The Hokage Position Should Belong to Lord Madara!

Inside the moon, in the Ōtsutsuki Clan's Great Hall.

The Giant Tenseigan had been sealed and had returned to its usual pale blue.

The elder and several clansmen had just withdrawn their hands, but none of them left.

They remained gathered beneath the giant eye, staring intently at it.

They had worshipped this Tenseigan for countless years, and nothing had ever gone wrong with it.

The amount of chakra it had sent out just now had been frightening.

The clansmen had spent a long time suppressing it alongside the elder before finally sealing it. Now their hands hung limply at their sides, still trembling.

One of them looked at his numb palms and murmured, "Nothing like this has ever happened before..."

The elder stood at the front without saying a word, staring at the pale blue giant eye with a deeply grim expression.

Only after a long while did he speak.

"The Tenseigan would never send chakra out on its own. Only eyes carrying Lord Hamura's bloodline can resonate with it."

"Aside from us, the only ones left with Lord Hamura's bloodline are that branch on the surface."

The clansmen's expressions changed at his words.

"That branch on the surface?"

A young Ōtsutsuki clansman could not contain his anger. "A bunch of people who fell into depravity along with the Shinobi World think they're worthy of stealing from us Ōtsutsuki?"

"Those people on the surface have waged war with chakra for centuries. Now they even dare reach for what belongs to the Ōtsutsuki," another clansman said coldly. "We should have destroyed the Shinobi World completely and started over long ago."

The elder raised a hand, silencing the discussion around him.

"Lord Hamura's instructions were for us to watch over the Shinobi World."

He turned around, his voice quiet. "Then we will keep watching. If that branch on the surface dares touch this eye again, we will activate the Giant Tenseigan and draw down meteorites to destroy the Shinobi World."

Konoha, the Hokage's office.

Tobirama Senju sat alone at his desk, looking through the rosters submitted by the various clans.

The door suddenly swung open, and the dust-covered Senju ninja sent to follow Madara walked in and dropped to one knee.

"Report."

The ninja caught his breath. "Madara Uchiha activated his Susanoo outside the Hyuga Clan Compound. It was the third stage."

"The Hyuga's sixteen-year-old clan head was covered in a layer of pale blue light, and he formed an enormous Light Blade in his hand."

"He split Madara Uchiha's Susanoo in two with a single slash. Half the mountain behind it was sliced flat, too."

The pen in Tobirama's hand stopped against the paper, and ink spread into a large blot on the roster.

"Say that again."

With his head lowered, the ninja repeated his report exactly, without changing a single word.

Tobirama leaned back in his chair and said nothing for a long time.

He knew better than anyone how tough Madara's Susanoo was.

Until now, his elder brother had been the only person in the world who could break through it head-on.

He began weighing things up inwardly.

After suffering such a major setback at the hands of the Hyuga, Madara would be much more restrained in the village from now on.

But someone capable of cleaving through Madara's Susanoo setting up on his own in the far north of the Land of Fire, right beside the border, would ultimately be a threat.

As he was thinking, the door opened again.

Hashirama strode in briskly and called out the moment he entered, "Tobirama, I've settled things with the Hyuga. In a few days, I'll go to the Land of Rice Fields and help them build their village with Wood Release."

Tobirama stared coldly at him for a long moment.

"The Hyuga just rejected Konoha, and now they're turning around and building a Shinobi Village in another country."

Tobirama's voice grew cold. "And you're going there yourself to build houses for them, Brother? You're doing their hard labor and helping outsiders grow stronger."

Hashirama rubbed the back of his head and smiled. "How could I go back on something I promised them?"

Then he grew excited again. "Besides, that kid really is incredible."

Knowing he could not talk his brother out of it, Tobirama shut his mouth and said no more.

Hashirama could never keep anything to himself.

Over the next few days, he told everyone he met in Konoha, "The Hyuga Clan's young clan head split Madara's Susanoo with a single slash. He even sliced away the mountaintop behind it!"

His face was full of excitement whenever he said it.

The village's ninja reacted with disbelief at first, assuming Lord Hokage was joking.

But Hashirama had said it himself, and he looked as though he had witnessed it firsthand. They had no choice but to believe him.

After hearing it, the head of a ninja clan that had only recently joined Konoha took a long while before asking, "Lord Hokage, do you mean those Hyuga? The Hyuga with the Byakugan?"

Hashirama smiled and nodded.

The man opened his mouth but could not say another word.

Several Uchiha ninja heard it on a street corner. Their expressions shifted repeatedly, and they clenched their fists, but in the end, they did not dare approach Hashirama to ask what had happened.

Within a few days, the story had spread throughout Konoha.

The Uchiha Clan Compound.

Before long, the words Hashirama had been repeating throughout the village reached the ears of the Uchiha clansmen.

"Lord Madara's Susanoo was split open by a sixteen-year-old brat with a single slash?"

The clansmen's first reaction was to sneer.

"Lord Hokage is making jokes about Lord Madara again."

But someone suddenly recalled that when Lord Madara had returned alone a few days earlier, a corner had indeed been missing from the hem of his black robe.

Once they put the two things together, the entire compound erupted.

Some widened their eyes, unable to believe it.

Others turned livid and insisted through gritted teeth that it was impossible.

Several younger clansmen gathered together and lowered their voices.

"Could... could it be true?"

Inside Madara's house in the Uchiha Clan Compound.

The clansmen's discussions carried through the walls, every word reaching Madara's ears.

Those things Hashirama told everyone he met had made Madara a topic of conversation throughout the village after all.

Madara sat in the dim room, his face as dark as thunder.

His gaze fell on the corner of the room.

A black robe hung there, a piece cleanly cut from its hem.

Looking at the cut, Madara recalled the Silver Light Blade that had cleaved through the mountaintop out in the wasteland that day.

He gritted his teeth.

Shinichi Hyuga.

Madara repeated the name inwardly, his Mangekyō Sharingan spinning rapidly in their sockets.

Next time, Hashirama won't be there to get in the way!

In a courtyard in the Uchiha Clan Compound, several young men huddled together, keeping their voices very low.

"The Hyuga Clan can't compare to us Uchiha in numbers or reputation, yet even they can go out and build their own village."

"Why do we Uchiha have to stay cooped up in Konoha? Why does a Senju get to be Hokage?"

"I think the Hokage Position should belong to Lord Madara!"

An elderly clansman passing by stopped and barked, "Shut up! What nonsense are you spouting!"

The young men hurriedly shut their mouths and lowered their heads, but their faces were still full of defiance.

Those few remarks carried over the courtyard wall and into Madara's room, word by word.

Madara sat in the shadows without a sound.