Ninja × A New Path

The night was deep, but the light in the top-floor office of the Hokage building was still on.

Hashirama Senju sighed over the documents on his desk, full of wrangling over the division of clan territories. His head kept nodding, nearly hitting the tabletop.

Just as his mind wandered for the umpteenth time and he began wondering what to eat for breakfast tomorrow, the window opened without warning. A figure carrying the chill of the night wind landed silently inside.

Hashirama jerked his head up. When he saw who it was, a goofy grin immediately spread across his face. "Madara? It's so late... Huh? Why do you look like that?"

Madara wore neither his usual gloom nor his usual cold severity. Instead, he was smiling, as if he were holding back tremendous excitement.

The smile was faint, yet like a hidden fire surging beneath ice, it lit his handsome face with dazzling brilliance. The familiar gloom in his eyes and brows had given way to that searing brightness, and even his cold, hard features seemed softened by his silent delight, a breathtaking beauty blooming in the stillness.

Hashirama had only ever seen that expression on Madara's face on the battlefield.

What had made Madara so excited?

"Hashirama." Madara handed him the scroll he was gripping tightly. "Take a look at this."

Hashirama blinked, looking from Madara's unusually excited yet serious face to the scroll. His curiosity was thoroughly piqued.

His drowsiness vanished. He sat up straight and carefully unrolled the scroll.

"Draft Proposal for the Uchiha Clan's Council-Based Management and Optimization"—the title met his eyes.

"Planning to set your clan in order?" Hashirama asked casually, beginning to scan the contents.

At first, like Madara before him, he thought it was merely a set of ideas for improving the clan's internal affairs.

But soon, his gaze froze.

As Hashirama read on, the ease and casualness on his face quickly receded like the tide.

His brow furrowed more and more deeply, yet his breathing grew softer without his realizing it. His fingers unconsciously traced the neat but sharp-edged writing on the scroll.

He read slowly, exceptionally slowly.

He reread every paragraph, and even certain sentences, several times over.

A long silence settled over the office, broken only by their quiet breathing and the occasional distant chirping of insects outside the window.

Madara did not rush him. He simply stood there, watching Hashirama's face intently, not missing the slightest change in his expression.

He watched Hashirama's curiosity give way to surprise, then gravity, and finally to a kind of... shock and contemplation, as though he had been struck by some grand vision.

At last, Hashirama slowly raised his head.

His eyes, like Madara's, were astonishingly bright, but their light was more like that of someone who had glimpsed a magnificent dream, pure and blazing.

"Madara..." Hashirama began, his voice a little hoarse. He asked excitedly, "Did Izuna write this?"

"Yes." Madara nodded firmly, his voice low. "Just now, in my study."

"This... This is..."

Hashirama seemed unable to find the right words. He stood and paced back and forth across the office, head lowered as he stared at the scroll in his hands, his steps a little hurried. "This is more than just clan management! The things in here... shared decision-making, checks on power, fair distribution of resources, valuing individual talent rather than just bloodlines... and 'organizational culture' and 'adapting to a new environment'..."

He stopped abruptly and turned to face Madara, his eyes so fervent they seemed about to burst into flame. "This isn't just about making the Uchiha Clan better! Madara! This way of thinking, this system! What if we expanded it to the whole of Konoha? What if we applied it to this 'village' we're trying to build?!"

Madara could no longer contain himself and smiled with pride.

Hashirama was indeed Hashirama. What he saw first was not the impact the draft would have on power within the Uchiha Clan, but what it suggested about the future shape of the entire "ninja community."

"Look here." Hashirama pointed to the section of the draft on the composition of the "council," his finger trembling slightly with excitement. "The clan elders represent experience and tradition, the heads of each field represent expertise and execution, and there are representatives of ordinary clansmen too... ordinary people!"

"I've been thinking all along about how to make a place for ordinary people. I've always felt they could be a very powerful force, but I didn't know what to do."

Hashirama's eyes shone. "Now I know!"

"No longer judging solely by blood ties and seniority, but by contributions, potential, and ability! Madara, if Konoha could establish rules like these, then every talented ninja, even ordinary people, would have a chance to stand out, no matter which clan they came from, or even if they had no clan at all!"

"That's how we can truly break down the barriers between clans! That's how the identity of a Konoha Ninja can truly rise above that of a clan ninja!"

Hashirama spoke faster and faster, the excitement on his face almost overflowing. "And there's the approach to external relations. It's not simply confrontation or dependence, but cooperation and competition based on assessing interests and controlling risks... That's much more sophisticated than the exchange of interests and mutual military deterrence through the distribution of Tailed Beasts that we thought of before!"

He looked sharply at Madara, his eyes frighteningly bright. "Madara! This is... it's like lighting the brightest lamp on the path we've been trying to find! Izuna is amazing!"

Madara looked at his dear friend, who could barely contain his excitement, while great waves surged in his own heart.

Hashirama's reaction confirmed his judgment—the value of this draft extended far beyond improving the internal workings of a single clan.

"Hashirama." Madara's voice was low. "Izuna... made me think of a few things."

"Hashirama, we founded Konoha to end the wars, to keep children off the battlefield, and to let ninja live in peace. That wasn't wrong."

Madara's voice held an unusual calm. "But it seems we've always been using the ways of 'ninja' to solve the problems of 'ninja.'"

"Forming alliances, dividing up interests, balancing power, and relying on our prestige and military strength to maintain peace..."

He raised his eyes to Hashirama. "But is that really a way forward? What happens when we're gone? When the next generation, and the one after that, no longer have the power of a Hashirama Senju and a Madara Uchiha to deter everyone?"

"Will Konoha turn back into an alliance of ninja clans riddled with internal strife? Will the other nations gang up and attack it?"

"In the past six months, Kirigakure has already appeared in the Land of Water. Similar ninja alliances will surely appear in the Land of Lightning, the Land of Earth, and the Land of Wind too."

"We discussed this before, and we never found a solution."

"Now Izuna has offered his ideas, and they can solve the problem. But I suddenly realized... what Izuna provided isn't just a proposal sufficient to govern a ninja village, but one for governing a country."

The excitement on Hashirama's face faded a little, and he grew serious.

"This draft of Izuna's," Madara said, pointing to the scroll on the desk, "points to an entirely different path."

"It doesn't rely on the absolute strength of a 'Hokage' or a clan. It's a set of rules. Rules that don't depend on individual military strength, but are based on reason, cooperation, fairness, and shared interests. Those rules themselves can generate power, maintain order, and promote development."

Madara lowered his voice. "Hashirama, even if these rules were truly put into practice only in a small village like Konoha, they would still be a tremendous threat to the daimyo of the Land of Fire and to the existing order."

The excitement in Hashirama's eyes cooled a little, as if doused with ice water, but his gaze remained stubborn, with a hint of unwillingness to give in.

"I understand what you mean, Madara," Hashirama said slowly. "It would threaten too many people's interests. The clan elders would resent having their power dispersed, the great clans would be wary of losing their advantages, and the daimyo and nobles who are used to treating ninja as tools would do everything they could to stand in our way."

"That's right." Madara nodded. "Opposition would come from every direction. Simply implementing the policies could bring Konoha crashing down."

Hashirama fell silent.

But only a moment later, he raised his head and looked at Madara.

His gaze was clear and firm, even holding an almost naive persistence. "But, Madara, this is the right thing to do, isn't it?"

"To keep children away from the battlefield, to give ninja dignity, to let people from different clans live together like true comrades...

"Wasn't that why we founded Konoha in the first place?"

"We can't give up just because we meet resistance."

Madara looked at his dear friend's eyes, where the fire of his ideals always burned. The faint smile returned to his lips, this time touched with helplessness and indulgence, but even more with agreement.

"Yeah, that's right." Madara's voice was quiet, but his words rang with conviction. "It's the right thing to do."

Because it was right, it was all the harder—and all the more reason to see it through.