"Third Hokage-sama… what are you looking at?"
Outside the hall built to resemble the first Summit's venue, Minato watched Hiruzen pause for a long moment, and asked out of curiosity.
"Me?" Hiruzen exhaled a thick stream of smoke, voice tinged with melancholy. "Perhaps… I'm mourning time that has already passed."
"When the First Hokage invited the founding Kage to the Land of Iron—proposed an alliance to maintain peace—and distributed the tailed beasts to balance power…"
Hiruzen's gaze drifted, distant.
"I was still a young man, newly qualified to command a small team."
"And now, in the blink of an eye, I'm an old man—nearly the same age as the First was back then."
"That's not true," Minato said earnestly. "Third Hokage-sama is still a powerful shinobi in his prime. To call yourself old is far too early."
Hiruzen gave a self-mocking smile.
"How could anyone not feel their body aging? My peak has long since passed. What remains is decline."
Then he looked at Minato.
"The only ones who can still climb higher are the young—people like you."
"Old man," Jiraiya cut in, stepping closer and slinging an arm around Minato's shoulder. "Don't put that kind of pressure on him."
"We old folks exist to shield the young until they reach their own peaks," he said. "Dumping burdens we can't handle onto them too early is no good."
Hiruzen nodded, ending his sighs and regaining the weight of his office.
"Enough. Let's not waste time on words without meaning."
He turned toward the hall.
"Come, Minato. Jiraiya. The host who invited us here is waiting."
Guided by a Land of Iron attendant, they entered the negotiation chamber.
Across the table sat Kirigakure's three representatives—already seated.
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes and assessed them one by one.
The Third Mizukage—someone of Hiruzen's era, a man who inherited the title after his own village's Second fell in the First War. Because Kirigakure never participated in the Second Shinobi War and remained closed, this was the first time Hiruzen met him in an official setting.
But the man's spirit looked even more withered than his aged appearance.
Hiruzen's heart sank. So the long-term genjutsu control… was likely true.
That was not good news for Konoha.
The second figure was a boyish shinobi—Yagura—who looked young enough to still be in the academy.
From the way Yagura repeatedly glanced toward the Third Mizukage, Hiruzen could tell: this was a trusted aide, a successor nurtured carefully—much like Hiruzen with Jiraiya and Orochimaru.
Under normal circumstances, this boy would have been the Fourth Mizukage.
Unfortunately…
The real fourth sat beside him.
Kaguya Ren.
Ren's gaze swept over Konoha's three with a scrutiny that was faintly uncomfortable. Hiruzen took a slow breath and met his eyes directly.
In Ren's violet slit-pupils—similar to Orochimaru's, yet more inscrutable—Hiruzen saw a young soul blazing with ambition.
He would remove any obstacle without mercy to reach his ideal.
And he believed—nearly with certainty—that his chosen road would improve the world.
The feeling reminded Hiruzen of Uchiha Madara.
And yet Ren was utterly unlike Madara in so many ways.
As Hiruzen sat, Ren spoke first, greeting Jiraiya with a sly smile.
"Yo, Jiraiya-senpai. Been a while."
"I wonder if this time you'll still choose to run, when the questions you can't avoid are placed right in front of you?"
Jiraiya's expression darkened.
He understood Ren's intent—seize momentum, press Konoha into a weaker posture.
The real problem was that Jiraiya still didn't have an answer. Silence would concede the initiative. Speaking would be walking into Ren's trap.
Either way, Konoha—already disadvantaged—would bleed.
Hiruzen set down his pipe.
"If it's convenient," he asked calmly, "may I also hear the question you posed to Jiraiya, Kaguya Ren?"
"Naturally," Ren replied lightly, then folded his fingers together. "I only listed a few facts and discussed whether our villages—having reached this point—have all drifted from our founders' original intent and begun walking a mistaken path."
"It's not some profound philosophy."
"Drifted… and begun walking a mistaken path." Hiruzen closed his eyes.
Faces flashed in his mind—children who died on the battlefield shortly after graduating the academy.
Root shinobi whose humanity had been stripped away.
Records of cruel experiments carried out under Root's shadow.
He opened his eyes again.
"I see. For Jiraiya… that is indeed a difficult question."
Ren's gaze sharpened. "Oh?"
"So, Third Hokage," Ren pressed, "how do you answer?"
"Because I lacked the ability to be Hokage," Hiruzen said evenly, "Konoha did indeed develop problems under my tenure—problems that contradict the First Hokage's original purpose. That is an undeniable fact."
"Jiraiya was at a loss," Hiruzen continued, "because he does not have your cold, hardened heart. He cannot speak such sharp words about his superior and teacher without burden."
Now the one surprised wasn't only Ren.
"Old man?!" Jiraiya hissed, leaning close, voice strained. "What are you saying?! This is between me and him—why are you dirtying your own name just to cover for me?!"
"My life as Hokage has already reached the time for judgment," Hiruzen replied quietly. "If acknowledging mistakes frees my student's heart, what is the cost?"
Then he looked back to Ren and asked with faint self-mockery, "So? Is my answer at least not worth zero?"
"You answered the question, but offered no solution," Ren said bluntly. "If it weren't coming from you—the man responsible—I'd give you zero."
Hiruzen didn't argue. He simply shifted his gaze to Minato.
"The problems were born of my inadequacy," he said. "So they cannot be solved by an old man like me."
"But it's fine. I've found a successor worthy of the future."
"Now all I need to do," Hiruzen continued, voice steady, "is bear responsibility and infamy… and leave room for the next generation to act."
The Third Mizukage gave a bitter, quiet smile.
If he hadn't been controlled by genjutsu… perhaps he could have entrusted Kirigakure's future to the next generation too.
Whoever that monster was—Madara or not—
You deserve to die.
Ren stared at Hiruzen's sudden, imposing spirit, then clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Tch. Did Danzo's death finally help you reclaim what made you 'The Shinobi Hero,' Hokage?"
"Perhaps." Hiruzen's expression dimmed at the name.
"With the Root buried underground now dead, Konoha cannot flourish unless someone reaches into the darkness that Root used to handle."
"You won't avenge Danzo?" Ren asked, casual.
"I came as Hokage," Hiruzen answered, "to negotiate peace. If I drag the village back into the mud of war for personal ties… Danzo would curse me in the afterlife."
"And besides," Hiruzen added, "I cannot take my disciples and march into a battle we cannot win—one that isn't even for protecting the village."
Hiruzen's defense was airtight.
Ren, who had intended to press for more concessions, could only huff and withdraw.
Yagura—who had been braced for violence—finally let out a breath. He took out a scroll and tossed it toward Konoha's side.
"This is the ceasefire framework Kirigakure prepared in advance. Let's use it as the basis and negotiate additions and reductions from there."
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