Standing amid the ruins of the former Land of Whirlpools, as he gazed upon the collapsed walls and shattered remains, Uzumaki Ashina found himself believing about seventy percent of what Yuzuru had told him.
Now that he had seen it with his own eyes, there was no longer any doubt—the Uzumaki clan had indeed been annihilated. This place had clearly endured an extremely brutal war.
Standing beside him, Yuzuru spoke calmly:
"Back then, that war was likely also tied to the grudges between several clans dating back to the Warring States Era. Within the Hyūga clan, I've heard bits and pieces about it."
Ashina turned to look at him.
Yuzuru pointed toward the direction of the Land of Lightning.
"Over there… that was where the remnants of the Hagoromo clan fled."
At the mention of the name Hagoromo, Ashina frowned, as if long-buried memories had been stirred.
It was a clan that had been exterminated near the end of the Warring States Era by the joint forces of the Senju and Uzumaki. They had been close allies of the Uchiha.
The Sage of Six Paths had four direct bloodlines.
The descendants of Asura: the Senju and Uzumaki clans.
The descendants of Indra: the Uchiha and Hagoromo clans.
For over a thousand years, these four clans formed alliances and waged endless wars against one another. It was only at the end of the Warring States Era, when Senju Hashirama rose to prominence, that the conflict finally reached a conclusion.
The Hagoromo clan was wiped out.
The Uchiha suffered a crushing defeat and narrowly escaped total annihilation.
In the end, it was Hashirama who suppressed the most radical voices within his own clan and among his allies, granting the Uchiha a path to survival. Thus, Konohagakure was founded.
But how could hatred accumulated over a thousand years simply vanish?
Entire generations had died at one another's hands. How could such resentment be erased by mere words of "peace"?
"Kinkaku and Ginkaku, hm?" Ashina snorted coldly. "I said it back then—we should have eradicated the problem at its root. Hashirama was a fool!"
His tone made it abundantly clear how dissatisfied he was with the First Hokage's decisions—like an embittered father-in-law scolding a son-in-law.
Kinkaku and Ginkaku were the sons of the last leader of the Hagoromo clan. On the eve of their clan's destruction, they managed to escape and fled to the Land of Lightning.
The founding of Kumogakure was likely something they helped orchestrate from behind the scenes.
At the time, both the Uzumaki and the Senju had voices calling for the two brothers to be hunted down, to eliminate future threats.
But Hashirama, soft-hearted as he was, chose to spare them.
It proved to be a fatal mistake.
Kinkaku and Ginkaku located the Nine-Tails, devoured its flesh and blood, and became pseudo-jinchūriki of the Kyūbi.
Later, they revealed the Nine-Tails' whereabouts to Uchiha Madara, prompting him to attack Konoha with the beast at his side.
Back then, when Madara sought to leave Konoha along with the Uchiha, it was highly likely that he intended to head to the Land of Lightning.
After all, the Uchiha and Hagoromo clans had been allies for a thousand years—distant kin, in a sense. Madara himself was the elder brother of Kinkaku and Ginkaku.
With both clans united, dominating Kumogakure would have been effortless. Given Madara's strength and prestige, becoming the Raikage would have been trivial.
But none of those plans came to fruition.
Madara faked his death.
Hashirama died for real.
Seizing the opportunity, Kinkaku and Ginkaku immediately incited Kumogakure to launch an attack on Konoha.
On the battlefield, they deliberately targeted Senju shinobi, inflicting devastating losses upon the clan.
After the war ended in failure and the Raikage sought peace negotiations, the two brothers led a surprise attack against the Second Raikage and the Second Hokage.
Though they perished in that clash, those who inherited their will did not disappear. To this day, such factions still exist within Kumogakure and wield considerable influence at the highest levels of power.
Thus, the war against the Land of Whirlpools was very likely driven by these same forces.
As for Kirigakure, it would not be surprising if Uchiha Madara had also been manipulating events from the shadows.
In other words, the destruction of the Uzumaki clan was, in all likelihood, secretly orchestrated by the Uchiha and the remnants of the Hagoromo clan—ancient enemies dating back to the Warring States Era.
That was why Yuzuru had said the Uzumaki's downfall was tied to ancestral grudges.
After hearing the explanation, Ashina arrived at the same conclusion.
His expression darkened considerably. In his mind, Hashirama was likely being cursed to no end.
"I always thought there was something wrong with that man's head," Ashina muttered. "He was never a match for his younger brother."
That was Ashina's blunt assessment of Hashirama.
"It seems you hold the Second Hokage in high regard," Yuzuru remarked.
"Hmph! Anyone with half a brain could see Tobirama's talent. If the power to pacify the world had belonged to him, we would have wiped out the Hagoromo and Uchiha clans long ago! The Uzumaki would have joined Konoha, and together we would have built an age of prosperity!"
Back then, Ashina had refused to bring the Uzumaki clan into Konoha precisely because he could not accept Hashirama's decision to spare the Uchiha.
They were enemies bound by bloodshed for a thousand years!
What reconciliation was there to speak of?
How could forgiveness be possible?
So many clan members had died—was he supposed to pretend none of it had happened?
A naïve fantasy.
Ashina's own son had died at the hands of Uchiha Madara. For him, shaking Madara's hand was utterly unthinkable.
In his view, there was only one path to peace: the complete eradication of one's enemies.
"But now," Yuzuru said with a faint smile, "the Senju and Uzumaki have become history. The Uchiha are barely holding on themselves. In the end, there were no winners among you."
Ashina fell silent.
Who among Konoha's founders could have foreseen such an outcome?
The mighty Senju and Uzumaki—clans that had dominated the shinobi world for a thousand years—had vanished without a trace.
And in the end, it was a second-rate clan like the Sarutobi that held power.
"That Uzumaki girl who was taken to Konoha… what became of her in the end?" Ashina asked.
"Oh, she died. She married a civilian and passed away on the night she gave birth."
Ashina let out a cold laugh.
"What an elegant method…"
"Let the Uzumaki woman bear a child, then kill her—obtaining the Uzumaki bloodline while erasing the clan's very name?"
"And she married a civilian? Why didn't that Sarutobi brat have her marry into his own clan? That way, the Uzumaki bloodline could be stolen generation after generation!"
Yuzuru was momentarily stunned.
As expected of a man from the Warring States Era… he sees the human heart in the darkest possible light.
Even so, Yuzuru decided to fan the flames further.
"Now that you mention it… when Uzumaki Kushina was a child in Konoha, she once survived an attempted kidnapping. She nearly fell into the hands of foreign spies, but was saved by a civilian. That was how she fell in love with him."
"I always found it strange. Someone so important should have been under ANBU protection. How could she have been taken so easily?"
"Now it makes sense. It was a carefully orchestrated setup—so that someone could play the role of a 'hero saving the maiden' and win Kushina's heart."
"The only question is whether that civilian was a preselected 'hero'… or merely a lucky passerby who stole someone else's destined role."
Yuzuru racked his brain, doing everything he could to smear Konoha's ruling class.
Ashina looked toward the direction of the village and snorted coldly, his displeasure unmistakable.
He could barely understand Konoha's failure to send aid to the Uzumaki—after all, a generation had passed, the Senju were gone, and old bonds had faded.
But taking only one single girl, without attempting to save more Uzumaki to preserve the bloodline?
That ignited Ashina's fury.
This was clearly driven by sinister intent—the coveting of Uzumaki blood!
During the Warring States Era, such atrocities were common. Clans would stop at nothing to seize powerful bloodlines and kekkei genkai.
Even today, Kumogakure still retained traces of that tradition.
After organizing all the information he had gathered, the battle-hardened Ashina quickly reached a conclusion:
Konoha's rulers coveted the Uzumaki bloodline. They sought to absorb it into their own clans to strengthen themselves. Thus, they stood by as the Uzumaki were destroyed—perhaps even sending forces to hunt down survivors—keeping only girls for breeding purposes.
Despicable.
Shameless.
Even in life, Uzumaki Ashina had been known for his fiery temper.
If he were not now reduced to this state, he would have already marched straight toward Konoha to slaughter those responsible.
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