoha comes from. A ninja from the Uchiha clan? Or from the Hyuga clan?"

"None of them." Kaguya smiled lightly and shook her head.

"Hmm, could it be that they are the younger ninjas of Shimura, Sarutobi, or Inokacho's family? If that's the case, they have become quite prosperous..."

The light in Senju Hashirama's eyes became brighter and brighter. Every time he said the name of a ninja clan who had joined Konoha in his time, the smile on the corner of his mouth couldn't help but become more obvious, and looking at Looking at the other party's frank expression, without any hypocrisy, Kaguya Rei couldn't help but marvel at the other party's idealist stance that had never faded until his death. He took a deep breath and gave a question that asked Qian. Tehashirama almost laughed out loud at the answer:

"No, the fourth Hokage of Konoha is a ninja named Namikaze Minato, a civilian. He inherited the flying thunder god technique created by the second Hokage and carried it forward. In the third war that just ended During the Ninja World War, Yellow Flash became famous, and after the war, he took over the position of Hokage from the third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen."

"Oh, that's really nice!"

Senju Hashirama could no longer suppress his smile and laughed heartily, "In more than thirty years, even ninjas with civilian backgrounds can learn such advanced ninjutsu as Flying Thunder God and become recognized by everyone. The Hokage is able to allow such things to happen, and Konoha is much more open-minded than when I was still there! Monkey did a really good job."

"Enlightened...?" Orochimaru's mouth curved in a cold arc, "Then, First Generation Sir, you are really optimistic."

"A civilian ninja can stand out, and even become a Hokage that surpasses those ninjas who have blood inheritance limits and family inheritance. In the era when Konoha was just established, it is something that even I have no confidence in being able to do... From this aspect, The monkey is already doing better than the first generation like me."

Senju Hashirama, who was in a good mood, did not pay too much attention to the cold and sharp words in Orochimaru's words, but sincerely praised the changes made by the third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen in this regard, and then took a deep breath After taking a breath, he looked at Kaguya Rei with a playful expression, and asked in a serious tone again:

"But...the Third Ninja War? After I left, even the intimidation of the tailed beasts couldn't make the ninjas headed by the five major ninja villages give up the idea of ​​starting a war?"

"To be precise, just after you died, the tailed beasts and jinchūriki, as one of the most important war weapons of the five great ninja villages, were thrown into the first ninja war that swept the entire ninja world. That war Not only was the intensity far greater than the war at the end of the Warring States Period, it even led to the death of all the second-generation Kage from the five major ninja villages, bringing the ninja world directly into the era of the third-generation Kage."

"...Did it actually become like this?"

Seeing Senju Hashirama's expression suddenly become lower and solemn, Kaguya Rei shrugged and commented casually:

"What kind of considerations did you have in distributing the nine tailed beasts to the five ninja villages at the initial Five Kage Conference? I will not speculate or evaluate it for the time being, but judging from the development of history, you Some have overestimated the deterrent power of tailed beasts as weapons, and intentionally or unintentionally ignored the fact that being healthy and alive yourself is the greatest guarantee for maintaining peace in that era."

"That's something that can't be helped."

Senju Hashirama sighed, shook his head with a wry smile and said:

"After the battle with Madara, I felt that my body was deteriorating at an unprecedented speed. Even after that, I no longer fought or was active as a ninja. Delay for two or three years...

Even if I was, as you said, the key to maintaining peace in that era, when my body began to deteriorate uncontrollably, I couldn't think of anything and just stay there stupidly. The position is not moving. "

"So you came up with the idea of ​​distributing tailed beasts to every ninja village, and letting them all have extremely destructive trump cards like tailed beasts, so that they would be afraid of each other and not dare to restart the war easily?"

Kaguya Rei did not argue about the right or wrong of distributing tailed beasts among the Senju Hashira, but seriously asked the other party why they chose to do so.

"Yes, because the power of tailed beasts is really strong."

Senju Hashirama said words that were unconvincing given his status, and said in a slightly depressed mood:

"I originally thought that if all ninja villages had similar power, the threshold for initiating a war would become very high, and all parties would be able to sit down and resolve disputes through communication... "

"Like you and Madara Uchiha?"

"Perhaps...you have this consideration?"

Senju Hashirama scratched his head and said uncertainly:

"After all, a person as arrogant as Madara wouldn't even have the patience to sit down and listen to you if he didn't have the same level of strength as him... And a genius ninja with an arrogance like him has just graduated from the Warring States Period. There should be quite a few major ninja villages that emerged from the troubled times."

Kaguya Rei stared at Senju Hashirama's face with clear lines and said in a helpless tone:

"Then you have really found a very strange path, the First Hokage. If I remember correctly, even though you and Madara Uchiha once had a heart-to-heart relationship and jointly established Konoha, the first ninja village in the ninja world, they still followed the path. The ending of parting ways, and eventually even reaching the point of life and death... knowing that this attempt has a high probability of failure in the end, why do you still choose it? " What is the reason? "

"Because it was through this mutual understanding that Madara and I put aside the hatred between the Uchiha clan and the Senju clan and established the Konoha Ninja Village."

Senju Hashirama couldn't help but show a somewhat nostalgic expression on his face. He tilted his head and looked at Rei Kaguya, who didn't hide his surging Senjutsu Chakra too much, and said in a complicated tone:

"Until death came, I didn't think clearly about what Madara meant when he said he found a new path, and I didn't know what kind of mood he was in before he decided to bring the Nine-Tails to destroy We built the Konoha Ninja Village together, and I can’t even figure out the reason why he risked his life to fight such a battle with me.”

"He has become a person with goals and dreams that I can't understand, and I have become a person who is willing to kill friends and family in order to protect the village. In his eyes, maybe I have become him too. You can’t understand it.”

Senju Hashirama shook his head sadly, and his expression became soft and calm. He looked at his weak body composed of weird dust particles, and murmured to himself:

"But even so, I still remember the relief that Madara and I felt when the war between Senju and Uchiha finally came to an end, and I still miss the two of us sitting on the empty Hokage Rock, talking about it. How to name the freedom and ease with which this childhood ideal has finally been realized...

It even reminds me more clearly and more deeply of the feeling when we first met, even though we didn’t even dare to exchange last names, we incredibly felt that the other person was the one who could understand us. "

"Probably because the feeling of mutual understanding is so wonderful, I hope that among the future ninjas, there will be young people who can understand each other like Madara and I. They don't need to bear the burdens brought by their families and villages. Hatred and pain, we can freely exchange names, become friends, brothers, and family members, and work together to build on the foundation I have established to walk the road to peace farther and wider."

"But obviously, no matter how beautiful the fantasy is, it can only be a fantasy after all... Your idea of ​​relying on mutual understanding between people to gradually achieve eternal peace failed without any surprise. Here we are, Senju Hashirama."

Kaguya Rei was unmoved, and gave Senju Hashirama's sincere and heartfelt confession a cold and sharp evaluation with reality.

"So you have the power to change this era, so you are alone, Kaguya Rei?"

Senju Hashirama just stared at the white eyes in Kaguya Rei's eyes that didn't quite match, and sighed with complicated emotions.

I will work hard today and see if I can write three chapters...

There should be hope, right? Although Chapter 3 may not be finished before twelve o'clock, it can always be finished before one o'clock, right?