The Vanishing Senju

Upon returning home, Hoshi stared at the two Scrolls in his hands and fell into deep thought. He did not believe this was merely a simple exchange and a meeting gift. Even the wealthy Senju Clan could not possibly be so extravagantly generous.

Rather than an exchange, this was more like an investment.

They were using Tobirama's Swordsmanship Insights as the price to buy his, Hayate Hoshi's, goodwill toward Mito and Tsunade—or even his loyalty. But why would Mito do something like this?

Hoshi keenly sensed that this was surely related to the large-scale disappearance of the Senju Clan Members. To find the answer, the moment he got home, he plunged headfirst into his cheap old man's study. After all, his cheap old man had personally witnessed that era. He ought to have recorded some relevant information.

After searching for a while, Hoshi finally found a record in his cheap old man's notes stating that the First Hokage had integrated some of the clan members among the civilians.

In those notes, his cheap old man lavishly praised this approach, calling it the wisest decision the First Hokage had made since founding Konoha.

There were two brilliant aspects to this matter. First, it created an effective means of restraining the other clans and gradually elevated the concept of the village above that of the clan.

After all, when Konoha was first established, it was merely a collective formed by several major clans joining forces. That collective continuously attracted civilians to join, eventually forming the true Konoha.

But such a Konoha carried a hidden danger. The major clans had gathered together because of peace, but that did not mean they were truly of one mind.

So how could they prevent other clans from turning traitor and defecting from Konoha?

Simple. The Senju Clan would blend its members among the civilians, then build a ring of houses around your clan alongside those civilians and box you in. The moment you made any suspicious move, we would immediately notice.

You dared to rebel? Any random neighbor of yours would dare report you, and then the Senju Clan would join forces with the other clans to crush you. Would you submit?

You had no choice but to submit.

On top of that, we would brainwash you around your home for years, telling you that your XX Clan was Konoha's XX Clan. A few decades later, your grandson would open his mouth and say, "We are Konoha's XX Clan." Wouldn't that sense of belonging naturally emerge?

As time passed, the concept of the village would naturally supersede the concept of the clan. Within the village, you might still shout that your XX Clan stood above commoners like them, but once you truly stepped outside Konoha, it would become: we are all people of Konoha.

The second point was that it directly shattered the major clans' monopoly over ninjas.

At its core, Konoha still relied on developing its ninja economy. Ninjas being sufficiently powerful and sufficiently obedient was the foundation of Konoha's existence.

If ninjas remained monopolized by the clans, then if one of Konoha's clans left someday, would Konoha not suffer grievous losses? Or if one clan became overwhelmingly powerful and wiped out all the others, would Konoha not become a place ruled by that single clan? Would war not break out again? To prevent these two situations, there had to be civilian ninjas! Civilian ninjas received no clan training. They could only rise through the village, so they would naturally be deeply grateful to it and resent the Bloodline Limit Clans lording over them.

These civilian ninjas would become the core force opposing clan monopolies, as well as the backbone protecting Konoha's peace.

But where would civilian ninjas come from? From the Senju Clan!

Some Senju Clan Members would become civilians and marry commoners, producing children. Those children with excellent bloodlines would then have the opportunity to become ninjas.

Besides, if the Senju Clan, the big brother leading the pack, actively married civilian children, then even if you little brothers did not sincerely follow suit, you at least had to put on a show, right?

And just like that, another batch of civilian ninjas would be produced.

Then the Ninja Academy could cultivate the talents of civilian ninjas while also admitting clan children, spreading the Will of Fire to them all together.

Brainwashing and cultivating civilian ninjas, both at once. The benefits were too good to even mention.

But when Hoshi recalled the deserted Senju Clan Compound he had passed through, he felt that the reality differed so wildly from his cheap old man's records that it was absurd.

The facts were completely different from what his old man had claimed. Look at the deserted Senju Clan Compound now—did that count as letting some clan members integrate into Konoha?

Damn it, aside from one pair of underwear, they had gone all in on everything else!

Using some clan members to assimilate Konoha's civilians was indeed a good method, but integrating every single clan member into them—wasn't that a little brain-dead?

Hashirama, with his thick nerves, might have done something like that. But Tobirama had been right beside him. Tobirama could not possibly have allowed his brother to make such a brain-dead decision.

For a time, even Hoshi, a transmigrator, could not see what exactly was going on behind all this.

Within the Senju Clan Compound, Mito was also pondering the events of the past two years.

Hayate Eichi's records were, in fact, true, but after that, a tremendous upheaval had occurred.

Under normal circumstances, as long as Hashirama and Tobirama remained in office long enough, the Senju Clan could perfectly carry out this plan and successfully turn Konoha into an organization where clan and village were integrated as one.

At that point, even if the Senju Clan produced no more powerful figures afterward, it could still achieve Konoha's long-term peace through this plan and its large number of civilian ninjas.

But the world was unpredictable. Not long after the plan was introduced, Madara returned while controlling the Nine-Tails.

Their battle at the Valley of the End left Hashirama severely wounded. He only had time to spend his final few years with Tsunade before leaving this world.

The moment Hashirama died, the other ninja villages ignited the First Shinobi World War.

Most of the subordinates loyal to Hashirama lost their lives in that war. Even Tobirama was left behind in Cloud Village forever during the peace talks because he had stayed back to cover the retreat.

With Hashirama and Tobirama dead, the once-promising situation immediately turned dire.

The ambitious figures within the village began to stir, while the war at the front lines still had to be guarded against. Konoha suddenly found itself beset by troubles both within and without.

The Sarutobi Clan boy appointed by Tobirama might be able to shoulder the responsibilities of Hokage in the future, but he was still too young now. If not for her holding the fort behind the scenes during this period, Konoha would likely have already been carved up by those ambitious figures.

Under such circumstances, the originally brilliant plan instead became a rope binding the Senju Clan.

Originally, they could have used those forces as a Trump Card to intimidate those ambitious figures.

But now that the people had been sent out, it would not be easy to call them back. It was not that the Senju Clan Members who had left were unwilling to return, but that it would affect how the other clans viewed things.

This kind of oversight was something everyone had tacitly accepted, but if they suddenly recalled everyone in an emergency during wartime, what would people think? Such a rash move would play right into the hands of those ambitious figures. If they took the opportunity to incite the other clans into rebellion, then the Konoha Hashirama had spent his entire life building would be completely finished.

To prevent that from happening, Mito had staked everything on a desperate gamble.

The afternoon online classes are fully booked, so the update will be a little late. But I won't skip it.