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"So, here is my proposal. Every great village will cease hostilities and return the smaller villages it annexed." Madara activated his Sharingan as he spoke, his voice calm.
"..." The atmosphere in the conference room shifted immediately. No one thought Madara would reveal his Sharingan and threaten them so directly. Everyone at the table had fought to lead their great village, and none of them were willing to accept this kind of treatment.
Mū's expression darkened.
"Control yourself, Mū!!" He was about to make a move when Black Zetsu grabbed his arm.
Mū frowned and nodded reluctantly.
Gengetsu Hōzuki was about to speak, ready with a sharp remark, but Fukasaku caught his eye and signaled for him to stay quiet.
The First Raikage showed no such restraint.
Madara's presence filled the room. The cold look from his three-tomoe Sharingan made the Raikage's chest tighten, and his breathing grow heavy. It only made him feel more ready to fight.
"UCHIHA MADARA, YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR!" The First Raikage slammed his palm onto the conference table, shattering the wooden surface.
He glared across the wreckage and shouted, "The Hidden Cloud trains its shinobi and builds its strength to protect its people. How does that make us conspirators? You claim the fighting will eventually reach Konoha, but that's nothing more than your own guess!"
"Every village handles its own affairs. We attacked smaller shinobi villages, not Konoha. What gives you the right to sit there and lecture us from above?"
"Konoha may be strong, but that doesn't mean you can push the other four Kage around. I won't bow just because you decided to throw your weight around!"
The First Raikage released his full aura and met Madara's threat head-on.
"What I've taken is mine," the First Raikage said coldly. "This world belongs to the strong. If you disagree, we can settle it with our fists."
Madara's eyes narrowed.
Oh? They wanted to preach survival of the strongest to him??
"You still don't understand your position." Madara swept his gaze across the four Kage. "The only reason I'm sitting here and speaking to you peacefully is because I would prefer to settle this without bloodshed."
His eyes narrowed.
"If you refuse to listen to reason..."
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMM!!"
Madara released his chakra.
A powerful force swept through the conference room. The floor shook, the walls creaked, and everyone felt a heavy force pressing down on them.
Every face changed.
Mū clenched his teeth as a hint of senjutsu appeared in his eyes.
The First Raikage stared at Madara in disbelief. Wasn't Senju Hashirama supposed to be Konoha's strongest? How could Madara be this strong too?
"Well, that's a ridiculous amount of power..." Gengetsu muttered.
Tobirama remained expressionless. None of this surprised him.
The very fact that Madara was willing to negotiate showed he was holding back. If the world really followed the rule of the strongest, as they said, Madara would have already attacked them.
A brief show of force hardly counted as excessive.
After several seconds, Madara withdrew his chakra. The crushing pressure vanished, though no one in the room relaxed.
"Go home and think carefully about what I said. If you continue expanding, you'll disrupt Konoha's trade routes. When that happens, we'll have no choice but to intervene to protect our economy."
"This meeting is over." Madara rose from his seat.
He left with Tobirama, not giving the others a chance to reply. The other Kage exchanged dark looks and then left the building.
Once they were outside, Mū could no longer hold back. "Sage, that was the perfect chance. Why did you stop me from dealing with Madara?"
Black Zetsu's face darkened.
"Mū, learning Sage Arts doesn't mean you can defeat Uchiha Madara." He looked back at the building and spoke quietly. "Besides, if a fight started here, we'd be alone in enemy territory. No one would come to help us."
...
Inside the Hokage's office, Madara and Tobirama were already discussing a far more ambitious plan.
"Tobirama, what do you think of this?" Madara gestured toward the map on the wall. "We station Konoha forces throughout the smaller villages, making them our tributaries. We protect them from the other great villages while using our garrisons to keep the four major villages under control."
"Military bases across the entire shinobi world?" Tobirama studied the map. "It could work. But if we deploy that many shinobi abroad, what happens when Konoha itself is left undermanned?"
Madara brushed off the concern. "Hashirama is here, and so am I. Konoha will be fine."
The two were deep into a heated discussion over troop deployments when Hashirama burst into the office.
"Madara! I heard you threatened the other four Kage with war during the summit. You can't do that!"
Madara shook his head. "Hashirama, I was frightening them into behaving. I had no intention of attacking them."
He leaned back in his chair. "If I wanted a fight, I would have taken all four of them down before they left the conference room."
"That doesn't make it acceptable!" Hashirama pressed. "They're Kage, the same as you. They traveled all this way to attend the summit. We can't invite them to Konoha and then threaten them!"
"That's enough, Hashirama. I am the Hokage!!" Madara's voice remained calm.
Tobirama saw nothing wrong with what had happened either.
"Brother, Madara knows where to draw the line. Besides, I was there with him."
"You two..." Hashirama's face tightened before he released a weary sigh.
He knew both men too well.
Madara was naturally aggressive, and Tobirama was just as bad. He acted calm and reasonable, but the jutsu he created in secret showed another side.
The Edo Tensei. The Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags.
Every forbidden jutsu Tobirama created followed the same principle: once the fighting began, there were no rules.
Having him and Madara together was almost guaranteed to cause trouble...
Hashirama eventually gave up and left the office. The moment the door closed behind him, Madara and Tobirama exchanged a suspicious smile.
"Tobirama, how is that technique you were developing?"
Tobirama narrowed his eyes. "The Edo Tensei is almost complete. The problem is that it requires a living sacrifice."
He lowered his voice. "Brother cannot find out about this..."
Madara smiled and nodded.
A moment later, he turned back to the map, looking thoughtful.
"Tobirama, if Konoha declared war on the entire shinobi world and launched a lightning campaign, what would our chances of victory be?"
Tobirama gave him a flat look, then answered as if this were a perfectly reasonable question. "However ambitious you're willing to be, Lord Hokage, my Flying Raijin is fast enough to keep up."
Madara whipped around, a broad smile spreading across his face.
"Tobirama, listening to you is like drinking fine wine. Go on. What's your plan?"
He pointed to the map of the shinobi world hanging on the wall. "My strategy is straightforward. I use the Flying Raijin to transport Konoha's forces directly into the enemy villages. We appear without warning and eliminate their leadership before they can organize a defense."
Tobirama tapped several locations on the map.
"Or I could take you with me..."
He continued laying out the strategy, moving from one village to the next. Madara's eyes grew brighter as he listened.
This could actually work!!
"The only problem is that the First Hokage never wanted Konoha to start a war." Tobirama rubbed his brow.
Madara chuckled.
"My great-grandfather once said something. Have you heard it?"
"What did he say?"
Madara leaned against the windowsill and looked toward Manji's portrait hanging inside the Hokage's office.
"No matter how powerful someone was in life, dead is dead. Only the living get to decide what comes next."
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