Determination and the Will of Fire
Determination; or, my philosophy, the Will of Fire
By Hashirama Senju
The shinobi law says that we must be courageous, determined, loyal and strong, both emotionally and physically. While I agree, I feel one of these precepts is quite unnecessary.
Determination is the most, out of these rules, unimportant, as I feel that the other tenets of the law state the same thing. Courage is the determination to never give in to a greater strength; loyalty is the determination to never give up on your comrades or village.
So, with determination so clearly defined in these two precepts, why does it need to be put into words by its own tenet of our code? I think that the Sage of the Six Paths, the God who created our modern way of life and taught us our Ninjutsu, created the code with another word in mind.
My family, the Senju Clan, has long held the belief in our hearts that there is something burning in each shinobi of the world, and now burns in each member of this village; this feeling I am now calling the Will of Fire.
The Will of Fire is what gives each ninja his strength, his courage and his will to blaze forward. Each generation of shinobi must be willing to teach what they learn to the next, and so on, forging new paths for each new youth. The Will of Fire is, simply put, passion and hope and love and power.
Each of us, every single one, is merely a piece of the whole, a member of the village. Each person is but a leaf upon the tree, a single bee in the hive, and every bee relies on another. So, in a single word, what did the Sage mean when he said determination?
Love.
Love for each other, love for our country and our village and for ourselves. But do not let it stop there; once we have found a love for our friends, what must happen next is love for our enemies. The Will of Fire is all about finding peace, and the only way for true peace to emerge is for us to understand our enemies.
I turn to you now, the next generation of shinobi of the Hidden Leaf. You are the future of the village, and you are the ones who must carry on my legacy and make peace, not only in the Land of Fire, but also in the other nations: do not shun the ninja of the Cloud, but accept their faults;
Do not fear the ninja of the Mist, but embrace their power; do not force war upon the other nations, because we are one, and when one hand suffers, the other is still connected and feels its pain as well.
My children, students of my students, please do not let anger, fear or hatred do anything to sway you, but love those who would do you harm, for that is the shinobi way. Love and acceptance are our most precious powers, beyond any Ninjutsu, Genjutsu or ability we possess from the Sage.
But how do we know that love is the true concept of the shinobi? Because of what the Sage decided while he was on his deathbed. When he was ill, he released the Ten-Tails from its prison, and split its power into nine beasts that now roam our lands. But he did not hate the demon that had plagued him, that had attacked him from the inside; no, he loved these new beasts as his own sons.
And his own sons, they loved him more than anything, more even than their own lives. On his deathbed, the Sage was forced, by tradition, to choose a successor to carry on his legacy. Who did he choose to be his favoured son? His older son, who had inherited his great ocular Jutsus and believed power was needed to maintain peace between nations? Or did he choose his younger son, who had inherited his great physical strength and believed that love was needed to maintain peace?
He believed in his younger son's ideals and made him his heir. And his blood runs now through my veins, and runs across this paper and through the village that was crafted through my will. And it runs through each and every one of us from the Leaf, and from the Sand and the Cloud and the Mist.
I end here, with one final question for each of you who read this; now that you have read this, what will you do? Will you continue, and will you let wars break loose and use your power to kill all who are in your way?
Or will you take what I have said to heart, and love those around you and make peace through kind words and actions, rather than through battle and violence? I leave the choice to you, but I hope that you choose the right path, as did the younger son of the Sage, and as did my family, and as, I like to think, I did myself.