Chapter 33: Will of Fire

Uchiha Chizumi's searing, crimson lava was not something a ninja's fragile "glass‑cannon" body could possibly withstand.

The vicious magma hound unerringly tore through Sarutobi Shinnosuke's chest,

instantly charring his flesh and organs to cinders.

His eyes, already wide, bulged even further.

He opened his mouth and coughed up a mouthful of coagulated blood.

The gaping hole that almost sheared him in half announced the inevitable end of this battle.

When Uchiha Chizumi slowly withdrew his arm, Shinnosuke's body lost all support, collapsing to his knees before slumping face‑first onto the ground.

"Shinnosuke!"

A figure rushed over, catching the fallen Shinnosuke in his arms.

Sarutobi Hiruzen's tiger‑like eyes brimmed with tears, his breathing ragged; his aged, wrinkled hands trembled, desperately trying to keep his eldest son alive.

"Cough… cough…"

Clinging to his final breath, Sarutobi Shinnosuke turned his head. Through blurred vision he looked at Uchiha Chizumi standing nearby.

"Cough… Your justice…" he rasped, "is certainly… decisive… So, in your eyes, everything I did was that morally depraved? Thinking it over—ha—none of it was good…"

"Chizumi…"

"The only problem is that you stand on a different side from us. You can't… fight the entire shinobi world alone. Your justice… many people won't accept it. You have to make your justice into Konoha's justice! But you… you never listen to my admonitions."

"Old man…"

"Cough… And don't bother handing me to the Yamanaka clan to scrape my memories. Whatever that kid tells you next is true. He can still see right through good and evil, just like always."

"I was clearly burned to death in magma…"

"Yet my body feels so cold…"

"…so cold."

As Sarutobi Shinnosuke used the last of his strength to close his eyes, his breathing stopped for good.

Even in his final moment, he still rejected Uchiha Chizumi's idea of "justice."

He did not think Chizumi was wrong.

But…

He did not think he was right, either.

"Chi… Chizumi…" The agony of losing a son made Sarutobi Hiruzen's aged body tremble.

He lifted his head to meet Chizumi's gaze, jaw clenched, pupils quivering, the whites of his eyes shot with blood.

Forcing the words out, he said, "Did things have to become this rigid? Couldn't you have discussed it with me, the Hokage? Was it truly… necessary to kill Shinnosuke?"

"He was my eldest son! Your former jōnin instructor! Chizumi! Even if your justice makes you cold‑blooded enough to ignore the bond between teacher and student, could you not spare a thought for me?"

Question after question—grief at first, then a roar of rage.

Hiruzen could no longer tell what he felt,

nor decide how to handle what had happened.

"Third, I'm a member of the Police Force." Uchiha Chizumi stared at Shinnosuke's corpse. Under the flickering firelight and the red glow of magma, no emotion could be read in his eyes.

Slowly he said, "Seeing my former instructor fall into the abyss, the only thing I could do was let him die understanding why. Nothing more."

Hiruzen was silent for a long, long time.

Under the gaze of the assembled elite Anbu behind him, he staggered to his feet and lifted his son's body.

Could he claim Uchiha Chizumi was wrong? Shinnosuke, with his dying breath, had already said Chizumi was not wrong.

Hiruzen's heart raged, even harbored murderous intent.

He was a Kage, but also a father. Countless impulses urged him to order the Anbu to swarm forward and cut Chizumi down on the spot.

But…

Shinnosuke's last words had blocked that path. Shinnosuke admitted that, though what he did was good for the village, it was morally corrupt on a personal level.

Hiruzen could not tell—were those ramblings of a dying man, or lucid words spoken in his final moments?

If the latter, then Shinnosuke's purpose might have been to grant Uchiha Chizumi's act of killing him the legitimacy of Absolute Justice.

Shinnosuke…

He had fulfilled his final duty as a jōnin instructor.

He had once failed to save two errant genin; now he tried to save the last disciple he had left.

Hiruzen let out a long, deep sigh.

Is that the farewell you leave me, Shinnosuke?

His thoughts were a tangle.

After so many years of life, even with grandchildren, he was suddenly bewildered by the complexity of human nature.

He clenched his fists, opened them, clenched them again…

Over and over, who knew how long.

"Uchiha Chizumi. Tomorrow, submit a detailed action report. Give it to the Anbu; you needn't see me."

That was all he finally said.

"Hokage‑sama!" a Sarutobi‑clan Anbu blurted out, anxious. "Sarutobi Shinnosuke was one of your right‑hand men!"

Hiruzen's eyes remained lowered.

"Hokage‑sama…" As the Anbu tried to argue further, a hand landed on his shoulder. Startled, he turned.

Hatake Kakashi, also masked, shook his head slightly.

"Let the Hokage have some time to himself."

Kakashi spoke quietly, "Shinnosuke‑senpai's words before death were a testament. And the Hokage understood them. Though he and Uchiha Chizumi stood on opposite sides, in his final moment Shinnosuke‑senpai still expressed deep admiration for his former student."

"He was willing to become a leaf burned to ash, to nurture the student he once thought most rebellious. Shinnosuke‑senpai truly embodied Konoha's Will of Fire. With his life he told his student that Konoha's fire is no less than Absolute Justice."

Having said that,

Kakashi looked toward Uchiha Chizumi and saw the "teacher‑slayer" had already turned and walked away.

Chizumi's retreating footsteps rang clear.

Yet the Hokage did not call out, nor order the Anbu to give chase; he simply held Sarutobi Shinnosuke's gradually cooling body in silence.

Neither Sarutobi Shinnosuke nor Uchiha Chizumi did anything wrong.

—The thought flashed through Kakashi's mind.

Which begged the question:

If neither was wrong, then what was wrong?

Was it the shinobi world itself?

Kakashi could not find the answer.

…

"Back to the village, rookie,"

Uchiha Chizumi said quietly. "Tonight will be a sleepless one."

"Yes, senpai."

~~~

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