Chapter 3

The young man by the window gazed into the distant void, his thumb unconsciously rubbing his index finger. The evening glow cast a hazy halo over his ink-black hair, which fell loosely across his long robe. The same-colored patterns on the dark fabric curled and twisted like indistinct clusters of clouds.

Uchiha Shizuka cautiously peered through the crack in the door. At the sight of that figure, her breath caught, and her heart began to pound.

Uchiha Yan took the stack of documents from her. "I'll give these to the clan head. Is there anything else, Miss Shizuka?"

"Ah, um, the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning's letter is on top. Please ask the clan head to look it over as soon as possible. I... will wait by the door for his reply," Uchiha Shizuka answered softly, her eyes drifting inside again.

Lattice window, evening glow, simple clothes, long hair... Ah, the clan head looked so ethereal! Uchiha Shizuka's heart surged—not with any improper thoughts, but with pure admiration. This is our clan head, Uchiha Madara, the king who will lead the Uchiha to glory!

"Please wait here, Miss Shizuka. Don't wander off." Uchiha Yan turned and went inside.

Madara pulled a sheet of paper from the first document and glanced over it. A faint smile touched his lips. With a flick of his index finger, the paper shot through the crack in the door. Uchiha Shizuka's pupils contracted. A ninja's instincts made her dodge, but the sharp, wind-slicing letter stopped right at the tip of her nose before drifting gently down.

She hurriedly caught it in both hands. The dark ink came into view: "...On the day of the summer solstice, at the hour of the tiger, we were blessed with a son. As he is the eldest legitimate son, we have named him heir to the throne. The whole nation rejoices. We earnestly request the Uchiha clan head to name him, in consideration of the friendship between our families across generations... Seal of Fujiwara Nobuaki."

Uchiha Madara's voice drifted lazily from the study. "The heir to the Land of Lightning shall be named Uye. Fujiwara Uye."

Uchiha Yoshiko had married the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning and borne him a son. Uchiha Madara named the boy Fujiwara Uye.

Uye—written in the script of the Naruto World, the name sounded quite elegant, just the sort of name nobles liked.

The Uchiha Clan was no longer a mere ninja clan. In the eyes of the common people, it had risen into the ranks of the upper nobility. Later generations viewed this as the sign that the Uchiha had taken complete control of the Land of Lightning. Others believed it marked the first significant rise in the status of ninjas.

Uchiha Yoshiko herself had little talent; by the age of sixteen, she still hadn't awakened even the One-Tomoe. Before her marriage, Uchiha Madara personally removed all power from her eyes. Though the heir had Uchiha blood, he would never awaken the Sharingan—not even his descendants.

The Uchiha didn't raise tigers only to leave them as a future threat.

Marriage alliances were a remarkably effective shortcut. The Uchiha had leapt from a ninja clan to a noble house, and their influence in the open was now incomparable to what it had been. In fact, marriages between ninja clans and nobles, though rare, weren't unheard of. But previously, daimyo had simply sent their disfavored princesses to ninja clans to make use of them. No noble had ever taken a ninja clan's daughter as his principal wife—lovers who'd broken through the barriers of status and eloped for love didn't count. The ninja clans themselves hadn't seemed interested in the idea, either.

That was right. They valued strength more. Marrying within the clan or joining with a powerful bloodline was the best choice.

"Then why... have the Uchiha and the Senju never formed a marriage alliance?" Madara asked suddenly during one meeting.

A bolt from the blue! Everyone present went blank, then their faces darkened as they thought of one thing or another, and finally their mouths twitched in distaste.

"There's never been a precedent..."

"How could that be possible!"

"It wouldn't work at all!"

Imagining the Uchiha and Senju joining in marriage, Fourth Elder Uchiha Zhi got goosebumps all over. Damn, even the bedtime stories I heard as a kid weren't this horrifying!

"Why wouldn't it work?" Madara raised a hand. "Look: our family standing, bloodlines, strength, and position in the Ninja World—who else could compare to us, besides the Senju? If this were a noble family, the two sides would be ideal marriage partners for generations."

Everyone looked at one another.

Why had the clan head suddenly brought this up? Was he planning to...? The Uchiha's faces darkened further, and they turned pleading eyes toward Uchiha Tai, who remained calm and composed.

Madara looked at Uchiha Tai, too.

Uchiha Tai cleared his throat. "Well, the two clans live far apart, one in the south and one in the north."

Far apart, eh... Second Elder, that's a sharp answer!

"That's not the point."

"The Uchiha have always married within the clan to ensure a high rate of Sharingan awakenings."

"We've already married off Uchiha Yoshiko. That's not the point, either. What else?" Madara tapped his index finger against the table, pressing the old fox with interest.

"Well... the Senju Clan wouldn't agree."

Madara smiled faintly. "Second Elder, don't dodge my question."

Uchiha Tai narrowed his eyes. "My lord, if you want to do something, you've never needed a reason."

"At the very least, I need to know what you all think first."

"Every Uchiha will follow your orders—"

"Second Elder." Madara cut him off.

Uchiha Tai sighed, then finally said, "The grudges of past generations have been passed down and piled up, generation after generation. By now, they've become an inextricable knot."

Several Uchiha present looked displeased. Uchiha Tai's words had criticized their own clan, too.

Madara's lips curled. "Knowing it won't help, but still unwilling to let go or back down?"

The others fell silent. Uchiha Tai smiled without answering.

The word "unwilling" hit the mark. Madara and Uchiha Tai both understood. The Uchiha were naturally cool and striking in appearance, but their chakra natures were fire and lightning, which influenced their temperaments. Most were proud and quick to anger—cold on the outside, warm within. The original cause of their discord with the Senju came from a legend. The Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan were both descendants of the Sage of Six Paths. But when the Sage chose an heir, he chose his younger son, who possessed the body of a sage, over his elder son, who possessed the eyes of a sage. The elder son resented this, and their descendants had fought for generations ever since.

Whether the legend was true could no longer be known, but the fact that the two clans couldn't stand each other was beyond dispute.

"Now isn't the right time for a marriage alliance," Uchiha Etsu said tactfully. He wasn't one to act on impulse. Even setting aside the feelings within the Uchiha Clan, the news coming from the Merchant Alliances in various nations showed that the Senju were deeply wary and hostile toward the Uchiha. A marriage alliance was out of the question for at least a hundred years.

"I know." Madara's expression returned to its usual calm, and the others relaxed. The atmosphere eased at once. Uchiha Zhi scratched his head and tried to laugh it off. "Exactly. Things are a mess out there. It's too early to think about all that~"

"You're the ones overthinking it," Madara said. "I have no intention of lowering myself to befriend the Senju."

The Uchiha cast their clan head resentful looks. You were the one who made us think too much, weren't you!

"I was just curious." Madara tapped the table with his index finger to draw their attention back. "The Uchiha and Senju inherited the Sage of Six Paths' eyes and body respectively, right?

"Tell me, if the two clans formed a marriage alliance and a child inherited both bloodlines, could that child become as powerful as the Sage of Six Paths?"

Uchiha Etsu: ...?

Uchiha Tai: ...!

The Uchiha: !!!!!!!!!

Every Uchiha in the room went blank.

Aaaah! Damn, how did the clan head even come up with such a crazy idea?!

Even crazier, how had no one ever thought of it before?! (AB-sama's dynamic glow and the world)

"Forget it. Judging by your reactions, it seems these are all minor matters." —No! They aren't minor matters, clan head!

At that moment, Madara's smile, as gentle as a breeze, looked like a menacing grin to everyone in the room. "We have to take things one step at a time. First, we need to get the Land of Fire under control."

Two years passed in the blink of an eye. During that time, the Land of Earth annexed the neighboring Land of Storm, gaining a territory comparable in size to the Land of Lightning. It also reached an agreement with the Land of Wind to suspend hostilities intermittently. To a certain extent, the two nations had formed a preliminary alliance.

The Land of Mountain, which shared the fate of the Land of Storm, didn't want to suffer the same fate, so it switched sides completely and joined the Land of Water. To counter the Earth-Wind alliance, the Land of Water extended an olive branch to the Land of Lightning. With Uchiha Madara in full control, the Land of Lightning's strength had quietly surpassed that of the other nations, immediately making the ambitious Land of Earth hesitate to act.

Wind and Earth against Lightning and Water—the situation had suddenly reached a stalemate.

Strangely, the Land of Fire, which had always been on relatively friendly terms with the Land of Wind, firmly maintained its neutrality. The Daimyo of the Land of Fire had even set aside his friendship with Senju Hashirama and refused to offer the Land of Wind any political support or aid. Relations between the two nations gradually cooled.

Regardless, the balance of power among the Five Great Nations that later generations would know was slowly taking shape.

During this period, the Uchiha's outer forces took in many ninjas who'd been displaced across the nations by war. Following the principle that even a small gain was worth having, Uchiha Etsu, who oversaw the clan's economy and intelligence gathering, placed them in the clan's external businesses. These ninjas had often endured the hardships and upheaval of life, and most longed for a peaceful existence, so they worked with great diligence.

Meanwhile, Senju Hashirama, another young clan head, finally managed to win over his clansmen completely and secure his own base of support. He began considering an alliance with the Uzumaki Clan of the Land of Whirlpools that autumn.

...Ninjas... the Five Great Nations... Tailed Beasts... The scattered threads finally began to join together, and the shape of fate grew clearer.

The world was in motion.