"What exactly are you trying to do!"
Senju Tobirama already half regretted coming along with Uchiha Makoto today.
"When I was very young, I took my first mission after becoming a shinobi. A great noble commissioned it—the Uchiha clan were to suppress an armed uprising of local commoners. It went smoothly. Faced with shinobi, commoners are as weak as ants."
"They were in rags—just wanting to eat their fill..."
"I imagine the Senju clan accepted missions like that too... Back then I wondered, since we shinobi clearly possess overwhelming power, why must we obey the nobles' orders."
"Is there anything they can do that shinobi cannot..."
Uchiha Makoto said this evenly.
The political system of this world was far too backward.
The more he learned, the more he wanted to change it.
But pushing the entire world onto the right path with only Akatsuki Shinobi Village was far too slow.
And the old powers still held the initiative; Konoha hounding Akatsuki this time was precisely because of that—even though he had already offered Konoha an easy step down.
Takigakure was the perfect scapegoat.
Yet to this moment Senju Tobirama refused to dump the pot on Takigakure, intent on finding the truth and chasing Akatsuki. Even if Akatsuki bluffed its way through once, there would likely be many such incidents ahead.
The disgruntled nobles would probably, after this affair, quietly squeeze Akatsuki's living space from every angle.
And quietly.
So that no fault could be found.
For their own interests nobles would never be soft fruit, and Akatsuki couldn't rely on killing forever. Konoha might be hoodwinked once, but not twice or thrice... Being gnawed by Konoha without end would be a headache, and might even force Senju Hashirama to take the field himself—something Uchiha Makoto had no wish to waste energy on.
Nor did Uchiha Makoto fear Konoha choosing a different road because of this.
Outside of a traveler who could see the whole board like himself, few could throw off the brand of shinobi-world thinking.
Even Senju Tobirama before him could not.
Senju Hashirama least of all.
He was pure conservative.
So the layout had to be bigger.
The gaze farther.
The world should not be like this; the key was to take the first step at last.
If Konoha's stance favored Akatsuki in this case, some noble pressure would divert toward Konoha—very helpful to Akatsuki's next-stage expansion in the Land of Fire.
"Are you... insane..."
Senju Tobirama's face twitched twice.
What Uchiha Makoto proposed was a notion every shinobi had once entertained, yet no one dared voice, much less act on.
In the Warring States era the nobles were far stronger than now, and the shinobi clans were not a single slab of iron—friends were few, enemies many. Paying a high price to crush a single clan was no great task for them.
Even now such thinking was very dangerous.
If this bastard Uchiha Makoto truly meant to challenge an order handed down for a thousand years—
Tradition... tradition... the law of the ancestors cannot be changed!
Daimyo and nobles were born to rule the realm and shepherd the people.
Men of this era truly believed that and called it truth.
At any time legions would die for the Daimyo one after another—gladly, like zealots.
So this would inevitably be a war that could set the whole shinobi world ablaze.
"Everyone has lived this way since ancient times—one could say since the Sage of Six Paths spread chakra—it has always been so."
"But has always been so made it right?"
"Before shinobi appeared, samurai ruled the world... And now? They've long been eking out a marginal existence in the corners."
Senju Tobirama was choked into silence.
Had always been so meant truth?
Indeed, samurai had long been squeezed to the edges by shinobi, now fencing off their own little gardens.
Even so, Tobirama could not accept Uchiha Makoto's view. A brand hammered in for a thousand years would not be erased in a few sentences.
Given who Uchiha Makoto was,
Tobirama was all the more eager to chalk it up to—Uchiha Makoto acting deranged again.
Uchiha Madara had wanted to unify the world in a few years, but he was at least rational enough not to strike the Daimyo and nobles who backed the villages.
One doesn't hit the hand that smiles.
When Konoha was founded, the rulers of the Land of Fire had provided no small aid, and every year a large budget landed on Konoha's books on time. Would Konoha repay kindness with treachery?
Makoto was different—aiming at the highest and mightiest in the shinobi world.
"Uchiha Makoto, you innately evil Uchiha brat, you're mad!"
"The grandees of the Land of Fire have shown your Akatsuki favor... Don't forget Akatsuki exists to protect the Land of Fire."
There was a thread of righteousness in Senju Tobirama's voice; the Land of Fire had not treated Akatsuki lightly.
Their days had just begun to turn, and they were already baring a traitor's spine?
Uchiha Makoto, truly an innately evil Uchiha brat!
"Am I wronging the Land of Fire now?"
"Look at what's happening under your feet. Aren't these commoners rekindling hope because of me?"
"Too small... Tobirama."
"What...?"
"I mean your vision is far too small. You think only of Konoha and the things before your nose. What I intend is to let the entire shinobi class profit, let more commoners profit—rather than, like shinobi of old, fawning on nobles for scraps of mission allotment, even launching war after war for it..."
Uchiha Makoto's face was calm.
For his ambition—to change this cesspit of a world—he would learn to forget his roots where needed.
What he sought far outweighed personal pride.
"Glib tongue!"
Truth does not fear examination.
Senju Tobirama found that after arguing half the day, he still could not seize the moral high ground.
Uchiha Makoto always found a higher-dimensional justification for his actions, even clothing them in sanctity.
"You won't succeed."
"Konoha will stop you. My brother will stop you."
Tobirama shifted tack; he knew his brother's nature and shinobi way.
Hashirama liked to smooth things over, but on matters of principle he yielded not an inch.
For now Akatsuki's actions skirted the line, not openly crossing it.
Makoto could still shuck the blame.
Akatsuki had plenty willing to die for him.
But once Makoto laid his cards down and rebelled outright—if the Daimyo ordered Senju Hashirama to suppress Akatsuki, Hashirama would truly obey. To keep the world from catching fire, he was capable of anything. In the tale you know, when he drove his hand through Uchiha Madara's heart from behind, his hand didn't even tremble!
"I know."
"The First Hokage is always stubborn... unimaginably stubborn. You've paid for that often enough, haven't you, Tobirama."
"You're too right... cough, cough... None of your business. A small Uchiha like you has no place to judge me and my brother!"
Senju Tobirama nodded in spite of himself.
Damn it!
Too true!
Sometimes he'd wanted to cut his brother down with Flying Thunder God Slash.
But the next instant he glared viciously at Uchiha Makoto.
Family matters weren't for this innately evil Uchiha brat to judge.
"Hmph..."
"So give it up, Uchiha Makoto. Don't spoil a good life by provoking my brother."
"I'll pretend I never heard what you said today. Hurry and hand over a few shinobi for Konoha to take. This is the last time. If Konoha scents a trail next time, you won't get off so easily."
Uchiha Makoto's words were too seductive.
Maintaining the status quo wasn't so bad.
Konoha would not be harmed—and would remain thriving.
Senju Tobirama didn't want to keep debating such dangerous and sensitive topics.
He wanted to solve the problem before him; the twelve gold-sealed edicts weighed on his heart like a stone.
"Tobirama, though your brother, the First Hokage, is called the God of Shinobi, he is not truly a god."
"Shinobi will always look upward. Commoners will always look upward."
"Remember the canning plant... You should have read my proposal. Sealing techniques will be adapted to daily life. That is only the beginning."
"I'll push the application of ninjutsu step by step... Akatsuki's tech park keeps releasing new products and techniques... One day ninjutsu will seep into every household and be used as productive force... The profits hidden there are enormous. The nobles are greedy; they will try to seize them. And shinobi will not be able to endure forever..."
"Oh, I nearly forgot—you couldn't help getting involved either."
"Konoha... will certainly be a beneficiary."
Uchiha Makoto revealed a corner of his plan.
In truth it was simple.
An open scheme!
Turn shinobi creativity with ninjutsu toward climbing the technology tree and boosting productivity.
Shinobi would do less killing and begin joining social production.
As productivity grew, it would force a change in relations of production—especially with shinobi deeply embedded. Hard-won fruits of labor would not be surrendered for others to pluck. Crossing blades with nobles would only be a matter of time.
"You set me up!"
Senju Tobirama's face showed shock.
He could not fully follow Makoto's meaning because it clashed with his creed.
But making the cake bigger,
and luring with profit,
that simple logic he understood.
Shinobi weren't born loving to kill and run missions—out in the wind and rain for pay. If Uchiha Makoto proved they could live more easily, shinobi would vote with their feet.
If not this generation,
then the next.
Konoha being swept along was only a matter of time.
"Set you up?"
"As I recall, you were the one who thick-skinned your way in asking to join, weren't you?"
Uchiha Makoto's tone was mild.
Senju Tobirama flushed.
He had only been thinking of Konoha making money then, never imagining this innately evil Uchiha brat planned it so. But at this moment it was hard to say the word "withdraw."
These days he hadn't only borne pressure from the Land of Fire—at night he burned the midnight oil on research. He and the Uzumaki clan had broken through most technical hurdles; the rest would fall soon.
The canning plant would be running shortly.
Quit now,
and it would mean all his sweat had been free labor for Uchiha Makoto.
Damn beast!
"Senju Tobirama, you're not thinking of quitting halfway, are you?"
"I'd be delighted!"
Uchiha Makoto's voice was almost cheerful.
If Tobirama stormed off now, that would be splendid.
"In your dreams!"
"I won't let you freeload!"
"And what you just said is one-sided. I won't believe you. Shinobi are shinobi; they won't be changed so easily!"
At any rate Tobirama could not withdraw now—he would not accept being freeloaded by this innately evil Uchiha brat.
As for Makoto's words,
for now Tobirama chalked them up as pie in the sky.
How could shinobi be changed so easily by Uchiha Makoto?
Pretty speeches are easy.
Turning them into reality is not.
Uchiha Makoto was glad to see Tobirama beginning to consider the possibility and to doubt. That alone was progress. Some things could not be done in a single step, so he would not prod Tobirama further.
He had said enough for one day.
"Enough."
"That's it for today."
"I have no reckoning to give you. Akatsuki is clean!"
"One last piece of advice—nobles have long enjoyed shinobi sacrifice and toil, yet perhaps still mock us as lowborn behind our backs... simply because we are shinobi, beneath them."
Uchiha Makoto finished and vanished with a Body Flicker. A mountain of work awaited him in Akatsuki.
"Uchiha Makoto, you innately evil Uchiha brat... bastard!"
Watching Makoto disappear, Senju Tobirama ground the words out. He did not leave at once but wandered the village for half a day, watching the smiles on the villagers' faces...
In the end...
with his heart in turmoil, Senju Tobirama returned to Konoha.
"Takigakure, huh... sigh..."
"No helping it..."
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