A few days later—
Uchiha Makoto packed his belongings and left the Uchiha clan alone.
That morning, a handful of clansmen even came to see him off.
"This treatment is already much better than what Uchiha Madara will get in the future,"
Makoto comforted himself.
Tucked against his chest was the travel fund Madara had given him—
a full ten million ryō.
To be fair, Madara hadn't treated Makoto poorly at all. His generosity could only be described as extravagant.
According to the mission ranking system that would later be adopted by Konohagakure, only the highest-difficulty missions—S-rank missions requiring an elite jōnin squad—paid out commissions in the millions.
Ten million ryō was equivalent to ten S-rank missions.
For Makoto, this was a massive sum—practically overnight wealth.
But—
It still wasn't enough.
Establishing a shinobi village required funding on the scale of hundreds of millions, if not more.
If he relied on conventional mission work to accumulate capital, Makoto would collapse from exhaustion long before reaching that amount.
So, after careful consideration, Makoto realized he needed a financial backer.
Ahem—
a kindhearted, public-spirited angel investor.
Fortunately, this was something he could directly copy from precedent.
In the future shinobi world, every shinobi village had an angel investor behind it, funneling money into its coffers.
Konohagakure's backer: the Land of Fire
Sunagakure's backer: the Land of Wind
Iwagakure's backer: the Land of Earth
Of course, no gift of fate ever came free of charge.
The daimyō provided funding on schedule, and in return, shinobi villages offered loyalty—protecting the daimyō's personal safety and safeguarding their rule.
The daimyō needed ninja power.
After all, where there was oppression, there was resistance. The aristocracy of the shinobi world had never been particularly benevolent. Starving commoners weren't going to obediently wait for death, and uprisings against noble rule were hardly rare—
They were simply crushed by ninja every single time.
"I need an angel investor."
With that decision made, Makoto pulled out the map he carried with him.
If he was going to find a backer, it had to be a major power.
Small countries were eliminated immediately.
Land of Wind: endless desert, sparse population, poor and weak—discarded.
A place where the wind alone could fill your mouth with sand. Makoto had zero interest in building a village in a desert.
Land of Water: too far away, separated by vast seas. Building a village there would turn him into a perpetual troublemaker on the fringes of the shinobi world.
Backup option only.
Land of Earth: not bad.
Land of Lightning: also acceptable.
But the Land of Fire was the absolute best choice.
After careful thought, Makoto decided to rush the Land of Fire before Konoha did.
The Land of Fire possessed unparalleled geography—located at the center of the shinobi world, with fertile land and abundant—
Ahem.
Rich human resources.
If he could secure the support of the Fire Daimyō, that would be ideal.
As for the future Konoha—
The Land of Fire was vast.
Could it really not accommodate two shinobi villages?
Suggesting otherwise would be an insult to the Fire Daimyō's authority.
Besides, Senju Hashirama was famously kind-hearted.
And kind people were always the ones most easily held at gunpoint.
Of course, Senju Tobirama would require some extra caution.
Thinking this, Makoto shook his head.
He was getting ahead of himself.
The first hurdle was convincing the Fire Daimyō to become his angel investor.
As for how to persuade him—
Makoto already had a rough framework in mind.
Everything would revolve around one central idea:
The Senju Hashirama Threat Theory
Question:
What do daimyō fear the most?
Answer:
Shinobi whose power grows so strong that it threatens their rule.
The shinobi world created by Kishimoto was deeply distorted.
Those who wielded overwhelming force—the shinobi—did not hold supreme authority. Instead, they lingered at the very bottom of the political hierarchy.
It was an absurd and paradoxical system.
Shinobi were treated as tools. Ninja clans fought endlessly over missions. And the daimyō ruled from the shadows. This structure had endured for a thousand years, with only minor ripples that never truly overturned the system.
But now—
Things were different.
This balance had been fundamentally challenged.
Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara were simply too powerful.
So powerful that either one of them alone could sweep the entire shinobi world.
Throughout the past millennium, both the Senju and the Uchiha had produced formidable shinobi—but never before had there been monsters like Hashirama and Madara.
They were likely the strongest pair of Asura and Indra reincarnations in history—
their power approaching that of Asura and Indra themselves.
But even that wasn't the most terrifying part.
Traditionally, Asura and Indra's reincarnations were fated to struggle endlessly against one another, fighting until the very end of their lives—leaving no time to concern themselves with the wider shinobi world.
The daimyō only needed to continue assigning missions to the Senju and the Uchiha, just as they always had.
But this generation was different.
Hashirama and Madara had temporarily broken free from fate.
They abandoned their thousand-year conflict and chose to walk toward a new future together—
to establish a shinobi village belonging to both the Senju and the Uchiha.
If such a thing actually happened—
How could the daimyō possibly sleep at night?
Two supreme powers of the shinobi world joining forces, founding a village, and proclaiming their intention to bring peace to the world.
The daimyō would only think:
"What the hell are you two planning?!"
Just imagining it would make anyone's spine go cold.
Even if Hashirama himself—simple, naïve, and kind—had no intention of overthrowing the daimyō—
That was beside the point.
It wasn't about whether he wanted to.
It was about whether he could.
In another world, History shows that even loyal retainers can fall victim to paranoid rulers' suspicions.
In the shinobi world, the daimyō were in an even worse position.
They had no means of resistance whatsoever.
If Hashirama ever decided to reshape the world, no one could stop him.
"Even though this feels a bit like framing an honest man… sorry about this, Senju Hashirama."
"I really, really want to make progress."
With that muttered apology, Makoto began writing out his proposal—
The full argument for the "Senju Hashirama Threat Theory."