On the morning of the third day after everyone's memories had fully returned, the Ninja World Council convened an emergency meeting.
The council chamber in the Hokage Building had been fully prepared before sunrise—the dark-gold light patterns along the walls ran at full power, every circuit path maintained maximum brightness, and the increase in illumination at every turn was roughly twenty percent greater than usual, bringing the chamber's overall lighting to more than twice its normal level. The long table had been extended, expanding from a size meant for four people to one that could seat twelve. Four chairs had been added to each side, and three groups of jutsu projections floated above it—the central display showed a topographical map of the entire Ninja World, the left display showed the current distribution of the Dragon Vein energy network, and the right display showed the range covered by Tobirama's newly established Causality sensing scan.
Hashirama sat at the north end of the table. Before him lay a device he rarely used—a Dragon Vein energy sensor, modified from old Uzumaki Clan technology combined with Tobirama's space-time jutsu. It could detect the residual distribution of Dragon Vein energy within the planet's gravitational layer. His hands rested flat beside the sensor, his fingers separated from its sensing surface by only the thinnest gap of air. A constantly fluctuating energy curve ran across the device's readout panel.
Madara sat to his left, roughly a foot away from Hashirama. His posture was more focused than during an ordinary council meeting—his back did not rest against the chair, both feet were planted on the floor, and his hands were neither clasped nor resting on the armrests. Instead, they lay on the tabletop, fingers slightly spread. His gaze rested on the Dragon Vein network projection, tracking the flow