"Does Jiraiya-sama already have an answer of his own?"
Rather than replying immediately, Shinichi softly returned the question.
Jiraiya fell silent for a moment before nodding.
In a low voice, he said: "I think... if one day people could truly understand one another—if hearts and minds could genuinely connect—then perhaps war would no longer break out."
"Maybe the chain of hatred could finally be severed."
"Is that your answer, Jiraiya-sama?"
Shinichi neither agreed nor disagreed.
Instead, he turned toward the surrounding shinobi, who had gradually fallen silent and were now directing their attention toward him.
"Before I answer Jiraiya-sama's question, I'd like to ask everyone here a question first."
"Everyone... can you tell me what you believe the essence of a shinobi truly is?"
The question hung in the silence.
Then, after a brief pause, answers began to emerge from different corners of the room.
"A shinobi is the shield and blade that protects the village!"
"A shinobi is an unsung guardian who protects peace from the shadows!"
"A shinobi is someone who completes the mission even at the cost of their life!" That was Kakashi.
"A shinobi is someone who burns with passion, lives out their youth, and protects what they treasure!" That was Guy.
"A shinobi is someone who protects their comrades and follows their own path!" That was Kurenai.
"A shinobi is someone who heals the wounded, eases suffering, and gives their comrades support and hope." That was Shizune.
The answers differed.
Yet every one of them came from the heart.
After listening to everyone's responses, Jiraiya remained silent for a while before finally speaking.
"In my view, a shinobi is someone who endures."
"Someone who endures pain, separation, and loneliness."
"Someone who finds meaning through endurance and protects what is worth protecting."
"Everything you've said is correct."
Shinichi listened quietly to every answer.
He slowly nodded.
Then he slowly shook his head.
"But you're also all wrong."
"With all due respect, those answers may describe part of what a shinobi is—perhaps even a very important part, encompassing our responsibilities, beliefs, and aspirations."
"But they do not touch the most fundamental core."
His gaze swept across the room.
Then, word by word, he spoke with absolute clarity.
"In my view, if we strip away all ideals and beliefs and examine the matter purely through the lens of social function and professional role, the essence of a shinobi is this:"
"A shinobi is a professional executor and contractor of violence who serves power and interests, accepts commissions, and uses force to accomplish specific objectives—especially violent ones."
He paused briefly.
Then continued in an even simpler, more direct manner.
"To put it more plainly..."
At that moment, his eyes met Jiraiya's complicated, unreadable gaze.
"A shinobi is a tool for killing."
A tool.
A tool for killing.
Simple.
Cold.
And yet impossible to refute.
Silence.
Dead silence.
The atmosphere that moments earlier had been filled with passion, ideals, and conviction seemed to freeze solid.
Expressions stiffened across countless faces.
Many people parted their lips slightly, yet no words came out.
Jiraiya's mouth opened as though he wanted to say something.
In the end, however, he merely let out a sigh and sank into even deeper silence.
"So then..."
Shinichi looked at the crowd.
"What do all of you think?"
Shinichi's voice rang out once more, breaking the nearly suffocating silence as his gaze slowly swept across the hall.
"Is that normal?"
The people present exchanged glances, but for a moment, no one answered.
After a long pause, a Special Jōnin at a nearby table finally spoke, hesitation evident in his voice.
"Captain Shinichi, even if... even if it doesn't sound very pleasant, that's simply the fate of shinobi, isn't it? Ever since the Sage of Six Paths founded Ninshū and established the shinobi system countless years ago, the world of shinobi has always..."
At this point, his voice carried a kind of resigned helplessness.
"It's always been this way, hasn't it?"
"Has it being that way forever made it right?"
Nine words.
No impassioned tone.
No dramatic gestures.
Just a calm question.
Yet it struck the hearts of everyone present like a thunderclap.
Has it being that way forever made it right?
"The path and destiny we've grown accustomed to—the things we take for granted, the things history and tradition have prescribed for us... does that automatically make them correct?"
"Does that make them unchangeable?"
"Does that mean we must follow them forever?"
Shinichi's gaze rested briefly on the Special Jōnin before moving on, sweeping across every face in the hall—young and old, confused and thoughtful alike.
"Is our fate as tools truly destined to be passed down from generation to generation, with no possibility of change?"
"Can we not think?"
"Can we not question?"
"Can we not even try to change something simply because it has always been this way?"
"And besides!"
At that point, his voice suddenly rose.
"Has it really always been this way?!"
The Special Jōnin from earlier wiped a trace of sweat from his forehead and stammered: "Captain... hasn't it?"
"Of course not!"
Shinichi cut him off without hesitation, his gaze as sharp as a blade.
"Can anyone tell me this: before the Sage of Six Paths became the founder of shinobi and established Ninshū, what was his identity?"
The question caught many people off guard.
Before Ninshū?
That was practically the realm of myths and legends.
Not everyone loved reading as much as Shinichi did or possessed his near-encyclopedic knowledge of history.
Jiraiya, who had been listening in silence the entire time, suddenly lit up as though he had grasped a crucial clue.
"A monk!"
His deep voice rang out.
"Before founding Ninshū, the Sage of Six Paths was a monk—a compassionate man who traveled the world in search of a path to save it!"
"Exactly! A monk!"
Shinichi nodded emphatically.
"A monk devoted to compassion. A monk who sought mutual understanding between hearts. A monk whose purpose was to pursue truth and a path toward peace!"
"Then tell me—after years of travel and contemplation, when such a man founded Ninshū... when he spread the chakra system throughout the world..."
"Was his original goal really nothing more than creating a more sophisticated and efficient means of killing?"
"If the Sage of Six Paths had created Ninshū solely to manufacture more effective tools for murder, then he would never have been revered as a savior!"
"He would never have been worshipped as a creator!"
"He would have been feared as a God of Destruction!"
"A God of Ruin!"
"So everyone!"
Shinichi raised his hands slightly as his voice rang through the hall.
"It was never meant to be this way!"
"From the very beginning, shinobi were never supposed to be tools for killing!"
"Chakra was created and spread by the Sage of Six Paths for one fundamental purpose—connection!"
"To connect people's hearts and strengths!"
"To allow people to better understand one another, communicate with one another, and cooperate with one another!"
"To create an ideal world without war, where everyone could live together in peace and prosper together!"
"That is what shinobi were originally meant to be!"
"That is the original—and most sacred—mission of the shinobi profession!"
"So this is not about changing anything!"
"It is about returning!"
"Returning to the path shinobi were meant to follow from the moment they were born!"
"Returning to the purest and noblest wish the Sage of Six Paths held when he founded Ninshū and spread chakra throughout the world!"
Shinichi knew very well that this was not the time to speak of revolution or overthrowing existing systems.
Such rhetoric would only provoke enormous resistance and turmoil.
The best approach was to present every idealistic vision as a restoration of an ancient orthodoxy.
Raise the banner of the Sage of Six Paths.
Frame the cause as a return to the original essence.
That was far easier for people to accept—and carried far greater moral legitimacy—than calling for the destruction of tradition.
Rather than interpreting the classics through oneself, one simply interprets oneself through the classics.
As his words fell, the hall sank into stunned silence.
A moment later, Jiraiya was so excited he looked ready to leap from his seat.
His eyes burned as he stared at Shinichi.
His voice trembled with a level of eagerness and anticipation unlike anything before.
"So, Shinichi!"
"You mean...?"
"Your answer is...?"
"That's right!"
Meeting Jiraiya's gaze head-on, Shinichi's voice rang out with unwavering conviction.
It sounded like a declaration.
Like a rallying cry.
It echoed clearly throughout the silent hall.
"Shinobi should not be tools for killing!"
"We must free shinobi from the endless slaughter and the cruel fate of being treated as tools!"
"We must return to the original nature and mission that shinobi were meant to embody!"
"We must follow the original wish of our common ancestor—the Sage of Six Paths!"
"This..."
"Should be the direction that I, Higashino Shinichi, strive toward!"
"And it should be the goal that all of you!"
"All of you who possess ambition and conviction!"
"Work toward together!"
"And it should be the future that every shinobi of Konohagakure—and indeed every shinobi in the entire shinobi world—who carries kindness in their heart and longs for peace..."
"Should pursue and bring into reality!"
"The true path of the shinobi!"
The instant those words fell—
Within dimensions beyond mortal perception—
Deep within the Pure Land, and within a mysterious, unknowable place upon the moon—
An elderly figure dressed in ancient white robes and holding a shakujō staff, and another figure clad in a white robe bearing six black magatama-like markings upon his chest—
Both trembled almost simultaneously.
Then, at the same moment, they opened their eyes.
Their gazes turned toward the shinobi world.
Toward the Land of Fire.
Toward Konohagakure.
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