The Truth Behind It All

"Look past appearances and see the truth."

"Going by the results, after the First Kage Summit, Konoha gained..."

"First: [The vast sums of money and land earned by selling the seven Tailed Beasts gave Konoha the initial capital it needed to develop, freeing it from having to worry about the Daimyo's economic control.]"

"Second: [With its ally, the Uzumaki Clan, sealing the Tailed Beasts into Jinchuriki, Konoha had the most stable Jinchuriki. They were unlikely to lose control without outside interference.]"

"Third: [Konoha had the Uchiha Sharingan, which was naturally suited to controlling Tailed Beasts. Whether suppressing its own Tailed Beast or controlling another village's, Konoha had an inherent advantage.]"

"Fourth: [It planted a time bomb in the other five villages. Every Tailed Beast Rampage weakened the village it belonged to, indirectly strengthening Konoha.]"

"Huh?"

"There were that many benefits?"

Hashirama was stunned. It had never occurred to him that distributing the Tailed Beasts would bring Konoha so many advantages.

"Your brother probably figured all this out, too. He just didn't think it was a good idea to tell you."

"Tobirama, you knew all this?"

Hashirama turned to look at Tobirama, stunned all over again.

Tobirama's gaze shifted uneasily, but he still nodded in agreement.

The reason he hadn't completely opposed distributing the Tailed Beasts was partly because he wanted to honor his elder brother's wishes, but also because he'd recognized these advantages and had quietly helped push the plan forward.

And as a master of Forbidden Jutsu, he knew all too well how poor the other Ninja Villages were at Fuinjutsu. They wouldn't be able to use the Tailed Beasts' power successfully anytime soon, which was why he'd been comfortable with the distribution.

In fact, no one had used a Tailed Beast in battle during the First Shinobi World War.

"Oh no. Does that mean I was a swindler who deliberately deceived the other Kage?" Hashirama slumped, feeling a little miserable.

Tobirama even sounded unusually forceful as he said,

"Elder Brother, don't be naive! Do you think the other four Kage couldn't see the advantages? Do you really think they were won over by your ideals?"

"Then why did they accept?"

"With your strength, Elder Brother, could they really say no? Besides, you even bowed down and begged. If they still refused to show you some respect, would they dare go to war with you?"

Besides.

They were all the founders of Ninja Villages who had put an end to the wars in their own lands. Hashirama's strength might have been absurdly beyond the norm, but that didn't mean the other four Kage were useless.

They were founders, too. How could they be persuaded by a few words from Hashirama?

When all was said and done, they'd agreed because they believed the benefits their villages would gain from the distribution outweighed the costs.

"Huh?"

Hashirama stared with his mouth hanging open, feeling as though he were the only fool in the whole world.

"Wait, sir. If there were so many advantages, why did several Ninja World Wars break out afterward?"

Hashirama might have been a fool, but he wasn't stupid. He quickly picked up on the key point.

At that, Natsu Yuu could only sigh.

Distributing the Tailed Beasts wasn't the best possible solution, but it was still a pretty good one.

Those four advantages alone should have been enough for Konoha to sit back and wait for victory.

It had practically been dealt a perfect hand from the start.

But Konoha after the Second Hokage was beyond bizarre.

[Used the wars as an excuse to drain the Senju Clan of its members]

[Watched the entire Uzumaki Clan be wiped out]

[Engineered the Uchiha Clan's destruction]

[Let Fourth Hokage Minato die in battle, then treated the new Jinchuriki with hostility]

And so on...

If they'd simply refrained from doing even one of those things, the Third and Fourth Shinobi World Wars might never have happened.

Instead, Konoha had stepped into every trap, crippled itself, and practically raced toward its own destruction.

You had a hand holding four twos, four aces, four kings, and a joker, and you still managed to lose. Natsu Yuu couldn't make sense of it.

All he could say was: impressive.

Still.

The conflicts and events that lay ahead were too complicated to explain in a few words.

It would be clearer—and more convincing—to take Hashirama and the others to witness them for themselves later.

"The reasons are complicated, but the main issue was that the villages varied in how well they handled the drawbacks of distributing the Tailed Beasts."

"(O_O)?"

This time, not only Hashirama but even Tobirama failed to understand.

"What are the main drawbacks of distributing the Tailed Beasts?"

Natsu Yuu looked at Tobirama, who answered without hesitation.

"The immense power of the Tailed Beasts is a drawback in itself!"

"Exactly. More precisely, the drawbacks can be divided into external and internal factors."

"The external factor is other Ninja Villages controlling a Tailed Beast to attack. That isn't easy to do; they'd need a Perfect Jinchuriki, at the very least. Let's set that aside for now."

"The key is the internal factor: a Tailed Beast Rampage."

"Are Tailed Beast Rampages that hard to deal with?" Hashirama asked, puzzled. He hadn't captured any Tailed Beasts yet, so he only had a vague idea of their power.

But judging by Kinkaku, who had just transformed into a Tailed Beast, it seemed like, probably, maybe, they weren't much of a threat?

"The Tailed Beasts themselves aren't all that powerful. What makes them dangerous is their unique Tailed Beast Bomb."

Aside from the Eight-Tails and the Nine-Tails, the other Tailed Beasts really weren't very strong overall.

The Fourth Kazekage could suppress Shukaku, the One-Tail, all by himself. That showed how certain Kage-level shinobi with specialized strengths could defeat a Tailed Beast by exploiting its weaknesses.

But the Tailed Beasts had one ridiculously powerful strategic ability: the Tailed Beast Bomb.

A normally charged Tailed Beast Bomb could blow up an entire mountain. Across the entire world of Naruto, there were fewer than a handful of shinobi who could withstand that kind of power at close range.

So the most terrifying thing about a Tailed Beast wasn't riding it into an enemy village and wrecking the place.

It was controlling the beast from several or even dozens of kilometers away and quietly firing a Tailed Beast Bomb at your village.

In an instant, the whole village was done for!

It didn't matter how many elite shinobi you had or how many trump-card jutsu you could use.

Under a nuclear blast, everyone was equal.

That was what made it a true strategic weapon!

After the battle at the Valley of the End, why had Hashirama considered the Nine-Tails dangerous? It wasn't as if the beast's physical strength could stand up to his Sage Art Wood Golem.

Because he wasn't afraid of its physical strength. He'd seen Madara fire a Sword Tailed Beast Bomb that reached across the sea and blew apart a huge area!

That was what he'd feared: the possibility that the Nine-Tails would fire a Tailed Beast Bomb at Konoha, too.

That was why they'd used the Uzumaki Clan's most secure Fuinjutsu when they sealed the Tailed Beasts afterward.

Natsu Yuu pointed toward the distant area where Hashirama had just deflected the Tailed Beast Bomb. Its explosion had left the landscape in ruins.

Hashirama immediately understood.

If even a few explosions like that had caught Konoha off guard, the entire village would have ceased to exist in an instant.

"Something with that much power would certainly pose a tremendous threat to a village!"

"But after the Tailed Beasts were distributed, everyone had access to that kind of power. Wouldn't that create a balance of mutual deterrence...?"

Hashirama trailed off. The First Shinobi World War was already proving him wrong.

"Mutual deterrence has never stopped war. It can only delay war and make the casualties worse."

"I'm sure the Second Hokage understands that, right?"

Hashirama looked to his younger brother again.

"Tobirama, if you knew all that, why didn't you stop me?"

"Elder Brother, we had the Uzumaki sealing techniques, so our Jinchuriki were very stable. Even if a Tailed Beast Rampage did happen, we had the Sharingan to control the Tailed Beast—"

He almost said "the evil Uchiha," but caught himself.

"The village was, for the most part, safe!"

Tobirama defended himself. He had never hidden his wariness of the Uchiha.

But he also understood just how powerful the Sharingan was, especially after seeing Madara tame the Nine-Tails until it was as docile as a cat.

That was why he had pushed through the opposition and taken Kagami Uchiha on as one of his personal guards.

On the one hand, he valued Kagami's convictions and hoped he could change the Uchiha Clan and ease tensions.

On the other hand, he valued Kagami's talent and abilities. He hoped Kagami could assist Hiruzen well and serve as an extra safeguard against a Tailed Beast Rampage.

Unfortunately, no matter how well he'd made his plans, he couldn't have foreseen what would happen in the future.

"But what about the other Ninja Villages? They don't have those advantages."

"I know. It was precisely because they lacked advanced Fuinjutsu and wouldn't be able to suppress their Tailed Beasts properly for a long time that I agreed to distribute them."

"Why?"

"Because every time a Tailed Beast Rampage happened in their villages, their strength would inevitably be greatly reduced. That would make Konoha safer!"

"Tobirama, how can you be so underhanded?"

Tobirama: "..."

Tobirama shut his mouth with a wounded look and turned away, unwilling to argue with his foolish elder brother about right and wrong.

Sure, sure. I'm the one who gets the blame for everything!

For the sake of the village, he could only be the bad guy.