Madara Uchiha

Madara Uchiha.

Black Zetsu had never imagined this visitor.

Compared to Shirou Emiya, Madara Uchiha was a pawn Black Zetsu had intended to discard. It had never expected that pawn to find this place at a time like this.

This seemed...

A little wrong...

Madara Uchiha could not possibly know it, nor could he possibly know Shirou Emiya. Why had he come here at this exact moment?

In theory...

Madara Uchiha really should not have come here.

In reality...

Madara Uchiha had a reason he had to come.

When Madara Uchiha secretly went to Konoha Hospital to visit Hashirama Senju, he had overheard a conversation inside.

Hashirama Senju, who had originally been resting alone, was sitting on the hospital bed. His wife, Mito Uzumaki, sat properly beside him. The relationship between the couple was very harmonious.

This couple...

Had something of a respectful, courteous relationship.

After all, Hashirama Senju waking up could not possibly be hidden from his wife.

Tobirama Senju also held his sister-in-law Mito Uzumaki in considerable respect. The moment Hashirama Senju regained consciousness, he immediately sent someone to notify Mito Uzumaki, who was guarding and watching over the Nine-Tails at Konoha Back Mountain, so she would no longer have to worry about her elder brother-in-law's condition.

Mito Uzumaki knew her husband's condition. By her estimation, he should have awakened much later. Afraid that Hashirama Senju might suffer an accident after waking early, she hurried to Konoha Hospital, intending to learn the state of her husband's health before returning to guard the Nine-Tails.

At this point...

There was nothing wrong.

Mito Uzumaki had always respected and understood her husband Hashirama Senju. She knew that the friendship between her husband and Madara Uchiha was like that of blood brothers.

When Mito Uzumaki arrived at Konoha Hospital, she noticed that Hashirama Senju was suffering over having personally killed Madara Uchiha and hoped to persuade her husband to let go of this burden.

Actually...

Before Madara Uchiha tried to destroy Konoha...

Mito Uzumaki had never thought badly of him.

As Hashirama Senju's wife, Mito Uzumaki had never disliked her husband's friend, Madara Uchiha. She had always respected her husband's friend and had long known well of the deep friendship between Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju.

Naturally.

The couple began talking about Madara Uchiha.

Hashirama Senju was straightforward by nature and did not hide his thoughts.

Facing his wife, the man spoke of the resolve that had arisen during his life-and-death battle with Madara Uchiha. He told her of his resolve that, in order to protect Konoha, he had no choice but to kill Madara Uchiha.

"At that moment..."

"I knew I had to kill Madara..."

"I had to be willing to pay any price to protect Konoha..."

"Even if it was my friend, even if it was my brother, even if it was my child, this was the resolve born from protecting the village..."

"Compared to the will to protect Konoha, the friendship between Madara and me was no longer important. He would never understand my determination to protect the village..."

"..."

Outside the room, Madara Uchiha listened with an icy expression.

"..."

Inside the room, Mito Uzumaki frowned as she listened.

Because she had been responsible for guarding the Nine-Tails that Hashirama Senju had brought back, Mito Uzumaki had expended an enormous amount of Chakra, and her mind was faintly exhausted as well.

Besides that...

Her husband had remained gravely wounded and unconscious...

All of this had left Mito Uzumaki mentally drained.

Yet even so, the ever-resilient Mito Uzumaki forced herself through the exhaustion and tried her best to consider whether her husband's way of thinking was appropriate.

"Willing to sacrifice everything to protect the village?"

There was unease on Mito Uzumaki's face. She knew that during the time Madara Uchiha had left Konoha, her husband had regretted their friendship countless times.

Precisely because of that.

Mito Uzumaki was worried about his state.

To protect the village, could anything be abandoned?

Hashirama Senju's friends, Hashirama Senju's brothers, Hashirama Senju's children—these were all people Hashirama Senju had once desperately wanted to protect.

To protect Madara Uchiha...

Hashirama Senju had argued countless times with his younger brother Tobirama Senju. Because of the friendship they had formed in childhood, he had never been willing to deal a killing blow to Madara Uchiha during the Warring States Period.

To protect Tobirama Senju...

Hashirama Senju had once nearly killed himself in front of Madara Uchiha.

Now...

To protect Konoha...

To protect this village...

Her husband had chosen to sacrifice the people he had once desperately protected.

Yet when everyone had built Konoha together, had it not been so these people could be better protected from the suffering of war?

Hashirama Senju's thoughts...

Made Mito Uzumaki feel that something was not quite right.

However, Mito Uzumaki had recently consumed too much Chakra. In her exhausted state, she could not immediately determine the tangled right and wrong in those words.

"Hashirama."

Mito Uzumaki furrowed her brow, unable to make sense of it. Then she thought of a terrifying question. "If we are willing to pay any price to protect the village, then what should we do if one day that price becomes so painful that none of us can accept it?"

"..."

Hashirama Senju hesitated for only an instant.

Yet Hashirama Senju recalled that he had personally killed his close friend Madara Uchiha to protect Konoha. That had been a choice even more painful to him than sacrificing his own life!

"A painful price?"

Hashirama Senju lowered his head and gave his answer with pain and determination. "If it is to protect Konoha, then there is no price that cannot be accepted, right?"

"..."

Mito Uzumaki suddenly realized the terrifying part.

This way of thinking...

Seemed far too terrifying!

If Hashirama Senju's will were passed down one day, then in a future Hashirama Senju could not see, what would happen to Konoha?

When people imagined a price...

The first thing they thought of was their own life.

Someone might sacrifice their life for the so-called protection of Konoha.

Such a person would surely become a hero revered by tens of thousands in Konoha.

And then...

The price would continue to rise...

Because there truly were prices in this world more painful than sacrificing one's own life.

Comrades bound by life and death.

Someone might kill their own friend for the so-called protection of Konoha.

Such a person might indeed appear to have protected the village, but after killing their friend, could they wash away the blood of that friend stained upon their hands?

Uh...

That would not happen.

Under normal circumstances, that would not happen.

Hashirama Senju had killed his friend Madara Uchiha only because Madara Uchiha had controlled the Nine-Tails in an attempt to destroy Konoha and kill the people in the village. Madara Uchiha's cruel act was also unforgivable to Mito Uzumaki.

What other price could there be?

For example, family members one lived with day and night.

Someone might kill their own family for the so-called protection of Konoha.

Uh...

That could not happen.

Konoha's future could not possibly become so terrible.

Even in the war-torn Warring States Period, apart from profit, the purpose of ninja conflict had been to protect one's relatives. No one could possibly harm their own family.

Mito Uzumaki's moral views were still quite simple. Her imagination soon came to an abrupt end, and she felt that perhaps she had been thinking too much lately.

"I must be thinking too much..."

Mito Uzumaki sighed and did not mention the subject again.

"You must be too exhausted..."

Hashirama Senju saw the weariness on his wife's face and softly asked about the Nine-Tails. "I was worried that the Nine-Tails would cause trouble, so I brought it back to the village. Has it been behaving?"

"...More or less."

Mito Uzumaki thought of that big fox who loved causing trouble.

Mito Uzumaki knew Konoha could not keep the Nine-Tails sealed at the village's back mountain forever. The Nine-Tails' power was too great, and sooner or later they would have to solve this troublesome problem.

"If you insist on sealing the Nine-Tails, keeping it sealed at Konoha Back Mountain is not safe. It could break free of the seal any day..."

Mito Uzumaki supported her husband and was willing to sacrifice herself for his ideals. "The only safe method is to seal the Nine-Tails inside me as soon as possible. Only the unique Chakra of our Uzumaki Clan can seal it completely..."

"If that's the case..."

"The Nine-Tails might become even more violent, right?"

"If there is even the slightest flaw in the seal, the Nine-Tails will wreak havoc in the village..."

After saying this, Hashirama Senju spoke with some guilt. "If that's the case, then you, with the Nine-Tails inside you, might be seen by the people of the village as an unsafe factor..."

"From now on..."

Mito Uzumaki lowered her voice slightly.

"I will try not to show myself in the village."

"I'm sorry..."

"It's all right..."

The couple in the hospital room still seemed as harmonious as ever.

"..."

Outside the hospital room, Madara Uchiha, who had been single for a long time, found the conversation between Hashirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki somewhat boring and was already planning to slip away.

However...

One sentence caught Madara Uchiha's attention.

"Come to think of it..."

"The doctor Tobirama found is really strange..."

"Their identity is so mysterious that even it has been hidden from me. But their medical skills are truly remarkable, so I do not need to worry too much..."

"..."

Madara Uchiha quietly departed.

What a perfect coincidence.

Madara Uchiha now believed that he, too, needed a doctor to help him perform a transplant of Hashirama Senju's flesh and blood.

Conveniently...

This would kill two birds with one stone.

If this mysterious doctor who knew of Hashirama Senju's condition disappeared, it would certainly cause panic throughout Konoha, because Hashirama Senju's condition was Konoha's top secret.

Such a secret...

Would inevitably tie up Tobirama Senju's attention.

As long as this mysterious doctor could not be found, he would be a blade hanging in the air, because he might reveal to the Shinobi World that Hashirama Senju had only ten years left to live.

Tobirama Senju would have no mind to study the "corpse" he had left in that Secret Chamber. He would surely mobilize the Konoha Ninja to search with all their strength for the doctor's whereabouts, while also focusing all his remaining energy on resolving Konoha's internal problems within the next ten years.

As for after abducting that doctor...

The matter of his old friend Hashirama Senju having only ten years left to live...

Madara Uchiha stood outside Shirou Emiya's house, looking at the swaying candlelight by the window. A mocking sneer appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"Hmph..."

"Hashirama..."

"Compared to the goal I desire, our friendship was never that important..."

"Hashirama."

"I have already made up my mind..."

"To kill you in order to achieve my goal..."