"Hmph, that guy Uchiha Madara may be powerful, but he never cared about the rest of us. He'd casually abandon his clan members on the battlefield. His little brother was the only person in his heart; he didn't care about anyone else in the clan. Otherwise, we never would have lost back then!"
Hearing Uchiha Raimon mention Uchiha Madara,
Uchiha Mine immediately spoke up in anger.
Yet deep down, he also believed it was possible.
After all, though he disapproved of Uchiha Madara's behavior, he acknowledged his strength. If anyone in the entire Ninja World could harm Hashirama Senju, there was no doubt it was Madara Uchiha, the Asura of the Ninja World.
Because, in the final era of the late Warring States period, two peerless warriors had emerged, both far beyond ordinary people.
One was Hashirama Senju, the God of Shinobi.
The other was Madara Uchiha, the Asura of the Ninja World.
Both had reached a level of strength beyond all norms.
And whenever the two fought, they were almost evenly matched, each winning some battles and losing others.
Most importantly,
their growth had been almost identical.
At worst, one had only been slightly ahead of the other.
As a result, neither could give his clan an overwhelming advantage and secure victory.
With the two of them keeping each other in check,
the rest of the fighting had been left to their clansmen.
Once Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju were set aside, the Uchiha Clan had actually held the upper hand in the clan conflict. The Senju Clan had originally been able to suppress the Uchiha Clan with sheer numbers, but as the Uchiha Clan also grew in size, the Senju Clan had to win over more allies just to barely keep them in check.
Even so, the Uchiha Clan had so many skilled fighters honed on the battlefield that it still held its own.
That was, until the most crucial battle.
Madara Uchiha had fled with his younger brother.
He left behind a large number of the clan's strongest fighters, who were defeated by Hashirama Senju. And while Hashirama was defeating the others, Tobirama Senju seized the opportunity to kill most of their elite fighters.
That was when the Uchiha Clan began to lose its edge in high-level combat against the Senju Clan!
And that wasn't even counting how, after awakening the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, Madara Uchiha had once again challenged the Senju Clan to a decisive battle. Once again, he caused the clan members who should have avoided the enemy's strongest forces to suffer devastating losses.
So, after Madara Uchiha led the clan into two decisive battles and lost both, the Uchiha Clan had lost all faith in him. They no longer regarded him as their clan leader, because he had put his own feelings above the clan's interests.
That was why none of the people present showed any respect when they spoke of their former leader, Madara Uchiha.
"If he hadn't betrayed us in that battle, it might've been our best chance to wipe out the Senju Clan! Hashirama Senju definitely hadn't learned that so-called Senjutsu yet. Later, even after Madara got more powerful eyes, he still lost to Hashirama, who had the power of a sage!"
"But if that prediction was true, and Hashirama Senju had forced himself to draw out a huge amount of Chakra and was about to die, then Madara was still useful in the end. At least his death took out a major enemy of the clan. It seems that those eyes really were extraordinary. Even Hashirama Senju, the God of Shinobi, had to sacrifice his lifespan to win!"
Uchiha Tsuki said with a sigh. He touched his Mangekyo eyes, understanding the immense power they held. He couldn't understand how, with power like this, Madara had only managed a draw against Hashirama before the latter learned Senjutsu.
Could it be that because they were friends, Madara had held back and ignored the war against their clansmen?
Uchiha Tsuki couldn't understand that way of thinking.
"Hmph! From the very beginning, I thought that Hashirama Senju was the Uchiha Clan's greatest enemy. What a shame that Madara never let us interfere in his battles with Hashirama. I could tell Madara had the upper hand back then, but then... He really did raise a tiger that would become a threat!"
Uchiha Mine said, sounding suspicious. Then his expression turned scornful. "I wonder if Madara ever regretted holding back and bringing this kind of trouble down on the clan. If he'd dealt with Hashirama Senju from the start, the Uchiha Clan could've conquered the whole world by now. How did we end up being ambushed and outmaneuvered by Tobirama Senju?"
"Exactly. It's a shame our Uchiha Clan couldn't grasp that so-called sage power. If Madara hadn't insisted on going his own way, refused to trust the clan's strength, and rejected the idea of using it against Hashirama Senju, how could he have lost? He even dragged the whole clan down with him..." Uchiha Raimon said, equally frustrated. He recalled how, in every battle, Madara Uchiha had been all alone, disregarding the clan's fight and taking Hashirama Senju away from the battlefield.
They'd been fighting their old rival tooth and nail.
Meanwhile, the clan's battle—
it was as if he'd completely forgotten about it.
No wonder a clan leader so unpopular with his own people had eventually found that none of his clansmen were willing to follow him when he left.
After all, whether it was the Izanagi ability of the Sharingan that Madara Uchiha possessed or the copy that Raimon himself had inherited, either one could have changed the outcome of the battle.
If Madara Uchiha hadn't run away when the two sides were evenly matched, one of them could have sacrificed an eye to turn the tide of the battle, which had been going against the Uchiha Clan. After all, Izanagi didn't just affect its user. It could be applied repeatedly to numerous people and even to the surrounding environment.
That way, if the Uchiha Clan began to lose ground in battle, they could activate Izanagi and instantly bring their dead and chakra-depleted clansmen back.
Then,
they could simply wear down the Senju Clan.
At the very least, they could drag their opponents down with them.
And that was without even considering
that they had a way to fight their enemy that he could never have anticipated.
Had Madara Uchiha never considered sacrificing one of his eyes to finish off Hashirama Senju once and for all? Or had their bond really blinded him, making him unwilling to kill Hashirama?
Uchiha Raimon was full of questions. But when he thought of the mental issues that had plagued the Uchiha Clan for generations, he couldn't help sighing. "Forget it. What's done is done, and there's no changing the outcome. I'll stop worrying about Madara Uchiha."
"Besides, he's already dead."
"What an idiot. He had a power like Izanagi and still got killed by Hashirama Senju!"
He really must've had something wrong with his head!
Uchiha Raimon was completely sure of it.
After all, the reason the Uchiha Clan believed they could establish Konoha Shinobi Village alongside the Senju Clan, rather than being defeated and forced to surrender, was that they possessed a power capable of reversing the tide of battle. That was the real reason.
No matter how extraordinary a ninja's powers were,
in the end,
they were still only human.
Even someone as powerful as Hashirama Senju wasn't a god.
In the world of ninjas,
any ninjutsu could be countered. That was precisely why the Uchiha Clan didn't want to stake its entire future on a single battle. Even if they managed to defeat Hashirama Senju by chance, what if he escaped? The Uchiha Clan would have revealed the powerful technique Izanagi, and the Senju would certainly look for a way to counter it. The Uchiha would lose that safeguard. Besides, Madara Uchiha had never trusted his clan. He'd always left the battlefield alone with Hashirama Senju.
Even if he lost his own fight, the clansmen were still there battling.
But in the end, he chose to reconcile with the Senju Clan.
Before you continue