Chapter 325: Konoha's Future
Reviving Tobirama Senju was, Sakura genuinely believed, the single best decision she'd made in her entire time as Hokage so far — barely a year into the job.
Research and technology, developing new techniques, handling administrative affairs, commanding the battlefield — Tobirama had it all covered.
He was, essentially, her external brain.
Hashirama really ought to thank their father for giving him such a capable little brother.
If it weren't for Tobirama, Konoha probably would have gotten stomped flat the moment Hashirama first went off to report to Hagoromo.
Which meant that, as far as Sakura was concerned, whatever Orochimaru had to offer, Tobirama could handle just as well, if not better.
And what was Orochimaru, anyway, in the grand scheme of things? Some third-rate missing-nin.
Sakura's own Tobirama was the Second Hokage!
The one thing Orochimaru actually had going for him was that he was better at staying alive than Tobirama.
"Tie him up."
Sakura eyed Orochimaru's sullen expression without a shred of sympathy.
Sasuke promptly produced a length of wire from his gear pouch and bound Orochimaru up tight.
With Orochimaru's soul now fully reassembled by Sakura — every fragment scattered across his Curse Marks drawn back into one — the man kneeling in front of them now really would stay dead, if he died.
"Why?!"
"WHY?!"
"Why did you have to break the Infinite Tsukuyomi?!"
"My Rin!"
"My Rin!!"
Obito wailed like a madman where he lay, half out of his mind.
Having glimpsed his so-called beautiful world inside the Infinite Tsukuyomi, Obito's conviction in it had only hardened further.
Kakashi looked at the man raving in front of him without a trace of pity, and bound him up without a moment's hesitation.
Blind, and stripped of most of his combat power, Obito had no way of putting up any real resistance against Kakashi.
"Kakashi, you bastard, let me go!"
"Rin!"
"My Rin!"
Off to the side, Yuki approached, cradling the now miniature, freshly-shrunk form of Matatabi in her arms.
"So — what's the plan from here?"
Yuki asked, a little hesitant, looking over at the pink-haired young woman.
"Unify the entire shinobi world, obviously."
"Build a single new nation out of it."
Sakura scratched idly at Matatabi's head as she spoke. The tailed beast let out a contented purr, looking almost endearing.
At the very least, more endearing than that little turtle-brat, Isobu.
"Unification, huh..."
Yuki didn't find that especially surprising.
Given how far the woman in front of her had already come, drawing every nation together under one banner now felt more or less inevitable.
"It's just — about Kumogakure..."
Yuki trailed off, a little hesitant, hoping that in light of everything she'd sacrificed for Konoha in this war, Sakura might extend a little leniency toward her home village.
Kumogakure had, after all, been thoroughly, completely defeated by now — and so had Sunagakure, Iwagakure, and Kirigakure, for that matter.
And shinobi, as a rule, tended to be fiercely, sometimes irrationally protective of their home villages.
Which meant that if Kumogakure's resistance ended up provoking this particular Hokage's temper, the consequences for the village might well be—
"Don't worry."
"Once this war's fully wrapped up, I'll give every hidden village three days."
"After that, they submit to Konoha. No exceptions."
"If they don't, I'll simply treat them as a destabilizing threat and deal with them accordingly."
Sakura didn't elaborate further. Yuki hesitated, clearly wanting to say more but holding back.
Sakura's gaze swept over the scattered, thoroughly routed remnants of the coalition army, and her voice stayed even as she went on:
"You can be the one to handle Kumogakure's surrender."
"If they refuse even with you handling it—"
"Well. You know what happens then."
Yuki's expression tightened slightly at that, and she gave a firm, serious nod.
"I'll make it work. You don't need to worry."
At that moment, a black speck appeared in the sky, drawing everyone's attention.
That was...
A flying island?
Whatever the object was, it was closing fast — within moments it had already reached a position directly overhead.
As it drew closer, everyone realized what they were looking at wasn't any kind of island at all — it was an entire, honest-to-god airborne fortress.
While everyone was still eyeing the flying fortress warily, two figures appeared at its edge.
Tsunade and Hikaru.
"Reinforcements have arrived!"
"We're not... too late, right?"
Hikaru waved down at the crowd below, her originally enthusiastic expression turning a little sheepish.
She'd apparently arrived just in time to help mop up the aftermath, and nothing more.
"Oh, it's Tsunade..."
Tobirama gave Tsunade one passing glance before his attention shifted entirely to the airborne fortress itself.
Now that's some fine engineering.
The sheer technical feat of keeping something that massive aloft immediately had Tobirama's full attention.
"All right, this one's yours to look into, then."
Sakura, having worked alongside Tobirama long enough to know exactly how his mind worked, gave his shoulder a knowing pat.
"..."
Tobirama stared at her, deadpan. He'd taken one extra look at a flying fortress, and suddenly it was his responsibility now?
With the final battle over, Konoha's forces set about clearing the battlefield, then began the march home behind their Hokage.
More than a few Konoha shinobi kept glancing warily at Hashirama as they went.
This was, after all, a man they'd personally watched stand directly opposed to their current Fifth Hokage. It left plenty of people with complicated feelings.
Hashirama, for his part, paid none of it any mind, lost instead in his own heavy thoughts about what came next.
With the Fifth now standing utterly unrivaled, there was no one left in the entire shinobi world capable of checking her power. The only two beings who might have — Hagoromo and Kaguya — clearly had no intention of interfering, content to let the Fifth do whatever she pleased. The thought alone was enough to rob Hashirama of his appetite entirely.
Back in Konoha itself, Homura Mitokado had already received word of the victorious return from the front. He led Koharu Utatane and the rest of the village's mid-to-senior leadership thirty ri outside the village to receive the returning forces.
This battle would go down as the one that decided the fate of the entire world.
It was the single most dangerous battle in Konoha's history — and the largest-scale battle the shinobi world had ever seen, with more nations involved than any conflict before it.
Had Konoha lost this fight, it would have been erased from the history books entirely.
Leaving behind, at most, a single dry line of text: In the sixty-fourth year of Konoha, the Fifth Hokage led a rebellion. She was destroyed.
But instead, Sakura had led her forces home victorious — which meant that from this point forward, the shinobi world belonged to Konoha, and Konoha alone, to command.
No more Kumogakure. No more Sunagakure, Iwagakure, Kirigakure.
Everything under heaven would belong to Konoha.
As for the so-called nobility — well, that bridge had already been burned. Now that the outcome was settled, it was time to show them exactly what a blade looked like.
"Sakura."
"Hiruzen didn't misjudge you."
"Well done. Well done, truly!"
"You are every bit worthy of the title Hokage."
"Konoha will burn brighter than it ever has, because you exist."
Homura's voice wavered with genuine emotion as he looked at the young woman before him.
"Come on, old man Homura. Let's head in."
"Looks like retirement's off the table for you for a while yet."
Sakura let out a light laugh, waving a hand dismissively.
"Retirement's overrated anyway. These old bones of mine have another thirty years left to burn for Konoha."
Homura brushed the comment off entirely, brimming with hope for Konoha's future.
If he could live to see Konoha rule over a world that bowed before it, he'd die without a single regret.
As they approached the village, both sides of the road were already lined thick with people.
Flowers scattered across the path, ceremonial cannons fired into the sky, the crowd roaring in celebration.
Every face in the throng shone with pure, unrestrained joy.
Konoha had won again.
But this victory wasn't like the ones that came before it. This time, every last military power in the shinobi world had been utterly, completely broken — left with no hope of recovery for decades to come.
The moment Homura had received word of victory from the front, he'd made sure the entire village understood exactly what this win meant.
There was no way the villagers of Konoha wouldn't be ecstatic.
This wasn't just Konoha standing unrivaled across the entire shinobi world — it meant decades, possibly a full century, without another war.
The entire shinobi world would kneel before the Fifth Hokage of Konoha.
This was an achievement to rival — no, to surpass — even the founding of Konoha itself, by the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju.
Shinobi had existed for nearly a thousand years now. Centuries of the Warring States era, decades of the hidden village era — enough blood had been spilled across the shinobi world to fill oceans.
And now, the Fifth Hokage had arrived like a force of nature — from her debut to her ascension as Hokage, to bringing the entire shinobi world to heel in barely four short years.
In those four years: she'd cut down three Kage in single combat, subdued a demon lord, wiped out Akatsuki, destroyed the Rinnegan's wielders, crushed Madara Uchiha, and defeated the Rabbit Goddess herself.
Cut down. Subdued. Wiped out. Destroyed. Crushed. Defeated.
Not a single defeat. Not a single equal.
A figure this legendary might not appear again in a thousand years.
She seemed to have arrived precisely when the world needed her — as though she'd been born into this era for the sole purpose of finally, decisively bringing all of this chaos to an end.
"HOKAGE!"
"HOKAGE!"
"HOKAGE!"
Every voice in the crowd rose together, cheering, singing her praises, swept up in pure celebration — every voice, except one. Buried somewhere among the returning troops, Hashirama watched it all unfold, his expression conflicted.
Behind all this cheering, he could see, all too clearly, the countless dead this war had cost — and beyond that, a future in which Konoha stood over the rest of the shinobi world with nothing but naked, unchecked domination.
"Big brother, don't be a wet blanket about this — not now, of all times."
Tobirama had come to stand beside him at some point, speaking evenly.
"The Konoha I once dreamed of building was never supposed to look like this."
Hashirama's voice was low.
"But the Konoha standing here right now is exactly the Konoha everyone else has always dreamed of."
"And that dream is finally, actually about to be born."
Tobirama understood his brother's nature better than anyone alive.
"You had your chance, once, big brother. And because you let it slip through your fingers, the whole shinobi world's wars escalated to a degree that was almost obscene."
"All Sakura's doing now is cleaning up the mess you left behind."
"You shouldn't be standing in her way. You should be asking yourself where you went wrong."
Tobirama's words were calm, measured, and unhurried.
"Was I... wrong?"
Hashirama fell silent, mulling it over. He didn't believe he'd been wrong, not really.
But then his thoughts drifted to the sealing scroll tucked against his chest — the one holding his old friend Madara's eyes — and something in him quieted.
In his final moments, Madara had rejected everything he'd once stood for, and placed his last hope entirely in that young woman instead.
He'd not only endorsed Sakura's methods outright — he'd handed over the Rinnegan itself, hoping that Hashirama, in his place, might get to witness the peace he himself never would.
Which meant — it wasn't only his own brother standing against him now. Even his oldest, closest friend had ended up on the other side.
Madara...
What am I supposed to do now...
Hashirama's heart weighed heavy in his chest. He simply let himself be carried forward with the crowd, one mechanical step at a time.
Behind Sakura walked her three-person Kage guard — Sasuke, Naruto, and Karin — followed by an entourage of Konoha's finest: Hikaru, Kakashi, Mei Terumi, Yuki, Might Guy, Asuma, and more.
The village's remaining shinobi — those who hadn't been sent to the front — struggled valiantly to hold the crowd back, but villagers kept slipping through the lines in twos and threes to rush forward and press flowers into Sakura's hands. Before long, her arms were completely overflowing with bouquets.
Sakura took it all in, something settling in her chest.
Everything was about to come to an end.
Of everyone there, Naruto was, without question, the happiest. This was his first time ever witnessing a scene like this.
He'd finally proven himself through his own strength.
He soaked in every last cheer from the crowd without reservation.
Sakura watched him and said nothing.
He'd more than earned it. Before she'd even reached the Land of Frost battlefield, if not for Naruto, the entire Frost front would have already collapsed.
And without Naruto, Sasuke alone would never have been able to hold off Hashirama on his own.
Sakura tilted her head up slightly, meeting the gaze of one carved face on the Hokage Monument.
Minato Namikaze. The Fourth Hokage.
As an Edo Tensei body, it hadn't been appropriate for him to make an appearance at a moment like this. He simply watched from a distance, taking in Naruto's beaming smile among the crowd, feeling, at last, that he had nothing left to worry about. He could finally, safely let go.
A faint white light was already spreading across Minato's whole form. His deep blue eyes stayed fixed on the scene below.
His soul, translucent and white, rose up out of his body and drifted skyward.
Everything that needed saying had already been said, long ago. Now, he could depart in peace.
Naruto, seeming to feel something shift in the air, turned toward the Hokage Monument and froze completely in place.
With his current strength, he could sense his father's departure the instant it happened.
He'd thought he was already fully prepared to face this moment. But now that it had actually arrived, his heart still ached, more than he'd expected.
"What're you thinking about?"
Karin, beside him, noticed something was off and asked, concerned.
"Nah. Nothing."
Naruto shook his head.
"Don't make me punch you, on a day like this, when everyone's supposed to be happy."
Karin eyed him, faintly annoyed.
"Heh heh. Wouldn't dream of it."
Naruto scratched the back of his head, flashing his signature grin.
A moment later, he felt someone take hold of his hand.
The hand was warm. Comforting. Naruto's fingers curled around it without a second thought.
"Don't get the wrong idea, you idiot..."
"I just—"
Karin's face flushed slightly red, and she looked pointedly away, off into the distance.
"Heh heh. Karin's so thoughtful..."
Naruto held on tight, and didn't let go.
Somewhere along the way, without quite realizing when it happened, he'd gotten used to looking away from the pink figure walking ahead of him, and toward the red one at his side instead.
"This kid..."
Up ahead, the pink figure seemed to notice the exchange behind her, and let out a quiet, faint laugh. She didn't turn around — just kept walking forward, one steady step at a time.
Exactly like her — no hesitation, no second-guessing.
(End of Chapter)
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