On a mountaintop near the Sarutobi Clan Grounds.
Sarutobi Tetsuma and Shimura Sato stood shoulder to shoulder, their faces darker and uglier than the jagged rocks beneath their feet.
The secret report they had just received said that the Akimichi Clan, Yamanaka Clan, Nara Clan, Aburame Clan, Inuzuka Clan, and Hatake Clan—six major clans of great weight—had all sided with Senju Hashirama in just a few short days!
"Bastards! A pack of fools! Stupid beyond saving!" Sarutobi Tetsuma slammed his fist into the boulder beside him, sending gravel pattering down.
"They'd rather become the Senju Clan's vanguard, cannon fodder that could be smashed to pieces at any moment, than preserve their strength and ally with us to seek a way out! Do they have shit for brains?!"
Shimura Sato's face was just as ashen. "What use is saying that now...?
The die is cast!
Instead of cursing those ingrates here, we should be thinking about our own necks—whether they're still hard enough, whether they can withstand the blade that's coming!"
Sarutobi Tetsuma said in a low voice, "In the entire central region now, aside from those tiny shrimp that can't stir up any waves,
only my Sarutobi and your Shimura are still bitterly propping up this rotten signboard of 'neutrality'...
Those red-eyed lunatics of the Uchiha—who will their fangs bite next? Do we even need to guess?"
Shimura Sato said coldly, "Looks like... we can only swallow our pride and go beg that old bastard Senju Butsuma.
At least... we can preserve our inheritance for now."
Sarutobi Tetsuma was silent for a moment, then nodded with extreme difficulty. "That's the only way. Humiliation is better than extermination."
Just as the two were about to make up their minds and send out that humiliating message of alliance,
a sinister voice rang