Hiruzen remained silent as he stared at the Hokage Rock, his thoughts slowly drifting back to a past he could still remember with painful clarity.
That day, he and the other members of the Second Hokage's personal guard had been desperately fleeing from the Gold and Silver Brothers, along with several elite jōnin from Kumogakure. According to the information they had received, the brothers had launched a coup in their own village, killed the Second Raikage, and then turned their attention toward them.
For a while, they managed to maintain some distance, but everyone knew they could not keep running forever. Sooner or later, their pursuers would catch up.
Tobirama had already tried using the Flying Thunder God Jutsu to get them out of the situation, but even that had failed. The Kumogakure shinobi had prepared the area carefully, placing seals along much of the route to form a barrier that did not completely block space, but distorted it just enough to interfere with the precision required by the Flying Thunder God.
Tobirama could still sense his marks and knew where they were, but with space slightly distorted, attempting a long-distance teleport carried the risk of appearing in the wrong location. In their current situation, one mistake could kill all of them.
Once Tobirama realized they could not continue running forever, he finally raised a hand.
"Stop."
Everyone obeyed.
The Second Hokage looked at the shinobi around him for a few seconds before speaking.
"Someone will have to stay behind."
The meaning of those words was immediately clear. One of them would have to act as a decoy and face their pursuers while the others escaped.
For a moment, no one said anything.
Then Hiruzen stepped forward.
"I'll stay."
Kagami immediately stepped forward after him.
"Me too."
Torifu followed soon after.
Over the years, the others would remember that moment as proof of Hiruzen's courage. To many, it was the moment he showed that he was willing to sacrifice his own life for Konoha.
And in part, that was true.
Hiruzen had been willing to risk his life, but that had not been his only reason. They were the Second Hokage's personal guards. Their duty was to protect Tobirama. To the young Hiruzen, it simply made no sense for them to escape while their teacher stayed behind to protect them.
If someone had to die, it should have been one of them.
Not the Hokage.
Even at a young age, Hiruzen had already understood the importance of position and responsibility within a shinobi village. What he had never expected was Tobirama's response.
The Second Hokage stared at them for several seconds before making his decision.
He would be the one to stay behind.
He would not allow any of his students to sacrifice themselves.
At that moment, Tobirama did exactly what the true Will of Fire was supposed to represent. The older generation would burn so that the younger leaves could continue growing.
Before leaving, Tobirama named Hiruzen the Third Hokage.
It was quick and direct. There was no long farewell, and he barely gave them enough time to process what he had just said. Tobirama simply turned around and went back down the same path they had been fleeing from.
He would face their pursuers alone.
Because of his sacrifice, every member of his guard managed to return to Konoha alive. They were exhausted, but almost none of them had suffered serious injuries.
When Hiruzen reported what had happened and announced that Tobirama had sacrificed himself to protect the younger generation, the clans outwardly accepted the Second Hokage's final decision.
But inside Konoha, the situation was far more complicated.
Many immediately began thinking about who would truly control the village.
After all, who was Hiruzen Sarutobi?
The Sarutobi Clan was respected, but it was still only a mid-sized clan. It could not compare politically to families such as the Senju or Uchiha.
And among all of them, the Senju were the ones who reacted with the greatest anger.
From their perspective, the situation was difficult to accept. The men personally chosen to protect the Second Hokage had returned almost completely unharmed.
While Tobirama was dead.
For many members of the Senju Clan, that meant only one thing.
The guards had completely failed in their duty.
Their responsibility as shinobi had been to protect the Hokage, even if doing so required sacrificing their own lives. Yet all of them had returned.
And Tobirama had not.
Some Senju considered it a direct violation of the shinobi code. In their eyes, the guards had prioritized their own survival over their mission and, by extension, over the village itself.
Tension began rising quickly. Some members of the Senju Clan even prepared to publicly reveal what had happened, and if they had succeeded, Hiruzen's legitimacy as Third Hokage might have collapsed before he could even establish himself.
But someone intervened.
Uzumaki Mito.
The wife of the First Hokage and one of the most respected figures in Konoha stopped the Senju before the situation could turn into an even greater disaster. Mito publicly defended Tobirama's final decision.
If the Second Hokage had named Hiruzen before his death, then that was his will.
And it had to be respected.
Without Uzumaki Mito, Hiruzen knew perfectly well that he might never have truly become the Third Hokage. She had protected his position and prevented the Senju from destroying his legitimacy.
And over the years, Hiruzen would repay that support with decisions made behind the backs of those very clans.
Following Tobirama's death, Konoha's situation became even more dangerous. Their enemies immediately understood that the village had lost one of its strongest shinobi and began searching for weaknesses they could exploit.
Infiltration, sabotage, attacks.
Hiruzen needed to respond quickly, so he began sending more and more shinobi to the front lines.
Many of them were Senju.
Officially, it was a military necessity. The Senju still possessed some of the best shinobi in the village, so sending them to the most dangerous areas made sense.
But the result was obvious.
The clan slowly weakened.
And for Hiruzen, that also helped keep under control a group that still questioned his authority.
The Senju, however, were not his only problem.
Before long, the Uchiha began asking a dangerous question.
If Kagami Uchiha had also been part of the Second Hokage's personal guard, why could he not become Hokage?
Kagami was strong, respected, had been Tobirama's student, and belonged to one of Konoha's two founding clans. Little by little, members of the Uchiha Clan began pushing his name forward as a possible Hokage.
At first, Hiruzen did not think much of it.
He trusted Kagami.
Kagami was his comrade.
His friend.
If Kagami eventually became Hokage, Hiruzen believed he could probably accept it.
That changed when he discovered several documents Tobirama had left behind.
Among them were administrative reports, plans for the village, and private notes regarding Konoha's future.
And inside one of those documents, Hiruzen found something he had never expected to read.
Tobirama had planned to make Kagami Uchiha the Third Hokage.
Not immediately.
His intention had been to leave Hiruzen in charge for roughly five years while Kagami gained more experience, strengthened his reputation, and gathered enough political support.
Then Kagami would become Hokage.
Hiruzen read those words several times.
He could not believe them.
It was well known that Tobirama had never fully trusted the Uchiha. For much of his life, he had viewed the intensity of their emotions and the way their power developed through those emotions with suspicion.
But over the years, Tobirama had begun to change.
Following Hashirama's death and Madara's disappearance, he had come to understand more clearly just how important the Uchiha Clan remained to Konoha. Slowly, he had also begun to understand what his brother had spent his entire life trying to teach him.
The hatred between the two clans had to end eventually.
That did not mean Tobirama had suddenly come to love the Uchiha, nor did it mean he completely trusted them.
But he had become more willing to tolerate them.
More importantly, he had realized that Uchiha who truly possessed the Will of Fire could become some of the village's greatest protectors.
Kagami was the perfect example.
His love for Konoha was unquestionable.
That was exactly why Tobirama had begun seeing him as the ideal person to finally repair the relationship between the Uchiha and the village.
An Uchiha as Hokage.
Supported by Tobirama's former student and by the legacy of the Second Hokage himself.
If the plan succeeded, perhaps the wounds between the clan and Konoha could finally begin to heal.
But when Hiruzen finished reading the document, he did not see that future.
He saw only one name.
Kagami Uchiha.
The man his teacher had truly intended to become the Third Hokage.
For the first time, Hiruzen felt something he found difficult to accept.
Envy.
Then came anger.
His hands slowly tightened around the document as a single question repeated itself inside his mind.
If Tobirama truly considered Kagami his real successor...
Then what was he?
Hiruzen remained seated for several minutes.
Eventually, he put the documents away and called for the person he trusted most to deal with problems he did not want to face directly.
His old friend.
Danzō.