Chapter 20: Divide the World, Rule from Opposite Banks
Konoha Year 57 — Academy Classroom
The empty classroom. Sakura sat alone, writing her final exam on the Will of Fire.
Before her, as always, sat Iruka and Mizuki.
Iruka watched the girl's pen fly across the page and felt a swell of nostalgia. He remembered the day she'd first walked into the Academy.
Quiet. Timid. Always tucked behind Ino's shadow.
Who could have predicted that in just two years, she'd be sitting for the graduation exam?
She wasn't quite on the level of the village's other prodigy — Kakashi Hatake, who'd graduated at five, made chūnin at six, and jōnin at twelve.
That kind of résumé was simply absurd.
But Sakura's effort — every drop of it — Iruka had witnessed firsthand. This child had earned every inch of her progress.
"Iruka-sensei, I'm finished."
Eight-year-old Sakura Haruno handed over her exam.
"Good. I'll have this graded before the afternoon test."
"Take this time to rest. Don't worry — the graduation exam doesn't include physical fitness like the promotion tests."
"It's just the Three Basic Techniques."
Iruka accepted the paper with a gentle smile. He said it casually — he knew Sakura's situation inside and out. The Clone, Substitution, and Transformation were trivial for her.
"Understood, Iruka-sensei."
As the pink-haired girl left the room, Iruka didn't bother reading the exam. He delivered it straight to the Hokage Tower.
This paper had been personally requested by the Hokage for his own review. No room for carelessness.
What is the Will of Fire?
Where the leaves dance, the fire burns ever on.
The flame illuminates the village and gives new leaves the warmth to grow.
That was Hiruzen Sarutobi's understanding.
But as he read through Sakura Haruno's graduation essay, his brow furrowed deeper and deeper.
This girl's Will of Fire was… dangerous.
Sakura Haruno's Will of Fire
Fire — the origin of civilization.
Will — the indomitable spirit of humanity.
The First Hokage, Lord Hashirama Senju, gathered the shinobi clans in the Land of Fire and founded Konoha — to build a village where children would never again be sent to war.
This was the First Hokage's Will of Fire.
The Second Hokage, Lord Tobirama Senju, protected Konoha by any means necessary, striving for lasting peace. Yet the Land of Fire sits at the crossroads of the shinobi world — rich in resources, lush in farmland — and after the First's death, war erupted. The Second gave his life in its defense.
Lord Tobirama died as he lived: for Konoha. A worthy death.
The Third Hokage, Lord Hiruzen Sarutobi, assumed command in crisis. He ended the Second War. Weathered the Third. Dragged his aging body through the Nine-Tails catastrophe to keep Konoha alive.
Countless talents rose under his guidance — only to fall to misfortune, departure, or betrayal.
Now the shinobi world has known nearly a decade of peace. Old wounds are healing. But the next war could come at any time.
And Konoha, at the center of it all, will bear the first blow.
We must worry before Konoha has cause to worry, and celebrate only after Konoha has cause to celebrate.
Vigilance in times of peace is essential.
Success depends on people — and people alone.
The strategy: leverage the Land of Fire's abundant water, fertile soil, and natural resources.
The Lands of Wind, Earth, and Lightning are largely desert, sheer cliff, and mountain terrain. All three suffer chronic grain shortages and import heavily from the Lands of Birds, Rivers, Grass, and Fire.
Step one: gradually inflate grain export prices while using merchant networks to suppress the cost of iron, medicine, and ore — buying these up covertly.
As grain prices soar and the value of iron, medicine, and ore collapses, profiteers in all three nations will hoard grain and dump their strategic materials. We purchase everything they sell.
Within five years, economic chaos will destabilize Wind, Lightning, and Earth. Their anger will turn toward the Land of Fire.
At that point, we offer favorable terms to one nation — ideally Earth — forming an alliance to jointly pressure the other two.
The Land of Water is isolated overseas, a closed nation with limited intelligence access. Any military action requires crossing open ocean at enormous cost. Precedent: Water did not participate in the Second Ninja War.
With Earth as an ally, Fire and Earth form a pincer. This severs communication between Wind and Lightning, allowing us to defeat them one at a time.
During this period, rapidly absorb all surrounding minor nations through diplomacy. Those who resist can be subjugated by force.
Strategists in the three major nations will inevitably see through this plan — but by then, it will be too late.
Earth will eventually refuse to tolerate Konoha's dominance and may betray the alliance. Preempt this: propose to the Tsuchikage a joint conquest of Wind, with Konoha claiming nothing from that campaign, in exchange for Earth's support in conquering Lightning.
Promise generous terms. Publicize them widely. Stir public sentiment. Even if the Tsuchikage plans betrayal, Konoha's intelligence network will detect it immediately. Cut off resource supply. Earth's military and civilian morale will collapse; their combat effectiveness will plummet.
The Tsuchikage will have no choice but to sue for peace.
Then — together with Earth — crush Lightning.
At this point, the world falls to Konoha. The remaining minor nations can be swept aside effortlessly.
Earth, starved of resources, becomes a blade wielded by Fire.
Negotiate with Earth: set the Kannabi Bridge in the Land of Grass as the border. Sign a non-aggression pact.
Divide the world. Rule from opposite banks.
Within years, as Earth's resources dwindle further, they will have no option but submission.
This is the boiling frog.
And even if Earth makes a desperate last stand — it can be suppressed with ease.
When you are strong enough, the entire world becomes your friend.
The Will of Fire is making the entire world a friend — so that Konoha can thrive forever.
Becoming the strongest is how we protect every person in Konoha.
Graduating Student: Sakura Haruno
Hiruzen stared at the paper. His fingers trembled.
THIS is the Will of Fire?!
This wasn't an essay — this was the strategic manifesto of a full-blown warlord!
What kind of person writes THIS for their Will of Fire?!
This came from the pink-haired girl?!
Is she black on the inside?!
Hiruzen chain-smoked, filling the Hokage's office with a haze.
Sakura's "Will of Fire" was nothing like Danzō's empty rhetoric of "everything I do is for Konoha." This girl had produced an actual, concrete operational plan.
Exploit the Land of Fire's resource advantage. Start with grain prices. Strangle Wind, Earth, and Lightning economically.
The approach was subtle. Invisible.
In all his years commanding the Second and Third Ninja Wars, Hiruzen had never once considered that warfare could be waged like this.
The girl had even accounted for Earth's potential betrayal — with contingencies already in place.
All of it derived from nothing more than Konoha's existing historical war records.
As far as Hiruzen could tell, the plan had no obvious flaws.
In the absence of god-tier combatants like Hashirama and Madara, the probability of success was… alarmingly high.
Hiruzen felt his pulse quicken. This old heart of his wasn't built for the ambitions of the young.