“Alright kid im the third Hokage, I thought about resigning after the war a few years ago and then your dorf got atacked calling me and my decisions even more into question, after that the fourth sadly died protecting the village and i got put back into office“

Shiro assimilated the information quitly he dindn´t really know what to think about the man being back in office, that was on watch during the destruction of everithing he loved, but he was aware that this village had other responsibilitys than protecting a village not even technicly part of there nation.

After the silence lasted a bit to long the Third moved on

“Also i would like to formally apoligize for not being able to protect your village we didn´t know they would be atacking and other ninjas were away protecting other things“

Shiro then finally replied“It´s fINE“ wtih a tone that suggested the opposite but the Third was still pleased with the answer.

“Then let me welcome you to the village we will let you stay here for a few decades if you want, free of charge, but after that you will have to work in some way or another“

Shiro shrugged at this simple solution, but he still was genuinely gratefull, afterall he of all people knew how precius a safe place is and in his mind anyone that could win a war against the country

of earth was just one step down from invincible.

“So what can i do to work once this free of charge policy runs out in...how many years exactly?“

“We can get you going to school supplied with some pocket money and personal lodging till your eightenth birthday, it´s the least we can do, after that it´s your choice if you want to leave, or work as a... well there are many possibilities actually, you can just do a normal job like working in some sort of farm with wich you now should have some experience with, or maybe you would like do the same thing your parents did?“

Shiro absolutely ignored his question and asked“And what if i don´t want to do a normal job what else is there?“

At that the Third stiffened his expression finally answering“The hidden leafvillage is especially made for all the shinobi...Ninjas...to gather and train, that of course includes the next generation of Ninjas.“

“I...dont know yet...when does this training start?“Shiro asked earnestly.

“The training starts at the age of 3 you are almost 2 years older than that and even the oldest among them would stillbe almost a year younger than you...it´s your choice.“

The Third was probably trying to make it less atractive, but since Shiro wasn´t around anyone till now, since he was exactly 3 he really didn´t mind picking back up were he left previusly, but he still wasn´t sure.

The Third told him that he should tell him before the year and summer brake was over so in about 2 months.

The next 2 months coincidentally also were the time he would need to stay at the orphenage before he could be allowed to partially life alone, so it could be said that the next 2 months were entirely about his future at the hidden leaf.

While staying at the orphenage he asked most of them what they would like to do with there future lifes and why?

Most gave relatively normal answers one even answering wood cutter, because then he would get big arms and “all the ladies“ whatever that meant.

In the same way all the others gave relatively shallow answers with one even claiming to want to be a ninja so he could become hokage wich amused Shiro greatly, how he wanted to change his entire life just to get others to call him a different word.

The boy then looked very upset after he chuckled at him wich left him feeling a bit guilty and he promised to himself that he would try to be a bit more self aware from now on.

To attempt to make his decision he even tried to go along with the training the others went trough to hopefully have an advantage to become a ninja ultimately he was not lagging behind, but later he realised the “training“ was essentially just playing wich left him a bit emberassed and he got even more flusterred when one day he was literally just playing catch with the boy that claimed to one day become hokage.

After the two months were almost up he decided to make a list to compare shinobis with other craftsman and then he would make a pro and contra list..off course he couldn´t read or write but he intead drew symbols that he associated with whatever he was trying to express, he realised that this helped him remember things better.

This was in no way some improvised language this was just a 5 year old drawing certain circles to remind himself of what he had thought about not 5 minutes earlier.

Translated trough his perspective the entire thing would look somewhat like this:

Shinobi:

sometimes kill

Go to War(kill a lot)

strong

can become Hokage(awsome Source:Naruto)

Need to do lots of work

Third doesn´t want me to do this

Other jobs:

never kill(not all jobs)

get killed in war

weak

no hokage

Sometimes respected often loved(family)

Do some work(after 18)

Third doesn´t care

Ultimately he only considered two things, that he would need to kill and that he could become strong...he didn´t want to kill, but being strong meant the kind of power to stand upright in the face of even a shinobi and perhaps even the power to net get torn away by the storms unleashed by a war of nations, the power to not loose all on a whim...

In the end he still made a pro and contra list,again translated for all those that understand the alphabet:

Pro Contra

Strong:

Your desires have some impact even against a shinobi

Survival is easier

Power to protect

Killing:

Not nice(unless he kills more than 1?)

Completely destroys(lost forever)

He once again considered for a long time, ignoring the future woodcutter(if that was even a job),as he tried to make up his mind.

Then he tried to neutralise points, completely destroying something left a bad taste in his mouth, but then he remembered that he had already killed more than enough to survive, so he neutralised this point with the increased power to survive, wich seemed right after some considering.

Ultimately he just had the power to protect against the potenitall orders to kill......Unless they......UNLESS THEY WERE THE SAME THING.

All power would ultimately used to destroy and protect!

Even he afterall killed fish and ants, while ignoring bears and running from wolves.All previus choices were a lie, his choice was actually if he wanted to be an ant or a bear.........