As Madara Uchiha proudly proclaimed the founding of the Konoha Shinobi Nation, the daimyō he had threatened-er, "invited"-all turned deathly pale. Their hearts felt as though they were being carved apart, yet they had to force themselves to smile, producing one grotesque grin after another.
They had known Madara Uchiha could not possibly mean well! Sure enough, this bastard had been waiting for this!
He truly deserved the title of Asura of the Ninja World. Pulling the rug out from under them like this was utterly ruthless!
The daimyō knew perfectly well that the young daimyō of the Land of Fire, now trudging dejectedly off the stage, was a faithful reflection of their own future.
Just as Madara had said, the daimyō and nobles really were about to become history in the shinobi world...
Anyone with eyes could see that the daimyō's authority had long since become an empty shell, like a thin sheet of paper that would fall apart at the slightest tear.
But whether to preserve that paper, whether to keep using it to cover up the ugly truth, was indeed a question worth serious consideration for shinobi.
Now, however, Madara Uchiha had torn that veil to shreds with overwhelming force, giving every shinobi a clear answer-
Doing away with that paper mattered to shinobi.
In the past, the number of shinobi throughout the shinobi world had been tightly controlled.
The countless hardships endured by shinobi during the Warring States era-unending warfare, poverty, hunger, and shortages of medicinal supplies-had all been tools the nobles used to reduce their numbers.
Yet even in those brutal conditions, powerful shinobi kept emerging, occasionally doing things that gave the rulers no end of headaches.
But these powerful figures, bred through deadly competition, knew nothing beyond fighting wars and wreaking destruction. They lacked