Let me take his head

Setsuna followed Izuna into the Hagoromo Clan compound, then stopped short. The women of the Hagoromo Clan were stuffing rice balls and bamboo shuriken into backpacks, their faces full of helpless heartache as they made children who were still injured put them on.

The smallest child was shorter than Setsuna and looked no older than four. Even the straps of the backpack dangled down to the backs of the child's knees.

The ninja leading them was a woman too. She crouched to tighten the smallest child's straps, then stood and waved her hand. The group ran silently out of the compound.

At the edge of the compound, the elderly sat together with bundles of bamboo at their feet.

They shaved the bamboo with kunai, little mountains of bamboo shuriken piled beside each of them.

Clearly, the Hagoromo Clan's weapons were all but exhausted.

Farther in, the windows of a large building stood half open. The heavy smell of medicine drifted out, mingled with low, hoarse groans.

Setsuna quickly concluded that most of those left in the Hagoromo Clan compound were women, the elderly, and the sick and wounded.

His gaze swept over the guard posts. Only there did he see a few able-bodied male ninja left to hold the compound.

This is far too dangerous! Setsuna frowned.

If anyone bypassed the front lines now and struck straight at the rear of the Hagoromo compound, it would take very few attackers to slaughter everyone here.

He recalled that in the original Naruto story, the Hagoromo Clan had apparently appeared in just one shot of a corpse.

Even Naruto: Clash at the Summit, a game that had released every character it possibly could, had no Hagoromo Clan character in its arena.

In other words, this clan had been wiped out before Konoha was founded.

Perhaps it had happened in this very campaign.

He continued walking behind Izuna, a thought rising in his mind.

If the Hagoromo Clan isn't wiped out, if I keep them alive, would that count as rebelling against fate?

Just then, a middle-aged man's voice came from ahead. "Izuna."

Setsuna looked up. An old man emerged from the building filled with the smell of medicine, still holding a bowl of medicine.

His temples were gray, and the Hagoromo Clan crest was tattooed on his forehead. Setsuna had seen that design on the way here; almost all the Hagoromo ninja had it on their foreheads.

"Uncle." Izuna bowed slightly.

Uncle?

Setsuna quickly pieced together the family connections in his head. Madara Uchiha and Izuna's mother had come from the Hagoromo Clan, and his own mother had been a young Hagoromo woman who married into the Uchiha Clan...

So I'm Izuna's nephew through the Uchiha side, and his nephew through the Hagoromo side too?

What a mess of a family tree, Setsuna grumbled inwardly.

Still, it showed that these two clans were more than mere allies. They had been intermarrying extensively for at least two generations.

Izuna turned his head. "Call him Grandfather."

Setsuna said nothing.

The old clan leader waved a hand and looked down at Setsuna. His gaze lingered on Setsuna's face, and a flicker of profound anguish crossed his eyes.

Setsuna froze, only then remembering that this old man had just lost his son, followed by his daughter.

"...Grandfather," he said reluctantly.

The old clan leader placed a hand on Setsuna's head and gently stroked his hair.

The touch made Setsuna uncomfortable all over, while his mind turned to something else.

The Uchiha and Hagoromo intermarry, and so do the Senju and Uzumaki. Both involve the clan leaders' bloodlines.

Could the Uchiha Clan's bloodline be strengthened through marriage with the Hagoromo Clan?

Izuna and the old clan leader sat down at a low table. A hand-drawn map of the war zone lay spread across it.

"Uncle," Izuna began without preamble, "my brother sent me to ask you to reconsider the timing of the counteroffensive. The Hagoromo have lost more than half their able-bodied adults, and their supplies are also..."

"That brat Madara Uchiha sent you?" the old clan leader interrupted. His tone held not a trace of respect for the Uchiha's young clan leader. After all, in his eyes, the overbearing Madara Uchiha was his nephew.

He snorted. "He knows I don't want to hear that spineless nonsense about peace, restraint, and taking the long view. That's why he sent you, isn't it?"

Izuna remained silent.

The old clan leader set the medicine bowl on the table with a dull thud.

"He knew I didn't want to hear him say those things, so he sent you, the leader of the hardliners. But tell me, Izuna. Can you let go of that hatred yourself?"

Silence hung over the room for a long time before Izuna finally spoke.

"I can't," he admitted. "There were five brothers in our family. Our eldest brother, Ren, died in battle before I was old enough to remember him. I had two younger brothers too. I watched both of them grow up from infancy."

"One died at eight, the other at six. The youngest died the worst death-half his head was gone. And my father died at Butsuma Senju's hands."

"And you still came to persuade me?" The old clan leader stared at him across the table and scoffed. "You don't even believe it yourself."

"But I won't drag the clan into a death trap," Izuna countered.

He looked earnestly into the old clan leader's eyes. "Uncle, how many Hagoromo can still take the field? The rooms are full of wounded, your weapons are running out, and even bamboo shuriken have to be carved by the elderly. If you launch a counteroffensive now, failing to win is the least of your worries. If your main force falls at the front, who will defend the rear?"

Izuna earnestly laid out the threats facing the Hagoromo. "The Fuma and the Blood Horse are still watching from the outskirts. If you counterattack the Senju, they'll exploit the opening. Then it won't be a question of revenge. It'll be the annihilation of your clan."

Annihilation!

That word slammed into the old clan leader's heart, pressing his lips into a tight line. His eyes held only the exhaustion of a man being ground down, inch by inch, by reality.

"By your reasoning," the old clan leader said hoarsely, "we die if we fight, and we die if we don't."

"Fight!" a voice that still carried a child's softness cut in from the side.

Setsuna stood with his arms folded, his one-tomoe Sharingan gleaming coldly in the dim room:

"We can't stop now. If we do, the Senju will know the Hagoromo are weak on the inside and attack without restraint. But the Hagoromo clearly don't have enough people right now. A head-on clash would be suicide. We need another approach-use traps to kill a few of their key fighters and make the Senju ask for a ceasefire themselves."

He paused and looked at the old clan leader.

"If the Hagoromo back down now, it'll be like telling every small ninja clan around us that the Hagoromo are finished. Those bastards will swarm in like sharks scenting blood and tear the Hagoromo to pieces."

He turned to Izuna and tipped up his chin:

"The Hagoromo may be in bad shape, but they still have us Uchiha, don't they?"

Ding! Rebellion Points +10.

Setsuna was startled.

Ten points!

This was the most generous award of rebellion points yet.

He quickly analyzed where those points had come from. It wasn't rebellion against Izuna-talking back to Izuna had only ever earned him five points at most.

These ten points meant the target of his rebellion wasn't Izuna, but Madara Uchiha's push for peace.

Izuna favored war, while Madara sought peace. Opposing Madara's position on a strategic level carried far more weight than hurling insults.

He suppressed the turmoil inside him, letting none of it show on his face.

The old clan leader fell silent for a long time, then asked, "Where do you think we should start?"

Setsuna lifted his eyes. "Who's facing the Hagoromo on the main battlefield?"

"Tobirama Senju," Izuna said expressionlessly.

Setsuna's eyes lit up.

"Well, well." He straightened. "Let me take his head."

Thump!

A hard knuckle struck the top of his head. Setsuna clutched his head and crouched down.

Ding! Rebellion Points +1.

Setsuna silently confirmed one thing-Tobirama Senju was still the most reliable.

One mention, one point. Guaranteed every time.