Mebuki and Kizashi buy Mito a book about the Third Shinobi World War and a book about the history of the Four Hokage that Konoha has ever had.

Mito learns that the Third Shinobi World War was the result of unchecked prolonged conflicts between the smaller villages and nations and the major shinobi countries. It blew out of proportion when Hatake Sakumo (Konoha ninja) killed a squad of Suna shinobi who had been initially fighting River Country-nin in an effort to save his comrades. Sakumo is shunned by the village despite his good intentions, disgraced by the people he fought for, and he eventually takes his own life just as the start of the war is officially announced.

It's a free-for-all; Konoha fights Iwa and Kiri, sometimes fighting Kumo when they breached the Land of Fire's borders. It's a war of attrition and no one really has a cause to fight for, they're just fighting because what the heck, everyone else is. And besides, if they won, they get spoils of war and possibly new territories and thus that's a win in their favor.

And there's also pride, a sort of 'your nin killed my nin so meet me at the border at eight' sort of pride that bode well for nobody.

During the Third Shinobi World War, the no-name clanless genius Namikaze Minato makes a name for himself as Konoha's Yellow Flash for recreating the Nidaime's Hiraishin, a fact that intrigues Mito deeply. Tobirama was half-mad, probably, when he invented his techniques. For someone to effectively even use some of Tobirama's higher-level ninjutsu is a feat. Mito sort of feels bad when she wishes that the Fourth Hokage lived instead of Hiruzen.

But she's still not letting Uzushio go even if she has nothing to do with it anymore.

In hindsight, Uzushio is the textbook example of prolonged conflicts left unchecked: the border skirmishes against Kiri hadn't been at random, and neither had been the appearance of Kumo nin in the area. The Kumo nin had been there to spy on Uzushio, checking to see the village's defenses and report accordingly. Hiruzen's response to their call for help is the literal definition of leaving things unchecked.

Reading the chapter on Kannabi Bridge has Mito thinking, damn, Hiruzen, Tobirama would have never let it get this badly and you've been a Hokage for longer than Tobirama had been.

Hiruzen's failures aside, Konoha's efforts in the war result in favorable circumstances, and Iwa is left on the verge of destruction. Not even Kumo will lend a hand, not after how Iwa stabbed them in the back five years in, but Hiruzen doesn't choose to send in shinobi to annihilate one of their greatest oppositions in the war.

Instead, he calls for a truce between Iwa and the other countries they fought against when it became apparent that none of them could suffer more damage. It's a good move, because even Konoha would suffer losses in a siege even if it's in their favor, but he stupidly doesn't ask for reparations from Iwagakure even though the village and their shinobi constantly breached the Land of Fire's borders. It's a weak decision, even Mito can see as much, and to satisfy the people, Hiruzen announces his plans to step down and presents the two new candidates for Hokage:

Namikaze Minato and Orochimaru.

Here is where Mito grows confused. She knows Namikaze wins the title, but how? Orochimaru has years of experience over the other shinobi and an extensive repertoire on ninjutsu, along with the large reserves needed to pull them off. Of course she knows that strength is not the only factor to consider when choosing a Kage, but Orochimaru had been such a kind young man.

The last time Mito saw him, she sat him down for tea and asked him about his research progress, to which he thanked her for her inputs on his fuinjutsu and on the ways to preserve the power source of a seal without constantly drawing from the caster's chakra. He was saddened, yes, but who wouldn't be? Jiraiya left to be a spymaster, Mito knows, although it doesn't explain his obvious absence in the village when it needs a better leader—and the lack of accounts on the perverted idiot in the book probably stem from this fact.

If Jiraiya being a spymaster during the duration of the Third Shinobi World War was stated in print, it most likely will render his status as a spy useless, since everyone would have known from reading about it in a book—and Tsunade was gone, completely gone without allying herself to Konoha when she needed her.

That was... it was disappointing, sure, but Mito doesn't think she can blame her granddaughter after what war did to Nawaki and that kind boy Tsunade used to bring over to their house.

She isn't completely disappointed, though: there are accounts how Tsunade simply fought her way through anyone and everyone who hadn't been a Konoha-nin and offered healing when she could, although the latter part extended to non-Konoha ninja as well. She fought for herself. That's all Mito can hope for.

Anyway, Orochimaru: Jiraiya is a spymaster, Tsunade is a missing-nin in all but name, and Orochimaru had no one to keep him company when Mito last saw, no one and nothing but his research papers and an empty laboratory, but he had been a good man. Too inquisitive, thirsting for knowledge where he could find them, but he had always put the village first despite the revilement he constantly faced from the villagers for being the only one to have been born with slitted golden eyes and paper white skin, the last of the snake summoners.

Furthermore, Orochimaru was methodical enough to do what needs to be done. From what Mito read about Namikaze, he too was methodical, but to what extent?

It's a headache. That's all Mito can garner from the first book. If the citation about Kumogakure and the Hyūga on the bottom of the page was any indication, the whole situation gets so much worse. But the book does sing about Namikaze's greatness so, expecting good things from this boy, Mito opens the book on Konoha's Kage hoping that whatever killed him was actually worthy of killing him.

As in: it better not have been a weak little worm.

Ten minutes in, Mito kind of regrets hoping.

No, wait, she sincerely regrets even reading about this at all.

From the page, staring up innocuously at Mito, is an artist's depiction of the Nine-Tailed Fox, fangs bared and tails wrecking the village grounds, a single gleaming red eye staring down with malicious glee. This is the monster that Mito has sealed within her body for the majority of her life, the monster she endured shrieks of rage and curses from for sealing it, the monster who had come so close to destroying Hashirama's dream at Madara's command—

And four years ago, the beast nearly came close to succeeding.

But the Fourth Hokage saved the village by giving up his life into sealing the demon away. The book doesn't go into detail about the seal the Yondaime used, nor does it state what or, more likely, who the demon fox was sealed into, but Mito supposes it's a matter of village secrets.

Shutting the book, Mito finds herself with a plethora of questions.

The Kyūbi was freed she thinks, with a coldness that seeps into her heart. How did that happen? What happened to Kushina? Something must have happened to the girl – a woman by then, Mito guesses, though she's still not good with tracking the passage of time – for the seal on the Kyūbi to fall apart. Mito oversaw the creation of Kushina's seal before it was applied; nobody short of an exceptional seal-master could have forced it open and nothing could have considerably weakened it, maybe except for—

Childbirth. The seal could have weakened at childbirth. It had been an improvement to Mito's seal but there was still the possibility of the seal weakening like it had when Mito gave birth to her second daughter. That opened yet another flood of questions, but what stood out the most to Mito was the implication that Kushina had a child.

She feels happiness surge, for the briefest moments, because this means that Kushina might have had the family she told Mito that she wanted, only for that happiness to crumble when Mito realizes, Kushina could be dead.

Kushina could be dead.

There is the matter of the object or person that the Nine-Tails could have been sealed into. The most likely outcome is that it was sealed into a person. A person is much more suited as a container because it can fight off anyone who might try to steal them, and with a will of their own, the demon can't simply do as it pleases and leave the person it's sealed into.

Furthermore, Konoha needs its jinchūriki. Aside from containers, they are weapons utilized to protect the village, and the Yondaime probably didn't give up his life just to seal the demon into something useless like a teapot. No, the beast's container is most definitely a person. Now it's only a matter of Kushina or her child.

Mito feels sick just thinking about it.

Did they both make it out alive? Is Kushina still the jinchūriki or is it her son or daughter? One might think that Mito's going out on a limb far too liberally, but it's logical. Kushina's child could just as easily hold the demon back due to his or her durability, no doubt inherited from Kushina. But for such a burden to be placed on a child without their consent—

Mito remembers, just vividly, how Kushina did not want to be the next jinchūriki either, but Mito could only comfort the young girl. It could have been anyone in Uzushio if they searched harder for an Uzumaki with stronger, more adaptable chakra, but the Hokage and Uzukage caught wind of Kushina first and there was no effort to find anyone else who might also have adaptability and an actual wish to serve as a container to a demon. Of course, the latter part would be hard to find, but surely not impossible.

At least Kushina was aware and eventually relented, but if the demon was sealed into a baby—

There is another possibility, of course. Kushina and her child could have died in the attack and the Yondaime could have sealed the demon into some other unsuspecting soul or, slightly better, a willing one, but that left Konoha with a weaker jinchūriki. At least, in terms of the jinchūriki of the past, the current one would be weaker in comparison if that was the case, and probably more prone to corruption. After all, Mito still doesn't know what seal the Yondaime could have used that it cost him his life. It could be stronger than the seal Mito made for Kushina or weaker than it.

Gods, Mito shuts her eyes, nails digging into the spine of her book, what a mess.

And there's nothing Mito could have done because she was—she wasn't dead, no, but the date of the attack had been the tenth of October, and Mito distinctly remembers being a baby and being on a vacation to the Land of Iron with her parents, not returning until January next year, and Mito spent most of her time as a baby asleep, so that's probably why she missed it. Asleep or introspective, verging on depressed, and even sequestered by her parents from the outside world. That's why Mito didn't—

That's why she hadn't known until—

There's nothing I could have done, but why does she feel so angry about what happened? Why is she so mad about it?

Because there's no one to blame, whispers the traitorous part of Mito's mind, there's no one to blame, no one to point a finger at, and that's what you're good at, isn't it? It is, because Mito is a kunoichi who lived through war, and the best way she deals with tragedies is by punching and kicking and running people through with her golden chains, the ends sharpened into knives of pure chakra. Then when it's all done, she's given a sense of control, even as she watches the carnage.

Now she's not in control and there's a mess and she couldn't do anything, can't possibly have done anything, and so she's angry because being angry at everything is the only thing she can do—

"No," Mito growls, and in the spur of a moment, she throws the book towards her bedroom door as if it's to blame for all her sorrows. It lands on its spine with a resounding thud, flipping open on its own volition, the page landing squarely on a black-and-white painting of the Fourth Hokage. Mito almost laughs, but her fingers tighten onto the hem of her shirt.

She couldn't have done anything about the Third Shinobi World War. She couldn't have done anything to stop Konoha from sending out unskilled children into the fray like it's the Warring States period all over again. She couldn't have done anything about Hiruzen's lack of assertion in the aftermath of the war, nor could she have stopped the Kyūbi from attacking.

But Mito can stop feeling terrible, stop feeling useless, and pick herself up. She can stand up and train and become a force to be reckoned with all over again. And then—and then—

And then she'll succeed Hiruzen, or whoever succeeds Hiruzen. She'll be the greatest killer in all of Konoha – that's essentially what the Hokage is – and get that damned hat off of his head. She'll be the Hokage and she's going to dismantle whoever thinks that six-year-olds are fitting soldiers by cutting them up and no one will goddamn find their bodies. She won't let other villages just step on Konoha and do as they please without consequence. Hell, she won't let enemies find Konoha. She bets she can make a concealment seal that extends village-wise, and then Konoha won't be found at all and it won't end up gone and the people slaughtered like Uzushio—

Konoha won't be like Uzushio. And Mito will protect Konoha like she hadn't been able to with Uzushio.

"I'm going to be Hokage," Mito declares, and maybe this time she can see Hashirama's dream for herself.