Chapter 305: Hmph, this war definitely has everything to do with that scoundrel Hiruzen Sarutobi!

Onoki was choked up by Naruto’s words, his old face turning various shades of red and white.

He was naturally clear about those histories; in the First, Second, and Third Great Ninja Wars, Hidden Stone Village had once played the role of the aggressor, having fierce conflicts with Hidden Leaf Village.

But he quickly recovered and tried to argue:

"That... that’s all in the past! Those are grievances of the previous generation, or even the generation before that!"

Onoki’s tone was somewhat hurried.

"The Great Ninja War ended over a decade ago, and every nation has been recovering, maintaining the peaceful status quo! You’re provoking a war now and breaking the balance—how is that for the sake of peace?"

"Things of the past?"

Hearing those words, the last bit of ease on Naruto’s face vanished completely, his gaze turning deep and cold.

An idiom instantly flashed through his mind.

Revenge of Nine Generations.

This idiom comes from the Confucian classic, the Gongyang Zhuan.

"Can one still seek revenge after nine generations? Even after a hundred generations, one may."

It means: Can a hatred separated by nine generations still be avenged? The answer is: even if separated by a hundred generations, it is still possible!

The Gongyang School of the Spring and Autumn Period, represented by the Gongyang Zhuan, explicitly proposed the intense claim that ’national grievances can be avenged even after a hundred generations,’ believing that hatred between nations, even if it spans a hundred generations, possesses the legitimacy and necessity for revenge.

This formed a famous controversy within Confucian classical studies regarding the ethics of revenge against the more moderate ’family grievances for five generations’ advocated by another Confucian classic, the Zuo Zhuan.

National grievances can be avenged even after a hundred generations!

This was the ideology Naruto held in his heart, or rather, one of the historical and cultural foundations he had found for his ’Unification War.’

Decades of endless war, hatred, betrayal, and sacrifice in the Ninja World...

Could all of this be lightly dismissed as ’things of the past’ and wiped clean just because ’over a decade has passed’?

He had no mass support in other countries; in other words, in the eyes of the people of other nations, he, Uzumaki Naruto, was a demon who launched a war of aggression.

Therefore, Naruto went to great lengths to have the other side evacuate their civilians before the war began and to have the Hidden Leaf Village Ninja prepare for post-war pacification.

Striving to exchange the smallest loss for peace in the Ninja World.

To Naruto, Onoki’s flippant remark that ’it’s all in the past’ was not only childish but even somewhat laughably naive.

"Does this old man think that because I’m young and inexperienced, I’ll be soft-hearted and easily persuaded by this ’let the past be the past’ argument? Or does he think that by labeling me as ’breaking the peaceful status quo,’ he can make me feel guilty and back down?"

Using the ’past’ to avoid problems and the’status quo’ to maintain the comfort of those with vested interests...

This kind of thinking was exactly what Naruto wanted to break.

Looking at the crowds still anxiously evacuating below, then at Onoki, who was suppressing his anger and trying to ’reason,’ Naruto spoke slowly. His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried a resolute power:

"Old Master Onoki, ’things of the past’... never truly pass."

"They become words in history books, stories told by elders, names carved onto Memorial Stones, and sparks that may be reignited in the hearts of the next generation."

"When you invaded the Land of Fire back then, you didn’t think it was’something involving other Villages in the past’."

"And my standing here today is not merely to settle ’past accounts’."

Naruto’s gaze became incredibly sharp, as if it could pierce through Onoki’s forced composure:

"I am here to ensure that from now on, there is no longer any soil or possibility for such ’things of the past’ to occur."

"As for you saying I’m breaking the peaceful status quo?"

The corner of Naruto’s mouth curled into a smileless arc.

"When peace is built upon hatred, suspicion, and arms races that could erupt again at any moment, it is nothing more than a false truce, a prelude to the next even greater war."

"The peace I want isn’t that fragile’status quo’ maintained by the balance of great powers and the sacrifice of small nations."

"What I want is a truly unified, long-lasting peace without national borders or mutual conquest."

"This process may seem like aggression to you."

"But in my eyes, this is a necessary growing pain, the only way to end the endless cycle of Reincarnation."

"So, put away your rhetoric about ’things of the past’ and ’breaking the peace’."

Naruto’s final words carried an unquestionable decisiveness:

"Three and a half hours; the timer will not stop. To fight, to surrender, or to watch Hidden Stone Village turn into ruins... the choice is in your hands, Tsuchikage."

The youth before him was so arrogant.

It stirred Onoki’s memories.

That year he was thirteen, following his Master, the Second Tsuchikage Mū, to Hidden Leaf Village for diplomacy.

But they encountered a powerful enemy that Onoki would never forget in his life.

Uchiha Madara.

The other party rejected Hidden Stone Village’s invitation for an alliance and severely injured both Mū and Onoki.

At this moment, the youth’s eyes were exactly the same as Uchiha Madara’s back then.

But immediately after, a discovery that made his scalp tingle forced his thoughts to pivot.

His gaze involuntarily shifted from Naruto to the girl who had been standing quietly by Naruto’s side, draped in an oversized white cloak, with only half her face and a pair of scarlet eyes visible.

Previously, his attention had been almost entirely on Naruto and Kurotsuchi; he had only been wary of this silent Uchiha girl and hadn’t looked closely.

Now, perhaps drawn by memory or some sort of intuition, he looked closely at Hikari’s appearance for the first time.

Long black hair, delicate but expressionless features, and especially that hairstyle?

Masaka!

Although the way Hikari’s long hair was tied and its details differed from the Madara in his memory, that overall sense of silhouette, that temperament unique to the Uchiha Clan...

Especially when she slightly raised her head, revealing more of her profile—that well-defined jawline, that straight bridge of her nose...

How could she... look so much like Uchiha Madara?

Onoki’s heart skipped a beat! An absurd thought that seemed to explain some of his doubts surfaced uncontrollably:

This girl, looking at her age... she seems to be about the same age as Kurotsuchi, around thirteen or fourteen?

Calculating from Uchiha Madara’s age...

Could it be... she is Uchiha Madara’s... great-granddaughter?

The way he looked at Naruto and Hikari became even more complex, filled with shock, wariness, and fear.

Wasn’t there intelligence back then saying Uchiha Madara died at the hands of Senju Hashirama, and hadn’t the Uchiha been massacred a few years ago?

How could...

So that’s how it is; Hiruzen Sarutobi, you bastard, you’re truly sinister!

To think you actually spread false information and hid the Uchiha people away.

Heh, if he hadn’t seen this Uchiha girl today, he would still be kept in the dark.

For the youth before him to become Hokage at such a young age and launch a war, he must have the support of that old fogey, the Third Hokage.

How could a child have the ambition to unify the Ninja World?

This ambition must have been instilled in him by someone; since the Fourth Hokage and his wife are dead, this child had no parents to teach him at all.

Which means, hmph, this war definitely has everything to do with that scoundrel Hiruzen Sarutobi!

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