"Naruto: My Ninja Skills"Chapter 152: Our Alliance
Hashirama Senju's inquiry to the Uchiha would inevitably leak the news of the "Senju clan head's disappearance"—theoretically, this should have been strictly classified information kept from enemies.
However, Uchiha Madara didn't care about Senju Butsuma's fate, just as Hashirama hadn't paid much attention to Uchiha Tajima's death previously.
Though Madara didn't care about Butsuma, he generally considered Butsuma's death a good thing... This judgment wasn't based on the big picture or clan interests, but purely personal feelings.
For the Uchiha, having their powerful enemy's leader change from a conservative, stubborn old man to a young person with both will and strength wasn't necessarily good news...
The young man might act less rigorously, but he was far too capable in battle.
The young man might not think things through completely, but his younger brother was far too cunning.
But for Madara himself, now that Hashirama no longer submitted to his "dog father's" will, the two could finally let loose and fight without restraint.
No helping it—Madara's idea of "fighting without restraint" meant he could beat down Hashirama, since he'd always felt Hashirama's performance in their previous clashes was somewhat soft.
One could only say ideals are full while reality is harsh. When Hashirama actually got serious, Madara couldn't handle it—that would be pure domination... Being technically inferior in strength was one thing, but accepting mentally that he was weaker was even more torturous.
"Clan Head, the Senju Clan is no longer launching attacks everywhere like before. They've withdrawn now."
A Uchiha ninja reported to Uchiha Madara.
Currently, Madara was leading a small squad through this battlefield.
Previously, the Senju had split their combat forces into squads and attacked throughout this region, making the Uchiha nervous. Thanks to Hashirama's inquiry, Madara finally understood what these people were actually doing.
Looking, looking, looking for their clan head, that's all.
Madara didn't know what he was thinking, but after learning about Senju Butsuma's situation, he actually yielded battlefield space. To others, this move seemed somewhat like "avoiding their sharp edge."
After all, most people didn't know about Madara and Hashirama's childhood friendship.
"With the shift from offense to defense, should we resume taking the offensive?" another ninja asked.
Taking the offensive was naturally more advantageous and proactive—in ninja warfare, having the initiative was equivalent to having the wind advantage in naval battles.
Uchiha Madara shook his head and said:
"Maintaining balance for now is sufficient. The Senju are consolidating their forces because after the power transition, Senju Hashirama needs to regain control of his clan's strength. We need to wait for Hashirama's next move before knowing the best response."
From beginning to end, Madara was thinking about how to deal with Senju Hashirama—only this way could tactical victories be converted into strategic victories.
In fact, because the "Senju Ninja Alliance" was already showing signs of coming together, the overall war environment was becoming increasingly unfavorable for the Uchiha Clan. As the Uchiha's leader, Madara had unconsciously become even more stubborn.
This was all due to his personality.
Many Uchiha could see the strategic collapse, and they thought the solution wasn't difficult... Bypass the Senju Clan, leave their traditional controlled areas, and develop in parts of the Shinobi World where the Senju had no influence.
If we can't beat them, can't we still avoid them?
However, no one dared suggest this to Madara, because Madara would never make the decision to lead the Uchiha Clan in a humiliating retreat.
He would only consider direct confrontation—fight, and if you can keep fighting, you can win. Running was impossible.
If Madara could continue leading the Uchiha to consecutive victories, his prestige would naturally only grow stronger. But after passing through the initial "aggressive advancement" phase, many people discovered flaws in his leadership.
In terms of strength, Madara was certainly growing stronger through battle, but he wasn't doing well enough in other areas.
Put it this way—in the original timeline, under Madara's leadership, there were actually incidents of Uchiha ninja surrendering en masse to their hereditary enemies, the Senju Clan. The more absurd these Uchiha ninja behaved, the worse Madara's leadership was.
The problem was that the current Senju, due to certain people's involvement and exemplary leadership, would only be stronger than their supposed strength. The spread of ideas had such effects... Soon, the Uchiha would face not just the Senju, but a Senju coalition.
Madara would soon experience the life stages of despising Tajima—surpassing Tajima—being inferior to Tajima.
This involved Madara's own problems, as well as external stimulating factors... Tobirama, oh Tobirama, look what you've done.
"Regarding the disappearance of over ten clan members previously, have you investigated any clues?" Madara asked again.
"No, but it happened during the period when the Senju were launching large-scale attacks. Could it be..."
"It shouldn't be them. Though the Senju spread out widely before, that was to search for someone, and their squad sizes were very limited. If they encountered our people, the ones being surrounded and killed would be the Senju."
Madara's judgment was very accurate. At this time, he thought he'd found the answer... Those clan members hadn't died, but were abducted by the so-called "Hawk Organization."
The Hawk Organization gave Madara a very bad feeling. He never worried about external threats to the Uchiha Clan, but the Hawk Organization was clearly the Uchiha's internal trouble.
Just then, sharp whistling with a certain rhythm reached the group's ears.
Don't think this communication method is primitive—among battlefield short-distance communication methods, whistling was the most concise and efficient.
"Clan Head, we've found that group!"
"Chase them!"
Madara said nothing more and immediately gave chase.
"Lord Nameless, there are large Uchiha forces nearby. We're about to be surrounded."
On the other side, the group discovered by the Uchiha ninja was naturally Sasuke's squad. They'd been too active during this period—there was no reason they wouldn't be targeted by the Uchiha.
"Run—quickly leave here... There's no large force, so Uchiha Madara should be nearby."
After a period of training, Sasuke's battlefield instincts and real-time judgment had improved significantly.
However, he actually didn't plan to clash with Uchiha Madara, but chose to flee directly... This kind of "cowardly as a mouse," fleeing at the first sign of trouble behavior was something the previous Sasuke absolutely couldn't have done.
Hadn't his subordinates said that Sasuke in Sage Mode could be mentioned in the same breath as Madara? Why not try it?
Regardless of the enemy's level, being brave enough to try was Sasuke's style.
However...
Heh, "mentioned in the same breath"—just listen to it for fun.
In fact, the one who could be mentioned in the same breath as Madara was Senju Hashirama, and Sasuke had seen Hashirama's Deep Forest Emergence a year ago... Strange—Sasuke himself felt baffled about how he'd thought he had a chance to assassinate Hashirama back then.
Because he'd figured out he shouldn't be enemies with Hashirama, he also understood he couldn't directly confront Uchiha Madara.
"Running so decisively? Cowardly rat!"
Madara naturally despised this kind of fleeing behavior completely. If this so-called "Lord Nameless" could charge over, Madara would still think highly of him...
Then mercilessly eliminate him.
Given the changes in Sasuke, having lived nearly twenty years, he'd finally comprehended the infinite truth of "if you can't win, run." In a sense, he was more suitable for leading the current Uchiha than Madara.
Or rather, Sasuke's brain should be scooped out and stuffed into Madara's skull, while Madara's brain could be placed in the sacred depths of the sewers.
Sasuke definitely couldn't outrun Madara in a straight chase. At this moment, one of the Uchiha ninja in his team slowed down and shouted back at Madara:
"Clan Head, we're still Uchiha ninja. We're saving the clan's fate in another way—we have no intention of being your enemy."
"Kenji... Deliberately slowing down to hear your words was my mistake."
Madara was quite familiar with this Uchiha ninja, but still felt the man's words dirtied his ears.
Seeing his words were completely useless, Uchiha Kenji gritted his teeth and released a Fire Release toward the rear.
"Kenji, and you still say you haven't betrayed us!"
"Are you crazy? Do you know what you're doing?"
Uchiha Kenji certainly knew what he was doing—he just wanted to obstruct Madara's pursuit speed. What else? Did he think he could eliminate the Uchiha clan head with a Great Fireball Technique?
Madara drew the Uchiha war fan from his back and with one arm sweep, deflected this Fire Release to the side.
Uchiha Kenji should feel fortunate, because the current Madara hadn't yet become so obsessed as to be unreasonable—he was unwilling to harm his own clan members.
"No choice..."
Seeing Madara's relentless pursuit, Sasuke had to use his life-saving ultimate technique.
"Kenji!"
He shouted loudly, and Uchiha Kenji quickly accelerated to catch up with the main force.
But this also meant Madara was now close at hand.
"So it really is you. I should never have let you leave the Uchiha."
However, just as Madara decided to bypass the brainwashed clan members and directly attack Sasuke, those clan members actively positioned themselves around Sasuke.
This made Madara hesitate for a moment, then...
Boom!
With a loud crash, a giant summoned snake head burst up from underground. It opened its massive mouth and instantly swallowed Sasuke's squad in one gulp.
But thinking such a move could deal with Uchiha Madara? That was somewhat of a joke.
A powerful wind blade instantly struck, and the summoned snake's head was severed just as it emerged from the ground.
Boom...
Another loud crash—the giant snake head in free fall smashed onto the ground.
After cutting off the snake head, while it was still falling, Madara made another vertical slash, like a skilled chef processing a fish head, directly splitting the snake head lengthwise to expose its oral cavity.
Several Uchiha ninja quickly entered combat mode, however...
"Where are the people?"
"Not in the snake's mouth?"
Madara's cool instant-kill pose stiffened slightly—he realized he'd miscalculated.
"Hmph, clever tricks... But you can only use such moves once."
Hanging the war fan back on his back, Madara shouted to his subordinates:
"No need to search—the people have already reverse-summoned away... There was another snake inside the snake's mouth just now."
Actually, it wasn't reverse summoning either—the summoned snake swallowed Sasuke and the others, then immediately canceled the summoning... Equivalent to it showing its face in the Shinobi World, then returning to Ryūchidō while chewing gum.
The Uchiha ninja looked at each other—were enemies all this cunning now?
Sasuke was personally taught by Orochimaru—hiding a snake within a snake was child's play.
"There won't be a next time."
Uchiha Madara didn't know if he was talking to himself or his subordinates.
Let's worry about next time when it comes. Right now, Sasuke's problem wasn't Madara but the White Snake Sage...
Sasuke was still that Sasuke—he truly cherished his summoned beasts.
...
On Yūshin's side, he'd accidentally obtained the Eight Gates Released Formation. After the mission ended, he naturally brought it back to Fireflies Village.
After roughly studying it, Yūshin felt this thing was equivalent to dragon-slaying techniques for him... Very impressive, but not very useful.
For the current Yūshin, opening the first few gates would have little effect, and as for the later ones...
Honestly, training in this kind of taijutsu was very difficult—in some ways, even more difficult than the Flying Thunder God Technique.
After opening the "Death Gate," you could cripple Six Paths Madara with one kick—the intensity was imaginable. However, Yūshin had almost no possibility of reaching such a level.
The Eight Gates Released Formation had a very high upper limit, but for Yūshin, that high-level ability was equivalent to training for two hundred years to gain the power of ten dragons and ten elephants.
The prospects seemed beautiful, but it was just a mirage.
Forget it—he'd store it as a secret manual for now. If anyone in the village was interested and talented, they could try training it. The combat effects after opening three or four gates would be quite impressive.
At this point, Yūshin suddenly realized that his picking up the Eight Gates Released Formation had roughly the same effect as Tobirama picking it up—both just let it wait for someone with affinity.
"So who actually invented this thing?"
Yūshin had already buried those three ninja who fought the Uchiha, so naturally no one could answer his question.
Just after Madara encountered Sasuke, the Senju Clan completely abandoned their search for their clan head... Everyone knew Senju Butsuma's fate, so there was no need to waste more manpower and resources.
Or rather, the Senju brothers had already done their duty—they were beyond moral reproach.
"Yūshin-sama, communication from the Senju!"
"Good, things can finally be settled."
Senju Butsuma's death settled everything. The Senju brothers' Shinobi World planning and pursuit of peace could finally be implemented.
However, after Yūshin read the new message, his expression became strange.
According to the letter's explanation, the Senju Clan would first form an alliance with the Sarutobi, Hyūga, and Uzumaki clans, then the four-in-one Senju alliance would ally with the Fireflies organization... if the Fireflies organization recognized their shared ideals and was willing to strive for common goals.
This planned, step-by-step "combining like terms" approach seemed to reflect the Senju brothers' loyalty to the Fireflies organization, since the Fireflies organization and Senju alliance were now on equal footing.
However...
You can't just look at the surface.
On one hand, other ninja clans were indeed more obedient to Senju Hashirama. Taking the first step toward a four-clan alliance could help them quickly unite... After all, those were all prestigious clans, while the Fireflies' internal composition was more chaotic.
On the other hand, political factors were also involved. These four ninja clans all had connections to the Daimyō of the House of Enshi, while the Fireflies "obeyed" the leadership of the Shimizu Daimyō.
Finally, having the Fireflies organization join later helped prevent certain ideas and influences from spreading too extensively.
"Tobirama, oh Tobirama, you're a bit too cunning."
Yūshin held the letter and couldn't help sighing.
No wonder this person had a bad reputation—his schemes and plots weren't just external but internal too. Who could speak well of him?
This dirty work was obviously Senju Tobirama's doing. Senju Hashirama wouldn't possibly care about such things... This letter also contained Hashirama's personal handwritten content. Guess what he said?
Well, he asked to borrow the abstract handshake statue from Fireflies Village's square.
Look at Hashirama's character—never caring about details.
Damn it, could Senju Tobirama have been adopted by Senju Butsuma from somewhere?
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