The Kage Guard of Senju Tobirama

The Land of Hot Water, located on the northeastern border of the Land of Fire, was a small country famed throughout the ninja world for its hot springs. Its once-bustling hot spring district, crowded with people, had long since fallen into decay and ruin. From time to time, a few ninja fought atop the rooftops, only for a corpse spraying warm blood to tumble down from midair.

The forehead protectors they wore bore none of the symbols of the Five Great Nations. Most were cannon-fodder ninja from small countries, along with Rogue Ninja who did not even have forehead protectors. The victors had barely begun to suppress their excitement and search the bodies when a Kunai flying in from nowhere claimed their lives.

Killing and being killed repeated endlessly in this hot spring district, which had amassed the vast majority of the Land of Hot Water's wealth.

Once the First Ninja World War ended, it would become another feast for nobles and dignitaries—the ownerless streets left after the reshuffling, the dazzling array of shops and inns. With just a little investment, they would once again become hens that laid golden eggs without end.

None of that had much to do with ordinary ninja. Uchiha Takeyasu, who kept in touch with his clan through the Ninja Cat Tachibana, had completed several missions in the hot spring district. They had all involved killing hostile ninja and asserting claims over interests.

"Man dies for wealth, as birds die for food."

Uchiha Takeyasu wore an exquisite and luxurious Samurai Outfit, red above and white below, with a Katana at his waist. His smooth, long black hair was tied into a high ponytail that swayed behind him, revealing the handsome features passed down through generations of the Uchiha Clan.

He strolled through the hot spring district, his curious eyes sweeping over his surroundings like those of a young nobleman seeing the world for the first time. The hyena-like ninja hidden in the shadows drooled greedily, until someone could no longer restrain the urge to make one last haul before the war ended and launched a fierce ambush.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

As Kunai tore through the air, Uchiha Takeyasu casually swung his Katana. Attacks with such laughable strength and speed did not even warrant opening his Sharingan. With a flick of his wrist, the incoming Kunai shot back along even faster, more unpredictable trajectories.

Several throats were pierced, blood spraying out with hissing sounds, followed by bodies collapsing to the ground with heavy thuds. The nearby hyena ninja were so frightened that they did not dare move.

Ninja of this caliber were far beyond anything they could provoke—damn it, he was this strong, yet he had pretended to be some young nobleman!

They might not have made a move, but Uchiha Takeyasu did not remain idle. His figure vanished from the spot in an instant. After several Body Flickers, every hyena ninja nearby who had harbored killing intent toward him had been slain.

Because of the system, and because he wanted to survive and live comfortably in this absurd world where even children had to go to war, a fondness for killing was unavoidable.

Uchiha Takeyasu could only remind himself that everyone he killed had brought death upon themselves, lest his mind sink into the bitter sea of slaughter and turn him into an emotionless killing machine.

"If you don't court death, you won't die. Not just anyone can take up the profession of bandit or robber."

Having lured criminals into attacking him, Uchiha Takeyasu straightened his collar and glanced at the Ascension Points he had gained. They were all Genin; even Chunin were pitifully rare.

It seemed the war truly was about to end. The division of interests had already been settled, and strong ninja could no longer be found nearby.

At the beginning, when territory was being contested, Jonin had been everywhere. Uchiha Takeyasu had nearly thought this was the main battlefield. Later, he learned that most of them had been unregistered clan ninja from the major ninja clans.

Those dying now were basically Rogue Ninja and ninja from small countries who could not even get a sip of the leftovers. After the war ended, ninety-nine percent of them would become mountain bandits and robbers, serving as experience fodder for the Genin of the Five Great Nations to draw blood for the first time.

"Lord Takeyasu, meow."

A yellow-and-white Big Orange Cat leaped out of thin air. Excitement appeared on her somewhat prosperous-looking feline face. "There's news about where the Second Hokage and the Raikage are meeting. They're at—"

Boom! Boom!

Violent explosions erupted in the distance. The powerful, evil Chakra fluctuations made even Uchiha Takeyasu unconsciously open his Sharingan. Tachibana curled up in his arms and meowed nonstop.

"That powerful, violent, evil Chakra... it's a Tailed Beast!"

His scarlet eyes fixed on the distance, Uchiha Takeyasu held Tachibana and headed straight toward it, entering a vast forest.

He remembered that during the First Ninja World War, Kinkaku and Ginkaku of Kumogakure, known as the "Two Lights of the Clouds," had suddenly launched a coup during the alliance ceremony between Kumogakure's Raikage and Konoha's Hokage. It had led to the deaths of both the Second Raikage and the Second Hokage. In the end, only the Second Hokage's Kage Guard—young people such as the future Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi—returned alive.

Uchiha Takeyasu could no longer remember exactly what had happened, but he knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

As long as all Senju forces under the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, died at this summit, leaving the Senju line without successors, the Uchiha Clan would inevitably dominate Konoha from then on.

The Uchiha and Senju were both founding clans of Konoha. The Senju Clan, which had occupied the position of Hokage for two generations, had now declined. Aside from the aged Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Mito Uzumaki, the wife of the First Hokage Hashirama Senju, there was no one worth mentioning. The rest were either old or young, with no ability to compete at all.

As for Konoha's other ninja clans, such as the three Ino-Shika-Cho clans, they were merely Senju vassals and servant clans. The Hyuga Clan, which called itself the ninja world's second Great Family, was even more like dry bones in a grave, closed off and stagnant.

So in Uchiha Takeyasu's eyes, they were all trash—utterly incapable of putting up a fight.

If they could become Hokage, then the Uchiha Clan would definitely be the first to lead a rebellion.

And if the Uchiha could rise to power, then with his Mangekyo, if Uchiha Takeyasu was not the Third Hokage, who else would be qualified to become the Third Hokage? Those people in the clan who kept babbling, "I've eaten more salt than you've eaten rice," relying on their seniority and experience?

Whoever dared spout nonsense would get to see how cleanly a forty-meter blade could cut someone down!

"Lord Takeyasu, Meow is leaving first!"

Tachibana, whose sensory abilities were quite good, felt the successive detonations of vast, evil Tailed Beast Bombs in the distance while also enduring Uchiha Takeyasu's cold and evil Chakra. Her yellow-and-white feline face had gone pale, her brown eyes squeezed tightly shut, and even her ears drooped. Her voice carried the faintest hint of a sob.

"Tachibana, you're my Summoning Beast. How can you avoid seeing the world?"

Uchiha Takeyasu said with exasperation, "You're scared of this tiny scene? When the world-ending spectacle comes later, won't you wet yourself in fright?"

"Meow would never wet herself!"

Tachibana instinctively retorted before continuing, "Lord Takeyasu, those are the supreme Kage of two nations and Tailed Beasts! Tachibana is just a pitiful, weak, helpless little kitty. I don't want to broaden my horizons at all."

"Stop making noise. If no one witnesses my strength, how am I supposed to show off? Ah, no, I mean, how else will the world learn that the rising sun of the Uchiha Clan, Konoha's destined future Third Hokage—Uchiha Takeyasu—has been born?"

Having let it slip and revealed his desire to flaunt his greatness before others, Uchiha Takeyasu simply laid it all out. Under Tachibana's gaze as though she were looking at human scum, he proudly made his declaration.

"But I'm only a cat, meow!"

"No, Tachibana. You're a smug little Ninja Cat who loves gossiping behind people's backs. Even the tiniest scrap of news gets spread everywhere by you."

Already well aware of what Tachibana was like, Uchiha Takeyasu said disdainfully, "Before these eyes, no lie can remain hidden."

Tachibana froze for a moment, then stretched out her claws and tried to scratch Uchiha Takeyasu's face. Her feline face flushed red with fury as she shouted, "Are you even human? You actually hypnotized an adorable, kind, beautiful kitty!"

"Kitties have privacy too, you shameless scum of the human race!"

"Hmph. I've felt you up from head to toe. What privacy could you possibly have?"

Uchiha Takeyasu gripped Tachibana by the scruff with one hand. As she flailed about in fury and embarrassment, he turned his gaze to the other side and stopped atop a thick tree branch.

Sensing people approaching, Tachibana also quieted down. She nimbly twisted her body in midair, climbed along Uchiha Takeyasu's arm, and perched on his shoulder.

The figures who emerged were Hiruzen Sarutobi, Mitokado Homura, Utatane Koharu, Shimura Danzō, Torifu Akimichi, and Kagami Uchiha—the Kage Guard under the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama!

And the six people who were all going to die today!