"Dōjutsu: Kanrō…"
Tobirama unleashed Uchiha Izuna's ocular technique against Izunai.
In an instant, the space beside the Karasu Tengu Susanoo seemed crushed under the weight of an invisible boulder…
As though bound by a petrification jutsu, Izunai's Susanoo could not take a single step!
Tobirama slowly guided his own Susanoo forward, one heavy step at a time toward Uchiha Izunai.
The dull thuds of the warrior deity's footsteps resounded across the earth.
Izunai poured every ounce of her ocular power into resistance, yet no matter how she struggled, she could not break free from the hold of Kanrō. All she could do was watch helplessly as that white-haired man came closer, step by step.
"Move! Damn it, move!"
"When he gets here… what is he going to do to me?!"
But no matter how Izunai fought, Kanrō's ability to bind space was not something brute force could shatter—especially when Tobirama's ocular power far outstripped her own.
Tobirama's Karasu Tengu Susanoo stopped in front of Izunai's warrior deity. It neither swung its blade nor raised a fist…
At that moment, a mischievous thought crossed Tobirama's mind, recalling the way Kazuki had once toyed with Shisui.
His Susanoo bent its knuckles and lightly tapped the forehead of Izunai's Susanoo.
"Alright, let's call this one a draw. We'll fight again next time…"
With that, Kanrō dissolved, and Tobirama withdrew his Susanoo.
He stood casually on the ground, his voice almost offhand: "Well? Do you want to keep going, or shall we finally talk about peace?"
"…Oh."
Struck on the forehead, Izunai seemed dazed, instinctively obeying his words as she retracted her Susanoo.
But the very next instant, she came to her senses, snapping back sharply: "You just got lucky this time! Next time, I'll definitely win!"
Tobirama only shrugged indifferently.
By then, young Hashirama and Uchiha Madara had already stepped forward.
Yes, peace talks were indeed about to begin…
But before that—
They had to uncover the truth behind the Mangekyō Sharingan in Tobirama's eyes!
For that question, Tobirama had already prepared his answer.
After all, the Senju and Uchiha clans were of the same origin…
"I know what you're about to ask, Madara."
Tobirama spoke slowly: "It's not what you think. Among the Senju, there is a stone tablet. On it are records that can only be read with the Mangekyō Sharingan…"
"And there, I found the truth of my bloodline!"
The truth of the bloodline?
The Senju Stone Tablet?
These cryptic words left the young Hashirama staring blankly.
Wait a second—I'm a Senju too, the designated heir and the current clan leader… so why have I never heard of any Senju Stone Tablet?!
But when Hashirama thought it over, he realized he was never very familiar with the clan's resources to begin with. All those logistical matters were always handled by Tobirama…
To put it bluntly, apart from fighting, he had no other duties as clan leader.
Read as "Clan Leader," written as "Senju's Number One Enforcer!"
Not knowing some of the clan's hidden secrets wasn't so unreasonable after all…
Yet when the words "stone tablet" were spoken, both Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Izunai showed the faintest change in expression.
After awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan, the two of them had gone to view that ancient stone tablet passed down from antiquity. Among the Uchiha, there was long a rumor: only by attaining the power of the Mangekyō could one read its inscriptions.
With their current ocular power, they could only discern a cryptic title: When yin and yang are united, all things in creation may be obtained. They had gained only a fragmentary understanding of Indra and Asura's story.
As for the parts Black Zetsu had altered using Kaguya's chakra—the section concerning Infinite Tsukuyomi—that required ocular power beyond even the Mangekyō, at least the Eternal Mangekyō, to read.
"You mean… the Senju clan also has a stone tablet?"
Uchiha Izunai furrowed her delicate brows and asked in a low voice: "What does it look like?"
"It appears to be nothing more than an ordinary rock. But its contents can only be seen through the Mangekyō Sharingan… and what's recorded within far exceeded my imagination."
Tobirama spoke without the slightest blush or hesitation, showing no concern that Izunai might demand to see the tablet herself.
For Tobirama, who had unlocked the Mangekyō and, as a master of forbidden techniques, spent so long alongside Kazuki, fabricating a tablet legible only to the Mangekyō Sharingan was as simple as eating or drinking.
All it took was layering on some specialized sealing techniques—how hard could that be?
Tobirama was confident: once he carefully aged it, it would look even older than the original Uchiha tablet!
No one would be able to tell the genuine from the counterfeit.
Such was the confidence born of years of research into every manner of forbidden jutsu.
Forgery? That was child's play!
"A tablet that requires the Mangekyō to read? Our Uchiha clan has one as well!" Izunai fixed her gaze on Tobirama, already beginning to believe his tale.
An outsider—even Senju Tobirama—could never have known about the Uchiha tablet that only Mangekyō eyes could perceive…
Especially since, despite vague rumors, she and Madara were the only two of their generation to awaken the Mangekyō. Only they could confirm the tablet's existence and its response to ocular power.
Izunai refused to believe Tobirama would be reckless enough to gamble on such a coincidence.
The problem was… Izunai's deduction was almost correct—except that Tobirama really had seen the Uchiha tablet!
Not only had Tobirama seen it, but under Kazuki's guidance he had experienced, step by step, what it was like to view the stone tablet—from ordinary eyes, to three-tomoe, then to Mangekyō, Eternal Mangekyō, and even the Rinnegan.
After the war ended, bored as ever, Tobirama had once even taken the principle behind the tablet's obscured script and inverted it into a research project on sealing Uchiha ocular power. He and Kazuki had held lengthy, in-depth discussions on the matter.
It could be said that in this alternate timeline… not even Black Zetsu or the Sage of Six Paths himself understood the Uchiha Stone Tablet better than Tobirama!
"The Uchiha clan also has a stone tablet? That was within my expectations…"
Tobirama showed no surprise. Instead, he nodded slightly and said evenly, "I'll first describe the contents of the Senju Stone Tablet. You can then compare it with what is inscribed on the Uchiha tablet to verify my words."
Uchiha Izunai and Uchiha Madara exchanged a grave look, then each gave a slight nod.
Beside them, the young Hashirama furrowed his brows as well.
But his expression was nothing like the tense unease of the Uchiha siblings. His lips even curved faintly upward, as though he were pondering what dishes would be served at tonight's feast.
To young Hashirama, whether it was the Uchiha or the Senju tablet, none of it really mattered!
In what passed for his 'keen intellect,' Hashirama had already noticed that Izunai and Madara had fallen into Tobirama's conversational rhythm. Back when certain hotheads in the Senju clan tried to cause trouble, Tobirama had used this exact same method—subtle, leading words to draw them in…
And in the end, whether veteran or upstart, every troublemaker ended up utterly convinced by Tobirama's talk.
Though Hashirama was curious about Tobirama's Mangekyō Sharingan, once he learned it could be awakened through self-activation of his own bloodline rather than by seizing another Uchiha's eyes…
That was enough for him!
Nothing else mattered nearly so much as knowing he would no longer have to fight Madara to the death on the battlefield.
So Hashirama had already begun planning the menu and fine wine for the first banquet after the two clans merged…
"According to the Senju Stone Tablet… the ancestors of the Uchiha and Senju were named Indra and Asura. They were the elder and younger sons of the Sage of Six Paths…"
Madara and Izunai felt a sudden jolt in their hearts.
It matched—it aligned perfectly with the Uchiha Stone Tablet!
"In other words, a thousand years ago, the Uchiha and the Senju were originally one. The Senju inherited the Sage's physical body, while the Uchiha inherited his eyes."
"This is what is called the Sage's Body and the Sage's Eyes. The split arose because, during the succession of the Ninshū, the Sage of Six Paths forced his younger son Asura into the position, with a bias so blatant it was nearly an insult."
"From then on, Indra came to believe the Sage's pursuit of peace through understanding was twisted, incapable of bringing a true future to the shinobi world. Enraged, he waged war against Asura and the Sage of Six Paths. Defeated in the end, he vanished without a trace."
Tobirama spoke steadily, his words flowing like water.
"The Uchiha Stone Tablet records this as well."
Madara slowly nodded. "I'm beginning to believe what you're saying is true…"
"And it is after this that we come to the heart of the matter."
Tobirama's gaze grew solemn as he looked between Madara and Hashirama. His voice sank low.
"The tablet also records… that after his defeat, Indra found the Sage before his death—and declared that his chakra would continue to reincarnate, never dying, never ending."
"Asura too made his decision on the spot—he would let his chakra reincarnate as well, to oppose Indra…"
"And ever since I awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, perhaps because I still carry within me the purest Senju bloodline, I seemed to glimpse, inside Hashirama's body, a strand of chakra—dense, powerful, yet hidden deep within!"
"That chakra does not belong to Hashirama himself!"
Tobirama's Mangekyō gleamed with a bloody light as he locked eyes with Madara, speaking each word with deliberate weight: "Madara, my eyes can also see a similar strand of chakra within your body!"
Madara's heart trembled.
Young Hashirama snapped out of his daydreams of banquet menus and said gravely, "That's right… as my strength has grown, I too have, at times, faintly sensed that strand of chakra within me."
In the original timeline, when the Sage of Six Paths revealed Naruto's lineage, he had asked if Naruto had already guessed the truth.
And Naruto had indeed answered yes.
So it stood to reason that the more mature Hashirama and Madara would also sense it…
And Tobirama, having witnessed that history within Kazuki's body, knew the answer to this question.
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