[It's midnight, and today is Lunar New Year's Eve. Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! Get to bed early. Love you all—mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah, mua, mua.]
"Twenty years after the Ninja Sect's fall, the ninja clans stood divided, and heroes rose from every corner."
"Driven by self-interest, the various ninja clans began fighting over land and resources. The strongest among them were the Senju and the Uchiha."
"Several other powerful clans also rose to prominence."
"The Hyuga, Uzumaki, Sarutobi, Hagoromo, Nara, Akimichi, Yamanaka, Aburame, Shimura, Inuzuka, Taketori (Kaguya), Yotsuki, Fuma, Kurama, Hozuki, Hatake..."
"Among them, the Senju and Uchiha each produced a genius!"
"Uchiha Senichi and Senju Shuichi!"
"These two were exceptionally intelligent, with extraordinary talent for ninjutsu!"
Mount Myōboku's History Archive
Black Zetsu and Fukasaku were recording the latest events in history.
Not much of great importance had happened that year, but there had been plenty of lesser events.
The main development was that conflicts had begun breaking out among the ninja clans. Perhaps at first, they hadn't wanted to clash with one another, but sometimes circumstances were beyond their control. Once events swept them along, they had no choice but to do what they had no choice but to do.
On top of that, the ninja clans had started colluding with the commoner classes.
For instance, ninja clans had begun joining forces with samurai and ordinary armies to wage war.
The world was growing more and more violent. In the past, with the Ninja Sect around, conflicts between commoners had been little more than small skirmishes. As for wars on a global scale, they hadn't dared to start one lightly, deterred by the Ninja Sect's power.
Now, however, the whole world had descended into chaos.
[We know that surnames and ninja clans exist in Naruto, so in this