"I'm afraid it won't be easy to get the Uzumaki Clan to join the fighting. They haven't taken part in a war for nearly a hundred years."
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Senju Takema said with concern.
The Uzumaki and Senju Clans had been related during the Founding Period and had maintained friendly ties for many years, but the Uzumaki lived on an island and had always shunned war.
"The Warring States Period is growing more chaotic by the day. If we ask, they'll agree sooner or later."
Tobirama Senju said confidently. "It may take a little time, but I'm sure of it."
Just as he finished speaking, a covert scout under Tobirama's command flickered into the conference room with the Body Flicker Technique and dropped to one knee. "My lords."
Tobirama raised an eyebrow. "What is it? We're still in a meeting."
"My apologies,"
the covert scout said with his head bowed. "But a scout in the north sent word that half a day ago, Keizou Shimura, the Shimura Clan Head, personally led thirty clan shinobi west."
"What!?"
Everyone in the conference room was taken aback.
The Sarutobi-Shimura Alliance could well be called the fourth-largest power in the Warring States Period, surpassed only by the Senju, Uchiha, and Hyuga Clans.
Normally, the heads of the Warring States Period's ninja clans rarely left their clan lands except during wartime.
Keizou Shimura was the head of the Shimura Clan, yet he had personally set out west with dozens of people in tow. What were they planning?
The Sarutobi and Shimura Clans were also located very close to the Senju Clan, directly to the north.
The Senju kept a close eye on everything the two clans did.
Inside the Uchiha Clan's Northwest Stone City.
Two days earlier, Izuna and the others had returned to the city after wiping out the Hagoromo Clan.
Once the various repairs around the city were underway, Izuna decided to lead a small group of his clan members back to their clan lands.
The two hundred reinforcements Madara had sent were not only there to help Izuna completely destroy the Hagoromo Clan, but also to make up for most of Stone City's depleted fighting force.
The two hundred reinforcements would remain there long-term, serving as the garrison in the northwest.
Uchiha Sora, formerly the leading figure in Stone City, wouldn't be returning with Izuna because of his serious injuries.
The people accompanying Izuna back were seven elite jōnin from the northwest, led by Ise Uchiha, along with the clan's elite forces that Izuna had brought with him a year earlier.
Of course, some would never make it back. As a final consolation, Izuna did his best to have the survivors bring their ashes home.
Even so, most of the dead had no ashes left to bring back.
On the battlefield, it was kill or be killed. The remains of many fallen warriors were left behind on the plains forever, becoming food for vultures and hyenas.
Everyone returning to the clan lands with Izuna was at least an elite Chunin. They reached the clan lands in less than three days.
Although the Uchiha Clan of Konoha in later generations had been moved to a remote corner of the village because of the discrimination led by Shimura Danzō and the other members of Konoha's Elder Council, its layout had been largely modeled on the Uchiha Clan of the Warring States Period.
The Uchiha were at the center of the area back then, with ordinary residents who didn't bear the Uchiha name living all around them.
These people had no shinobi abilities and made their living as merchants or farmers. As the grassroots workforce supporting the Uchiha, they were not allowed into the clan's inner grounds.
They passed straight through the area and were about to enter the clan compound when Izuna suddenly raised a hand. "Wait."
Everyone stopped and looked over. A dark blue boulder, about five feet tall, now stood to the right of the clan gate.
The Memorial Monument.
Izuna had ordered Uchiha Sashu to make it after acting as Kite and wiping out Uchiha Zetsu's forces.
The first row of the Memorial Monument already bore a line of names, each written in tiny, fingernail-sized characters.
Uchiha Nagare, Uchiha Iwa, Uchiha Kenya, Uchiha...
"Vice Clan Leader, what is this...?"
Standing behind Izuna on his right, Ise Uchiha asked quietly.
"The Memorial Monument."
Izuna answered calmly, then strode into the clan lands. "Let's go."
"The Memorial Monument..."
Ise Uchiha and the others murmured to themselves, then quickly followed Izuna inside.
Not long after Izuna and his party entered the clan lands, a group of people waiting opposite them in the distance came into view.
"Big brother."
Izuna quickened his pace and waved.
Standing at the front in a black robe was none other than Madara Uchiha, the current clan head.
"Hahaha! Izuna, well done! I told you that bunch of rabble in the northwest wouldn't be a match for you."
After winning a battle that had seemed all but impossible, even Madara couldn't help feeling elated. He burst into hearty laughter.
Led by the three elders Kōshi Uchiha, Uchiha Tenzou, and Uchiha Kai, all the senior clan members currently in the clan lands had gathered to offer their congratulations.
"This isn't the place to talk. We'll hold a banquet tonight to give the Vice Clan Leader a proper welcome. Anyone who doesn't show up will be dealt with according to clan rules."
Caught up in the good mood, Madara couldn't help making a joke.
Everyone laughed heartily, exchanged a few more pleasantries, then went their separate ways and returned to their posts.
Back in his own compound, Izuna found that although he hadn't been home for almost a year, the floors inside were still spotless.
It seemed the servants came to clean every day.
He sat in the covered walkway beside the courtyard. After a servant brought him a cup of tea, Izuna savored this rare moment of leisure, gazing at the artificial hill standing quietly in the courtyard's upper-right corner, the pond at its foot, and the heads of the large golden carp occasionally breaking the surface.
Winter had fully set in, and there were hardly any blossoms to admire on the cherry trees on the left side of the courtyard.
"Sashu..."
Izuna took a sip of green tea and suddenly spoke.
"You noticed me. Your perception is as sharp as ever, Vice Clan Leader."
A shadow flickered into view before Izuna. It was Uchiha Sashu, the Uchiha's foremost scout and one of the same generation as Madara and Izuna.
"How did it go?"
Izuna asked with a faint smile.
Uchiha Sashu gazed at him in admiration. "The Vice Clan Leader truly can see everything coming. It went exactly as you said it would."
"Come to the banquet tonight, too. While you're there, let the senior clan members know about this."
"Yes."
Uchiha Sashu vanished in an instant.
Izuna took another sip of green tea and began thinking about something else: how to grow stronger.
After the extermination campaign against the Hagoromo Clan a few days ago, his Skill Points had risen from "155" to "180."
He had now earned more than half the "300" Skill Points needed to exchange for the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
Izuna could already clearly feel his eyesight deteriorating.
By the standards he remembered from his previous life, his vision was probably already worse than 20/60.
So until he obtained the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, Izuna didn't plan to spend his Skill Points on any other ninjutsu.
That meant he had to find a way to strengthen himself without using Skill Points.
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