Mad Wolf Under the Moon: Hatake (3)

"Why on earth did you call me to Okayama this time!"

He did not know what kind of changes the founding of Konoha had brought to the entire Land of Fire, but he knew that after long periods of division and unity, the world had been in chaos for so long that people had spent generations living in constant toil. It was a sorrowful state of affairs. Thus, what is long divided must unite; the current ninja world was in exactly such a situation. People were weary of battle and would inevitably seek a way out—a path that would lead them away from continued conflict.

The Uchiha Clan did not possess the natural, favorable reputation of the Senju Clan. In all sorts of legends, the Uchiha were portrayed as the ultimate villains who were eventually defeated. This was a reality that frustrated Mingye, yet it was one he had to acknowledge. Therefore, if they wanted to bring about change, the Uchiha Clan could not follow the path of the common folk; they could only take the route of high-end corruption, changing the Land of Fire from the top down. Their target this time was Sato.

"We need more power. Big Brother might think that as long as our strength is sufficient, certain powers will naturally follow, but that is not necessarily true. Even those without the strength to truss a chicken can sometimes wield immense power. What we must do now is what we do best: create a devil, a devil with boundless greed!"

"A devil!?"

Hearing Mingye's words, Madara was filled with confusion. Mingye did not hold back and continued to explain to him.

"The Land of Fire has three commissioners and five generals. Sato's faction is not the strongest; he is merely a mid-tier power among the eight. Under such circumstances, it is impossible for us to unify the entire Land of Fire. Big Brother's Mangekyo Sharingan may not be specialized in genjutsu, but it should still be capable of releasing some powerful illusions, right?"

Madara nodded. The stone tablet inherited by the Uchiha Clan contained many ninjutsu. Among them was a genjutsu called Tsukuyomi. Although he was not very proficient in using it, Madara had memorized it and could employ it. Unfortunately, his Mangekyo Sharingan did not enhance genjutsu, so he could only be considered capable of using it, not mastering it.

"That is true. Although I am not skilled in genjutsu, I have mastered an extremely powerful one called Tsukuyomi. It can compress an instant into seventy-two hours, or even longer. Everything within the illusion is under my control! Didn't I tell you that last time?"

The power of Tsukuyomi did not lie in the cruel mental trauma it inflicted, but in the psychological damage sustained—a single thought could create a hell where all things withered, yet in the blink of an eye, one would realize only a fleeting moment had passed. It was fortunate that Itachi, who was proficient in genjutsu, had not become an Eternal Mangekyo user; otherwise, heaven knows what kind of existence this genius of the Uchiha Clan would have become. Of course, it was too early to talk about Itachi. His goal was to have Madara subtly influence Sato's mindset. Sato currently only wanted to be a regional warlord and had no ambition to "hold the Emperor hostage to command the vassals." He had to instill this ambition in him; only then could his clan act more freely under such a policy.

"Excellent! That is exactly what I wanted. We must change General Sato's mindset within a certain timeframe!"

"Change it!?"

"Those in power look at us like stray dogs, but do we not view them as pigs in a pen? If we are to make a change, we must be the most ruthless and decisive!"

Facing Madara's confusion, Mingye did not answer directly. He smiled slightly and said no more. Madara was not an excellent king; at most, he was an invincible warrior like Xiang Yu. His heart was not set on governing the world, but on sweeping across it. Such a person might be great in chaotic times—the philosophy of "those who follow me prosper, those who oppose me perish" was excellent and dashing—but they could only survive in chaos. In times of peace, such a person was a ticking time bomb.

Fortunately, he was his older brother, and Madara did not care about holding power over his younger brother. This mindset meant that the so-called struggle for power did not exist among the three Uchiha brothers. It was precisely because the three brothers cherished their kinship that the Uchiha Clan was so united today, at least in terms of management. Furthermore, Mingye was very confident that in the near future, the entire clan would work together toward a new tomorrow.

In the bedroom of the General's pavilion, Sato suddenly sat up, pressing one hand onto the hilt of the blade by his bedside. He looked sternly at the shadowed corner of the room. A scarlet, circular object, the size of a marble, rotated incessantly. Though he could not clearly see what it was, it felt like looking into a kaleidoscope of a thousand-faceted, colorful world, constantly... constantly... until he gradually... closed his eyes.

"Ah!"

The next morning, Sato opened his eyes with a scream. He sat up, checked that his body was intact, and relaxed, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

"General!"

Sato gloomily recalled his dream, which had felt so real. The pain of being slashed a thousand times seemed to linger on his currently uninjured body. After carefully checking himself and confirming there were no injuries, he spoke toward the shadow where the voice had come from.

"Did anyone sneak into my room yesterday?"

"No!"

Hearing the reply, Sato couldn't help but stroke his short beard and mutter to himself.

"Could it really have been a dream?"

The events of the dream were vivid in his mind. He had invincibly wiped out the three commissioners and the other four generals who were his equals in strength. He had even held the Daimyo hostage to command the entire Land of Fire, and in his later years, he had deposed the Daimyo and taken the seat in the Tenshukaku himself. But in the end, just as he stood at the center of the world's power, he was assassinated by a group of ninjas in strange attire and died under a flurry of blades.

"That family crest!?"

Suddenly, Sato thought of something very puzzling. The ninjas who ambushed and assassinated him seemed to bear his own family crest. Although it was a dream, it felt too real to Sato—so real that he felt as if he had seen that crest in real life. The pattern was like a tree split in half, mirrored on both sides, with a horizontal line connecting the two halves of the tree pattern, making it look like a scale. After thinking about it for a moment without finding an answer, he set it aside. The maid serving him entered the room to help him dress. Because it was six in the morning, the sky was not yet fully bright. Mingye stood on the roof of a building not far from the General's pavilion, watching Madara descend from the sky. He smiled slightly and asked.

"How did it go?"

Madara chuckled, his expression relaxed as he replied.

"He has some tricks up his sleeve. There are over thirty ninjas protecting him. No wonder the Fuma Clan ninjas have failed repeatedly. I don't know how he managed to recruit so many Jonin; each of them is quite capable!"

"You weren't discovered, were you?"

Hearing Mingye's doubt, Madara retorted with disdain.

"Who do you think I am? Just as you planned, I gave him a sweet dream—a dream of conquering the world!"

"You included the Senju Clan's crest in it as well, right?"

"I just don't understand why you want to drag the Senju Clan into this!"

"Hehe! Don't worry, Big Brother. My plan will never fail. If it isn't realistic, how can I subtly influence his thoughts?"

In the bird-chirping, flower-scented back garden of the General's residence, the General held a brush and drew the crest that had slashed him to death in the recurring dream he had been having for the past few days. He then sat to the side, looking at the drawing in deep thought.

"The General is in a good mood, it seems!"

Fujiwara Muneyoshi walked slowly into the pavilion and came before the pensive General, teasing him. Sato glanced at Fujiwara Muneyoshi, gestured for him to sit by his side, and said.

"Do you recognize which family this crest belongs to?!"

Fujiwara Muneyoshi looked at the pattern on the paper, feeling somewhat puzzled. To be honest, the Senju of the Forest were not very famous in noble circles. As ninjas, they did not seem keen on seizing power or accumulating wealth, which led many in power to deliberately choose to forget them. After all, for a profession like a ninja, where the average life expectancy was under thirty, they were useful as long as they could kill—whether it was a famous blade or a new one, a good blade was one that helped you kill. The Senju of the Forest's lack of cooperation also made them unpopular with the nobility, so Fujiwara Muneyoshi was very confused to see the pattern on General Sato's paper.

"This seems to be the crest of the Senju of the Forest clan. Why would the General be interested in a ninja clan?"

After obtaining the answer he wanted, General Sato fell into deep thought again. Then, he suddenly remembered a legend from the ninja world and asked Fujiwara Muneyoshi again.

"Senju of the Forest? I have heard that the Senju of the Forest and the Uchiha Clan are mortal enemies who cannot coexist. Is this true?"

Fujiwara Muneyoshi nodded. The topic of the irreconcilable hatred between the Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan had become a classic case of blood feuds in the ninja world. It was an accepted fact that they could never coexist.

"There is indeed such a legend. The two great clans are the bloodlines of the two sons of the man who founded ninjutsu a thousand years ago. They fought each other to compete for who was the true orthodox successor of the Ninja Sect. I imagine they must still hate each other to the bone."

Sato nodded slowly, then stood up and asked about the purpose of Fujiwara Muneyoshi's visit.

"That is good! Since there is a lead, everything will be easier to handle! What did you come here for this time?"

"Akiyama Nobunori is building military fortifications on the border between the Land of River and our Land of Fire, seemingly preparing to mobilize troops to invade the Land of River. The Lord of the Land of River has begged our Daimyo to let us rebuke Akiyama Nobunori for this move and stop him from continuing. General, this is your time to assert your authority!"

Fujiwara Muneyoshi stood up and bowed to Sato. Sato, lost in thought, recalled the image of himself as the one above all others in his dream, and felt invigorated.