Tsunade suddenly chuckled. "Fine. Since you're already here, come in and eat a bit."
"Shizune, grill the meat."
She turned and went back to the courtyard pavilion, sat down again, and took a sip from her cup.
"Understood, Tsunade-sama," Shizune replied.
Seeing that the two kids still hadn't moved, Tsunade urged them, "What are you standing there for? Sit down."
Hinata and Kiyonari exchanged a glance. Since refusing would only be ruder, they could only go in and take a seat.
Shizune assembled a small grill, brought over charcoal, and lit it. The charcoal popped with a sharp crack, and orange-red flames immediately sprang up.
Tsunade picked up her chopsticks, took a slice of grilled meat, and popped it into her mouth. After chewing a few times, she nodded in satisfaction. "The Akimichi really know their stuff. This meat is way better than what I bought in the Fire Capital last time."
"Yeah. The staff said it was a boar hunted this morning," Shizune replied with a smile, then placed some freshly grilled slices onto everyone's plates.
Tsunade took another sip of alcohol and asked, "Alright, talk. What did you two follow us here for?"
Hinata's eyes flickered away, but the moment she remembered what she'd seen in the Life Simulator, she forced herself to steady down.
"I heard Shizune-oneechan say at the barbecue place that Tsunade-sama and the Hokage had a fight, so I… wanted to follow and see… what was going on."
Tsunade's lips curved with amusement. "So… you came to help everyone's beloved Hokage grandpa vent his anger?"
But Hinata and Kiyonari looked at each other—and both fell silent.
Oh?
Tsunade's interest was fully piqued.
She leaned forward slightly, closing the distance. That kind of posture—subtly oppressive—tended to highlight the authority of the one on top.
"Go on, then. What do you actually want to know?"
And yet, the two of them still didn't speak.
Tsunade realized she wouldn't get anything by pressing them directly. They couldn't say it—or didn't dare.
So she switched tactics. She relaxed back into a looser posture and asked in a casual, conversational tone, "Fine. Different topic—how much do you know about my grandfather, Senju Hashirama?"
With her no longer pushing, Hinata let out a small breath. "The First Hokage… Father has told me about his achievements."
"Hiashi?" Tsunade asked with interest. "What did he say?"
Hinata organized her words a little. "The First Hokage is called the God of Shinobi. He used Wood Release to pacify the chaotic era and founded Konoha. He established the 'one village per nation' system, and the Five Great Nations followed, building their own ninja villages and ending the wars."
"The God of Shinobi, huh?"
Tsunade let out a soft laugh. For her, "god"… was far too close.
"Then let me test you. In your opinion, what was Senju Hashirama's proudest achievement in his life?"
Hinata thought about it seriously for a long time before answering cautiously, "Ending the Warring States era?"
"Then do you really understand what that 'era' was?" Tsunade asked.
Hinata froze. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
Tsunade drained her cup in one gulp, her eyes turning a little unfocused. "My Second Grandpa once told me the ninja world was brutally cruel before Konoha was founded."
"Back then, a ninja traveling outside couldn't even say their surname. When strangers met, they could only exchange given names—never their clan names."
"The moment you gave a surname, you'd find out his clan had killed yours, or your clan had killed his family. Once the surname was known, two people who could've been friends became enemies in an instant. That's how Grandpa and Uchiha Madara first met."
The room was quiet. Apart from the charcoal sizzling under the meat, only Tsunade's voice echoed.
"Not like now," Tsunade said, a hint of mockery in her tone. "Calling someone by their given name has become something only close people do. Ninja these days have learned all that noble etiquette—formalities, hierarchy, rank."
Shizune lowered her head. She knew Tsunade's words had a point behind them.
"Back then, even three- or four-year-old kids had to go to war with a blade in their hands."
She looked at Hinata and Kiyonari and raised her hand, gesturing at their height. "Imagine you two walking onto a battlefield carrying a sword taller than you are—and on the other side is a group of adult ninja who want to kill you at any moment."
"On the battlefield, if you're holding a weapon, your age doesn't matter—you're an enemy. If you kill, you must be prepared to be killed."
"A group of grown men in their twenties could gang up to hunt down a six- or seven-year-old child. And a four-year-old could blow up an entire squad with explosive tags. There was no mercy. No hesitation. Only slaughter and hatred. Either I kill you, or you kill me. If you don't die, I do."
"Everyone wanted to live. And the only way to live… was to kill every enemy."
She paused and handed her empty cup to Shizune to be refilled. "Grandpa once told me he had four younger brothers. Madara had five. But by the time Konoha was established… only three of them were left."
"Because he'd watched his brothers die, he wanted to build a village that would protect children. That's what Konoha was."
"All that 'God of Shinobi who ended the warring era' stuff—later generations just flattering him. It's easy to praise the dead; they can't argue back. He only… wanted his brothers to live."
There was an unnamed fury pressed into every word Tsunade spoke. She was talking about history, and yet it felt like she was talking about herself.
Three Sannin. Miracle medic. None of it mattered. She only wanted her little brother and her lover to live.
"But…" Hinata hesitated, "even if the First Hokage's original thought was simple, what he did really did end such a cruel era. I don't think it was just empty praise."
"End the era…" Tsunade murmured, then suddenly laughed—an ugly laugh full of bitterness and grief. "That era… was it really ended?"
"The First Great Ninja War. The Second. The Third. And you can already see it—there'll be a Fourth, a Fifth, a Sixth…"
Her voice was cold, and no one dared to contradict her.
"That so-called 'one nation, one village' system only started because Senju and Uchiha joined forces. The other clans in the Land of Fire couldn't beat them, so they had no choice but to join. And once the clans in the Land of Fire banded together, the other nations' ninja couldn't beat them either—so they copied it."
"War between clans became war between villages. War never stopped. Death never ended. It just changed its shape."
"A lot of things aren't as complicated as you think. Don't overinterpret everything."
"So—do you still think Hashirama ended the Warring States era?"
Her words landed like a heavy hammer in everyone's chest.
Hinata's eyes went wide.
~~~
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