After making their rounds, Shingetsu and Madara ended up back at Hokage Rock. This time, they stood on its sheer cliffs, looking down over all of Konoha from its highest point.
The hurried pedestrians in the streets were as tiny as ants, drifting this way and that like schools of fish. Rows of newly built houses stood within the vast city. People moved briskly, yet went about their business without any sense of panic. Everything seemed so orderly and organized.
A spring breeze blew through the village. The trees, the villagers, and Konoha itself all brimmed with life and vitality. It was hard to imagine that just six years ago, this place had been nothing but a primeval forest.
Madara was overwhelmed with emotion. He had watched Konoha rise from nothing, and he himself was one of its irreplaceable founders.
The once-unreachable dream of his youth seemed to be coming true, and everything he had sacrificed for it seemed worthwhile. Yet his eyes could see an unbearable darkness spreading unchecked through the village he and Hashirama had poured their hearts into.
Madara sat cross-legged on the ground, his cold gaze looking down upon the people below the cliffs, as insignificant as ants. Dark, chilling chakra surged alongside his increasingly extreme emotions.
If his predictions came true, he could never accept such a false peace. Tragically, no matter how sorrowful or painful the future these eyes foresaw might be, it always became reality in the end.
Shingetsu instinctively sensed the danger permeating the air. Forcing herself to act as though she had not noticed that dark, ominous atmosphere, she caught Madara's strong arm and settled obediently into his lap with practiced ease. Nestling her little body into the crook of his arm, she lifted her head and gave him an innocent smile.
Madara Uchiha reflexively tightened his embrace around the small child in his arms. Her pure, innocent smile cleansed the violence coiling around his heart.
"...You really aren't afraid of me at all."
Madara had always been self-aware. He knew children did not like him; even the children of the Uchiha Clan feared him. But Shingetsu was different. She truly loved clinging to him, just as Izuna had when he was a child.
Remembering how helpless he had felt the first time he held this soft little thing, Madara Uchiha smiled faintly. That young face, so utterly trusting, reminded him of his distant childhood, before he had lost his brother and parents.
"Why should I be afraid of you, Master? You're so gentle."
Shingetsu raised her head from Madara's arms, her glossy, grape-black eyes full of confusion. Madara did not answer her question, merely gazing intently at the fiery sunset on the distant horizon.
Combine the powers of the Senju and the Uchiha, and you shall attain all creation.
Once again, Madara Uchiha unconsciously recalled the secret recorded on the stone tablet at Naka Shrine. As he did, he instinctively held Uchiha Shingetsu tighter in his lap.
This child, who combined the bloodlines of the Senju and the Uchiha, was an unexpected blessing in his life-and the reason he remained in Konoha to this day. He needed somewhere Shingetsu could grow up safely, and Konoha, which he and Hashirama Senju had built with their own hands, was undoubtedly the best choice.
There was no denying that he had poured countless hours of effort and immense affection into Shingetsu. The last people he had cared about this deeply were Izuna and Hashirama. As for why he did so much for her, the reason was actually quite simple.
Madara Uchiha firmly believed that Shingetsu would find a new path for him-a path leading to true peace and his ideals.
Shingetsu, upon whom Madara had placed such high hopes, had no idea what he was thinking. Had she known, she would probably have been frightened into confessing on the spot that without Indra's chakra and asura chakra, she had no way of awakening the Rinnegan.
Sitting in Madara Uchiha's arms, Shingetsu was thinking about something else entirely: how to prevent the Uchiha Clan from being massacred several decades later.
The clan massacre was utterly bizarre when examined closely. A thousand years of the Warring States Period had failed to destroy the Uchiha, yet Konoha had succeeded in less than a century after its founding. Even more ironically, the Senju Clan, those red-eyed people's old rivals, had not escaped that fate either. The mighty clans that had stood at the very pinnacle of the Warring States Period had both fallen within the village they had built with their own hands.
Rather than a utopia founded jointly by the Senju and the Uchiha, Konoha was more like a deadly, bitter fruit they had cultivated together. Before the darkness it had spawned, the dreams of its two great founders, Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju, seemed so laughably naive.
"In this village, children won't have to kill one another."
In reality, young children kept going to war for the village. Shingetsu remembered that Uchiha Itachi had gone to the battlefield at four, Kakashi at five, and countless children like Rin Nohara and Obito had become cannon fodder at twelve or thirteen. During the Warring States Period, bodies could still be laid to rest in coffins. During the Shinobi World Wars, the dead filled the battlefields in layers, their numbers beyond counting.
She vaguely remembered that tens of thousands had died on the first day of the Fourth Shinobi World War alone.
At first glance, the anime Naruto seemed full of sunshine and hot-blooded passion, yet its underlying world was brutally dark. The shadows of bloodline theory and fatalism constantly hung over the shinobi world. Even someone as hardworking as Rock Lee could only fade into the crowd, while a genius like Neji ultimately died to that same ridiculous, tragic fate.
On closer examination, everything about the shinobi world was absurd and laughable. Shinobi with tremendous power willingly placed themselves beneath daimyō and nobles, treating themselves as tools for completing missions. Ordinary people lived precarious lives, yet still had to support the shinobi and aristocrats above them. At five or six, children were taught in school to "complete missions by any means necessary and eliminate every enemy, including killing all witnesses." By eleven or twelve, they could become qualified killing tools, then fight on the battlefield until they died.
Obito had been right. What difference was there between a world like this and hell?
Shingetsu could not accept this shinobi world at all. She wanted to change this cruel, twisted world completely, starting at its roots.
It had nothing to do with ambition or grand aspirations. She merely wanted to live openly in the sunlight as a human being, rather than a tool.
"Master, have you thought about how to plan the village's development?"
Shingetsu looked up, a maturity far beyond her years showing on her soft, fair little face. Madara Uchiha opened his mouth, but no answer came.
She had successfully hit a gap in his knowledge. Before Konoha's founding, Izuna had handled such matters. After its founding, that irritating Tobirama Senju had taken charge of them.
He, Madara Uchiha, truly was no good at politics or scheming.
"I see..."
Shingetsu had not expected a decent answer from Madara anyway. With the surname Uchiha, there was little hope of being any good at this sort of thing.
"Master, let's open a school in the village, like our clan school. Then all the children in Konoha can go there."
"Are you trying to get out of my training?"
Madara narrowed his eyes dangerously. Looking down, he poked Shingetsu's forehead. She covered her reddened forehead, feeling wronged, and protested indignantly:
"Come on, is that really the point? Shouldn't you be saying this is an amazing idea?"
Madara Uchiha folded his arms and considered it for a moment, then suddenly realized it was a brilliant idea. A school where every child in Konoha could study meant that commoners' children could become shinobi too, while children from shinobi clans could set aside their family prejudices. Most importantly, this facility that brought all the children together would be perfectly safe under his and Hashirama's protection.
"Also, Master, I saw lots of people on the streets who looked like they didn't have enough to eat. We could give them some money and food, or even lend them the Uchiha's unused fields. We don't need that land right now anyway."
Shingetsu mulled it over. The village's current environment was actually extremely unfavorable to the Uchiha. That bastard Tobirama Senju had stipulated that the Hokage would be chosen by democratic vote, which essentially eliminated the possibility of an Uchiha becoming Hokage at its very root.
There was no helping it. Making the Uchiha compete with the Senju in popularity-honestly, how was that any different from asking to be humiliated?
Not long ago, the Senju brothers had taken that monkey Hiruzen Sarutobi as their disciple, and had also begun teaching Shimura Danzō, Mitokado Homura, Utatane Koharu, and Torifu Akimichi alongside him. The infamous Konoha F4 had already gathered together, and the clan forces behind them had rallied beneath the Senju banner.
For the Uchiha, it was already too late to try to build an alliance with the shinobi clans. Besides, with the Uchiha Clan's arrogant, insufferable temperament, they would never lower themselves to curry favor with the other shinobi clans, whom they regarded as nothing but weaklings.
Shingetsu had no intention of undertaking such a thankless task either. In her view, rather than struggle to please shinobi clans already on good terms with the Senju, they might as well compete for influence among the commoners.
Konoha did not have many commoners at present, but large numbers would inevitably pour in later. As long as the Uchiha kept a firm hold on the Ninja Academy, large numbers of commoner shinobi who supported them would naturally emerge.
Tobirama Senju, aren't you just exploiting the fact that the Uchiha are aloof, arrogant, and terrible at socializing? Then I'll give the commoners benefits and support, and offer them a chance to become shinobi. We'll see whose side they take then.
This is how you use the strengths of foreigners to control foreigners!
"That sounds like a good idea. Let's do as you say, Izu..."
The familiar conversation left Madara Uchiha momentarily dazed. When Izuna had been alive, he had listened to his younger brother's advice just like this. Izuna had not been his equal in strength, but he had been far smarter and more dependable than his older brother. He had always been so wise, always able to make brilliant decisions. Before Madara knew it, Izuna had become like his very own mind.
Only after losing Izuna had Madara realized how deeply he had depended on his younger brother.
"Master?"
Shingetsu's face overlapped with the face of the young Izuna. Madara Uchiha looked down at them, his expression somewhat dazed. Instinctively, he wanted to call Izuna's name, only to remember that his younger brother had long since died on the battlefield.
"...It's nothing. I just remembered my brother."
Madara's voice was inexplicably hoarse, the beginning and end of his words almost swallowed in his throat. Shingetsu looked up at him in concern, only for a strong hand to gently stroke her head.
"You're very clever. That's a rare gift. Don't let that talent go to waste."
"Once the Ninja Academy is established, you can attend as well. Remember, don't disgrace the Uchiha name."
"Hehe, children should be studying properly."
Delighted that her suggestions had been accepted, Shingetsu smiled until her eyes narrowed, the corners of her mouth and eyes curving upward into little crescents.
"Well said! Children should grow up and become strong under the protection of adults."
"Exactly, exactly! You're right, Master..."
Halfway through her sentence, Shingetsu's eyes widened in horror, and every hair on her body stood on end. That was not Madara's voice at all. Who on earth was talking to her?
She turned her head slightly toward the voice and saw a black-haired man in a red Hokage robe standing behind her and Madara. His handsome face bore a sunny, almost goofy smile.
Oh heavens, oh earth, why was this man here?! H-he-how much had he overheard?!
Madara took it entirely in stride, not even bothering to glance back. Shingetsu, however, looked utterly panicked in his arms, wishing she could dig a hole right there and hide inside it. She began regretting not listening to her silly father Hōkaku. Even spending her entire life in the clan compound would have been better than facing this seemingly good-natured man before her.
Help! Hashirama Senju was here!!!
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