"Establishing our authority!"
Fujiwara Muneyoshi thought Sato was hesitating, so he reminded him again.
"Among the Three Commissioners, Funazai Yuraya never leaves Okayama, and Ishida Seibu has no ambition whatsoever. He keeps to his own corner and never interferes in anything beyond his jurisdiction. Only Morikukawa is ambitious, constantly trying to win over two of the Five Generals, Akiyama Nobunori and Tokugawa Ieteru. He wants to unite the Land of Fire. The general has kept making concessions. If he gives in again now, the knife may soon be at his throat!"
Thinking of his ambition to rule the world, a desire he had buried deep inside and never revealed began to kindle. It was more than just a dream. Under Madara's subtle influence, Sato suddenly realized that since he had already become a general, why shouldn't he go even further? He decided to make a plan and had no interest in listening to Fujiwara Muneyoshi any longer, so he ordered him to leave.
"Very well. Let me think it over for a few days. After all, building a military fortress isn't easy. I'll give you an answer tomorrow."
"Then this old man will wait at home for your orders, General."
"Right. You may go."
Fujiwara Muneyoshi saw that Sato seemed distracted. He sighed deeply and said no more, then took his leave. Sato gave him a perfunctory reply and walked out of the pavilion.
Sitting in an inconspicuous loft in a quiet corner of Okayama, Madara and Mingye looked down at the crowds streaming along the streets below. Mingye couldn't experience the feeling of being above everyone else with his eyes, but he could still sense it, satisfying the slightest trace of pride within him. He really was different now. At least, he and the people in the streets no longer belonged to the same world.
"What exactly did you do? General Sato summoned me earlier and asked about the Senju Clan. He also wants us to send people to the border between the Land of River and my Land of Fire. I heard Akiyama Nobunori wants to build a bridge there connecting the Lands of Grass, River, and Fire, and construction has already begun! He wants us to stop the work within a short time and make sure they can't continue. What's going on?"
As Mingye was busy praising himself, Shimizu's voice came from the entrance to the second floor nearby. Madara coldly asked him in return,
"What did Sato ask you? Don't tell me you didn't tell him what we wanted."
Shimizu walked over and sat down, then shook his head and explained,
"General Sato must have taken some strange medicine. He asked me specifically about the strength of the Senju Clan, then asked whether we could wipe them out if he fully supported us. I said we could. Only then did he order our clan to go to the border of the Land of River and sabotage Akiyama Nobunori's plan."
Madara nodded. Although he was somewhat unhappy about being ordered around by Sato, now was not the time to show it. He turned to Mingye and asked about their next move.
"Looks like the plan worked! Mingye, what do we do next?"
Mingye's mind raced. After running through every plan he could think of, he spoke.
"Big brother, don't rush. A dream of riches and glory can feel wonderful, but if someone has too many of them, they may start to instinctively resent them. For the past three or four days, Sato has been waking up from both sweet dreams and nightmares. I doubt he's been sleeping well. Now we just need to slowly make those thoughts take root in his mind. By the way, didn't the Fuma Clan try to assassinate General Sato for no apparent reason? They still haven't found out who ordered the Fuma Clan to kill him. Now that the Fuma Clan has been wiped out, why not toss some mud at the Senju Clan?"
Shimizu thought over Mingye's words for a moment. He agreed that there was no harm in implicating the Senju Clan, so he told the two of them,
"Leave the Fuma Clan matter to me. Our ninjas are still at the clan's ruins. We just need to forge some evidence, and the Senju Clan won't be able to clear their name, even if they're innocent!"
Mingye shook his head, exasperated by how dim-witted Shimizu was, and explained again.
"No need. If you see through something, don't say it aloud. Our Uchiha Clan shouldn't be the ones to do this. If we are, it'll look too fake. After all, people aren't fools. The Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan have always been rival clans of ninja who attack each other on sight. If we do this, people are bound to doubt it. Someone else has to spread the 'fact' that the Senju Clan tried to assassinate the general. That's the only way to make it seem even slightly credible. And our Uchiha Clan absolutely cannot be involved. Only then can we hasten the conflict between the Senju Clan and the general, and only then can we carry out our next plan!"
"Mingye, what exactly are you trying to do?"
Madara couldn't be bothered to think through these problems. He was good at fighting, but not so good at schemes and plots. At least, the Madara of this era didn't yet have the sinister scheming and breadth of vision he would show in the future. In fact, from the ending of the manga, Mingye didn't think his elder brother had much of a head for strategy. The White Zetsu, whom he still hadn't noticed or found, was the real mastermind. Zetsu had outplayed three people in all: Nagato, Obito, and Madara. Every one of them was a heaven-blessed prodigy, yet Zetsu had made fools of them all. Mingye couldn't help but admire the Sage of Six Paths' mother. She'd certainly given birth to children who were all forces to be reckoned with.
Seeing Madara ask impatiently, Mingye decided to stop speaking in riddles and laid out the rest of his plan.
"Of course, we'll bring the many large and small clans within the Land of Fire under our control. But we need a pretext. Without one, everyone will rise up against us, and that's not what I want. But if the general is willing to ask the Daimyo for an official decree recognizing our Uchiha Clan as the Land of Fire's state-sanctioned clan, then don't you think we should help the nation restore order to its chaotic ninja world?"
Mingye's plan was perfectly aboveboard, backed by Heaven's mandate. With the Daimyo's decree, their actions would amount to the will of the state. Those small clans would surely dare not refuse their call—or be allowed to. Otherwise, the nation's wrath could wipe out their clans in an instant. "Exactly! Anyone who refuses to submit to us will be a traitor to the nation. Then they'll have no choice but to bow their heads!"
Madara thought for a few seconds, then slowly nodded and praised Mingye's plan. Shimizu, however, furrowed his brows. Mingye's idea was good, but in all the centuries of history, nobody had ever managed to do such a thing. Worried, he warned Mingye,
"This won't be easy. Plenty of ninja want that so-called honor, Mingye. But look at the past few hundred years. How many have actually obtained it? Not one!"
Mingye smiled lightly. His current plan was indeed incomplete in many ways, but he had a trump card: his elder brother, Madara Uchiha. The battle between the Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan would have to be brutal enough to make the Uchiha Clan surrender. At the very least, Madara and Hashirama would fight for more than five years. By Mingye's reckoning, the countdown to that point should already be underway. He had to speed things up. If he couldn't wipe out the Senju Clan, he had to drive them out of the Land of Fire. Mingye knew full well that the Senju of the Forest were far more formidable than the Uchiha Clan was now.
Night fell over Okayama Castle once more. Mingye stood on the roof of a tall building, waiting for his elder brother to return from casting his technique. Suddenly, his sharp ears caught a faint rustling from some servants. He turned and flicked his arm, sending a poisonous snake flying toward the source of the noise.
Whoosh!
Mingye sensed a brief ripple of chakra, but his opponent's concealment skills were clearly refined. Even Mingye couldn't detect him right away. A cold breeze brushed his cheek. Mingye's brows twitched, and he dropped into a crouch as two kunai flew without warning from beneath the trees beside the building, aiming straight for his face.
"Chaos Wind Spike!"
A mass of wind blades sliced the tree into several pieces. A figure flickered into view, then appeared behind Mingye the next moment, a long sword held horizontally as he tried to pierce Mingye through the back. Mingye crouched and pivoted on one foot, sweeping his other leg at his opponent. The man seemed determined to kill him in a single blow. He vanished again in an instant and reappeared in front of Mingye, his long sword closing in once more.
"Sage Art: Dragon Prohibition Martial!"
Mingye didn't panic at all. He used the Substitution Technique to quickly get away from his opponent, then formed Hand Seals in front of his chest. A beam of white light shot out. The enemy landed on the rooftop tiles and dodged the attack with several backflips, only to discover that his chakra had become chaotic and was difficult to control. He promptly abandoned the assassination and turned to flee.
"Trying to run?"
A gunbai appeared in front of the man. Madara watched him proudly and spat out a fireball. The man vanished in a flash, but Madara's eyes immediately opened into the Mangekyō Sharingan. Its godlike field of vision left the man nowhere to hide. Madara couldn't catch up to him, but the man couldn't shake Madara off either. The two raced toward the outskirts of Okayama Castle, one chasing the other.
"It's Tobirama. I'd know that chakra anywhere! Since you've come, don't blame me for making this act convincing!"
Mingye hadn't been idle. He had been wondering how to properly frame the Senju Clan, and now he finally had his chance. He took from his robe a kunai he had made that afternoon, marked with the Senju Clan's insignia, and snapped it in half. He dropped the pieces into the courtyard, then stomped on the roof to make a noise before quickly vanishing from the rooftop and pursuing Tobirama and Madara.
Madara wasn't skilled in Space-Time Ninjutsu, but that was only in comparison with ninja of his own level. Perhaps because Madara had awakened his evolved Mangekyō Sharingan earlier than in the manga, Tobirama had underestimated his strength. Although Tobirama was giving it everything he had, using the Body Flicker Technique and the Space-Time Ninjutsu he had begun to develop, he still couldn't completely escape Madara's pursuit. With no other choice, Tobirama changed his plan. Once he had gotten away from Okayama and entered the forest, he took a flare from his robe and fired it into the sky. Then he turned back and swung his long sword at Madara Uchiha.
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