Did ninja harbor ambition?
Did ninja want to rebel?
Could their own rule endure for endless generations?
These were matters of deep anxiety for the Daimyo of the Land of Fire.
To preserve their rule, the Daimyo had painstakingly crafted an ideological cage for the ninja: the theory that a ninja was merely a tool.
Poisoned by this ideology, ninja would do everything in their power to fulfill the missions assigned by their employers without ever contemplating the meaning behind them.
Yet even though reality had been twisted into the form the Daimyo desired, it couldn’t change their fundamental nature.
They were nothing more than paper tigers—lofty in appearance, but wielding power without real force.
All it took was a single powerful ninja willing to defy the heavens, and they would be dragged down from their pedestals.
Even if Hashirama Senju didn’t do such a thing, as time progressed from the era of ninja clans to the era of hidden villages, the power of ninja leaders would become centralized and strengthened.
A Kage could turn a Daimyo into a puppet, and a single rogue ninja from a major village could easily conquer a small nation.
When that time came, ninja would naturally discover a few interesting truths…
Makoto Uchiha understood the future direction of the world as well as the current thoughts of the Land of Fire’s Daimyo.
“Your Highness, the battle between the Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan has officially come to an end.” The Daimyo’s expression froze for a moment before turning into utter shock.
“Ended?” “It is completely over,” Makoto emphasized.
“How did this happen…?” As Daimyo, he understood the relationship between the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan very well.
They harbored a thousand-year blood feud, locked in conflict right up until now.
And now the war between the Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan was completely over?
What kind of joke was this?
Impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
“Could it be that the Uchiha Clan achieved total victory and wiped out the Senju Clan…
or did the Senju Clan…” This was the thought occupying the Daimyo’s mind.
If the conflict between the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan could truly end, there was only one possibility: one of the clans had completely vanished from the Ninja World.
From a certain perspective…
the Daimyo wasn’t entirely wrong.
After all, even after Konoha was founded, the conflict between the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan never truly ceased.
It merely shifted into a deeper, more covert struggle centered around the position of Hokage—until the Senju Clan met its extinction first, ending their side of the feud, while the Uchiha Clan continued to fight against the inheritors of the Senju line until the Uchiha Clan itself was wiped out.
As for the possibility of the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan setting aside a millennium of blood guilt to shake hands and make peace?
Such an idea never even crossed the Daimyo’s mind.
Make peace?
How could something like that ever happen!
And yet…
that was precisely what had occurred.
It was a piece of dark humor.
Makoto recounted the recent events, glossing over the embarrassing details of how the Uchiha Clan had been pushed back on all fronts by the Senju Clan…
After all, with Izuna Uchiha dead, Tobirama Senju—that crafty bastard—had possessed a specialized counter against the Uchiha.
For the sake of game balance, Makoto would have suggested banning Tobirama Senju’s account directly!
What was most crucial and worthy of emphasis was how the Senju succubus, Hashirama Senju, had gone so far as to stab himself with a Kunai, threatening suicide to finally convince Madara Uchiha of his sincerity and achieve the grand reconciliation of the century between the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan.
“To trade for peace between the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan, Hashirama…
stabbed himself with a Kunai to commit suicide?” “Precisely!” “Are you sure a Kunai could actually harm Hashirama Senju?” The Daimyo had heard rumors about Hashirama Senju’s regenerative abilities—it was practically inhuman.
The Daimyo was sick and tired of cheesy performative tales like “lying on ice to catch carp.” Thus, he was deeply suspicious of Hashirama Senju’s suicidal gesture back then, thinking: *Speak the truth!
Hashirama Senju, you thick-eyebrowed bastard, were you just putting on a show?!* “Uh…
at least Lord Madara believed it could.” Makoto paused slightly.
To be honest, he didn’t know the answer to that question either.
But that wasn’t the point.
It was like a few days before a wedding, when your girlfriend goes out to a hotel with a strange man and stays in the room all night.
Whether your girlfriend actually did anything with that man…
did that matter?
It didn’t!
What mattered was your attitude.
If you believed your girlfriend was pure as snow, then even if something had happened and she put a green hat on your head, you wouldn’t care, and you’d still marry her.
But if you didn’t believe her…
even if she truly remained pure, you still wouldn’t marry her.
Believe in the power of belief!
Whether Hashirama Senju could actually kill himself with a Kunai didn’t matter.
What mattered was that Madara Uchiha believed he could.
After Makoto explained it this way, the Daimyo was convinced and stopped dwelling on the Kunai.
“This…
this is truly worthy of celebration…” The Daimyo stood dazed for a moment, processing Makoto’s news.
Only after repeatedly confirming the veracity of the claim did he squeeze out those few words.
Deep down, however, his heart was a bitter tangle of emotions.
The power wielded by Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha alone was enough to upend the entire Ninja World.
Yet that wasn’t an unsolvable problem.
For endless years, the Ninja World had been locked in war, with ninja clans clashing over resources and mission contracts.
The Daimyo had always exploited this, driving the ninja clans to hate each other and bleed themselves dry while they casually pulled the strings from behind the scenes.
The Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan were the most prominent examples of this setup.
To deal with Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, the best method was to pit titan against titan, hero against hero—to let Madara Uchiha keep Hashirama Senju occupied.
If things had followed that path, with Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju carrying on their ancestors’ fine tradition of fighting each other until their last breath, that would have been ideal.
But the absolute worst-case scenario had come to pass.
*Damn it, the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan made peace?!* *You actually made peace!* *How could this be allowed?* *To fulfill some childhood dream?
To keep children from going to war?
Oh…
and for the sake of peace in the Ninja World?!* *What bullshit bloodline clans!* *Peace in the Ninja World?
All for peace in the Ninja World?!* *A tired slogan that us Daimyo tossed aside long ago, and you two hold it in your mouths like a precious treasure!* *You’ve disgraced your ancestors eighteen generations over, Senju Clan!
Uchiha Clan!*