Moving back in time a little, after class ended, Madara, whom Hashirama had sent away, went ahead to the Hokage Building and waited for him in the Hokage's private office.
Still unaware that Hashirama had actually dared to team up with Tobirama to deceive him, Madara picked up the documents and intelligence reports on the desk when Hashirama failed to appear and quickly read through them.
Most of these reports concerned developments in the Five Great Nations and their shinobi villages. With his keen eye, Madara soon picked out the most important piece of intelligence:
Sunagakure, whose construction had lagged furthest behind among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, had finally been completed with the full support of the Daimyo of the Land of Wind. The First Kazekage, Reto, had officially announced its founding a few days earlier. With that, all five nations had established their own shinobi villages.
Under the current circumstances, the Daimyō of the Land of Wind and Kazekage Reto actually enjoyed the most harmonious relationship. Behind the scenes, however, the Daimyō was hiring large numbers of outside shinobi as guards, intending to counterbalance Sunagakure, while Reto had secretly sent Konoha a friendly letter proposing an alliance.
The other Three Great Shinobi Villages were doing the same. Even Iwagakure, which Madara had once thoroughly humiliated, seemed to have forgotten that incident and kept sending letters requesting an alliance.
Besides seeking alliances with Konoha, these villages also intended to cultivate good relations among themselves in private. They had even begun establishing diplomatic ties, completely disregarding their Daimyōs' displeasure and orders.
Even Madara was somewhat surprised that the Five Great Shinobi Villages could get along so well.
The Five Great Shinobi Villages had barely been founded before they began gearing up to fight over the shinobi world's limited supply of