Chapter 45

Uchiha Madara left.

Senju Hashirama returned.

When they heard the news, the Uchiha nearly wept with joy. The Finance Elder in particular almost burst into tears as he clutched a stack of books full of red ink. Lord Madara! We finally understand how good you were to us! Sure, you were arrogant and overbearing, showed no mercy, and radiated such murderous intent that everyone kept their distance, but at least you were a thrifty, hardworking clan head who took his job seriously! You brought in a quarter of the clan's income every year! He really wanted to ask the Uchiha in the other world how they managed to survive while supporting that terrifying deity.

Weary from the journey, Hashirama handed in his mission report at the Hokage Building, then went straight home. He opened the door. The dust motes in the air were cool, and the house was clean and tidy, just as he had left it. There was no one inside. It seemed Madara hadn't returned yet.

An inexplicable sense of disappointment welled up in him. Hashirama went into his bedroom and changed out of his clothes. Without a spatial item like the Jade Ring, it was difficult for a ninja on an extended mission to change clothes. When he came back out, Madara was leaning back in a chair in the living room, reading a book.

Madara looked up at Hashirama in his dark robe and smiled faintly. "You're back?"

"Yeah, I'm back."

It was a pointless exchange, but it carried a strange warmth that made Hashirama's heart itch for no reason. He couldn't help smiling with relief.

Unfortunately, the next moment, the utterly unromantic man nodded and said lazily, "Good. Go cook."

Hashirama: "..."

The kitchen, which had been bare and cold earlier, was now full of vegetables, live fish, fruits, and other food. Madara must have planned ahead. Hashirama asked in surprise, "Madara, did you go shopping?" The young master had actually done something like that? And he'd picked out some pretty good ingredients, too!

"I brought them over from the Uchiha kitchen," Madara replied, calm and composed.

Hey! Was the Uchiha Finance Elder crying right now?

Hashirama was at a loss. He opened his mouth to say something, but ultimately didn't manage a word. What could he do besides sigh? Hadn't he already guessed the Uchiha were being put through the wringer? He just hadn't expected Madara's shamelessness to know no bounds... On this point alone, Madara, you've already defeated Senju Hashirama psychologically! Seriously!

Resigned to his fate, Hashirama rolled up his sleeves. After half a month away on a grueling mission, he'd been home for less than fifteen minutes before starting his career as Madara's personal chef again.

As the familiar sounds of washing and chopping came from the kitchen, Madara's lips slowly curved into a genuine smile.

With both masters back, the house came alive again. The warm air filled with the aroma of food, and every so often came the sounds of dishes and people talking. Before long, a table laden with food was ready, every dish one of Madara's favorites.

"Why did you make so much?" Madara poked at a nearby dish of tender fish in sauce with his chopsticks.

Hashirama was taken aback. He'd felt so good that he'd made all that food without thinking... Remembering the rough meals in the Land of Earth, he'd been more than happy to chew on Military Ration Pills—in passing, the pills in this world tasted awful, too. "Let's just say I wanted to treat myself..."

Madara nodded. That was true, considering the mission had taken him to a poor, backward country like the Land of Earth. But... "I thought you liked mushroom rice." The table was covered with dishes he liked instead... It gave him an odd feeling he couldn't quite describe.

Hashirama explained, "That's because I usually have so much work to do that I eat fast food most of the time. Mushroom rice... is pretty good."

I see. The best of a bad lot. Then Madara thought of all that effort going to waste. How hard was it to find a chef he liked? Half regretfully and half jokingly, he said, "How about I hire you to cook for me when we get back? The annual salary would be much better than what you get as head of the Senju Clan."

To his surprise, Hashirama seriously considered it for a moment. "That works."

Now it was Madara's turn to be surprised. He studied Hashirama with fresh eyes, then teased him, "Are you planning to quit your job as head of the Senju Clan?"

"Our clans are already allied. It wouldn't hurt to deepen our exchanges a little..." Hashirama explained, then smiled slightly. "The salary... would be free."

Madara's lips curled up. "Oh? Is that a benefit the Senju Clan is offering as part of the alliance?"

"A benefit just for you." The words slipped out, and the atmosphere came to a halt for a moment.

Madara's gaze turned inscrutable. Hashirama silently broke out in a cold sweat. It had been an ordinary reply, so why did it sound so much like flirting?

Should he explain? No—how could he explain that he'd even thought of it that way? He'd only make things worse!

So Hashirama lowered his head and quietly shoveled food into his mouth.

After a while, Madara chuckled softly. "Ah, I'll look forward to it." His gentle laughter brushed at the heart like a feather, leaving it warm and ticklish.

Ever since Uchiha Madara had secretly undertaken the mission in the Land of Water, the First had become even busier, spending ten out of every twelve hours in the Hokage Building. He had to handle the village's affairs while keeping a close eye on the situations in the Land of Water and the Land of Lightning. And the other Madara in the village was another unpredictable threat.

From the information Senju Hashirama from the other world had let slip, that Uchiha Madara was calm and rational, exceptionally clever, and highly capable. Despite all those strengths, his unfathomable motives alone made him someone they had to guard against.

He could try to gauge the other Senju Hashirama by comparing him to his own past self, but he couldn't judge the other Uchiha Madara by comparing him to the Madara of his past. Someone so different, and so worrying, would be better sent away as soon as possible.

Fortunately, that was something both sides wanted.

"I was going to send someone to invite you, Madara-kun. I didn't expect you to come on your own." The First sat up straight and looked at the Uchiha Madara before him, who was completely different from the one he knew.

"How could I trouble the Hokage?" Madara sat opposite the First, laced his fingers, and rested his chin on them. A faint, detached smile touched his lips. "The Hokage has a great deal to attend to. We shouldn't bother him again."

With Madara in Uchiha clan-head mode, the First could clearly feel a pressure unlike anything he'd felt from him before. The First said calmly, "Madara-kun, you can get straight to the point."

"I think that once the other... Uchiha returns, Konoha's situation should be stable enough. Then we can talk, right?"

The First's expression grew serious, and suspicion showed plainly in his eyes. "How did you know?" Uchiha Madara's mission to the Land of Water was classified at the highest level, and every effort had been made to keep it secret. A ninja of Uchiha Madara's caliber would never breathe a word of it to anyone.

"How should I put it? I probably guessed when you sent Hashirama to the Land of Earth," Madara said calmly.

Such exceptional strategic insight and command of the big picture... The First finally understood why, before leaving, Madara had told him to "talk" with this Madara. "In that case, Madara-kun, what do you think?"

"Thorough, but not flawless." The plan was sound, but inelegant—not the best strategy. Madara pointed out its shortcomings without hesitation. Normally, he wasn't the sort to offer advice for free, but Konoha's stability affected whether they could "borrow" the Nine-Tails as soon as possible and without complications. It was a mutually beneficial deal, and he and the First understood that without needing to say it.

The First's plan was to disrupt the alliance between the other countries, buying the Land of Fire and Konoha time to recover and develop. Once everything was on track, outside forces would struggle to shake them. But the plan did nothing to lessen the other countries' hostility or wariness. The brief calm would eventually end, and conflict was inevitable. That was also where the Uchiha Madara of this world would later disagree with the First: the former wanted to strike first while the village was on track and flourishing, annexing other countries and eliminating potential threats; the latter insisted on distributing the Tailed Beasts equally and balancing the power of the various countries so they wouldn't dare start a war. As far as their aims went, Madara naturally preferred the former. All things considered, the former was too brutal, the latter too idealistic!

Was it really so easy to unite the great nations? Could they unify the world just by capturing a few Tailed Beasts and killing everyone who opposed them? The upper echelons had been around far longer than the ninja. There were obscure forces in every corner of the world, and the continent's complicated landscape and ever-shifting public sentiment meant that even the slightest disturbance could throw the whole world into turmoil. Without a comprehensive theory, organization, financial resources, sufficient talent, and the ability to maintain control, any talk of unification was nothing but a castle in the air. One careless move could bring everything crashing down, plunging the continent into even greater chaos than before—a situation few people wanted to see.

With Konoha's—indeed, even the Land of Fire's—current capabilities, true unification was out of reach. The First surely knew that, and it was probably one of the reasons he'd made this arrangement.

A world divided among the five great nations, with restraints and checks and balances, was certainly a compromise that would be relatively easy to achieve. Compared to Uchiha Madara's radicalism, the First's mistake was being too optimistic about Konoha's future. After all, outside forces weren't the only thing that could hurt Konoha. The nobles of the Land of Fire were wary of them and undermined them in secret; conflicts simmered within the village's leadership, and the great clans quarreled among themselves... True decline always began from within.

So far, with Konoha facing a crisis, everyone had focused on working together, and none of these conflicts had erupted yet. It was too early to bring them up. Those two men were the strongest of their era, and their personal convictions were too firm. They wouldn't know to turn back until they ran into a wall.

So Madara simply followed the First's plan and discussed the matter at hand.

"Now that you're the strongest, why should the Land of Fire make itself a target for everyone?" Madara said softly. "People always feel this way about powerful things: they both hate and envy them, both fear and admire them, both want to stay away and draw close..." He deliberately emphasized the last phrase, and the First understood at once.

"You mean an alliance?"

Madara's lips curved up. "It would ease the pressure and break up their alliance. Why not?"

The First smiled wryly. "The Land of Fire has no allies left."

"Relations between countries have always been complicated. Don't let appearances deceive you." Madara tapped his index finger against the edge of the table in a peculiar rhythm. "What you see and hear isn't necessarily true. What they do is what matters. The Land of Wind has poor soil and has also lost the Senju... How could it dare to openly oppose the Land of Fire? The best approach would be to ally with one, secretly control half of another, and put pressure on the remaining two." On the surface, it would be two against three; in reality, two against two, with the option of turning the tables when necessary... three against two!

Compared to supposedly balancing the strength of every nation, this arrangement would let them keep the initiative in their own hands.

"Put pressure on them?" The First frowned. "Deliberately creating conflict would only plant the seeds of war. This kind of tactic—"

"No, no, Senju-kun. Don't let morality dictate how a country acts." Madara cut him off. "The idea of peaceful coexistence will always be a fantasy. Competition between people has always existed. All you need to do is bring into the open what everyone already understands without saying. Whether a country or its people, anyone who wants to grow stronger needs an enemy—someone to remind them that their survival is always at stake, and that fortune and misfortune can come at any moment."

"Just as death gives life more meaning. Don't you think?"

Hashirama, you call that treating yourself? You've just gotten used to Madara ordering you around, Lord Hashirama!

First, Madara's got you wrapped around his finger!

P.S. First update.