Chapter 18

The climactic battle between Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara left the other four great ninja villages silent as if they had all muted themselves. Aside from Konoha, not a single word came out of them.

Fire Capital—Royal Palace.

The Daimyo sat in his study, having not slept all night.

Urgent intelligence sent back by his spies lay on the desk before him.

"Monsters... they're all monsters..."

How he wished either Senju Hashirama or Uchiha Madara had been killed. Unfortunately, the two had merely sparred.

Weren't ninja supposed to kill people? Since when did they start sparring?

The Daimyo sighed and leaned back in his chair.

He had long known that Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara had surpassed jonin level, that when they fought, they were comparable to gods. But this battle had been more outrageous than any before it. A thousand-meter-tall Thousand-Armed Buddha—even if someone told him it was the Sage of Six Paths, he would believe it.

Fortunately, when Konoha had come to him for aid last time, he had paid up without hesitation. Ten billion was painful, but at least it had temporarily appeased that pack of monsters.

However...

Money alone was not enough insurance.

What if one day Konoha wanted more than money and decided it wanted his life too?

The Daimyo pondered for a moment before finally picking up his brush and writing a personal letter to show goodwill toward Konoha.

"Guards."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Deliver my letter to Konoha." The Daimyo sealed the letter and handed it to an attendant. "Tell them I invite Konoha's Minister of Revenue, Uchiha Yan, to the Fire Capital to jointly discuss next year's aid to Konoha."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Konoha, Senju compound.

Senju Tobirama emerged from the basement with a face as dark as thunder.

His elder brother had defeated Uchiha Madara, and he had initially been quite happy about it. So what if Uchiha Madara had grown stronger? Let him be as strong as he pleased—the Senju were the strongest. As long as his brother, that pillar of stability, remained, the Senju Clan would have nothing to worry about.

Who would have thought that the evil Uchiha Izuna had grown stronger as well—and to an utterly unreasonable extent.

Yesterday, right after Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara's great battle, Uchiha Izuna had come to challenge him to a spar.

How could Tobirama tolerate that? "I lost to Uchiha Yan, not you. You're nothing but a defeated opponent—how dare you boast?"

What was infuriating was that he had lost. He had actually lost.

When facing Izuna, he had felt as though he were facing Uchiha Madara. That suffocating pressure, that all-encompassing suppression brought by his ocular power.

He and Izuna had fought for so many years that they knew each other inside out. Their strength had once been evenly matched, yet in yesterday's battle, he had been suppressed from start to finish.

The proud Tobirama could not accept this.

His elder brother had won a round for the Senju, only for him to lose it back. On the surface, the Senju and Uchiha had tied—one victory and one defeat. In reality, the Senju Clan had lost, and lost thoroughly.

His elder brother was stronger than Uchiha Madara, but only by a limited margin. Yet the current Uchiha Izuna was far stronger than him, not to mention Uchiha Yan. Even with his sister-in-law Mito included, the Senju Clan was still weaker than the Uchiha.

Thus, Tobirama plunged headfirst into human experimentation once again. The experiments had to be accelerated. If he could inherit his elder brother's power... unravel the secrets of Wood Release... the Uchiha would be easy to handle.

Uchiha compound.

The entire Uchiha Clan was celebrating.

The news had spread throughout the compound—according to the information Lord Yan had sent back, Lord Madara had drawn with Senju Hashirama, while Lord Izuna had utterly crushed Senju Tobirama.

Who else could possibly stop the Uchiha Clan's advance?

Quite a few clan members had already begun entertaining thoughts of keeping the Hokage position within the clan. "Once Lord Madara steps down as Hokage, the next Hokage will still be one of us Uchiha!"

Inside Uchiha Madara's residence.

"HAHAHAHA..." Uchiha Izuna threw back his head and laughed heartily, a rare sight indeed.

"Yesterday, Tobirama looked to me like nothing more than a clay chicken and a porcelain dog—just another fool waiting to have his head taken."

"Izuna, Senju Tobirama is Konoha's Chancellor after all. It wouldn't be good to..."

"I know, Brother." Seeing that his brother was about to lecture him again, Izuna hurriedly changed the subject. "Yan, we really have you to thank for this." Uchiha Izuna turned to him. "That old bastard Senju Tobirama was always giving me the side-eye. Today, I finally got that anger out of my system."

"It's just a pity you don't have a brother by blood."

Uchiha Yan waved his hand. "..." He did not continue that topic.

In truth, Uchiha Yan was thinking of something else—capturing tailed beasts.

Even if he perfectly fused Hashirama's cells in the future, his combat power would not increase by much. At present, there were only two ways for him to rapidly grow stronger.

One was to cultivate the sage arts of the three great sacred lands—Mount Myoboku, Ryuchi Cave, and Shikkotsu Forest. The Sage Mode of any one of those sacred lands could greatly increase one's combat power.

The other was to become the Nine-Tails' jinchuriki.

Unfortunately, the three great sacred lands were sealed off by barriers, and he had yet to find their entrances.

The next day.

Konoha Administrative Hall, Council Chamber.

The Hokage, the Secretaries of the Three Departments, the Ministers of the Six Ministries, and the newly established Vice Ministers of the Six Ministries were all present.

As more and more ninja clans joined Konoha, the allocation of official positions had become a major problem. Small clans were manageable, but large clans could not be denied posts. Other than the Ministry of War, which had no minister and was directly overseen by the Hokage, all positions in the other five ministries were already filled.

Thus, Uchiha Yan created the position of vice minister, equivalent to a deputy minister. Each ministry would have around two vice ministers, satisfying the large clans' need for official posts without affecting the normal operations of the Six Ministries.

There was a new face in the council chamber today.

The head of the Kaguya Clan, Kaguya Iwabi.

The Hyuga Clan and the Kaguya Clan had been close allies for generations. After Hyuga Tennin's repeated persuasion, he finally convinced the Kaguya Clan to relocate to Konoha as a whole. Hyuga Tennin personally guaranteed them, and Kaguya Iwabi brought his entire clan, young and old, from the Land of Water to seek refuge.

Uchiha Yan gave the Kaguya Clan the position of Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works.

The Kaguya Clan loved battle and excelled at it—nothing but bone, no brains. The Ministry of Works had countless construction projects and needed a great deal of manpower, making it the perfect place to temper those hard bones.

"Everyone." Uchiha Yan stood and swept his gaze across the room.

The meeting room fell silent.

"For the sake of peace in the ninja world, and to prevent those with ulterior motives from using the tailed beasts as weapons of war, Konoha is officially launching its tailed beast capture plan."

"Given that the tailed beasts possess the power to destroy the ninja world, the capture operations will be personally carried out by Lord Hokage and Lord Hashirama. Starting today, the Secretaries of the Three Departments and the Six Ministries will take full responsibility for Konoha's daily affairs, ensuring the village continues to operate normally."

Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama both looked excited, practically unable to wait.

Uchiha Madara especially had not gotten his fill from their sparring match a few days ago. Now that he heard he could leave the village to capture tailed beasts, he felt his blood boiling.

While Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama went out to capture tailed beasts, Uchiha Yan did not remain idle either.

The moment Uchiha Yan stepped out of the meeting room, he received a handwritten letter from the daimyo of the Land of Fire.

The daimyo invited him to hurry to the Fire Capital to discuss next year's aid to Konoha.

Uchiha Yan put away the letter, a plan forming in his mind.

Konoha's current efforts to attract investment were not progressing smoothly. Although the food and culture street had gradually taken shape and merchants were slowly moving in, the results were far from ideal. Konoha had only been founded recently, and very few merchants were willing to invest.

If they could get the daimyo to endorse them at a time like this...