Madara Uchiha, Who Lost the People's Hearts

"Hmph, although that fellow Madara Uchiha is powerful, he never cared about us clansmen. He would abandon his people on the battlefield without a second thought; his heart held only his younger brother, with no room for anyone else in the clan. Otherwise, we would never have been defeated back then!"

Hearing Uchiha Raimon mention Madara Uchiha, Uchiha Mine spoke up with immediate indignation.

Yet, deep down, he also believed this possibility to be true.

After all, while he resented Madara Uchiha's conduct, he held a high regard for the man's strength. If anyone in the entire ninja world could inflict damage upon Hashirama Senju, it was undoubtedly none other than the Asura of the Ninja World, Madara Uchiha.

For in the final era of the Warring States period, two peerless experts had emerged who transcended the common man.

Whether it was Hashirama Senju, the God of Shinobi, or Madara Uchiha, the Asura of the Ninja World, both had pushed their strength to a level that defied all standards.

Every battle between the two was nearly a stalemate, with each side trading victories.

Crucially, their growth trajectories were almost identical. At worst, one would lead the other by only a hair's breadth. This meant that neither could secure an absolute advantage for their clan to achieve total victory.

With the two of them keeping each other in check, the rest of the fighting fell to their clansmen.

Excluding Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju, the Uchiha clan actually held the upper hand in clan-to-clan combat. Originally, the Senju could rely on their superior numbers to suppress the Uchiha, but as the Uchiha clan's population grew, the Senju were forced to recruit more allies just to barely hold their own.

Even so, thanks to the many experts tempered on the battlefield, the Uchiha clan remained on equal footing.

That was until the most critical battle.

Madara Uchiha fled with his brother, leaving behind a vast number of clan experts to be defeated by Hashirama Senju. When Hashirama struck down the others, Tobirama Senju seized the opportunity to slaughter the majority of the elite forces.

From that point on, the Uchiha clan's high-end combat power was no longer superior to that of the Senju!

Not to mention, after awakening the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, Madara once again issued a challenge for a decisive battle against the Senju, causing the clan to lose most of the members who should have been kept out of harm's way.

Thus, ever since Madara Uchiha led them to two failed decisive battles, the Uchiha clan had lost all faith in him and no longer regarded him as their clan head, for he had disregarded the clan's greater good for the sake of his own emotions.

Therefore, when the few present mentioned their former leader, Madara Uchiha, there was no trace of respect in their voices.

"If he hadn't betrayed us in that battle, it might have been the best chance to wipe out the Senju! You must know that at that time, Hashirama Senju definitely hadn't mastered that so-called Senjutsu. Later on, even after Madara obtained those higher-level eyes, he still lost to Hashirama, who possessed the power of a sage!"

"However, if that prediction is true—that Hashirama Senju truly forced himself to extract a massive amount of Chakra and was on the verge of death—it shows that Madara was still of some use. At the very least, he traded his own life to take out a great enemy of the clan. It seems the power of those eyes was truly extraordinary; even the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju, had to exhaust his own lifespan to win!"

Uchiha Tsuki sighed, touching his own Mangekyou eyes as he grasped the immense power they contained. He truly couldn't understand how, with such strength, Madara had fought to a draw in the early days when Hashirama lacked Senjutsu.

Could it be that just because they were good friends, he could ignore the war and hold back against his own clansmen? Uchiha Tsuki could not fathom such a mindset.

"Hmph! From the very beginning, I felt that Hashirama Senju was the greatest enemy of our Uchiha clan. It's a pity that early on, that fellow Madara wouldn't let us interfere in his battles with him. I could tell that Madara had the upper hand back then, but in the end... he truly nurtured a tiger that would eventually devour him!"

Uchiha Mine said suspiciously, his face then twisting into a look of irony. "I just wonder if Madara regrets holding back back then, bringing such trouble upon the clan. If he had finished off Hashirama Senju from the start, then with the power of our Uchiha clan, we would have swept across the entire world long ago. How could we have ended up in this state, plotted against and harmed by Tobirama Senju?"

"Indeed. It's just a pity that our Uchiha clan couldn't glimpse that so-called sage power. If he hadn't been so headstrong, refusing to trust the clan's strength and unwilling to use that to deal with Hashirama Senju, how could he have failed, dragging the entire clan down to the grave with him..." Uchiha Raimon also said, his voice filled with frustration. He recalled how, in every battle, Madara Uchiha would stand alone, ignoring the clan's battlefield to drag Hashirama Senju away for a private duel.

It was as if, while he was locked in a heated battle with his old rival, the clan was completely forgotten.

With such an unpopular leader, it was no wonder that in the end, none of the clansmen were willing to follow him any longer.

One must realize that whether it was the Izanagi ability of the Sharingan possessed by Madara Uchiha, or the legacy he himself held, either could have rewritten the outcome of the war at the time.

If Madara Uchiha hadn't fled when the sides were most evenly matched, then even if one of them had to sacrifice their Sharingan, they could have changed the unfavorable situation for the Uchiha clan and instantly turned the tide. After all, the effect of Izanagi was not limited to the user; it could be applied repeatedly to a large number of people and the surrounding environment.

Thus, when the fighting Uchiha clansmen began to fall, they could have simply activated Izanagi to instantly restore those who had died or were drained of Chakra.

In this way, they could have worn the Senju clan down to death.

At the very least, they could have dragged the enemy down with them.

Not to mention, they would have had a tactical advantage the enemy could never have anticipated.

"Could it be that that fellow Madara Uchiha never thought of using the sacrifice of one of his eyes to completely eliminate his rival, Hashirama Senju? Or was he truly blinded by the bond between them, unable to bring himself to kill the other?"

Uchiha Raimon was filled with doubt, but as he thought of the mental instability that plagued the Uchiha clan, he couldn't help but sigh. "Forget it. It's all in the past, and the outcome cannot be changed. Let's stop worrying about Madara Uchiha's problems."

"In any case, that fellow is already dead."

"What a fool. With a power like Izanagi, to still be killed by Hashirama Senju!"

"It seems his brain really was broken!"

Uchiha Raimon was filled with certainty.

After all, the reason the Uchiha clan believed they could co-found Konoha Shinobi Village with the Senju clan, rather than being defeated and forced to surrender, was precisely because they possessed the power to truly reverse the tide of battle. That was the real reason.

Even if a ninja possessed extraordinary power.

To put it bluntly.

They were still just human.

Even someone as strong as Hashirama Senju was no god.

In the world of ninjas.

Every ninjutsu had a way to be countered. It was precisely for this reason that the Uchiha clan did not want to stake their entire future on a single battle. Even if they happened to defeat Hashirama Senju, if he managed to escape while the Uchiha clan exposed the powerful ninjutsu of Izanagi, he would surely find a way to counter it, causing the Uchiha to lose their ultimate trump card. Not to mention, Madara Uchiha had never trusted his clan, always leaving to face Hashirama Senju alone.

Even if he failed in his own battle, his clansmen would still be fighting.

Unfortunately, he ultimately chose to reconcile with the Senju clan.