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But even though Kagaya was fully aware of everything, in the end, he still said nothing.
This was the Warring States era. If the history of this period were altered, the repercussions on future generations would be far, far too immense. Even the traces of Kagaya's own existence had recently been steadily erased by Tobirama and the others. The golden giant from that battle of gods had also been attributed to one of Madara's abilities.
In short, Kagaya himself was currently trying every means to diminish his impact on this era. How could he possibly turn around and deliberately influence this era instead?
Madara continued speaking.
"I also came up with a name for the village. It's called..."
A leaf drifted by. Madara reached out, caught that leaf, and then handed it to Kagaya.
"It's called the Leaf Village. What do you think?"
Kagaya took the leaf from Madara's hand, turned his head to look at the village below, and spoke with a faint, ambiguous smile.
"I think it's pretty good."
After that, Madara told Kagaya many more things. Almost none of it was of any major importance. Most of it was trivial, minor matters. The only thing that could be considered significant was the joining of the Sarutobi clan and the Shimura clan.
Although these two clans were far, far inferior to the Uchiha and the Senju, in the context of the Warring States era, they were genuinely considered "great clans"—powerhouses among the second-tier clans. The addition of clans of this caliber was indeed a major event for the Leaf Village.
After all, their individual weight wasn't small, and they had joined two at once.
However...
Cracks rapidly spread across the leaf in his hand. In an instant, the leaf Kagaya was holding was crushed into powder by his grip.
Madara paused and spoke.
"What's wrong?"
Kagaya smiled, opened his hand, and let the powdered remnants of the leaf scatter into the wind.
"No, it's nothing. I was just a bit shocked to hear about those two clans joining."
The Shimura clan!
The moment he heard the name of that clan, Kagaya's heart truly did experience a jolt of shock. He had almost been unable to restrain himself from charging straight to that clan's location, finding that brat named Shimura Danzo, and killing him all over again!
This person, and this person alone—Shimura Danzo—was a hatred that Kagaya could never, ever erase!
But killing Danzo now would be utterly meaningless. He had already been killed by Kagaya in the future. If Kagaya killed him again here, then given Danzo's influence on the Leaf Village, practically everything in the later era would be fundamentally altered. At that point, whether Kagaya himself would even be born was uncertain.
So, Kagaya forcibly suppressed the surging hatred that had risen within him.
Madara, however, furrowed his brow. He could sense it. From the time they had met up until now, this was the first time Madara had ever felt such immense hatred emanating from Kagaya. An intensely cold chakra radiated outward, momentarily allowing Madara to glimpse a reflection of his own appearance back when Izuna had died.
"Were those two clans the reason your eyes awakened?"
Kagaya nodded.
"You could say that. But you don't need to concern yourself with them. Just let things take their natural course. Try not to affect history too much. Because the future me... has already taken his revenge."
"I understand."
Although the affairs within the Leaf Village grew busier by the day, none of it had much to do with Kagaya. He continued as before, coming every day to learn the Flying Thunder God from Tobirama.
"Hey, kid. I've never asked you this, but what is your purpose in learning the Flying Thunder God?"
Tobirama sat atop a large boulder, watching Kagaya, who was training ceaselessly in front of him. He couldn't help but voice the question.
Kagaya answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Because the Flying Thunder God is extremely powerful, of course."
Tobirama rolled his eyes.
"It's a jutsu I developed myself. I obviously know whether it's powerful or not. What I'm asking is, given your current level of strength, there shouldn't be any need for you to go through such enormous trouble to learn the Flying Thunder God, right? Moreover, the last time we fought, your speed was incredibly fast—nearly catching up to the Flying Thunder God itself. At that kind of speed, you need to learn the Flying Thunder God even less, don't you?"
Kagaya shook his head. "That's not the case at all. For my speed to compare to the Flying Thunder God, it requires an environment with limited range. The Flying Thunder God needs a marker to teleport; the Body Flicker Technique does not. So the smaller the range, the more the Flying Thunder God falls short compared to my Body Flicker Technique. In fact, once the battle range shrinks to just a few meters, the Flying Thunder God may as well not even exist in front of me.
But on the flip side, the larger the range, the more my Body Flicker Technique cannot compare to the Flying Thunder God. Once the battle range expands to several kilometers, my Body Flicker Technique becomes practically useless against the Flying Thunder God. Therefore, the Flying Thunder God will be my ultimate weapon for conducting large-scale battles in the future!"
What Kagaya was explaining were the respective strengths of the Flying Thunder God and the Body Flicker Technique.
Although in the original story, Minato used the Flying Thunder God to defeat the Raikage's Body Flicker Technique, that didn't mean the Flying Thunder God was superior to the Body Flicker in every aspect. It only meant that Minato was faster than the Raikage.
It was not a case of "because Minato beat the Raikage, therefore Minato can do everything the Raikage's Body Flicker can do." That kind of understanding was obviously wrong beyond all wrongness.
First of all, the greatest weakness of the Flying Thunder God was that it required markers for movement!
This weakness dictated that the battle range for the Flying Thunder God had to be sufficiently large. Otherwise, it could easily be countered.
The Body Flicker Technique was different. While the Body Flicker Technique couldn't achieve the large-scale movement of the Flying Thunder God, its advantage lay in having absolutely no movement restrictions!
Take a hypothetical. In a short-distance scenario, if the Raikage and Minato simultaneously engaged an S-rank opponent, who would achieve victory faster?
Most likely, it would be the Raikage! Because in short distances, the Raikage could unleash instantaneous explosive speed. His extreme speed had no restrictions, meaning the opponent had no way to handle the Raikage's velocity!
The Flying Thunder God, on the other hand, had a slower activation speed than the Body Flicker in short distances. As long as the opponent was vigilant of the Flying Thunder God markers, it would be very difficult for the Flying Thunder God user to defeat them quickly.
Conversely, in large-scale scenarios, the Flying Thunder God would defeat opponents faster than the Body Flicker Technique.
In summary: in short distances, the Body Flicker Technique excelled. In long distances, the Flying Thunder God was far superior to the Body Flicker Technique.
The reason Kagaya wanted to learn the Flying Thunder God was precisely to make up for his deficiency in long-distance mobility.
Furthermore, and most importantly, the potential of the Flying Thunder God far exceeded that of the Body Flicker Technique. At its absolute peak, the Body Flicker Technique could only suppress the Flying Thunder God in short distances. But if the Flying Thunder God was cultivated to its deepest level, reaching the degree Minato had achieved, then even in short distances, the Body Flicker Technique would no longer be able to suppress the Flying Thunder God. At best, its direction of movement would be slightly freer than the Flying Thunder God.
To put it simply, the Body Flicker Technique had a ceiling. The Flying Thunder God had no ceiling.
The further one progressed, the more the Body Flicker Technique fell behind the Flying Thunder God.
If Kagaya learned the Flying Thunder God now, it might be true that in short-distance combat, the Flying Thunder God would initially be vastly inferior to his Body Flicker Technique. But with the passage of time, the Flying Thunder God would surely, gradually, replace Kagaya's Body Flicker Technique.
Tobirama curled his lip.
"Large-scale battles? Forget it. Geniuses like my brother and Madara only appear once who knows how many years. If you're still hung up on the kind of large-scale battles my brother and Madara fought before, then I'm afraid you're out of luck."
Kagaya smiled faintly. "Who knows?"
Tobirama narrowed his eyes.
"Could it be that your..."
Kagaya immediately cut off Tobirama's words. "Stop, stop, stop. You're a smart man. You should know that my affairs are not something you ought to know too much about. In fact, this entire world shouldn't know too much about them."
Tobirama paused briefly, then sighed and offered an apology.
"You're right. That was careless of me. I apologize. Speaking of which, on my end, I've pretty much finished erasing your traces. Don't you go and stir up some other huge incident again."
Kagaya nodded.
"Mm. I won't."
Tobirama fell silent for a moment, then continued speaking.
"Right. The Flying Thunder God—according to my theory, each person should develop their own unique personal mark. However, since I'm currently the only person who's learned the Flying Thunder God, I have no way of confirming this theory. Still, I believe my theory is most likely correct. So tell me, what do you think your Flying Thunder God mark will be?"
Kagaya thought for a moment, then spoke.
"I have no idea. There's no way to even guess something like that, is there?"
"Well, then, if it were according to your own wishes? What kind of mark would you hope for?"
"Hmm... how about the shape of a Sharingan?"
"Do all you Uchiha have a special fixation on the Sharingan?"
"Hmm, I suppose you could say that."
"..."
"Alright, stop guessing. Here it comes."
"What?"
"The Flying Thunder God mark."
"You've successfully engraved it?"
"That's right."
Kagaya moved his palm aside. Beneath it lay a single kunai. And on that kunai was a black pattern.
A small, shattered black sword.
A few days later, another major event occurred.
The Daimyo of the Land of Fire arrived at the Leaf Village for a conference.
What needs to be mentioned here is that from the very founding of the Leaf Village, under Hashirama's will, the Leaf Village had allied itself with the Land of Fire. Hashirama's vision was to create a nation where the village and the country coexisted peacefully.
Of course, whether that would ultimately be achieved is a discussion for another time.
This visit from the Fire Daimyo marked the first direct meeting between the upper echelons of the Leaf Village and the Land of Fire since their alliance.
The purpose of this meeting was to hold a conference and establish certain fundamental policies for the future operation of the Leaf Village.
For instance, formalizing the Hokage system, determining the method for selecting future Hokage, and defining the future interactions between the village and the Land of Fire. What did the Land of Fire need to provide for the village? And what did the village need to provide for the Land of Fire?
In short, there were many topics to discuss. However, among all of them, the thing the villagers of the Leaf cared about most wasn't any of the above. It was something relatively minor within this conference: the selection of the very First Hokage!
To the Land of Fire and the village's leadership, this was merely a leader for a certain period of time. While important, it was obviously less critical than establishing permanent institutional frameworks.
But to the villagers of the Leaf, all those systems and regulations were intangible. They couldn't participate and become Hokage anyway. They only cared about one thing: what kind of person would be leading them in the future?
Were they good or bad? What was their reputation like? What was their character like?
On this matter, Kagaya was just like the ordinary people. He didn't care about the other issues; he only cared about who the First Hokage would ultimately be.
Truth be told, outwardly, in the villagers' discussions, the possible candidates for Hokage included Hashirama, Tobirama, Madara, and even leaders from some other clans.
In short, in the eyes of the villagers, as long as one held a sufficiently high position, they seemed eligible to contend for the Hokage seat. But Kagaya knew better than anyone: in the entire Leaf Village, only two people were qualified to sit as Hokage at this moment. One was named Senju Hashirama. The other was Uchiha Madara. Even Tobirama had to step aside, let alone anyone else.
The topics to be discussed at the conference were numerous, so it lasted several consecutive days before finally drawing to a close.
At the same time, the method for choosing the Hokage was announced: the selection would be carried out through a democratic process.
Striking the vital point with pinpoint accuracy! A fatal blow!
The moment Kagaya heard this selection method, those phrases surfaced in his mind.
This method of selection, for Madara, was an absolutely and utterly fatal blow. The very instant this selection method emerged, Madara's chances of becoming Hokage had already been reduced to zero.
Madara's aura was nothing like Hashirama's gentleness. Madara's aura was the dangerous type. Thus, ordinary people generally didn't like Madara very much. This only made Madara's already poor popularity even worse.
On the other hand, speaking from the broader perspective, the Senju were the victors, and the Uchiha were the defeated. This was common knowledge.
So, let's ask: would an ordinary person be more inclined to like the victor or the loser?
There was no need to even think about it. The number of people who liked the victor was bound to vastly exceed those who liked the loser!
In fact, even beyond ordinary people, even the Uchiha clansmen who had once been closest to and most reverent of Madara were, under the corrosion of peace, gradually beginning to dislike their clan leader who remained vigilant in times of safety.
Under such circumstances, expecting Madara to compete with Hashirama in popularity? That was a complete joke!
Kagaya didn't go to training that day. He simply sat quietly at home. Because Kagaya knew that Madara probably needed someone to confide in at this moment, someone to help him release the pressure. As it happened, Kagaya, this person from the future, was the perfect confidant.
The moment the news of the democratic process came out, Madara's hopes were utterly shattered.
The sun rose from the east, gradually climbed to its zenith, then slowly descended to the far west. Finally, night fell.
Kagaya gazed at his doorway, his eyes placid, unsure what he was thinking.
Madara did not come to find him that day.
Stepping out of his room, Kagaya looked up at the moon in the sky.
On this night, how many people are rejoicing? And how many are lost in disappointment?
Hashirama stood beneath the moonlight, holding a leaf in his hand. Just a few days ago, Madara had held a leaf just like this and told Hashirama to name this village the "Leaf Village." The smile Madara had worn then was still vivid in his mind.
It was as if... as if they had returned to the old days.
But then, immediately after, Tobirama's words from the daytime surfaced once more: "From now on, we will operate through a democratic process."
"Democracy, huh..."
Hashirama murmured in a low voice.
Suddenly, a gust of wind swept past. The leaf in Hashirama's hand, seemingly having lost its vitality, was sliced cleanly in two by that small gust, as if cut by a blade.
Now, only half of the leaf remained in Hashirama's grasp.
"Madara..."
In the former Uchiha clan settlement, before Izuna's grave.
A figure dressed in black sat in front of the grave and smiled faintly.
"Izuna... that boy who resembles you so much is probably sitting at home right now, waiting for me to come and pour my heart out to him. But... there's no need for that anymore. There's nothing wrong with Hashirama being Hokage. I trust Hashirama. Izuna, your big brother... will definitely protect the Uchiha!"
A gust of wind swept past, tousling Kagaya's hair, and snapping the leaf in Hashirama's hand.
It blew and blew from the Leaf Village... until finally, it arrived beside Madara, blowing aside the hair that covered his right eye, revealing a pair of crimson eyes.