My brother is called Uzumaki Naruto

Another week passed in the blink of an eye.

During this week, Minato was busy every day with work. He was so occupied that he barely had time to eat at home, let alone take Yue to train and teach him ninjutsu. After all, the election for the position of Hokage was nearing its final stage.

However, perhaps because Minato felt guilty for not having enough time to spend with Yue, he gave him a scroll on the Three Basic Clone Techniques. Minato believed that mastering them should take Yue about a day of study and another three days of practice.

But after just a day of studying, Yue shifted his focus back to chakra control and physical training. He felt that his mastery of the Three Basic Techniques was more than sufficient—perhaps not yet perfect, but at least at a proficient level.

Yue was now on his way to the training grounds, though today, he was walking slowly, intentionally observing the villagers.

From the reactions of the people on Konoha's main street, it was almost certain that his father would be elected as the Fourth Hokage.

He had to admit—Minato's personality was simply too likable.

Even in Yue's previous life, where he had interacted with many people in modern society, he had never met someone as sunny and gentle as Minato.

Knowing that his father was about to become the leader of the village, Yue was quite happy. Once he grew up, he could use this to his advantage and secure resources for his experiments…

As he walked, lost in thoughts about his research, he approached the training grounds at the back of the mountain and saw a small figure from afar.

"You're a little late, Yue."

As Yue got closer, he saw that it was Uchiha Itachi, who was currently observing a couple of sparrows perched on a tree branch. Without turning around, Itachi greeted Yue, since apart from the two of them, no one else ever came here.

"I got held up on the way."

Yue replied as he leaned his sword, Longquan, against a tree. A few days ago, he had asked Minato for a scabbard—after all, dragging the sword around all the time was starting to feel wasteful. Longquan was a truly rare and exceptional blade.

"What are you looking at?"

After placing his sword down, Yue began his warm-up exercises. He noticed that Itachi was still standing in the same position, staring motionlessly at the sparrows.

"Yue, look at them. They fly freely, without disputes, without fights, and most importantly… without war. Why can't humans be like them?"

Hearing this, Yue's expression turned a little strange—he almost laughed.

"Who said sparrows don't have wars?"

Itachi finally turned his head, looking at Yue in confusion, waiting for his explanation.

"Do you know what the fundamental instincts of living beings are?"

"…Survival?" Itachi answered, showing a level of insight beyond his years. Even Yue had to admit that he had never met a 'child' like this before.

"You're half right. The other half is reproduction. Now, imagine two starving sparrows spotting the same piece of food at the same time. Or two male sparrows noticing the same female sparrow. What do you think would happen?"

Itachi fell silent, deep in thought. Yue didn't plan to interrupt him—he was curious to see what conclusions Itachi's young mind would come up with.

After a long pause, Itachi finally looked up at Yue and said, "Then, by that logic… mutual understanding between people is impossible, isn't it? Humans have desires, and when they cannot fulfill those desires with what they already possess, they develop greed and envy. Eventually, they use their own power to take from others… leading to conflicts between individuals, and ultimately… wars between nations!"

"Exactly. On a deeper level, for human civilization, war is the main theme, and peace is merely a side character. The process of peaceful development is essentially preparation for war, as well as the accumulation of unresolved conflicts. When those conflicts escalate beyond reconciliation, war inevitably erupts.

The reason wars exist is because humans, at their core, are still animals. In the animal world, the strong compete for dominance, and social animals form hierarchies, with leaders and tribes. Humans are a social species, and thus, war is a natural outcome of their nature.

To expect war to completely disappear is to go against nature—it's simply impossible."

Yue thought about the concept of a 'factory utopia' society. He had researched this before but quickly abandoned the idea, considering it a waste of time.

Itachi's expression became pained. Yue was curious—why did a four-year-old have such an obsession with world peace?

"Itachi, there's no need for you to think so much about this. After all, at your age, there's nothing you can do to change it."

Yue felt his words might be a bit harsh, but he believed it was better to be honest. He also didn't think Itachi would be discouraged by them.

"…Yeah. Right now, I can't do anything."

Itachi slumped against the tree, hugging his knees and burying his face in his arms. "Yue, what do you think? How can war be prevented as much as possible?"

Yue looked at Itachi and felt reluctant to continue the conversation. To him, Itachi's attitude was too sentimental. Besides, this topic was so vast that even writing a few books wouldn't be enough to cover it.

"Interests and compromises."

After thinking for a moment, Yue decided to give a concise answer—one he believed Itachi could understand.

"Oh, and one more thing—threats."

Yue almost forgot about the 'ultimate deterrents' of Earth's powerful nations. Conflicts between major powers were far more numerous than those between small countries, yet they refrained from all-out war because they feared what might happen if someone went crazy and launched those weapons.

"These are what I believe to be the three key elements of maintaining peace."

Itachi raised his head, as if he had just realized something.

The two stared at each other. A gust of wind swept through the training ground, stirring up fallen leaves. Some of them drifted down in front of Itachi, and he turned his gaze to them, once again deep in thought…

Yue found this strange—he couldn't quite figure out what Itachi was thinking.

"Yue, have you ever thought about protecting peace?"

After a long silence, Itachi finally spoke again, his eyes still fixed on the falling leaves.

"Itachi, let me correct you on one thing—peace isn't something you protect. It's something you fight for."

"As for achieving peace… I think the best method would be to destroy the other ninja nations, establish a highly efficient and well-enforced government, hold absolute military power, and then shift the focus toward increasing productivity and technological advancement. Wouldn't that create a much more stable peace?"

"Destroy the other nations? But wouldn't that just restart the cycle of war? That wouldn't work, Yue."

Itachi's voice suddenly grew more intense, his gaze and tone filled with conviction—he completely disagreed with Yue's viewpoint.

Yue was speechless. He really couldn't understand Itachi's way of thinking. Then again, this was the common mindset among most shinobi. The existence of the Five Great Nations and their feudal lords had been deeply ingrained in their perception of the world.

As Yue saw it, ninjas were trapped in an endless cycle of killing, desperately trying to escape it in search of peace. Yet, they were unwilling—or too afraid—to break the very system that perpetuated the cycle. It was a deadlock.

Although Yue planned to help his father unify this world and accomplish something great, he still hadn't figured out a concrete strategy.

The simplest way, as he saw it, would mean making an enemy of the entire world—including his own village.

Even though Yue had no real attachment to Konoha, he didn't want to put Minato and Kushina in a difficult position.

With a sigh, Yue decided to drop the conversation with Itachi.

"Forget it. Let's start sparring. Only by becoming stronger will you have the right to speak."

"…Alright."

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