Chapter 23: Will of Fire
Standing tall on a raised platform, Sarutobi Hiruzen spoke with passion to a group of Academy students gathered below him.
His speech was loud and impassioned—clearly meant to inspire. Judging by the looks on most of the kids' faces, it was working. You could see the fire in their eyes; some of them already dreaming of becoming heroes, ready to give their all for the village.
Well, not everyone.
Ryosuke sat among them, wearing the perfect expression of focused interest. But deep down, he couldn't be more bored.
What a waste of time, he thought. I probably know more about Konoha's founding principles than Hiruzen himself.
Honestly, if he were the one giving the speech, he could've stirred up the same excitement among the students with ease. These kinds of grand, heartfelt speeches—meant to unite people and push a certain ideology—were nothing new to him. In truth, it was all just propaganda dressed up in noble ideals.
In Konoha, that ideology was known as the Will of Fire. Born from the dreams of the First Hokage and championed by the Second, Tobirama Senju, the Will of Fire taught that one must cast aside individual and familial ambitions for the sake of the village. Everything—whether grand or trivial—was to serve the village's future. Not yourself. Not your clan. Just the village.
It was, Ryosuke understood, a calculated solution to the chaos that came with the creation of the Hidden Villages.
Konoha wasn't always a unified power. Like the other major villages—Cloud, Sand, Stone, and Mist—it had been formed hastily out of necessity. During the Warring States Period, the world was fragmented. Nations existed, sure, but wars were mostly civil—fought between clans within a country. There were no Hidden Villages back then.
Each clan was its own military power. The Senju. The Uchiha. The Hyuga. The Nara. Everyone served themselves, not a country.
Things only began to change when the two most powerful clans in the Land of Fire—Senju and Uchiha—set aside their blood feud and joined forces. That alliance gave birth to Konoha. It was a bold move that sparked similar changes in other lands, and soon every nation began organizing its shinobi into villages.
With that, the Warring States Period officially ended. But peace came with its own baggage.
These clans weren't friends. They had been enemies not long ago. Their unity was superficial at best—forced by necessity, not mutual respect. Internal tension simmered constantly. Everyone wanted influence. No one trusted anyone else.
At first, the ideology of the Warring States still lingered: strength ruled all. But once the external wars faded and internal conflicts came to the surface, it became clear that the "might makes right" mentality would tear the village apart.
The First Hokage understood this. If Konoha continued down that path, it would destroy itself. Unfortunately, Uchiha Madara—the co-founder of the village—refused to compromise. That ideological divide led to a bitter falling out between the two.
They fought. The First Hokage won. But the damage was done.
After his death, the Second Hokage, Tobirama, took up his brother's mantle and began to enforce the Will of Fire. With Madara defeated and the Senju clan leading the village, Tobirama had the authority to begin shaping Konoha's future around this new belief system.
That was how the Will of Fire was born—not as some mystical philosophy, but as a political strategy to unify a fractured coalition of clans.
Decades later, it had become deeply embedded in the culture of the village. Many clans slowly dissolved their identity into the broader Konoha structure, sacrificing their heritage for the village's stability.
The Senju clan led the charge in this shift. Over time, they stopped using their clan name. Intermarriage diluted the bloodlines. Identity faded. Now, very few people even referred to themselves as Senju.
Even Tsunade, one of the legendary Sannin and the First Hokage's granddaughter, didn't carry the clan name. Her younger brother, Nawaki, didn't either.
It was all intentional. The Senju set an example by giving up their surname and integrating completely into the village. Ryosuke hadn't learned that from his past life's plotline—it was information he'd uncovered after arriving in this world, buried in clan records and internal reports, especially those regarding the Hyuga.
The speech dragged on for over an hour before Sarutobi Hiruzen finally wrapped things up. He still wasn't done, though.
He turned his attention to Naruto, whose eyes were practically glowing with excitement.
"And you, Naruto," the old man asked with a warm smile, "what do you want to do in the future, now that you've heard all this?"
Naruto stood up, fists clenched with determination. That was probably the exact moment the dream of becoming Hokage solidified in his heart.
He didn't single out any other student like that. Aside from Naruto, Sarutobi treated the rest of them equally, addressing them as one unified body.
Once the speech ended, teachers at the edge of the field began guiding students back to their classrooms.
—
Back inside, Ryosuke didn't bother with the typical seating options—by the window or near the front. He headed straight for the back row.
The classroom was built with a stepped structure, each row higher than the one in front to avoid blocking anyone's view. The last row had the best vantage point, and Ryosuke liked it that way. From up here, he could observe everyone with ease.
"You don't have to stick with me all the time, y'know," he said softly to Hinata, who had followed him and quietly taken the seat beside him like a little housewife.
"You should make friends. It'll be good for you while you're here."
Hinata looked up at him. Her eyes met his. She hesitated for only a second before nodding.
"Okay."
Without another word, she stood and walked toward the front rows, choosing to sit beside the girls—right next to Ino.
She listens well, Ryosuke thought, watching her with a faint smile.
It wasn't that she didn't want to sit with him. That had been her habit for a long time. But she understood her position. As the future head of the Hyuga clan, she needed to be sociable, to build connections with her peers. Ryosuke had taught her that much.
He felt proud. She was already becoming someone different from the shy girl he remembered.
Shifting his gaze, Ryosuke began observing the rest of the class. There hadn't been any placement tests yet, so students were seated randomly—for now. But it wasn't hard to tell who came from powerful families. Like magnets, they gravitated toward each other.
Among them was Haruno Sakura, a civilian-born student lucky enough to be seated near them. She'd probably end up in the elite class once the divisions were made—unless some prodigy like Minato Namikaze appeared among the lower ranks.
As Ryosuke continued scanning the classroom, a quiet voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Um… is it okay if I sit here?"
He turned.
Standing beside him was a nervous-looking classmate, uncertainty written all over his face.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Check my Pâtreon for advanced chapters
Pâtreon .com/Fanficlord03
Change (â) to (a)
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Discord Link Here:
https://discord.gg/VvcakSux