It had to be admitted—the Uchiha clan’s reputation was incredibly useful.
If Makoto had been an ordinary shinobi, these guards would probably have driven him away immediately.
So what if you’re a shinobi?
I’m the daimyo’s dog…
Ahem, ahem…
The daimyo’s personal guard.
But the Uchiha clan was different.
The Uchiha name was known throughout the entire shinobi world.
Even the daimyō had to maintain good relations with the Uchiha clan.
Everyone knew that, unlike the Senju, the Uchiha had a tendency to produce particularly ruthless individuals.
Cold-blooded and merciless.
If provoked, they really would attack without hesitation.
The guard scrambled away and found his superior.
After reporting the situation, a broad, portly attendant soon emerged from the palace gates.
“Lord Uchiha, please come with me!”
Under the attendant’s guidance, Uchiha Makoto was brought to a reception room and seated.
After waiting for roughly half an hour…
Uchiha Makoto finally met his target for this trip—the Fire Daimyō.
“It has been quite some time since the Uchiha clan last sent someone to pay us a visit!”
“Quickly, bring some tea!”
The daimyō wore a warm expression as he instructed the attendants beside him to refill Uchiha Makoto’s cup.
“Thank you, Your Highness!”
Uchiha Makoto introduced himself.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the two chatted casually.
The atmosphere seemed quite pleasant.
The daimyō began asking about the Uchiha clan’s current situation.
This was something he had always been extremely concerned about.
The Fire Daimyō knew all about the blood feud between the Uchiha and Senju clans.
In particular, the war between the younger generation of the two clans had recently reached a fever pitch.
Unfortunately, the two clans were separated by a considerable distance, and their methods of communication were primitive.
The daimyō had never been able to obtain reliable, firsthand information.
According to the information available to him…
Over the past several years, Senju Hashirama, head of the Senju clan, and Uchiha Madara, head of the Uchiha clan, had fought one another countless times.
But…
The impression those two gave him was that they weren’t human.
As the Fire Daimyō, he had certainly encountered powerful shinobi before.
But the strength of Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama had already far surpassed anything an ordinary shinobi could unleash.
According to the reports, during their most devastating battle, the fighting had spread across Across hundreds of miles.
From a great distance, people had witnessed Wood Dragons soaring through the sky, towering giants glaring down at the earth, and blades cleaving mountains apart…
The sheer absurdity of those scenes had completely overturned the Fire Daimyō’s understanding of what human beings were capable of.
The shockwaves from their battle had reduced everything around them to a barren wasteland.
When the report reached him, the Fire Daimyō had even suspected that it was fabricated.
Human beings can wield that kind of power?
It was utterly terrifying!
What kind of overwhelming might was that?
They were practically gods.
Two shinobi who could practically be called divine beings had appeared in the shinobi world.
How could people like the daimyō, who considered themselves the rulers of the shinobi world, possibly feel secure?
Hearing the Fire Daimyō’s rather urgent questions…
Uchiha Makoto smiled.
Time to plant some seeds of doubt…
Did shinobi actually have ambitions?
Did shinobi actually want to rebel?
Could the current system of rule really continue for countless generations?
…
These were all things the Fire Daimyō was deeply worried about.
To maintain their rule, the daimyō had gone to great lengths to construct an ideological cage for shinobi—
The Shinobi-as-Tools Doctrine.
Poisoned by this ideology, shinobi would do everything possible to complete the missions assigned by their employers without ever stopping to consider the meaning behind those missions.
But even though reality had already been twisted into the shape the daimyō wanted…
It still couldn’t change their true nature.
They were nothing more than paper tigers.
They appeared to stand high above everyone else, but in truth, they possessed authority without corresponding strength.
All it would take was one powerful shinobi willing to defy the world and challenge the established order, and the daimyō could be dragged down from their lofty thrones.
Even if Senju Hashirama never did such a thing…
As time passed, the era of shinobi clans would give way to the era of hidden villages.
The authority of shinobi leaders would become increasingly concentrated.
A Kage could reduce a daimyō to little more than a figurehead.
A rogue shinobi from one of the great hidden villages could single-handedly conquer a small country with ease.
When that time came…
Shinobi would naturally discover some very interesting things.
…
Uchiha Makoto understood the future perfectly.
He also understood exactly what was currently worrying the Fire Daimyō.
“Your Highness, the battle between the Uchiha and Senju clans has completely ended.”
The Fire Daimyō’s expression froze for a moment before turning to one of astonishment.
“Ended?”
“It has ended completely.”
Makoto deliberately emphasized his words.
“How could that possibly have happened…?”
As a daimyō, he understood the relationship between the Uchiha and Senju very well.
The two clans had been locked in a thousand-year blood feud, fighting one another continuously all the way to the present.
And now their war had actually ended completely?
What kind of joke was this?!
Impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
“Could it be…
that the Uchiha clan achieved final victory and annihilated the Senju?”
“Or perhaps the Senju…?”
That was what was going through the Fire Daimyō’s mind.
If the war between the Uchiha and Senju could truly end completely, then there was only one possible explanation—
One of the two clans had disappeared from the shinobi world entirely.
From a certain perspective…
The Fire Daimyō wasn’t wrong.
After Konoha was established, the struggle between the Senju and Uchiha never truly ended.
Instead, it became a deeper and more covert struggle centered around the position of Hokage.
The Senju eventually disappeared as a clan, bringing their side of the struggle to an end.
The Uchiha, meanwhile, continued fighting against the representatives of the Senju-aligned political will until the Uchiha themselves were annihilated.
As for…
The Uchiha and Senju abandoning their thousand-year blood feud and making peace?
That possibility hadn’t even crossed the Fire Daimyō’s mind.
Make peace?
How could something like that possibly happen?
But…
It had happened.
The sheer irony of it was almost comical.
Uchiha Makoto explained what had happened over the past few days.
Naturally, he omitted the embarrassing details of the Uchiha being completely suppressed on the battlefield by the Senju.
After all, the Uchiha had lost Uchiha Izuna, while Senju Tobirama had a particularly effective counter against the Uchiha.
For the sake of game balance, perhaps Senju Tobirama should simply be banned!
More importantly, Makoto emphasized the role played by the Senju’s influence—Senju Hashirama.
Hashirama had been willing to stab himself with a kunai and threaten to die in order to prove his sincerity to Uchiha Madara.
And that had finally convinced Madara to accept the sincerity of his childhood friend, resulting in the historic reconciliation between the Senju and Uchiha clans.
“To secure peace between the Senju and Uchiha clans, Hashirama…
stabbed himself with a kunai…
and tried to commit suicide?”
“That’s right!”
“Are you certain a kunai could actually injure Senju Hashirama?”
The Fire Daimyō had heard about Hashirama’s regenerative abilities.
They were practically inhuman.
He had long since grown tired of those clichéd tales of people performing ridiculous acts of filial devotion just to put on a show.
So the Fire Daimyō was deeply skeptical of Hashirama’s supposed suicide attempt.
Speak!
Senju Hashirama, you thick-browed fellow!
Was this all just an act?!
“Er…
at least Lord Madara believed it could.”
Uchiha Makoto paused.
To be honest, he didn’t know the answer either.
But the question itself wasn’t important.
It was like this:
Suppose your girlfriend stayed overnight in a hotel room with a strange man just a few days before your wedding.
Did they actually sleep together?
Was that question important?
No.
What mattered was your attitude.
If you believed your girlfriend had remained faithful, then even if something had happened and she had cheated on you, you might still choose not to care and marry her anyway.
But if you didn’t trust her…
Even if she had genuinely remained faithful, you still wouldn’t marry her.
You had to believe in the power of believing!
Whether Senju Hashirama could actually kill himself with a kunai wasn’t important.
What mattered was that Uchiha Madara believed he could.
After Makoto’s explanation…
The Fire Daimyō was convinced.
He stopped dwelling on the kunai issue.
“This…
this…
this is certainly something worth celebrating…”
The Fire Daimyō sat there in a daze for a while, digesting Makoto’s information.
Only after confirming several times that the story was genuine did he finally manage to squeeze out those few words.
But deep down, he felt incredibly conflicted.
There was bitterness in his heart.
The combined strength of Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara was already enough to overturn the balance of power throughout the entire shinobi world.
But that didn’t necessarily mean there was no solution.
The shinobi world had been plagued by war for countless years.
Shinobi clans constantly fought over resources and missions.
The daimyō had deliberately encouraged this.
They wanted the shinobi clans to hate one another and exhaust themselves through endless internal conflict.
Meanwhile, the daimyō could remain safely behind the scenes.
The Uchiha and Senju were the clearest examples.
If one wanted to deal with Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, the best solution was to have powerful people fight powerful people.
Let heroes fight heroes.
Let Uchiha Madara fight Senju Hashirama.
If Madara and Hashirama continued the noble tradition of their ancestors and fought one another until the end of their lives…
That would have been absolutely ideal.
But…
The worst possible thing had happened.
Damn it!
The Senju and Uchiha had made peace?!
You two actually made peace?!
How could that be allowed?!
All for the sake of realizing some childhood dream?
So that children wouldn’t have to go to war?
Oh…
And apparently for the sake of peace in the shinobi world?
What kind of bullshit was this?
A shinobi clan with a kekkei genkai, my ass!
Peace in the shinobi world?
Just because of peace?!
This was a slogan that the daimyō had already played with to death, and yet the two of you were treating it like some priceless treasure, proudly holding it in your mouths!
Uchiha Madara!
Senju Hashirama!
You two have brought shame upon your ancestors for eighteen generations!
The Senju and Uchiha were already incredibly powerful.
They could even be called the two strongest kekkei-genkai clans in the shinobi world.
And now they had made peace…
This was truly…
Terrifying.