In the Land of Water, an old man and a young man—two standouts from different eras—sat in a small izakaya discussing the ultimate topic of war.
Taiichi glanced at Madara again. Once he confirmed the man wasn't losing it or pulling some kind of joke, he decided to speak freely.
"That's only because your strength still isn't enough. You can't protect the people around you or make your dreams a reality yet.
When the day comes that no one in this world dares to tell you no, then you can reshape this world however you want—as long as you actually have the power to do it."
Uchiha Madara stared for a second, then burst out laughing.
"Kid, you've got some nerve. But Senju Hashirama was strong enough, wasn't he? The God of Shinobi. And look what happened after he died. This is already the Third Great Ninja War."
"That's only because he still wasn't strong enough, didn't live long enough, and wasn't all that smart.
If he could've easily kept Madara Uchiha in check, the village wouldn't have lost such a powerful force. If he could've lived as long as the sages from the three great summoning realms, who would've dared oppose him?
And if he'd been a little sharper upstairs, he wouldn't have just slapped together the whole one-village-one-country system."
Madara was genuinely stunned by Taiichi's shamelessly confident answer. If someone like that actually existed, wiping out war might really be possible.
But—
"Young man, do you honestly believe someone like that exists? Even the Sage of Six Paths ended up dead in the river of history, didn't he?"
Taiichi didn't look at Madara. He didn't want the contempt in his eyes to show. The Sage of Six Paths hadn't really died.
"Exactly because no one like that exists, that's why we keep pushing forward. If the people before us had already done everything, what would be the point of us?"
Madara had seen arrogant people before, but never someone this arrogant.
He couldn't help but laugh again—"Haha"—this time louder and more unrestrained. The whole izakaya turned to stare. Some looked curious, some disgusted, some impressed, some contemptuous.
Madara ignored them all. His gaze stayed locked on Taiichi.
"Young man, what you said is bold. I just hope that the next time we meet, you actually have the strength to back up those words."
With that, he lost interest in the conversation. He stood up and walked out without another word.
Behind Taiichi, the figure who should have been there had already vanished without a sound.
Taiichi kept eating like nothing had happened. The words he'd just spoken were arrogant, sure, but they were also exactly what he believed. And right now, he was working toward making them real.
As for Madara Uchiha—if this had been a little while ago, Taiichi might've been a bit cautious.
But ever since his Fire Release nature transformation hit Level 14 super-kage tier and he'd learned Sage Mode, he wasn't worried anymore. The current Madara was old and half-crippled. How much of his prime strength could he even use?
Outside Ira City, on a small hill, Madara Uchiha stood gazing back toward the city.
"You think that kid recognized me?"
A figure slowly rose from the ground nearby—Zetsu, who had also slipped away.
"Probably not. Otherwise he would've reacted a lot more. Besides, Konoha's kept information about you tightly sealed for years. The new generation of Leaf shinobi can't even see your photo."
Madara let out a short, mocking laugh—half self-deprecating, half disdainful.
Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage, had real courage. The two of them had loved and killed each other their whole lives, and Madara had lost that final battle.
Tobirama Senju, the Second Hokage, was weaker in raw power but damn effective with his methods. He'd even managed to turn some of the Uchiha clan.
As for this Third Hokage monkey… weak strength and mediocre methods. To erase Madara's influence, he'd even resorted to these petty tricks.
Konoha really was getting worse with every generation.
Still, thinking about that kid just now, Madara shook his head. Pity he wasn't Uchiha. His ceiling would always be limited. Otherwise he would've made an excellent candidate.
(If Taiichi could've heard Madara's thoughts, he would've told him straight: he, Taiichi Matsushita, could stand at the top of the ninja world with his own power—even without the Sharingan.)
Land of Wind.
Mist's withdrawal immediately caught Sunagakure's attention. After multiple confirmations, Sand was confused but also quietly celebrating.
Sunagakure really couldn't afford to keep fighting—economically or in manpower.
If Konoha was being ganged up on because it sat in the prosperous Land of Fire, that was one thing. But what the hell had Sand done to deserve getting attacked by all four great villages?
Battle after battle had drained their forces. And they'd lost more often than they'd won.
Now Sunagakure barely had enough ninjas to handle village missions. Even jonin were being sent on B-rank and C-rank tasks just to keep the work from piling up.
Even in this miserable state, some people still refused to learn and kept trying to gamble everything on one last desperate play.
Rasa stared at the elder across from him who was still talking with complete confidence and felt a strong urge to kill the man.
"Gentlemen, I'm not saying this because I love war. The reports are confirmed—Mist is attacking Konoha again. This is our chance.
We don't even have to go all out. Even if we disguise ourselves as Mist or Rock forces and hit Konoha's supply lines, we could ease the village's financial crisis.
Otherwise, relying only on ourselves or the daimyo's support… how long will it take to recover? Five years? Ten? Twenty?"
His words carried weight. Several elders looked tempted. The plan sounded low-risk and high-reward.
But reality wasn't that simple. The last few times it had looked good on paper too—right before they got their asses kicked. Did they really think Konoha's intelligence division was asleep?
Rasa glanced at Chiyo, who had been sitting with her eyes closed the whole time, then decided to speak directly.
"Elder Matsukaku, do you even know how many registered ninjas we have left in the village?"
"This…"
Elder Matsukaku froze. He wasn't in charge of that department, but he knew the number was low.
"Right now we have fewer than four thousand registered ninjas. We still have to station people on all three borders. That leaves maybe two thousand in the village. Tell me—where exactly are we supposed to pull people from to attack Konoha?"
"How is that possible? Not long ago we still had—"
He stopped mid-sentence.
Not long ago the clans had sent out their hidden reserves. The moment the war ended, those people had all been called back home.
In the current situation, even Rasa—as Kazekage—couldn't demand the major clans hand over their remaining fighters again.
The village belonged to everyone, but the dead belonged to individual families. The clans got nothing out of sacrificing more of their own.
Rasa saw the elder had nothing left to say and eased off. Stability and recovery came first now.
"Besides, Sunagakure just signed a peace treaty with Konoha. That treaty wasn't easy to get. I doubt any of you want Sand to be known as a village that breaks its word."
That gave everyone a graceful way out. If they actually had the strength, the treaty would mean nothing. But right now, they didn't.
Sunagakure reached an internal consensus: honor the peace treaty. To prove their sincerity, they even pulled back half their forces facing Konoha's border.
It was a clear message to Leaf: You can fight in peace. We're not going to provoke you.
Konoha noticed the move quickly.
In response, the camp in the Land of Rivers received orders to withdraw a hundred miles and set up a new position.
Both sides reducing pressure sent a clear signal—they intended to respect the peace treaty.
Eastern Front.
Tsunade received the latest reports from the village, including Sand's actions and Konoha's response.
She tossed the scroll to Jiraiya without a word, letting him read it too.
Jiraiya scanned it quickly, and the corners of his mouth kept rising.
"Nice. Sand's stable now. We can pull some forces back from the Land of Rivers border and focus everything on Mist."
"Oh? That confident?" Tsunade raised an eyebrow, though her expression had already relaxed. "Shouldn't we leave some people just in case—?"
"We should leave some, but not to watch Sand. We need them to guard against Mist trying to land in the Land of Rivers and hit us from behind."
Jiraiya started to laugh but caught Tsunade's look and swallowed it, though he couldn't hide how pleased he was.
"Sand took the worst beating in this whole war. We don't have exact numbers, but at least half their ninjas are dead by now. They don't have the strength left to keep expanding."
His logic made sense. No village could keep fighting after losing that many people.
The fact that Sand hadn't already collapsed internally was impressive enough. The families of the dead weren't easy to calm down.
Tsunade's expression fully relaxed. This meant she could focus entirely on crushing Mist.
After some quick discussion, they finalized the next phase of operations against Kirigakure.
At the end, Tsunade remembered something.
"The village sent another batch of reinforcements recently. Not a huge number, but they're all elites."
She looked at Nara Fumio.
"You're in charge of getting them settled. Don't screw it up."
Nara Fumio's face darkened. He knew that tone. There were definitely some "special" people in this group.
Thinking of the last person who had shown up and then left again, he already felt a headache forming.
"Tsunade-sama… it's not Asuma again, is it?"
Tsunade gave him a sympathetic look and nodded without speaking.
If the First Hokage's grandson could go to war, why couldn't the Third Hokage's son?
It was just human nature. The First was long dead. The Third was still sitting in the Hokage's seat.
Plus, the Third had already lost one son on the battlefield. You couldn't ask him to lose the other one too and leave him with nothing.
So while they wanted Asuma to gain experience, they also had to keep him alive. That burden fell on Nara Fumio.
"Don't overthink it," Tsunade said. "The old man sent his son to the front. He knows what that means. Ninjas need real trials to grow."
Nara Fumio gave her a flat look. Easy for her to say.
Jiraiya jumped in to smooth things over. He couldn't let Asuma get thrown into something too dangerous. The kid wasn't Taiichi or Minato—he couldn't handle that kind of pressure.
"Fumio, if there's no good mission, just have him patrol the rear or guard the supply lines. The Third will understand."
Then he quickly changed the subject, grabbing the recent mission logs.
"Tsunade, your camp really does attract talent. Taiichi's barely been gone and we've already got people like this showing up.
Especially this Uchiha Shisui. He's even younger than Taiichi, right? And he's already this good. The Uchiha really are something else."
Tsunade glanced at the records. Uchiha Shisui had left an impression—cheerful, well-liked, and often seen trailing after Taiichi for training advice.
Jiraiya hadn't brought up Shisui randomly. He was really thinking about Taiichi.
"I heard Taiichi took the Uchiha clan head's son as his student. Did you know about that?"
Tsunade gave him a suspicious look. Why was he bringing this up now?
A student taking their own student didn't require approval from the original teacher. Just like when she took Taiichi, or when Jiraiya took Minato—neither of them had asked Sarutobi Hiruzen.
But thinking of Minato, she understood exactly what Jiraiya was worried about.
Everyone in Konoha's upper ranks could see that the Third was grooming Minato to be the Fourth Hokage.
With Taiichi's current strength and reputation, plus ties to the Uchiha clan, there was a real chance he might start eyeing that seat too.
"What, scared Taiichi's going to fight Minato for the Hokage position?"
Tsunade's tone was openly disdainful.
Jiraiya sighed. "Both of them are like my own kids. If they actually end up fighting over it… what am I supposed to do as their teacher?"
Tsunade hated when he got like this—hesitant and overly emotional.
"What a shame you're Taiichi's teacher. You don't even understand his personality. Even the old man sees it more clearly than you do."
Jiraiya gave a silly laugh. With Tsunade's words, he finally felt the knot in his chest loosen. He'd been overthinking it.
He wanted to say something to save face, but then he noticed Nara Fumio still standing there.
Good grief. This guy had just witnessed his entire embarrassing meltdown.
Seventeen different ways to "make him forget" immediately popped into Jiraiya's head.
---
Attribute Panel
Name: Matsushita Taiichi
Occupation: Jonin Lv4 (24/600)
Talents: Hard Work Compensates, Top Student, Potency: Ninjutsu power increased by 100%
Age: 11
Constitution: 30 (Long-term training +1)
Strength: 29 (Long-term training +1)
Agility: 29 (Long-term training +1)
Spirit: 32
Chakra: 81,000 (86,000)
Attribute Points: 30
Skill Points: 11
Fire Nature Transformation: Lv13 (2943/5000)
Wind Nature Transformation: Lv12 (3832/4000)
Water Nature Transformation: Lv12 (3523/4000)
Earth Nature Transformation: Lv11 (623/3000)
Lightning Nature Transformation: Lv11 (368/3000)
Yang Nature Transformation: Lv12 (1502/4000)
Yin Nature Transformation: Lv11 (1533/3000)
Chakra Shape Transformation: Lv12 (1316/4000)
Chakra Control: Lv13 (344/5000)
Ice Nature Transformation: Lv11 (208/3000)
Abilities:
- Advanced Taijutsu Lv7 (6213/8000)
- Advanced Meditation Lv7 (6606/8000)
- Advanced Kenjutsu Lv7 (6825/8000)
- Sealing Technique Lv12 (3011/4000)
- Flying Thunder God Lv9 (121/1600)
- Spirit Transformation Technique Lv6 (211/1000)
- Adamantine Sealing Chains Lv4 (245/600)