"But none of this is what I want. What I want is a place like your town, where children can smile with innocent joy instead of training and fighting in a training room!
"So what I ask for is you-people with great wisdom, but without great strength! Only clans like yours, whom they consider weak, have no hatred between yourselves and clans like ours, which seem powerful but are hopelessly bound by outdated thinking.
"If you join me, we can bypass that barrier of hatred entirely! As for the supposed rule against accepting clans that possess chakra, that means nothing to me. You aren't joining the Uchiha; you're joining me! Given my parents' standing in the Uchiha Clan, I think even if I did this, they would only see it as me fooling around!
"Besides, since you aren't very strong, there's a seventy percent chance you'll be allowed into the Uchiha clan grounds. There's plenty of unused land there. If we build another town like yours on that land, I think it would be much safer than this place, even without setting up a barrier!
"When that time comes, as long as you behave yourselves and don't do anything people might view unfavorably, your Four Clans can live there in peace and safety. Then wait for me-wait for me to grow strong.
"I'm six years old this year. Though I'm only six, and I'm not sure where my strength stands, I will definitely become truly powerful in the future. Of course, even if I die, my brothers will still protect you. My death will never change that! So you can join me without worry. What I just told you is my promise to you!"
At that moment, Kangetsu rose to his feet. Though he was rather short, his small body seemed to contain boundless power. He had merely stood up from where he had been kneeling, yet the presence on the verge of erupting from him was already faintly perceptible-the commanding aura of a king!
Everything fell utterly silent. Everyone in the room froze. To people whose minds were held fast by the thoroughly decayed thinking of this Warring States Period, those words were like a bolt from the blue!
But unlike the great clans, the Nara, Akimichi, Yamanaka, and Onmyo-the Four Clans-were different. The seeds of such ideas had already begun to sprout among them! So although Kangetsu's words struck them as remarkable, they were not quite so shocked by the idea itself!
If he had said something like this in the Uchiha Clan, he would certainly have been treated as an outcast. Just as in the original story, Senju Hashirama had said only a few such words to his father, Senju Butsuma, and received a slap across the face. His father had even threatened to kill him if he said anything like that again!
That was why something like this seemed utterly inconceivable to them! Yet to Kangetsu, it was all perfectly ordinary. After all, the thinking of this Warring States Period could hardly compare with his!
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