Chapter 264: The Strongest Staff Officer, Senju Tobirama, Comes Online
Uchiha Douhuan's departing footsteps paused. He turned back to look at Senju Tobirama and said with a smile:
"Lord Second Hokage, with all due respect, is there any ninja village in the world that isn't preparing for a possible future war?" Uchiha Douhuan said.
"Don't you try to change the subject with me," Senju Tobirama said sternly. "Everything you've done since becoming the Fifth Hokage, whether it's training a large number of medical-nin, or dispatching a large number of ninja troops to garrison neighboring small countries under the name of an alliance, or your recent reform of the ninja system, all of it undoubtedly points to one thing." Senju Tobirama stared intently into Uchiha Douhuan's eyes. "You are preparing for a war, a war in which Konoha will single-handedly take on the entire ninja world."
As Senju Tobirama's voice fell, Senju Hashirama, who had just received a set of dice from Uchiha Douhuan and was happily amusing himself, also looked up, staring at Uchiha Douhuan with incredulous eyes.
"Can I say, 'as expected of Lord Second Hokage'? To be able to figure this out with just this little bit of records," seeing this, Uchiha Douhuan simply stopped in his tracks and said with a smile.
"More importantly, in these past few years, you have used various means to reclaim more than half of the Tailed Beasts that big brother distributed to the other villages. Tell me, what exactly are your plans?" Senju Tobirama asked.
"Hasn't the Second Hokage already guessed my plans? I am indeed preparing for a war. A war to pacify the entire ninja world in one fell swoop, to end all disputes in my generation," Uchiha Douhuan said unhurriedly.
As Uchiha Douhuan's voice fell, the gazes of both Senju Tobirama and Senju Hashirama sharpened at the same time.
"Douhuan, war cannot bring peace," Senju Hashirama also said seriously to Uchiha Douhuan at this time.
Uchiha Douhuan chuckled lightly without panic, "Is that so? Then, did Lord First Hokage's methods back then bring peace?"
Upon hearing this, Senju Hashirama's head immediately drooped. Although he and Uchiha Madara had created the era of ninja villages and brought about nearly twenty years of peace, the moment he died, the flames of war in the ninja world were immediately reignited. In just these few decades, the ninja world had already experienced three great ninja wars.
Furthermore, after entering the era of ninja villages, the intensity of wars waged between villages and countries was actually far greater than the scale of the chaotic battles between various ninja clans during the former Warring States period.
"I once heard that Lord First Hokage's original intention in establishing the village was to keep young children off the battlefield. But this point was only achieved after I took office, when I fixed the army's conscription age at 14 during the previous military reform," Uchiha Douhuan said. "And in the previous Third Great Ninja War, I stepped onto the battlefield at the age of 9. I was very lucky; the Uchiha bloodline allowed me to awaken these eyes, thus gaining the ability to survive. However, of my classmates from the Ninja Academy, less than twenty percent survived."
Senju Hashirama was speechless. On the contrary, Senju Tobirama sized up Uchiha Douhuan with great interest.
And seeing his gaze, Uchiha Douhuan also responded with a smile, "What, does the Second Hokage still have something to say? Let me make it clear first, if you intend to stop me, then I can only release the Impure World Reincarnation. Compared to possibly having to face you two in a future war, I would rather not have you two become a hindrance to me from the rear right now."
"Why would I stop you?" Senju Tobirama said at this time, unexpectedly.
Upon hearing Senju Tobirama's words, Uchiha Douhuan raised an eyebrow.
"Don't look at me with that kind of gaze. After experiencing the First Great Ninja War, I also knew that big brother's way was not feasible," Senju Tobirama said. "The peace brought by big brother was a castle in the air built on his strength. The moment he was gone, it immediately collapsed like a bubble."
"Tobirama, you say so too?" upon hearing this, the atmosphere around Senju Hashirama instantly became heavy.
"Uchiha Madara's ideas back then were very similar to yours, but you are much calmer than him. From your arrangements in the Land of Waterfalls, it can be seen that everything you are doing now, besides strengthening the village's strength, is also consciously weakening the strength of other villages. What you want is a low-intensity, swift victory war, to achieve your goal while minimizing the impact of the war on the ninja world, right?" Senju Tobirama said.
Uchiha Douhuan nodded with a smile on his face. Senju Tobirama was truly worthy of being the only one among the four Hokage before him who could be called a strategist. With just a few clues from the history he had embellished and one night of investigation, he could see so much. What he lacked was only the perspective limited by being born in the Warring States period.
"If you were like Uchiha Madara, without any plan at all, wanting to declare war on the entire ninja world simply by relying on your own strength, then my brother and I would stop you no matter what. But since you already have a mature plan, then we have no reason to stop our own successor. After all, according to my calculations, your plan has a full 80% chance of success. Konoha will be the final winner," Senju Tobirama said.
"So, Second Hokage, what do you want to do by telling me all this?" Uchiha Douhuan asked back with a smile.
"Since I'm idle anyway, how about you arrange a position for me in your war council?" Senju Tobirama said with a laugh.
"Of course you can. With you, the strategist of the ninja world, here to help me check for loopholes in my plan, it's something I couldn't ask for."
Compared to the Uchiha clan, the two strongest brothers of the previous generation of the Senju clan, after establishing the village, had clearly completely let go of the thousand-year glory of the Senju clan in the Warring States period. This could be seen from the fact that they had even given up the Senju surname when naming their grandchildren. For them, this village they had established was their new spiritual pillar.
"Tobirama, can war really only be eliminated by war?" Senju Hashirama looked at his younger brother, who had already made up his mind, sighed, and then asked.
"First Hokage, you have just returned to the mortal world and may not yet be clear about the current general trend in the ninja world. This war is already inevitable. And Konoha has been the target of all in the previous three great ninja wars. Therefore, I can only strike first to gain the advantage," Uchiha Douhuan said. "Moreover, I have once heard a saying: Dignity is only found on the edge of a sword, and truth is only within the range of a ninjutsu."
"Sigh... it seems that maybe Madara was right back then," Senju Hashirama sighed.
"Big brother, you must not confuse this kid with Uchiha Madara," Senju Tobirama reminded at this time. "This little fellow is much stronger than that fellow Uchiha Madara, who only relied on brute force. And if I hadn't seen these plans of his, I wouldn't have agreed with his approach either."
"Heh heh, Second Hokage, you overpraise me. Compared to Lord Madara, I am still far behind," Uchiha Douhuan said humbly with a dry laugh. "However, there is one point that Lord Second Hokage said just now that I must correct."
"Hmm?" Senju Tobirama looked at Uchiha Douhuan and frowned slightly.
"The success rate of my plan is one hundred percent," Uchiha Douhuan said with full confidence.
From this day on, Senju Tobirama, in disguise, entered Uchiha Douhuan's war council. And after carefully looking over everything Uchiha Douhuan had done in the ninja world, except for matters related to White Zetsu, he couldn't help but sigh with emotion. It was a good thing this fellow was born in the Uchiha clan and then became the Hokage of Konoha. If he had been born in another ninja village, and these methods were used on the already conflict-ridden Konoha, Konoha would probably have exploded by now.
After checking some of the truly secret matters from these past few years, Senju Tobirama came to a conclusion: the power of the Mangekyo Sharingan was probably the most insignificant of Uchiha Douhuan's methods.
...
"The Cloud's movements have been significant recently. The compensation you set after defeating the Cloud before seems to have had a counter-effect," some time later, Senju Tobirama and Uchiha Douhuan were in the Hokage's office, looking at the intelligence sent back from Konoha's spies in various parts of the ninja world during this period. He picked up one of them, his brows tightly furrowed.
Uchiha Douhuan had already seen this intelligence beforehand, so Uchiha Douhuan just calmly picked up his teacup, took a sip, and said with a laugh, "I really didn't expect that the black fiend over at the Cloud would actually find the only way to break the deadlock."
The current Cloud Village, after Donald was taken down before his Fifth Kage face was even carved and A regained power, could be said to have slammed on the accelerator and sped down the road of militarism.
First, A, after appointing himself as the Grand Minister, in order to prevent similar things from happening again, directly made their Daimyō a figurehead. And their Daimyō was also very sensible and gave up all his authority, only acting as a mascot at every court meeting.
From then on, the military and political power of the Land of Lightning were completely in the hands of A alone. If you really think about it, his authority was even greater than Uchiha Douhuan's power in the Land of Fire. At least Uchiha Douhuan had to give some face to those nobles and big merchants in the Land of Fire who were willing to cooperate with his reforms, and had to help them earn a lot of money every year.
And A, in terms of using tangible kunai to clash with the invisible hand, was even more ruthless than him.
The civil officials and nobles who had previously attacked A while the Land of Lightning was defeated, after A's kingly return, were directly killed along with their entire clans by the Cloud's ninjas. All their family property was also confiscated, paying off nearly half of the reparations owed by the Land of Lightning this time.
In fact, this money was enough to pay off all the reparations at once, but A stubbornly held back more than half of the money and used it to expand armaments. And, just this huge sum was not enough. After A took office, he directly increased many of the Land of Lightning's taxes under the pretext of preparing for war.
Moreover, when he was collecting taxes, he even stated directly that this was all because of the reparations forced upon them by the Land of Fire.
And inside the Cloud Village, when facing the racial conflict in the village, A no longer hesitated. Including Donald, A directly dealt with several leaders of the white ninjas who were trying to cause trouble, then promoted several previously well-behaved white ninjas, and clearly stated his attitude that in the future war with Konoha, as long as they could achieve military merit, then their skin color would definitely not be an obstacle to their advancement to higher positions.
After this series of operations, he actually managed to successfully transfer the internal conflicts that Uchiha Douhuan had painstakingly ignited in the Land of Lightning to the outside.
The current Land of Lightning, even a dog, was extremely hostile to the people of the Land of Fire. And the most affected among them were the Land of Fire merchants who had businesses in the Land of Lightning. Kado had reported to Uchiha Douhuan more than once that his and some of his business allies' properties in the Land of Lightning had been directly seized by those robbers.
"You don't seem worried at all?" Senju Tobirama couldn't help but ask, looking at Uchiha Douhuan's leisurely appearance. "According to the current development speed of the Land of Lightning's military preparations, I'm afraid it won't be long before they can catch up to Konoha."
"Since the Land of Lightning has already embarked on such an evil path, then it's only natural that they have this development speed," Uchiha Douhuan handed a cup of tea to Senju Tobirama and said unhurriedly. "Although doing so can narrow the gap in military preparations with our Konoha in a short period of time, the core problem has still not been solved, and that is, their Raikage is not my match."
"And, more importantly, by doing so, they have undoubtedly handed the moral high ground to us," Uchiha Douhuan said.
"The current Land of Lightning, although it seems to have suppressed its conflicts, is just like a balloon. All their internal conflicts can be suppressed when facing a huge enemy like me. But once the war truly breaks out and their Raikage loses to me again, then this compressed resentment will destroy the faith of the entire Land of Lightning in an instant," Uchiha Douhuan said.
"And, compared to the ninjas, their civilians are now suffering from the oppression of high taxes," Uchiha Douhuan said. "With them acting like this, in the future when we attack the territory of the Land of Lightning, we won't have to bear the name of invaders. At that time, the ninjas of our Konoha will be the liberators who have come to free them from the great mountain pressing on their heads!"
"This moral high ground you speak of, is it really that important?" Senju Tobirama couldn't quite understand Uchiha Douhuan's words. According to his ninja way of thinking, what they should be doing at this time was to dispatch elite squads to sabotage the other party's military factories.
"Of course, Second Hokage," Uchiha Douhuan said with a smile. "Why was the First Hokage able to successfully establish this village under our feet back then? Wasn't it because most of the families in the Warring States period at that time were tired of the endless wars? And that was the moral high ground of that era."
(End of chapter)
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