Chapter 240: Not Forgotten

Konohamaru stood at the training ground with Moegi and Udon behind him. Across the field waited Tenyu, Maki, and Jun.

Moegi watched him anxiously. He had come, but the anger in his face had not eased.

"When is that man arriving?" Konohamaru demanded.

Tenyu bristled. "What do you mean by *that man*? You should call him Hokage-sama. We invited you so he could help you become stronger."

"He is not Hokage! My grandfather is Hokage!"

The words came out louder than Konohamaru intended. He had repeated them privately since the funeral, as if the title could keep Hiruzen alive when the house felt empty. Hearing another child assign it to someone else made the loss happen again.

"Your grandfather was Hokage, and my father is Hokage now," Maki said.

"He is only acting."

"Then why are you angry?" Tenyu asked. "Do you not want Konoha to recover? Are you thinking of rebelling against the village and becoming a rogue shinobi?"

"You are the one who will become a rogue shinobi!"

"Then stop complaining and train. Who promised to indulge you while you spend every day doing nothing? If you care about Konoha, become strong enough to protect it."

"You do not understand anything!" Konohamaru said. "Your father came home. Your grandfather came home. Mine is beneath the memorial stone, and everyone is already speaking about the next person."

Tenyu's reply died before he spoke it. The earlier provocation had been easier when Konohamaru listened from hiding. Face to face, the difference between rivalry and grief was impossible to ignore.

Konohamaru clenched his fists. "I do not need you to tell me. I will become strong."

"Good," Tonbo said from above. "Konoha's future will depend on all of you."

He descended from the sky and landed before them.

"Dad!"

"Captain Tonbo—Hokage-sama."

Tonbo sensed the children's chakra and received the physical information transmitted by the neural tendrils he had left in Tenyu, Maki, and Jun. They had improved during his month away. Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon did not yet carry such tendrils.

Tenyu's control had sharpened, Maki's reserves had grown, and Jun had corrected the imbalance that once slowed his first movement. Their bodies sent the data without requiring Tonbo to touch them. The other three remained unreadable beyond ordinary sensing, a difference he intended to address if the joint training continued.

"Your progress is good," he said. "That means today's training can be harsher."

He turned to Konohamaru. "I heard you have been despondent. Will you train with us?"

"Why did you become Acting Hokage so soon after my grandfather died?"

The presence of the new title opened the child's anger again. To Konohamaru, everyone around him seemed indifferent. People discussed repairs, missions, and successors. No one talked about Hiruzen.

"If you want to become Hokage, you should have prepared for this part," Tonbo said. "Shinobi die. Afterward, few people care beyond their families. A Hokage is no exception. The dead are gone, and the living still have to live."

It was not comfort. Tonbo offered it because the shinobi world would not pause until Konohamaru became ready. Houses needed repair, enemies watched the borders, and missions continued to arrive. Hiruzen's death changed who carried those burdens; it did not remove them.

"You only say that because you got his position!" Konohamaru shouted. "All that talk about family is an excuse. You wanted to be Hokage."

Tonbo chuckled and pointed toward the mountain.

"The Third's face is still watching you from the Hokage Rock. Do you want him to see his grandson behave without manners?"

"Grandfather would not look at me that way. He would praise me for being brave."

Konohamaru followed the pointing hand. Tears stood at the edge of his eyes. Moegi and Udon remained silent, afraid that the new village leader might punish him for the outburst.

"Then let us find out," Tonbo said. "The Hokage's sealed archive contains a technique called Impure World Reincarnation. If you miss your grandfather and believe he would approve, I can summon him back so you can speak to him. As his family, give me permission and I will not hesitate."

The cells sealed at Tonbo's waist meant the offer was real. He already possessed the material needed to identify Hiruzen's soul. A living sacrifice and the forbidden technique would complete the summoning. Tonbo presented none of those costs to the children before watching what the possibility itself revealed.

Every child stared at him.

"Bring him back?" Konohamaru said. "That is impossible. Dead people cannot return."

"Do not underestimate ninjutsu. The Second Hokage created the technique. It summons the dead from the Pure Land. The question is what the Third would say when he saw you like this."

Moegi brightened. "Konohamaru, you miss him. Hokage-sama can bring him back. That is wonderful!"

Udon wiped his nose. "But the Third is already dead. Would it be wrong to disturb him?"

"Dad can even resurrect people," Maki said.

Jun looked at Tonbo with open admiration. "Captain Tonbo really can do anything."

Konohamaru's first shock contained unmistakable hope. Then Udon's question reached him.

His grandfather would not want his peace in the Pure Land broken simply because Konohamaru was lonely. Playing with the dead was a profound violation in shinobi tradition, even if certain people had moved beyond caring about that tradition.

Konohamaru imagined Hiruzen returning with the same empty eyes as the First and Second at the arena. Orochimaru had made them fight their student. If the Second's technique brought Grandfather back in that state, the reunion might become another humiliation imposed on him after death.

Tonbo waited quietly. If the dead man had belonged to his own family, Tonbo would have demanded the resurrection without hesitation. He did not know whether Konohamaru would make the same choice.

"I..." Konohamaru's fists loosened. "I do not want everyone in Konoha to forget him. When a new Hokage comes, I am afraid Grandfather will disappear from everyone's memory."

His voice fell to a whisper. "Will they forget him?"

He already believed they would. He rarely heard stories about the First, Second, or Fourth Hokage beyond a few famous events. Time had reduced whole lives to names and stone faces.

"Will you forget the Third?" Tonbo asked.

"Never!"

"Then begin there. Look at the Hokage Rock. If you do not want his memory erased, train and protect Konoha. Do not let the village be destroyed or the mountain defaced. As long as the people who carry his will continue living, the Third will not vanish."

The monument could outlast every witness now alive, but only if Konoha survived to preserve it. Each generation would decide whether Hiruzen became a forgotten face or a name attached to the village he died defending. Konohamaru possessed a part in that decision no successor could take from him.

Konohamaru looked up again.

The stone face seemed to return his gaze. In memory, Hiruzen placed a hand on his head.

*You bear Konoha's name, Konohamaru. If you want to be Hokage, you must protect the village and your comrades. Inherit the Will of Fire.*

The child began to cry.

Moegi and Udon moved beside him, but neither tried to stop the tears.

Tenyu shifted awkwardly. His earlier accusation about rebellion now sounded cruel even to him. Maki lowered her eyes, and Jun set aside the practice sword. None apologized in the middle of Konohamaru's crying; for once, they understood that speaking would turn his grief back toward them.

"I will train," Konohamaru said at last. "I will become stronger and protect Konoha. You are the new Hokage. You can make me stronger, can't you?"

"Of course. My training will give all of you a solid foundation and prepare you to become pillars of the village. But remember the title correctly: I am only Acting Hokage. The true Fifth is someone else."

He would begin with chakra control, coordination, and the weaknesses each child's family instruction had overlooked. Konohamaru would receive no special protection from difficulty and no special punishment for challenging him. If the boy wanted strength, Tonbo intended to make him earn it alongside everyone else.

Tonbo did not want one emotional promise to become another argument for keeping him in the office.

Konohamaru wiped his face and entered the field with the others. The grief remained, but it no longer gave him permission to stop moving.