Chapter 192: Madara: Ah, Hiruzen! Black Zetsu's Guide to the Hokage's Cultivation! The Great Villages Respond
Madara Uchiha stared at A-Huo with an utterly bizarre expression.
The words echoed incessantly inside his head like an unprompted loop:
He had been integrated into the official academic curriculum... and under an overwhelmingly positive portfolio review?!
Madara shook his head slightly.
A faint, disorienting wave of vertigo washed over him, almost as if he had been caught in a subtle, high-grade genjutsu.
"What..."
The moment Madara opened his mouth, he found his voice raspy and hoarse.
He cleared his throat forcefully, wrestling his surging internal variables back to baseline. Turning back around, he adopted an air of lofty, dismissive detachment: "Oh? Is that so? What are the specific parameters of this filing? I detect a calculated scheme underneath this."
"A scheme? That seems improbable, Lord Madara..." A-Huo scratched his head.
Among all the active White Zetsu clones on the network, A-Huo currently held a unique operational portfolio: direct field intelligence extraction inside Konoha.
Under the comprehensive sensory firewall established by Shio Uzumaki, Kushina, the Hyuga clan, and the Nine-Tails, standard White Zetsu mobility had been severely constrained. Sudden displacements and residual traces of malice would trigger immediate counter-interception.
Most clones were restricted to lurking around the outer fringes of the Uchiha quarter.
A-Huo, however, was an anomaly.
He harbored zero operational malice toward Konoha, and his adaptive processing was remarkably agile.
He could effortlessly assume the guise of an ordinary civilian bystander, navigating the village's public infrastructure without pinging a single sensory alarm.
When Madara had initially audited this phenomenon, A-Huo's explanation had been exceptionally clever: "How could I harbor malice toward the very enterprise Lord Madara founded with his own hands?"
Yet the unvarnished reality was that A-Huo routinely spent his off-hours analyzing Hiruzen Sarutobi's Fireside Chats.
A-Huo genuinely felt that, deep down, he qualified as an active Konoha shinobi.
If Lord Madara ever achieved corporate enlightenment and integrated with the village, securing an official civil service registration number for him would be child's play.
"Lord Madara, the Third Hokage deployed an executive profile across the village bulletin boards summarizing your historical career. He explicitly affirmed that you were a core executive decision-maker in terminating the Warring States chaos—a foundational architect of Konohagakure."
"The release clarified that your departure was not treasonous defection. Rather, it was a high-level strategic divergence with the First Hokage regarding the village's long-term roadmap, executed through the traditional, uncompromising conflict resolution methods of the Warring States—the clash at the Valley of the End."
A-Huo strained his memory, mentally quoting the text while applying subtle diplomatic polish: "The Third Hokage noted that, from an objective standpoint, your fundamental grievances were not unwarranted. Due to historical variables, the early administration's drive toward inter-clan integration was overly aggressive, neglecting the legitimate sentiments of the Uchiha and other founding bloodlines."
"Furthermore, the leadership of that era failed to accord you the institutional reverence due to a founding father."
Listening to this, the surreal, genjutsu-like sensation washing over Madara did not disperse; if anything, it intensified.
This was Hiruzen Sarutobi's official historical audit of his career?
If Madara didn't know better, he would have assumed Izuna had transmigrated into the Hokage's office! How else could an executive brief hit every single one of his emotional pressure points with such pinpoint accuracy?
Senju Tobirama had been an insufferable corporate saboteur back then!
Every single day, that man had dragged Hashirama into private corners to run smear campaigns against him and the Uchiha, lobbying the secondary clans to withhold their political capital.
When it came to historical equity in establishing Konoha, Tobirama didn't even possess the credentials to stand in the same room!
The corners of Madara's lips began to twitch upward in vindication, only for a sudden, sharp pang of awkwardness to strike his chest.
Wait.
Didn't he deploy Soragakure's heavy artillery to execute a hostile aerial bombardment against Konoha just two or three months ago?
This was... structurally awkward.
A tangled knot of conflicting emotions surged through the legendary patriarch.
Unaware of his master's internal turbulence, A-Huo faithfully continued his intelligence debrief.
"The Academy's instructional materials have also integrated an extensive biographical module on your legacy."
"The curriculum highlights that your Sharingan awakened relatively late—not due to subpar talent, but because you forcibly stabilized your emotional variance to shield your kin."
"It details how you forged an unassailable reputation through the crucible of the Warring States: cold on the surface, yet profoundly dedicated underneath, quietly tracking the growth of your clansmen from the shadows. It notes that this demeanor led to unfortunate historical misunderstandings, painting you as aloof and unapproachable."
"Yet in truth, your character is formally summarized as: unbending before tyranny, gentle toward the vulnerable; fearless against the mighty, compassionate toward the solitary." A-Huo carefully recited the archaic idioms.
"They even printed several verified case studies of your past conduct."
A-Huo recounted the narrative:
For instance, the historical anecdote where Madara Uchiha witnessed a young civilian girl stumble and fall in the street. He had stepped forward to assist her, only for the child to burst into tears, terrified by his passive combat aura and piercing crimson gaze.
While surrounding observers feared the patriarch would take offense, Madara simply waved it off: "Why would a grown shinobi take issue with an innocent child? What truly weighs on my mind is our inability to resolve our strategic divergence with Hashirama..."
"Where should the future of Konoha truly lead?"
Madara blinked hard.
He actually remembered that encounter vividly.
Hashirama had been standing right beside him when it happened.
...Though, had he truly phrased it with such eloquent, philosophical grace?
Hmm...
Now that I reflect on it, that was precisely what I was contemplating internally.
Yes...
Madara felt an intoxicating warmth settling into his veins. For the first time in his life, he was experiencing the sheer, intoxicating yield of positive institutional PR.
If Senju Tobirama had commanded even a fraction of this emotional intelligence and diplomatic foresight back in the day...
Madara wouldn't have minded sitting down for a proper, productive negotiation.
A pity the Eye of the Moon Plan is already in motion. What a shame!
"Along the Academy's main corridor, your portrait and commemorative bust have been officially unveiled," A-Huo added, gauging Madara's reactions with keen eyes. "A vast majority of the students remarked on how cool and imposing your profile looks, and the Uchiha clansmen are ecstatic that your legacy has been restored to Konoha's public square."
"What value is there in fixating on superficial aesthetics? A mortal shell is meaningless overhead; beauty and ugliness are irrelevant variables on the battlefield!"
Madara swept his sleeve dismissively, instinctively launching into a standard Warring States patriarchal lecture.
Yet his hands betrayed him, subtly smoothing the lapels of his high-collared crimson robes, as though a delegation of Konoha Academy students were actively auditing his visual presentation.
Which Uchiha didn't take pride in their appearance?
It was simply that, as the supreme Great Patriarch, he couldn't openly emphasize such vanity.
This entire operational landscape has become thoroughly complicated...
Without realizing it, Madara had risen to his feet, pacing the cavern floor in deep contemplation.
He was a titan who placed immense value on decorum and executive standing. The Hyuga were an ancient thousand-year clan, but were the Uchiha any less noble?
For Hiruzen Sarutobi to treat his legacy with such profound institutional reverence stirred an unfamiliar, nagging sliver of guilt within Madara's chest.
Striking while the iron was hot, A-Huo pressed further: "Lord Madara, the Third Hokage expended considerable political capital to rehabilitate your public standing. Now that your historical metrics are soaring, many quarters within the village have begun raising sharp questions regarding Senju Tobirama's early policies."
"Although an invisible administrative hand is actively dampening public discourse to preserve decorum, I know the back alleys of Konoha like the back of my hand. I frequently overhear senior shinobi debating over drinks."
"Even Hizashi Hyuga was heard remarking in private: 'The Second Hokage committed undeniable governance missteps in his day.'"
Madara let out a heavy, satisfied cough, an inexplicable rush of vindication flooding his spiritual pathways.
To study Hiruzen Sarutobi meant thoroughly auditing his inner circle. In Madara's strategic estimation, Hizashi Hyuga occupied an operational slot identical to Setsuna Uchiha: a fiercely loyal enforcer and administrative heavy.
If Hizashi held that stance, it signified that Hiruzen Sarutobi harbored the exact same view!
Of course, Hiruzen had intended nothing of the sort.
Having stepped forward to personally absorb the catastrophic fallout surrounding Tobirama's alleged heresy, Hiruzen had simply leveraged Tobirama's official status as a dead man to generate flexible narrative equity.
His master wouldn't mind.
Using Tobirama's historical credit to soften Madara's ideological armor and buy Konoha critical runway for economic development was, in Hiruzen's calculation, a risk-free transaction with guaranteed upside. It cost nothing to attempt.
The entire village... is speaking on my behalf?
This sensation...
Madara looked down at his calloused hands. Even during his reign over the Uchiha clan, he had commanded absolute fear and unconditional obedience, but rarely genuine affection.
Hiruzen Sarutobi had deployed an exquisite psychological maneuver.
An operative whose true identity could never be revealed was structurally indistinguishable from a deceased asset. And dead assets could not issue press releases. Provided the outcome served the village's long-term interests, the narrative could be customized with remarkable creative freedom.
Evidently, the Hokage's historical polish had satisfied the subject immensely.
Madara paced back and forth, his thoughts turning over in rapid succession.
Observing the subtle shifts in Madara's expression, A-Huo added with delicate care: "However, the Third Hokage emphasized one final takeaway. He stated that we must treat the tragic conflict between yourself and the First Hokage as a cautionary mirror. When comrades encounter ideological friction, they must first sit down and resolve it through dialogue..."
"Lest internal strife bring sorrow to kin and delight to adversaries!"
Madara's footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
After a protracted silence, he spoke in a low, resonant cadence: "A-Huo, certain historical truths cannot be bridged merely through rhetoric. If Konoha's future under Hiruzen Sarutobi's leadership truly possesses the structural capacity to render the Eye of the Moon Plan obsolete, he must demonstrate that claim through overwhelming kinetic yield and tangible operational results!"
"Indulging in short-term market peace is meaningless. I will not subject Konoha to unmanageable devastation; I am merely running a calibrated stress test on the vitality of the Will of Fire from a generational horizon."
A-Huo nodded, pretending to grasp the high-level strategy.
Previously, he had assumed Madara was spiraling into pure ideological madness, deliberately escalating mutual destruction for no clear ROI.
Yet over the past few weeks, having witnessed Konoha field units successfully integrating Soragakure's flight wings and establishing absolute air sovereignty, A-Huo felt an epiphany strike his simple mind:
Lord Madara was using asymmetric, extreme methods to funnel cutting-edge military hardware directly into Konoha!
He was simply too proud and emotionally repressed to state his objective plainly—naturally wrapped in a layer of tough love and rigorous quality assurance.
A-Huo concluded that maintaining the status quo was optimal for now.
However, if Lord Madara ever truly went off the rails, A-Huo wasn't opposed to finding covert avenues to tip off the Hokage.
He was practically breaking his back trying to keep this blended family from tearing itself apart!
"Lord Madara, what did the Hokage mean by that specific phrase?" A-Huo asked, adopting the posture of an earnest academy student.
He was referring to: "Unbending before tyranny, gentle toward the vulnerable; fearless against the mighty, compassionate toward the solitary."
Madara let out an amused chuckle. He genuinely appreciated Hiruzen's refined, scholarly eloquence.
In that vertical, Hiruzen outclassed Hashirama by an infinite margin!
When Madara was with Hashirama, all the man ever did was laugh like a complete idiot. While endearing in its own rustic way, it was entirely lacking in executive presentation.
"It means facing overwhelming tyrannical power without a flicker of fear or retreat, while extending absolute restraint and protection toward the weak," Madara explained, raising an eyebrow with patient pride.
These were all high-tier commendations directed squarely at his character!
"Thank you for enlightening me, Lord Madara!" A-Huo bowed respectfully.
"Go fetch me some sake!"
Madara waved his hand. He found himself quite fond of this intellectually curious White Zetsu. It provided a sensation akin to raising an exceptionally loyal pet.
"Why bring a thimble? Go swap it for a proper basin!"
Madara tossed back a massive bowl of sake in a single, sweeping draught, wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve, and exhaled a long, fiery breath.
A sharp, incandescent spark danced within his eyes.
"The entire world misjudged Madara Uchiha. Even Hashirama failed to comprehend my depth. Yet Hiruzen did."
"Furthermore... has Hiruzen already seen through my operational deception? It seems my misdirection failed to cloud his vision. I sense he is actively establishing a covert dialogue with me through these institutional channels..."
Madara calculated the probabilities.
The two of them were essentially exchanging encrypted diplomatic signals across the continent.
He had deployed the Reanimation Jutsu to subtly mimic Tobirama's operational footprint, and Hiruzen had countered by rehabilitating his historical status across the village curriculum.
Could that truly be a mere coincidence?
Madara couldn't say with absolute certainty.
Yet this cerebral, long-distance contest of wits brought an involuntary smirk to his lips.
"Exhilarating... truly exhilarating!"
"Now this qualifies as a game worth playing."
Madara narrowed his eyes. "Still, since Hiruzen has displayed such strategic sincerity, my operational deployment must adjust accordingly."
He did not state it aloud.
Yet deep within his soul, the dormant bonds tethering him to Konoha had quietly re-established contact.
Therefore, while the upcoming trials would maintain uncompromising operational standards—after all, the ideological contest between the Infinite Tsukuyomi and the Will of Fire admitted zero quarter—he would exercise greater discretion in his tactical execution. At the end of the day, they were still family.
Madara drained bowl after bowl of sake, using A-Huo's village gossip as the ultimate side dish, finding the experience remarkably satisfying.
He had already drafted an internal milestone:
At a suitable juncture, he would personally return to Konohagakure for an on-site inspection. To walk its streets, and witness its progress with his own eyes!
"Moving forward..."
"I will grant Hiruzen a grace period of one year at most."
"Starting with the Mist, the flames of war will systematically engulf the Stone, the Cloud, and the Sand..."
"Let us see if his operational framework can endure the pressure."
Madara's gaze cooled. "External contradictions are straightforward. Internally, though Hiruzen's governance is remarkably thorough, his framework may not possess adequate redundancies for volatile rogue variables."
"The proxy initiative can still proceed. Using that Obito brat as my physical surrogate will teach Hiruzen that the human heart is an inherently unstable asset."
"Today they worship you as a savior; tomorrow, they may draw steel against your throat!"
Madara reviewed Obito's psychological profile, turning his gaze toward the freshly graduated cohort of Konoha's golden generation.
"Compared to entrenched adult shinobi, these youths are exceptionally malleable assets. They must taste the cold, indifferent brutality of this world—though it remains slightly premature for them."
Madara glanced up at Kinkaku and Ginkaku hanging from the ceiling, shaking his head faintly.
Deploying those two alongside Gengetsu Hozuki and Mu to ambush raw Genin fresh out of the Academy was an overkill so absurd even the Ghost of the Uchiha felt embarrassed.
That wasn't a pedagogical trial; that was sheer, low-tier harassment.
At their age, he hadn't even unlocked the basic Sharingan yet.
"Let us benchmark against my own historical progression."
"In three to five years, once they mature, we will let Konoha's next generation experience the unforgiving chill of reality. Life does not always match you against peers within your weight class."
Madara swept his eyes across the thrashing Gold and Silver Brothers, listening to their muffled curses against Tobirama, and found Hiruzen Sarutobi increasingly fascinating.
The world was saturated with fools.
Since Hashirama's passing, only this grand game against Hiruzen captured that intoxicating dynamic he once shared with his eternal rival: waging war with absolute ferocity while preserving an underlying mutual understanding—an exquisite equilibrium between mortal adversaries and true soulmates.
Of course, Madara harbored no intention of liquidating Obito's cohort.
He would deploy a framework similar to the Yashiro skirmish: tactical pressure delivered exclusively within the boundaries of combat.
Allowing foreign shinobi to slaughter the very youths who openly revered his legacy and defended his name was fundamentally unnecessary.
The objective was merely to lay an ideological foundation within the children and their Jonin squad leaders to accept the ultimate necessity of the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
He was fully capable of waging ideological warfare.
In the shadowed recesses of the cavern.
Black Zetsu hovered quietly in the subterranean murk, listening to the dialogue between Madara and A-Huo, his internal equilibrium severely compromised.
What in Kaguya's name was wrong with Madara?
Did this old fossil not understand the concept of a synchronized team fight?!
If the objective was to aggressively execute the Eye of the Moon Plan, shouldn't he have anchored his logistics around Soragakure, compiled a full strike team of Six Paths puppets, instigated a continental world war, and harvested the Tailed Beasts while the great hidden villages tore each other to pieces?
Black Zetsu was already engineering biological adaptations to ensure Madara's aged hardware could briefly sustain the Ten-Tails.
All they required was a fleeting sensory tether to Mother sealed within the moon, enabling her consciousness to descend into the host vessel!
Yet what was Madara doing instead?
This looks less like a hostile corporate takeover and more like a charitable technology transfer to Konoha!
Who executes an invasion like this? You commit all your assets in a unified push! What is this nonsense of deploying elite assets one by one to get liquidated? Are you actively volunteering to serve as Konoha's strategic whetstone?!
If Black Zetsu possessed the combat metrics to overpower Madara, he would have seized the ancient patriarch by the collar and unleashed a thousand-year tirade right into his face.
Yet Black Zetsu was powerless.
In his current state, Madara remained entirely unaware that methods existed within the shinobi world to reverse his biological aging. Consequently, his strategic design still revolved around ideologically subduing Hiruzen Sarutobi, using Konohagakure as the administrative engine to implement the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Furthermore, Black Zetsu's plans for Madara's physical vessel were merely theoretical drafts. Given his cover identity, pitching such solutions without the proper operational context would trigger immediate suspicion from the paranoid patriarch.
Madara's psychological orientation has shifted.
His commitment to the Infinite Tsukuyomi is wavering. If this cognitive drift continues, there is a very real statistical probability he might abandon the plan entirely!
As a millennium-old geopolitical manipulator, Black Zetsu diagnosed Madara's internal regression instantly.
That Hiruzen Sarutobi is a terrifying anomaly...
His administrative methods mirror my own—his handling of Indra's reincarnations is disgustingly refined! He is orchestrating Madara from across the continent without firing a single shot!
And his proprietary development profile defies logic. To synthesize artificial Kekkei Genkai through pure post-natal cultivation—not merely dual natures, but factoring in that technique that decompiles foreign ninjutsu, a triple-affinity matrix!
His physiological baseline is scaling exponentially, rapidly exceeding the biological constraints of a standard human.
With events accelerating to this juncture, Black Zetsu could no longer afford to treat Hiruzen as standard background noise.
The systemic reforms this man had driven across the continent were unprecedented across a thousand years of shinobi history.
In terms of raw combat evolution, he had carved out an independent developmental path completely decoupled from the biological lineages of the Senju, Uchiha, and Uzumaki.
Black Zetsu calculated that if the original Asura had commanded Hiruzen's level of executive charm, Indra would have happily surrendered the clan leadership, shouting: "Outstanding work, little brother! You have my unconditional backing!"
Certain historical reincarnations who possessed mediocre talent had plateaued at combat metrics that, in Black Zetsu's rigorous evaluation, barely matched Hiruzen Sarutobi's current output.
Monsters like Hashirama and Madara were generational statistical outliers. The chakra of Asura and Indra served primarily as a developmental catalyst; it did not completely rewrite a host's mortal baseline, preserving their soul capital for the next cycle.
Suddenly, a profound spark of lateral inspiration struck Black Zetsu's core.
An alternative operational vector materialized!
Wait...
I altered the Stone Tablet of the Sage of Six Paths to deceive Madara Uchiha. Why can't I deploy a targeted version to manipulate Hiruzen Sarutobi?
I inherited fragments of Mother's primordial memory archives!
Black Zetsu's eyes flared in the gloom. An intoxicating rush of excitement gripped him as he mapped out a double-hedged strategic bet:
I can transcribe Mother's cognitive records regarding the synthesis of Kekkei Mora directly into the Uchiha stone monument, but insert a mandatory prerequisite stating that absolute ascension requires integrating the chakra signatures of all nine Tailed Beasts!
Isn't Hiruzen Sarutobi hailed as the Professor of Ninjutsu? Beneath his administrative rhetoric, I have detected a boundless hunger for transcendent strength. He is not merely pursuing peace.
While the concept of Kekkei Mora remains completely unknown to mortal men, an elite innovator like Hiruzen, who has already proven capable of synthesizing artificial bloodline limits, will instantly recognize its infinite potential!
Confronted with the ultimate apex of power, what true seeker could ever resist the temptation?
Black Zetsu chuckled silently, reviewing Hiruzen's historical trajectory.
A mortal executive once suffocated by the bureaucratic burdens of the Hokage seat who suddenly broke through his psychological constraints would never abandon the pursuit of higher realms.
It was basic human nature: once a man conquered the mortal throne, he inevitably sought godhood.
And if Hiruzen took the bait—harvesting Tailed Beast chakra signatures and fortifying his physical hardware according to Black Zetsu's encrypted instructions...
Even without the Gedo Statue, and even if the gathered Tailed Beast chakra were merely qualitative samples rather than the full entities...
So long as the multi-tailed chakra fusion reached critical mass and Hiruzen's physical vessel met the requisite structural tolerance...
Black Zetsu could deploy the hidden trump card gifted to him by Kaguya, implanting an esoteric seal directly into Hiruzen's core. This would allow Mother sealed within the lunar core to resonate with the vessel, using the Hokage's physical hardware to descend upon the mortal realm!
Resurrecting Mother required two core prerequisites:
First, a sacrificial host vessel possessing immense physical durability to endure the catastrophic pressures of her divine descent.
Second, a sufficient threshold of Tailed Beast chakra or the Gedo Statue to serve as the spiritual anchor for her awakening consciousness.
Executing this protocol meant Mother would not immediately command her full, uninhibited divine power, as the Infinite Tsukuyomi would not be cast.
Yet against a withered, decrepit Madara and an era devoid of active Six Paths reincarnations, the rest of the shinobi world were mere insects. Mother's raw, baseline divinity would be more than sufficient to achieve total continental pacification.
Without the Rinnegan, Hiruzen Sarutobi would possess zero administrative firewalls against Mother's spiritual overwrite.
It was a guaranteed speedrun to victory!
The aesthetic presentation would be slightly imperfect, but structural efficiency trumped elegance.
Furthermore, Black Zetsu considered that he could defect at a moment's notice.
If Madara proved entirely useless, he could simply deliver the Gedo Statue straight to Hiruzen Sarutobi. The Hokage commanded an absurd roster of elite research assets; they would happily assist him in weaponizing the husk to accelerate his cultivation!
Still, I cannot place blind faith in Hiruzen's developmental capacity, Black Zetsu cautioned himself, stabilizing his focus.
His comprehension of Kekkei Mora was drawn from Mother's subconscious memories—vague, fragmented, and lacking technical granular detail.
He could only pray that Hiruzen was truly an unprecedented generational genius, capable of deriving a stable integration method from incomplete, cryptic annotations to harmonize multiple Tailed Beast chakra streams.
It is worth a gamble! At worst, it serves as an expendable side bet.
Whether it is Madara or Hiruzen who ascends, I do not care.
My sole mandate is to resurrect Mother...
Mother, I miss you so deeply...
Within the pitch-black cavern, illuminated by a single flickering ember, Black Zetsu channeled a millennium of filial yearning, gazing in the direction of the moon.
He knew that if he missed this operational window with Madara, Mother's resurrection roadmap would be delayed by centuries.
Detecting the cognitive drift in Madara's mindset, Black Zetsu was running out of runway. With only one definitive strike opportunity, he needed redundant avenues of approach.
Hiruzen Sarutobi...
Perhaps you are a divine blessing delivered to me by Mother. For a mere mortal to scale this height is proof enough.
Black Zetsu offered a silent prayer.
His ideal scenario was for Konoha to establish total continental hegemony under Madara's indirect pressure, rounding up the Tailed Beasts like livestock, only for Hiruzen's refined body to serve as the ultimate sacrificial vessel.
Come to think of it, Hiruzen's operational velocity was infinitely superior to Madara's; at the very least, he didn't require fifty years to execute a basic policy change.
"No time to lose."
"I must deploy to the Uchiha shrine tonight!"
Black Zetsu bowed respectfully toward Madara: "Lord Madara, I request authorization to deploy to Konoha. Did you not mention using Obito to stress-test Hiruzen Sarutobi? I wish to audit the White Zetsu field operations in that sector."
"Mm."
Madara flicked his wrist. "Proceed."
That very night, Black Zetsu infiltrated the subterranean shrine beneath the Naka Shrine, rewriting the inscriptions upon the Stone Tablet of the Sage of Six Paths.
This time, the text was deliberately engineered to bypass the traditional Mangekyou Sharingan decryption barrier.
Black Zetsu submerged himself silently beneath the stone altar.
The moment an Uchiha operative approached, the monument would emit an anomalous chakra radiance, exposing the newly edited scripture, compelling the clan to escalate the intelligence directly to Hiruzen Sarutobi.
In many respects, Black Zetsu, much like A-Huo, had developed an intimate understanding of Konoha's bureaucratic machinery, thoroughly anticipating the tiered reporting protocols of the Konoha High Commission.
Kumogakure.
The Fourth Raikage, A, brought his massive fist crashing down upon the executive conference table, his voice thick with unbridled fury: "Father, we have zero choice! We must mobilize against Konoha immediately!"
The Third Raikage nodded slowly, narrowing his eyes.
Though a titan of unmatched physical constitution, he was an executive who balanced raw kinetic power with sharp geopolitical calculation: "Soragakure's sudden raid against Konoha was completely outside our strategic forecasting."
"Call it an attack?! That was Soragakure rushing forward to hand their entire R&D portfolio to Konoha on a silver platter!"
A shouted, his veins bulging with frustration. "Even if Soragakure's core research data wasn't surrendered cleanly, Konoha's labs possess the reverse-engineering capacity to reconstruct their entire aerospace pipeline simply from the downed wreckage!"
"Those wretched sky-ninjas! Why didn't they target Kumogakure?! If they had dared strike our airspace, Killer B would have blasted half their fleet out of the clouds with Tailed Beast Balls! With our industrial base, we could have established a dedicated aerial division within three years!"
A was practically salivating over the lost opportunity.
Kumogakure possessed an institutional doctrine centered on aggressively acquiring the secret jutsu of minor hidden villages. However, executing unprovoked cross-border raids too frequently drew immense diplomatic friction.
Iwagakure routinely deployed intervention forces under the pretext of defending regional sovereignty, using the chaos to secure allied border buffer states and hijack resources.
Yet had Soragakure initiated an unprovoked raid against Kumogakure...
They could have swallowed their entire tech stack with absolute moral and legal legitimacy!
In A's operational calculus, while every Kumogakure shinobi was a brother-in-arms, absorbing casualties to secure flight technology was a trade with an immense positive ROI.
After all, both he and his father would have led the vanguard from the front lines, leaving their tactical conscience completely clear.
"That is Konoha, after all," the Third Raikage sighed, gesturing for his son to lower his voice. "The cradle of the God of Shinobi and the Ghost of the Uchiha, home to dozens of millennial clans. A minor village seeking to forge a continental brand will always target the market leader to maximize their public prestige. Did Hanzo of the Salamander not pursue the exact same strategy in his early campaigns?"
"Even our own coalition doctrines reflect this. Every time a Great Shinobi War erupts, the surrounding hidden villages establish temporary coordination protocols, attempting to carve out market share from Konoha and the Land of Fire."
"It is no exaggeration to say that securing even a single sector of Konoha's clan IP or proprietary ninjutsu would sustain our village's growth for five years, to say nothing of the Land of Fire's boundless agricultural and mineral wealth."
A gritted his teeth, nodding begrudgingly.
The geopolitical math was undeniable. Had he been the supreme commander of Soragakure, he too would have targeted Konoha to execute an immediate, all-or-nothing brand breakthrough.
"Yet your core assessment is correct," the Third Raikage noted, his tone turning severe. "Konoha's development velocity is deeply alarming."
"Audits from our Anbu reconnaissance units indicate that the baseline combat effectiveness of standard Konoha shinobi has scaled noticeably compared to previous cycles. Their tactical cohesion and survival metrics have seen measurable optimization."
"Konoha's Anbu and Root divisions have become exceptionally lethal firewalls, now bolstered by field assets from the Kurama, Hyuga, and Uchiha clans. This proves Hiruzen Sarutobi has resolved the complex internal friction that historically plagued their governance."
"Furthermore, their operational posture has shifted radically. They dismantled Kusagakure with surgical precision without absorbing an ounce of diplomatic blowback, while somehow forging a joint cooperative pact with Amegakure, securing their northern border with an impenetrable buffer."
A's expression darkened.
Standing nearby, Dodai added with deep concern: "Lord Raikage, that 'Sovereign Sage Pill' Konoha rolled out has demonstrated an almost addictive market capture rate among the nobility of the Land of Lightning."
"For now, we have maintained a strict trade embargo under joint edicts from the Hidden Village and the Daimyo. However, the nobility's biological demand for vitality and longevity cannot be legislated away. Long-term containment will become increasingly untenable."
"Smuggling rings have already breached our borders along the Rain frontier. Several noble houses were caught executing off-market transactions, and some were even running underground distribution channels. The Daimyo has issued executions, but the economic pressure is mounting."
Dodai's brow furrowed into deep ridges.
The vitality yield provided by the Sovereign Sage Pills held a lethal, near-monopolistic attraction for the feudal ruling class.
Following Konoha's strategic partnership with Amegakure, the Land of Rain—traditionally a war-torn, miserable buffer zone—had transformed overnight into Konoha's northern industrial wall and commercial trade hub, flooding the continent with high-margin pharmaceutical exports.
"Konoha's economic statecraft is terrifying. Hiruzen Sarutobi is an exceptionally formidable Hokage."
"The strategic threat posed by these Sovereign Sage Pills is by no means inferior to forbidden jutsu like the Edo Tensei or Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags. To think Senju Tobirama could train a disciple who excels so thoroughly in daylight statecraft and economic siege..."
The Third Raikage clicked his tongue.
The playbook was infuriatingly difficult to counter.
Had Hiruzen Sarutobi operated with Tobirama's trademark underhanded malice, the Raikage would have found it far simpler to mount a coalition counter-offensive.
Yet the Sovereign Sage Pill was a legitimate, peerless pharmaceutical commodity. The nobility's consumer demand was completely organic. Maintaining the import ban had only been possible because the Land of Lightning's Daimyo maintained an unusually tight, harmonious partnership with Kumogakure.
"We cannot permit Konoha to maintain this growth trajectory. We must engineer a crisis to disrupt their economic rhythm," the Third Raikage declared after heavy deliberation.
"Shall we strike first?" A demanded instinctively.
"Absolutely not. Whichever village initiates the kinetic engagement will absorb Konoha's most ferocious, concentrated retaliation. The nail that sticks out gets hammered down. The optimal scenario is for Iwagakure, Sunagakure, or Kirigakure to breach their borders first."
Dodai shook his head wryly: "Unfortunately, their executive councils are likely running the exact same strategic calculus."
The Third Raikage let out a long sigh.
Historically speaking, during the First Great Shinobi War following Hashirama's passing, had the four rival hidden villages maintained absolute corporate unity against Konoha, they possessed a legitimate window to liquidate their greatest competitor.
Yet such alignment was pure fantasy. At best, the four villages could maintain a loose, fragile non-aggression pact during the opening weeks of a campaign.
The moment the front lines shifted—the second Konoha held the line, or one of the coalition partners exposed an unprotected flank—backstabbing, land-grabbing, and cannibalization erupted instantly, devolving the conflict into a continental free-for-all.
Every single hidden village carried blood debts against the others!
It was only because Konoha had historically birthed Madara Uchiha and commanded the richest territory on the continent that an initial coalition was even conceivable.
"Maintain a posture of strategic observation."
"If within two years—no, within eighteen months—no other village initiates kinetic action, I will personally initiate backchannel summits with Onoki!"
The Third Raikage narrowed his eyes with fierce resolve: "I am confident that stubborn old dwarf is reaching the exact same conclusion. If we delay until Konoha births another Madara Uchiha, or an unhinged version of Hashirama Senju, the board is permanently lost."
"Furthermore, under Hiruzen Sarutobi's boiling-frog economic strategy, we won't even need to wait for a generational combat anomaly. The sheer economic disparity will permanently price us out of the market."
Kumogakure—and indeed, the entire shinobi ecosystem—operated on the absolute law of the jungle: the weak surrendered everything.
Within the distorted logic of this world, Konoha's internal prosperity and an unprovoked invasion against their borders were, in practical terms, completely indistinguishable threats.
Dodai looked upon the Third Raikage with boundless reverence.
This was their Kage.
For the village's overarching survival, he was willing to temporarily shelve generations of bitter blood feud with Iwagakure...
Even if both sides would inevitably tear up the treaty the moment an operational advantage presented itself.
Iwagakure.
High within the Tsuchikage's stone tower, Onoki and Kitsuchi had just concluded a strategic briefing that mirrored the Cloud's executive summit with chilling precision.
"If within eighteen months no other party breaches their borders, I will swallow my pride and schedule an emergency summit with that brute from the Cloud!"
"Understood, Father!"
Sunagakure.
Within the wind-swept council chambers, the operational climate was vastly different.
"Why must we mobilize against Konoha?! Have we not ratified a formal non-aggression treaty?!"
"We could pursue joint development with Konoha, precisely like Amegakure! Rasa, your strategic posture is recklessly aggressive! The economic devastation from the last Great War has yet to be amortized on our balance sheets!"
Pakura slammed her hand onto the table, her voice ringing with outrage as she clashed with Rasa, who shared the hardline interventionist stance of Onoki and the Third Raikage.
Following the Kusagakure intervention, where Konoha had repatriated foreign shinobi rather than executing mass internment, Pakura had developed a keen analytical interest in the leaf's operational reforms.
As Sunagakure's tireless, frontline workhorse, constantly deployed on high-risk missions, Pakura had monitored Amegakure's radical transformation following their bilateral partnership with Konoha: massive hydrological infrastructure, surging village budgets, and modernized civic development.
In her strategic assessment, the Sand possessed immense runway to pursue a similar cooperative framework.
"You are laughably naive, Pakura!"
"Hanzo of the Rain has already launched an international PR blitz blaming Sunagakure for instigating the Second Great War! Konoha's frontline corps view us with absolute hostility, and your strategic thinking is as childish as an unranked Genin's!"
Rasa slammed his palm down, his Magnet Release causing metallic dust to vibrate against the mahogany surface as he sneered: "You genuinely believe bilateral cooperation exists in the shinobi world? Let me inform you: whatever resources Amegakure is feasting on today will be extracted tenfold by Konoha tomorrow!"
"To place your faith in an inter-village partnership... how did you ever pass your Jonin evaluation? Were it not for your battlefield record, I would submit an immediate internal affairs audit on suspicion of you serving as a Konoha intelligence asset!"
"Do you comprehend the catastrophic economic drain Konoha's Sovereign Sage Pills represent to our sovereign territory? The noble houses of the Land of Wind are liquidating family assets to secure those shipments! That capital belongs in Sunagakure's military budget, yet Hiruzen Sarutobi is siphoning our national liquidity dry!"
Unlike the Cloud and the Stone, the relationship between Sunagakure and the feudal nobility of the Land of Wind was notoriously toxic.
To keep village operations solvent, Rasa was routinely forced to deploy his specialized Magnet Release into the scorching dunes, panning for gold dust simply to cover basic payroll.
The Third Kazekage watched the confrontation with glacial, detached eyes.
He stood firmly behind Rasa.
His backing was rooted in simple, bitter economics. Having observed Konoha's aggressive family-planning subsidies, the Kazekage had attempted to launch an identical population-growth initiative within the Sand, only to be met with complete apathy from his shinobi.
The desert climate was brutally unforgiving, and the Kazekage had offered zero financial capital, relying entirely on hollow, patriotic rhetoric.
Shinobi were not fools; they refused to run their households into bankruptcy for slogans.
Yet within the upper echelon, Rasa, desperate to capture the Kazekage's executive favor, had struck gold in the dunes while fathering a third child with his wife, Karura. He had christened the infant Gaara, openly pledging to convert his own newborn into the village's ultimate biological weapon: the next Jinchuriki of the One-Tail!
He had pledged to subject his own flesh and blood to the most ruthless conditioning imaginable, all for the glory of Sunagakure.
Such a display was performative and extreme, yet in the desperate, starving sands of the Wind, it was the exact hardline currency the Third Kazekage valued.
"Pakura, your geopolitical vision is far too simplistic," the Third Kazekage dismissed coldly.
Elder Chiyo nodded in agreement. Both her son and daughter-in-law had fallen beneath the blade of Sakumo Hatake; as an old-school operative, the concept of aligning with Konoha was ideologically repulsive.
Sunagakure was a Great Hidden Village. To bend the knee and accept the status of a commercial vassal to Konoha was an unacceptable surrender of sovereignty.
Sitting silently in the shadows beside Chiyo, young Sasori observed the shouting match with cold, dead eyes, letting out a soft, mocking sneer: "Utterly pointless."
Sasori was reaching the absolute limit of his patience with Sunagakure's endless, cannibalistic internal friction.
Recently, he had begun running feasibility studies on assassinating the incompetent Third Kazekage.
In Sasori's forensic analysis, it was the Kazekage's complete operational incompetence that had driven his parents to their deaths on the front lines. Furthermore, Amegakure's public documentation detailing the origin of the Second Great War had reached his ears.
That catastrophic war had been initiated by the Third Kazekage himself!
An executive who launched a theater war wasn't inherently evil, but an executive who launched a war and lost catastrophically was definitively incompetent.
What Sasori remained unaware of, however, was that he had already been flagged on the threat matrix of the shinobi world's supreme shadow operative.
Madara Uchiha intended to personally recruit him in the coming months, utilizing Sasori as a high-value asset to covertly destabilize Sunagakure's political architecture.
"Rasa, you will run this village into total ruin!" Pakura slammed the table one final time, her eyes burning with fury after absorbing the council's coordinated verbal barrage.
"Pakura, I am the operative who stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Lord Kazekage!" Rasa countered without yielding an inch. "Mind your operational hierarchy!"
Pakura glared at him with undisguised contempt, completely ignoring the scowls of Chiyo and the Kazekage as she turned on her heel, storming out of the council chambers.
The Third Kazekage narrowed his eyes, tracking her exit with silent disdain before turning back to Rasa: "Rasa, once your child reaches baseline biological stability, we must proceed with the sealing integration to anchor the One-Tail's power."
"The monk Bunpuku refused to cooperate with village leadership unto his dying breath. The One-Tail remains contained within the ancient tea kettle of the Wind Temple. Sunagakure cannot afford to let its primary strategic deterrent sit idle."
"Never forget: our Tailed Beast was not purchased with gold from Konoha; it was captured through the peerless might of Lord Reto! We will never squander the sacred heritage left behind by the First Kazekage."
"Your operational alignment is commendable, far more reassuring than those who lack basic institutional gratitude. You possess the strategic mindset required of a Kazekage."
Rasa snapped to attention instantly, his voice echoing with disciplined devotion: "I exist solely to lift the burdens from Lord Kazekage's shoulders!"
Following the adjournment of the council, Rasa walked the windswept streets toward his estate, a cruel, predatory smirk curling the corners of his lips.
Pakura, that foolish woman, was the primary bottleneck obstructing my path to the Fourth Kazekage seat.
I had harbored minor concerns regarding her immense popularity among the frontline corps. Yet she chose to execute her own political suicide, babbling about bilateral cooperation with Konoha. Utterly pathetic.
She walked directly into the crosshairs of both Lord Kazekage and Elder Chiyo. The Kazekage's final remarks were an explicit operational signal: Pakura has been permanently removed from the line of succession!
A ruthless glimmer flashed within Rasa's eyes.
Removal from the board is insufficient. If I assume the mantle of Fourth Kazekage, that stubborn fool will continuously obstruct my administrative directives. I must engineer a scenario to ensure her permanent liquidation on the battlefield. Once a general war erupts, catastrophic combat accidents occur all the time...
The Kazekage will not raise an objection.
I have already sacrificed my own son, Gaara, on the altar of the Sand. My institutional loyalty is beyond question!
Sunagakure had descended into a horrifying spiral of internal cannibalism.
Rasa, Pakura, Chiyo, Sasori, and the Third Kazekage...
Every key asset within the village command structure was operating under completely divergent, self-serving agendas.
Yet while the continent trembled under mounting geopolitical fault lines, Konohagakure continued its relentless, disciplined internal expansion, as if the surrounding world were bathed in tranquil, uninterrupted peace.
Two months later.
Kakuzu, coated in road dust, returned to Konoha from his overseas procurement run.
Tucked securely within his sealed transport scrolls were the long-awaited Kekkei Genkai biological samples Sakumo Hatake and Fugaku Uchiha had been waiting for!
☆☆☆
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