Unify the entire ninja world?
I want to!
I dream about it!
How could Tobirama not want to unify the entire ninja world? But he could only think about it. He simply did not have the ability to make it reality.
The ninja world was vast. Ninja clans stood everywhere. There were countless factions, and they had fought endlessly for thousands of years. Their hatred was difficult to dissolve. Resource distribution, mediating conflicts, all kinds of rotten and troublesome matters piled up endlessly. Just establishing the Leaf had already consumed most of Tobirama's energy, to the point that even his beloved scientific experiments had to be suspended and set aside.
There was also the interference of the feudal lords of various countries in the alliance between ninja clans. Threats, temptation, coercion, and bribes. Among the ninja clans that had now joined the Leaf, quite a few had been threatened and tempted by feudal lords.
Well, more tempted than threatened.
Not only that, there were also all kinds of difficulties involving communication, transportation, and food. Relying solely on the Leaf back then to swallow the entire ninja world in one bite was truly...
But none of those were the most important reason.
The most, most, most important reason was that his brother, Hashirama, would not agree!
Even if the Leaf's capacity was not yet enough to manage and cover the entire ninja world, they could have relied on his brother's unmatched military power to cripple all the other ninja villages and allow the Leaf to maintain an absolutely dominant position.
How exhausting.
Tobirama sighed slightly. Facing the question Haru had raised, in his current state, he had no reservations. There was no need to hide his thoughts from Haru. Being evasive would only invite mockery, so it was better to tell the truth.
"I did indeed want to unify the ninja world, but you are already Hokage now. You should know the Leaf's personnel reserves better than anyone. Even if every other ninja village in the ninja world merged into the Leaf right now, the best outcome would merely be the Leaf gaining a nice-sounding title. They would still live their own lives as before. After all, the ninja world is far too large."
Tobirama wanted to cover for his brother a little.
Although his brother had been quite troublesome, he was still his older brother. Haru had already intentionally cleared Madara's name and indirectly mocked him in secret. Perhaps in a few more years, Haru might even dare hold a meeting to criticize his brother. If a person died and could not even keep their posthumous reputation, then that would truly be...
So Tobirama brought up some objective conditions that even Haru could not refute, using them to prove that the Leaf simply could not swallow the entire ninja world in one bite.
"I know, I know. I understand all of these things very clearly. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been constantly developing productive forces and desperately pouring money into the ninja academy to train students."
"I've kept making you research railway trains and long-distance communication equipment because I've been preparing for the Leaf to sweep across the ninja world in the future."
"But the fundamental problem does not lie there. The First Hokage's path, his ideology, had a major problem."
"The First Hokage pursued temporary, illusory peace. Even if the Leaf could not swallow the entire ninja world all at once, it could have slowly eaten away at it piece by piece. With his unmatched military power, he could have killed all the dangerous ninja in the ninja world or imprisoned them all."
"The Nine-Tails is truly miserable. It was too dangerous."
"There were far too many better choices that could have avoided the First Ninja World War."
"But what did the First Hokage do?"
"He handed out the tailed beasts he had worked so hard to capture, held some so-called Five Kage Summit, and put on a performance of bowing his head to them."
Haru spoke a great deal in one breath, and every sentence hit Tobirama right in the heart.
His brother really had been a trap!
Back then, Tobirama had also advised his brother not to be so naive. This ninja world was complicated, and human hearts were sinister. Blindly placing trust in others would only end up hurting the family and friends around him.
But his brother would not listen!
The moment Tobirama tried to persuade him, he got angry. He got anxious.
He stared at Tobirama with a gloomy face. That gaze had been terrifying.
At the time, Tobirama felt that if he said one more word, Hashirama might knock him unconscious.
However, no matter how naive Hashirama's mind was, and no matter how foolish his actions were, Hashirama was still Tobirama's older brother. Joining Haru, an Uchiha, in criticizing his brother's ideological line was still something Tobirama could not do.
"All right, stop dragging things all over the place!"
"No matter what, my brother was still the First Hokage and the founder of the Leaf Village. Even if he was naive and foolish... In short, my brother is already dead. The dead deserve respect. Even if some things were done wrong, you are the Leaf's Third Hokage. You have the duty to clean up the mess he left behind. I spent my entire life cleaning up after my brother and even died doing it!
"You've only been cleaning up for a few years, and you're already impatient."
Tobirama retorted unhappily, then covered his face, signaling Haru not to keep dwelling on the issue of his brother, Hashirama. He admitted his brother had been a foolish troublemaker. Stop whipping the dead already.
"We are here to discuss Madara's problem. Back then, Madara left the Leaf without saying a word. When he returned, he brought the Nine-Tails to attack the Leaf, fought my brother to the death, then faked his death and hid until now. With such a strange train of thought, you're telling me Madara wants to achieve peace in the ninja world? Hmph, do you think I would believe that?"
Tobirama decisively changed the topic and redirected it back to Madara.
No matter how one looked at Madara's various actions, they had nothing to do with peace in the ninja world.
"Tobirama, of course you don't understand. You don't have the Mangekyo Sharingan, so how could you possibly understand Madara's actions?"
Haru's eyes shifted into the Sharingan state, and his expression carried arrogance, as if saying that an old man like Tobirama had too narrow a vision, so it was normal for him not to understand Uchiha behavior.
"All right, stop showing off those Sharingan. If you have something to say, say it directly!"
Tobirama could no longer remember how many times tonight Haru had shown off those Sharingan.
It was truly irritating!
"The Uchiha clan has an inherited stone tablet. A story is recorded on it. Back then, as long as someone awakened the Rinnegan, summoned the legendary Outer Path Statue, and absorbed the chakra of the nine tailed beasts, the Outer Path Statue could evolve into the complete Ten-Tails."
"By absorbing the Ten-Tails into his body, Madara could become the second Sage of Six Paths and activate a technique called Infinite Moon Reading, dragging every ninja in the ninja world into an eternal and beautiful dream, achieving everlasting peace. And he, the second Sage of Six Paths, Madara, would eternally guard the ninja world, watch over the God Tree, and ensure that Infinite Moon Reading remained active forever."
Haru slowly explained Madara's plan. Tobirama listened in a daze. This story was simply absurdity opening the door for absurdity, absurd all the way home.
"Haru, are you sure you're not joking with me? You can actually say something this ridiculous?"
Tobirama was stunned for a while before he finally digested Haru's story. Could Madara really betray the Leaf, break with Hashirama, and wager his entire life all because of a rotten story on a broken stone tablet?
Could that be a normal person's thought process?
Hiss.
An Uchiha who had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan indeed could not be judged by normal standards.
Not strange anymore. This was no longer strange.
"Do you think I have time to joke with a dead man like you?"
"I might as well go home and talk about life and ideals with the two beauties in my room, then have a deeper exchange."
Tobirama looked at Haru with contempt, then selectively skipped those two sentences. He had been alone his entire life and did not want Haru to mock him over this matter too.
"According to what you said, Madara needs to awaken the Rinnegan before he can summon the Outer Path Statue. The Rinnegan is the legendary eye of the Sage of Six Paths. Does he have a way to awaken it?"
Tobirama brought up the part of the story Haru had skipped over. For a thousand years, only the legendary Sage of Six Paths had ever possessed those eyes. The ninja world had never heard of a second person possessing them.
"This involves the ultimate secret of the ninja world. Originally, a ninja of your level would not be qualified to know it."
Haru teased Tobirama with one glance. As expected, Tobirama visibly turned red with anger.
A ninja of my level?
I am clearly at the peak of the ninja world!
Tobirama was just about to flare up when Haru tactfully revealed the answer. The atmosphere tonight was too heavy, and the pressure in Haru's heart was too great. Only by teasing Tobirama a little could he relax the pressure in his heart.
"Generally speaking, only a reincarnation of Indra's chakra who has awakened the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and obtained Asura's chakra has a chance of awakening the legendary Rinnegan."
Haru gave a relatively safe answer. In his previous life, various forums had circulated the idea that one only needed to awaken the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and add Hashirama cells to have a chance of awakening the Rinnegan.
However, in the original anime, only Madara had awakened the Rinnegan on his own. Madara himself was Indra's reincarnation. No other Uchiha had tried this path.
No matter how one put it, Naruto was the story of a family tragedy, with bloodline above all. If you could not connect yourself to the Sage of Six Paths' family, you were ultimately just a nobody. Perhaps an ordinary Uchiha, even after awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan, would still need to gather both Indra's and Asura's chakra to have a chance of awakening the Rinnegan.
Or perhaps the conditions were even harsher. Only the reincarnations of Indra and Asura, after obtaining each other's chakra, would have a chance to awaken the Rinnegan.
In this world ruled by bloodline theory, only by becoming a cheat-like existence could one have a chance to rise.
Indra, Asura?
Tobirama became dizzy listening to this. There had been far too much information tonight.
Why had two more names suddenly appeared?
"Who are Indra and Asura?"
"Tobirama, you're lucky. The story below involves the Uchiha clan and the Senju clan. Even Madara does not know it."
"Back then, the Sage of Six Paths traveled through the ninja world, spread chakra, founded the Ninja Sect, and advocated love, understanding, and tolerance, wanting to end the conflicts of the ninja world. It did indeed flourish for a time, and many people joined the Ninja Sect.
"Later, the Sage of Six Paths had two sons. His eldest son was named Indra, and his second son was named Asura. Indra possessed extraordinary talent and was born inheriting the Sage of Six Paths' powerful eye power. Later, he even invented hand signs, opening the door to using chakra to release ninjutsu."
"As for the younger son, Asura, compared to his older brother Indra, he paled in comparison and seemed ordinary. Because of that, at the time, almost everyone in the Ninja Sect believed that Indra would inherit the Sage of Six Paths' mantle and inherit the Ninja Sect. However, the Sage of Six Paths had different ideas."
"The Sage of Six Paths almost instinctively sensed the danger of using chakra for ninjutsu. It would cover up his original intention in spreading chakra. Chakra was originally meant to be a bridge for communication between people's hearts. But under Indra's leadership, the atmosphere of the Ninja Sect changed. The disciples of the Ninja Sect became obsessed with practicing ninjutsu and strengthening themselves. This made the Sage of Six Paths extremely dissatisfied."
"In order to choose the successor of the Ninja Sect, the Sage of Six Paths gave Indra and Asura the same task. In the end, Indra completed the task using his powerful personal strength, while Asura completed the task by relying on the power of the people. The Sage of Six Paths disliked Indra's pursuit of power and believed that he would lead the Ninja Sect down the wrong path. Instead, he chose Asura to inherit the Ninja Sect. You should already know the story afterward without me saying it. Indra was dissatisfied with this decision and wanted to seize the inheritance of the Ninja Sect by force, while the Sage of Six Paths passed his own power to Asura, helping Asura defeat Indra."
"The brothers completely broke apart and each founded their own clan. Even after death, they continued to fight, choosing children from their respective clans and attaching their chakra to those children, continuing their thousand-year struggle."
Haru spoke until his mouth was dry. The story was extremely melodramatic, no different from the children of powerful families fighting over the family inheritance.
Tobirama took a long while to recover after hearing it. Then he slowly said,
"Those two clans couldn't be..."
"That's right. They are the Uchiha clan and the Senju clan."
Haru confirmed Tobirama's thought, making Tobirama feel as if his head had been struck by a hammer.
This... this... this.
Could there really be something this twisted in the world?
The Uchiha clan and Senju clan, which had fought for a thousand years and refused to stop until one side died, were actually one family?
For a moment, Tobirama felt that the world was far too absurd. The origin of the hatred between the two clans was actually an unfair division of inheritance!
Ridiculous. Truly ridiculous!
Suddenly, Tobirama recalled the scene of his first meeting with Haru.
"Maybe a thousand years ago, we were one family. The Uchiha were the older brother, and the Senju were the younger brother. They had an unfair father, which led to an unfair division of inheritance, and the two brothers fell out because of it. Who knows?"
So that was what Haru had meant when he said those words back then.
It seemed he had known the truth long ago.
"The reincarnations of Indra and Asura in this generation are precisely Madara and Hashirama. They were destined to be entangled with each other throughout their lives. Although they were as close as brothers, they would ultimately walk toward a break and kill each other."
Haru gave Tobirama time to digest it, then revealed the hidden identities of Madara and Hashirama. Tobirama sighed deeply. His brother and Madara's relationship was indeed unusual. Their friendship from youth had grown into an extraordinary ill-fated bond. So all of this had been destined long ago.
For a moment, the way Tobirama looked at Haru changed.
Family.
Family.
I am actually family with these lunatics from the Uchiha?
Naturally evil Uchiha...
Uh.
He should try not to say that anymore in the future.
Tonight really had been stimulating. Tobirama's heart was filled with mixed emotions, and even the atmosphere inside the room suddenly became strange.
(End of Chapter)
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