"Is it done?"
Perched on his desk, Tobirama glanced at the travel-worn Uchiha Madara and said softly, "You didn't leave anyone out, did you? If you did, it's fine—just kill them."
Madara nodded, his expression complicated.
He had gone to carry out a mission—one Tobirama had assigned.
A month ago.
After Tobirama and Izunai discussed it, the Uchiha and Senju formally merged. With Hashirama's Wood Release and its formidable capacity for building infrastructure, they quickly established a brand-new clan district.
The two clans began to fuse at speed.
During this time, under Tobirama's close observation and adjustments, Uchiha and Senju had initially fused into a single unit and were ready to be committed to battle.
Two days ago.
Tobirama sought out Uchiha Madara and gave him a mission.
Today.
Uchiha Madara returned from carrying it out.
The mission itself wasn't difficult; its content was simply unusual—
Tobirama ordered Uchiha Madara to take all elite three-tomoe clansmen and, following the network of Flying Thunder God routes he had already laid down, use the teleportation array to launch a surprise raid—and, within a single night, hypnotize everyone in the daimyō residences across the major regions!
Even Madara was stunned when he received this order.
Across the centuries, ninja had targeted nobles before—but almost always in small, petty incidents. On the whole, they still operated under a hire-for-pay framework.
But one line from Tobirama left Madara with no retort.
"Do those daimyō have chakra—or ocular power? Weren't you the one worrying about supplies earlier? That after the Senju and Uchiha merged, missions would be hard to allocate…"
Chuckling, Tobirama had said to Madara, "Why take jobs for them at all? Just treat them as slaves and put them under control. Then, as far as we're concerned, supplies become limitless…"
Madara wanted to argue, but nothing came to mind.
Go on—wouldn't that make supplies limitless?
"We're going to change this world—not merely end an age of chaos. Ninja possess power; it's just that we haven't yet gathered into a single whole, so the nobles can make use of us for a while."
"Even if we don't act, this warped system will collapse one day—and by then it may brew a truly terrifying disaster…"
"But if we act now, it benefits both Uchiha and Senju, it benefits the village we're about to found, and it keeps the initiative in our own hands."
"So—are you going to do it, Uchiha Madara?"
"All of this is for Konoha, for Senju and Uchiha—for a greater good…"
Under Tobirama's patient prodding, Madara let out a long breath; that very night he set out with the three-tomoe elites.
Starting from the capital of the Land of Fire, Uchiha Madara diligently placed the daimyō and ministers of every major region under deep genjutsu control. In a single night he ranged across the entire shinobi world—his efficiency maxed out.
After that night, in the depths of the nobles' eyes throughout the shinobi world, there appeared an indelible hint of crimson.
As for the ninja responsible for guarding them?
Tobirama gave Madara no instructions on how to handle that… After all, this was Uchiha Madara—not his overly kind big brother.
And Tobirama, who knew the Uchiha clan and Uchiha Madara extremely well, was even more certain that whenever it came to a matter of overturning heaven and earth, the red-eyed ones always had a surge of inexplicable drive.
Their bloodline simply could not settle for calm.
"It's all been handled. Everyone on the list has been brought under control… As for supplies, Izunai has finished the inventory—enough for the Uchiha and Senju to last over a thousand years!"
Madara suppressed his emotions, yet still couldn't keep the shock from showing.
He had never expected those utterly powerless daimyō to be hoarding such immense stores of wealth. Compared to that, the scraps they had been given as mission payments were no better than handouts tossed to beggars…
Even Madara, raised from childhood with a shinobi mindset, found himself—under Tobirama's reminder—beginning to question: why should these nobles hold the dominant position?
Of course, the thought did not last long.
Because the matter was already finished…
"For the Uchiha and Senju to last a thousand years—that is only natural. But your thinking and your scope need to widen, Madara."
Tobirama shook his head and spoke softly: "What we are building is a village that will bring peace to the entire shinobi world. While the Uchiha and Senju should of course hold the richest resources, you must also think of the other shinobi under our rule, and the farmers who till the land…"
"You must let them maintain their dignity."
"You must also consider the spiritual needs of others once their material needs are met…"
Madara froze, then slowly nodded.
But soon after, a bitterness welled up inside.
What was this supposed to mean? Was Senju Tobirama actually teaching him how to govern? For a man with such a personality to be passing him these useful details…
Tobirama seemed to see straight through Madara's thoughts. He stepped forward calmly, standing directly before him, and opened his Mangekyō Sharingan to meet his gaze—
"Madara, I am not suited to be the leader once the village is founded. I have other matters I must attend to… And Izunai—you know well, she and I cannot be separated."
"Between Hashirama and you—though he is my elder brother, forgive me for being blunt—his overly optimistic thinking would ruin many things. Only you can shoulder this responsibility."
"I have already chosen the new village's name. It will be called Konohagakure. And as an organization first established here in the Land of Fire, the leader's title I have chosen will be Hokage."
"You, Uchiha Madara, are the one I intend to support with all my strength as the First Hokage… You alone can bear this responsibility."
Tobirama did not hold back his praise for the now-bewildered Madara: "You are ambitious, you possess a shinobi's keen powers of observation and natural leadership, and you have a shrewd perspective and mind…"
"By contrast, Hashirama is better suited as a second—someone to temper your sharpness—but he is absolutely not fit to stand at the front."
Tobirama patted Madara on the shoulder, smiling as he said, "Do you believe it? If we defeat the leaders of the other regions and make them submit…"
"With Hashirama's personality, he might very well go one by one, taking their hands to apologize—and if it went badly, he could even make a humiliating mess of things, leaving us in a terribly passive position."
Madara nodded silently.
To be fair, when he pictured that scene… knowing Hashirama, it really might happen.
And in fact, Tobirama was already being merciful, sparing his brother some face.
At the first Five Kage Summit he attended, Hashirama—the man hailed as the God of Shinobi—took off the Hokage's hat, pressed his forehead to the table with a resounding thud, and, eyes brimming with tears, poured out his gratitude for the peace of that day…
Tobirama truly didn't know how to comment on such behavior.
No matter how pure and beautiful Hashirama's wish for peace might be, for the leader of a hidden village, that kind of display was simply unworthy of his position.
Many times in the past, Tobirama had imagined a different scene: What if, back then, it had been him and Uchiha Madara who attended the First Five Kage Summit? Would the outcome have been different?
If that had been the case, the nine tailed beasts would never have been handed out—they would all have remained in Konoha.
And the other hidden villages, rather than receiving a reprieve through Hashirama's mercy, would have been forced to hand over vast amounts of resources at the very least, in exchange for peace.
That—that would have been the normal outcome…
And now, in this other spacetime, Tobirama finally had the chance to correct what had always left him unsatisfied.
Why not make Uchiha Madara the Hokage? Let him be Hokage!
After all, Madara wasn't an outsider… he was family—his own brother-in-law!
"…You—you're Hashirama's biggest hater, aren't you?" Madara was stunned for a long moment before forcing the words out of his chest.
"I never imagined you saw him this way. You're his brother!"
"No. It's precisely because I'm his brother that I understand him. With his temperament, Hashirama is far better suited to the school we'll build for the children—an amiable teacher every day, a high-ranking figure close to the common ninja…"
Tobirama shook his head and looked at Madara with deep seriousness.
"Don't you feel that, even within the Uchiha, there are clansmen who fear you? So you believe your affinity is lacking, that you're not fit to stand as the public figurehead…"
Madara was shaken to the core!
This was something he had never even told Izunai!
Maybe it was because he had killed too many people, maybe it was the hard-edged style of his appearance and the piercing gaze of a dōjutsu user. Within the Uchiha, Madara did indeed inspire a fearsome awe. Most clansmen, when facing problems, preferred to turn to Izunai rather than dare to approach him.
Even lively children, upon seeing Madara, would sometimes fall silent as if they had encountered a terrifying monster.
Madara knew all of this… but he had never spoken of it to anyone.
And yet, Senju Tobirama had seen right through him!
"Y-You… don't let your imagination run wild! The Uchiha are my birth clan…" Madara retorted guiltily. His voice was loud, but lacked strength.
"I am also an Uchiha. The Uchiha are my birth clan too…" Tobirama raised his brows, revealing the Mangekyō Sharingan in his eyes.
"To tell you the truth, I've faced the same problem myself…"
Madara froze. Senju Tobirama had faced this too? But on reflection, it made sense.
After all, Tobirama, who spent his days immersed in forbidden jutsu, whose gaze in its natural state was sharper than most Sharingan, would inevitably suffer the same kind of misunderstanding.
"Whether it's a clan, or the village we're about to found—it's like the Uchiha stone tablet says: on the grand scale, with yin and yang, all phenomena come into being…"
Tobirama's words carried a strange kind of pull. Madara, who had wanted to put on an air of not listening, struggled for a moment, then gave up resisting and listened intently.
"On the small scale, it's like a shirt… there has to be the outside, and there has to be the lining. Someone has to show affinity, and someone else has to go out into a stormy night to kill."
"In the village we'll build, Hashirama playing happily with children—how could that not rest on what you did last night?"
"For people like us, who serve as the lining, it's enough to know that what we're doing is right. As for others' misunderstanding or fear—in fact, that's a good thing for us."
Tobirama's tone turned low. "It's like in a family… there has to be a strict figure, so the children feel awe and rein in their behavior. And there has to be another who brings warmth and balances out the negative feelings…"
Madara couldn't help nodding.
It was true… When he was young, the stern Uchiha Tajima would mercilessly scold every lazy brother, and beatings were commonplace.
But afterward, Lady Uchiha would always step in at the right moment, comforting the children or clansmen who had been punished.
Whether it was a household, a clan, or a village, the principle was the same.