Before dawn, Iruka opened his eyes.
He stared at the wood grain on the ceiling, two Uzumaki Narutos fighting in his mind.
One was the silly boy who used every clumsy prank just to get a second of attention from others.
The other was the executioner from last night, with icy eyes, who regarded human lives as mere grass.
The two figures tore at each other all night, until his eyeballs were bloodshot.
He suddenly sat up, unable to lie down any longer.
Stepping out of his house, the cold wind cleared his head a bit, and he turned his steps towards the store.
"Yo, Iruka-sensei, so early?" The boss yawned, looking at him sleepily, "Buying for Naruto? Is that kid growing lately, with such a big appetite?"
Iruka looked at the instant noodles and snacks he had subconsciously cleared from the shelves and piled on the counter, his throat dry, only able to nod vaguely.
The heavy plastic bags left red marks on his fingers, burning with pain.
He thought, perhaps Naruto wasn't wrong.
It was the entire Village, it was all of them, who, with their indifferent gazes, personally pushed that child off the cliff.
And he, as his teacher, deserved to die a thousand deaths.
Standing before that familiar, paint-chipped door, Iruka raised his hand, then lowered it.
After repeating this several times, he finally made up his mind and knocked on the door.
Thump, thump-thump.
No one answered.
Inside, there was a deathly silence, only the knocking echoing hollowly.
Iruka's heart sank little by little, and he knocked several more times with increased force.
"Stop knocking, that kid left before dawn."
The door across the hall opened a crack, and a sleepy old woman poked her head out, glancing at him impatiently, her gaze falling on the large and small bags in his hand, looking somewhat surprised.
"He left? Do you know where he went?" Iruka asked eagerly.
"Who knows?" The old woman pouted, "That kid was strange today, full of killing intent. I thought he was going to fight someone to the death. Oh, right, the direction seemed to be towards Training Ground Seven."
Before she finished speaking, Iruka had already turned and rushed out.
He carried the bag of snacks, sprinting through the empty streets, the plastic bags swinging behind him, making a rustling sound.
But he again found nothing.
Training Ground Seven was vast and silent, with only the rustling of leaves as the morning wind blew through them.
Iruka's gaze finally settled on a wooden stake in the center of the field.
That wooden stake, used for Genin training, could no longer be called a "stake."
It was covered with dense indentations and fist marks, large chunks of wood had been gouged out, and the edges were full of splintered wood, as if it had been frantically gnawed by countless beasts.
Iruka slowly walked over, extending his hand, his fingertips touching a deep fist mark.
He could even imagine the anger and pain with which Naruto had punched it, blow after blow, to mutilate it into this state.
This was definitely not something that Loser idiot could have done.
"Are you looking for Uzumaki Naruto?"
A cold voice sounded behind him without warning.
Iruka froze, turning sharply, an Anbu wearing a tanuki mask had appeared behind him at some unknown point, like a ghost.
The Anbu ignored his shock and continued in a toneless voice.
"No need to search."
"Hokage-sama has personally summoned him."
...In the Hokage Office, the air was as stagnant as iron.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat behind his desk, a small mountain of tobacco ashes piled in the ashtray before him.
He tried to initiate the conversation in the gentlest tone of an elder.
"Naruto, about last night's incident..."
"An after-action report."
Naruto interrupted him, placing a piece of paper on the desk, the handwriting as neat as print.
"Mission Name: Secret Scroll Recovery. Mission Objective: Recover the Scroll of Seals, eliminate rogue Ninja Mizuki. Mission Outcome..."
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the report; every word exuded an inhuman precision and coldness.
He pushed the report aside.
"I don't want this."
"Then what do you need? A belated moral judgment? Or an ineffective inquiry into my personal ideological state?"
Naruto's counter-question was like an ice-tempered dagger.
Hiruzen Sarutobi's breathing hitched.
"You've changed too much, Naruto. Your thoughts... are very dangerous."
"Dangerous?"
Naruto repeated the word, his icy blue pupils without any ripple.
"The concept of guarding humanity's homeland will never be dangerous."
"Humanity's homeland?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi frowned; this term felt unfamiliar to him.
"Konoha is the homeland of humanity I recognize on this planet. Threats to the homeland must be thoroughly purified."
"Purification..."
Hiruzen Sarutobi chewed on these unfamiliar, rusty-tasting words, a sense of unease stemming from the unknown spreading in his aged heart.
"Who taught you all this?"
"It is truth."
Naruto replied calmly.
"It is the only truth humanity has gained in the endless dark universe, exchanged with the blood and bones of billions."
Hiruzen Sarutobi fell silent.
He felt as if he wasn't conversing with a twelve-year-old boy, but facing a war ghost who had emerged from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
He decided to change the subject, one he could control better.
"What are your thoughts on the Village's current situation?"
"Full of loopholes, corrupt and inefficient, like a dilapidated ship with a decent structure but its interior long hollowed out by termites."
Naruto's assessment was without any euphemism.
"The greatest threat comes from within. A rogue Ninja named Orochimaru, a former 'comrade.'"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's pupils suddenly constricted.
Naruto continued to state in his flat tone.
"He covets the Village's forbidden jutsu, he covets the Sharingan, and even more, he covets... a suitable vessel. His Sound Village is merely a tool of war prepared to overthrow Konoha. According to my deductions, his most likely time to act is during the Chunin Exams."
Every word was like a heavy hammer, striking hard at Hiruzen Sarutobi's heart.
These should have been Konoha's highest-level secrets, intelligence obtained by Anbu at great peril. How did this child... how did he know?
"You... what do you intend to do?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice was somewhat dry.
"Optimal solution: Form a small, elite assassination unit to infiltrate the Sound Village and carry out a 'purification judgment' against him. Erase him and his lair from the map before he can enact his conspiracy."
"Secondary plan: The moment he steps into the Land of Fire's border, activate the highest level of elimination protocol, sparing no expense, using all available forces to kill him on the spot."
"Worst option: Wait for him to enter the Village and fight him within our 'homeland.' This would lead to a large number of unnecessary civilian and Ninja casualties, an incredibly foolish act that most efficiently converts our assets into liabilities."
"Purification... erase... kill..."
Hiruzen Sarutobi leaned back in his chair, feeling a deep sense of powerlessness.
Every plan Naruto proposed was full of bloodshed and cruelty, completely discarding any political, diplomatic, or humanitarian considerations.
"Orochimaru... he was once my student!"
"Therefore, your emotions have once again become noise in decision-making."
Naruto's reply was cold and direct.
"Your 'love' for him allowed him to defect, allowed him to build forces that threaten us, and allowed him to potentially kill hundreds of thousands of villagers you swore to protect in the future. Your 'love' is Konoha's weakest defense."
"Silence!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi slammed his hand on the table, the aura of a Hokage erupting fiercely.
"Konoha was built on love and trust! The core of the will of fire is to protect comrades, to view the Village as one big family! Not the cold laws of slaughter you speak of!"
He tried to use the will of fire to awaken this lost lamb before him.
"The Fourth Hokage also sacrificed himself to protect the Village and his loved ones! He..."
"He was a great warrior who bought time for the homeland with his life. His sacrifice is worth remembering, but it doesn't mean his tactical choices were the optimal solution."
Naruto calmly endured the Hokage's wrath, his body unmoving.
"Hokage-sama, put away your ridiculous 'love and peace.'"
"In the face of true cruelty, love cannot forge armor, nor can prayers for peace block the butcher's knife."
"The 'will of fire' you cherish, the reason it can still be gently mentioned by you here, is because countless unnamed individuals in the darkness you cannot see have built high walls with iron and blood."
"All I am doing is making that wall higher and harder."
The air pressure in the office seemed to drop to freezing point.
Hiruzen Sarutobi's imposing aura, before Naruto's words, receded like waves crashing against an unyielding rock.
He sat down dejectedly, picked up his pipe again, but found his hand shaking too much to light it.
He couldn't find any flaw to break through in this child's logic.
Even more terrifying, he felt a twisted yet undeniable loyalty in Naruto's words.
This child was truly protecting Konoha in his own way.
It was just that this method sent shivers down Hiruzen Sarutobi's spine.
"What... what do you ultimately want to become?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi finally asked the question that had been lingering.
"A monster? A butcher?"
Naruto slowly shook his head.
"I have no interest in the hat on your head. A Hokage needs emotion, needs balance, needs to deal with too much meaningless internal consumption. My energy should not be wasted in those places."
He paused, then gave his answer.
"I want to become Konoha's Political Commissar."
"Political Commissar?"
Another new term.
"A supervisor, an enforcer, a corrective mechanism that ensures all gears turn towards the single goal of 'guarding the homeland.'"
"I will be the ideological defense line, the touchstone of loyalty. I will ferret out all heretics, eliminate all threats, whether they come from outside, or... inside."
"I will be the sharpest sword hanging over the heads of all potential betrayers."
Hiruzen Sarutobi was utterly speechless.
After talking for so long, he felt he could deduce some things.
But the Naruto before him became even more blurred.
He didn't want to become Hokage; he wanted to become something purer, and more terrifying, than a Hokage.
After a long while, Hiruzen Sarutobi waved his hand, his face full of fatigue.
"I understand. You... go attend to your own matters for now."
He neither approved nor rejected.
He decided to temporarily accept this incomprehensible existence, and so he had to find a way to rein in this runaway Jinchuriki with the shackles named "Konoha."
Naruto said nothing more.
He executed a meticulous military salute, the movement as standard as a textbook.
Then, he turned.
With steps as precise as if measured by a ruler, he left the office.
Leaving Hiruzen Sarutobi alone, shrouded in smoke, gazing at the Village he had protected all his life through the window, feeling an unprecedented sense of bewilderment for the first time.