While Seimei was having a relaxing day after coming back from a rather intense mission, Tobirama's day was filled with one troublesome work after another.
When the ANBU captain, Senju Tatsuya, and Uchiha Hiroshi came to submit their mission report, along with the corpses and intact heads of the enemies they had slaughtered, Tobirama had already dismissed them after receiving a brief.
After that, he summoned one of the key members of the Torture and Interrogation Division of Konoha and handed the corpses over.
His only requirement was to have the Yamanaka clan members of the division get inside the corpses' brains and find out as much intel as possible.
The focus should be on finding out why Kirigaure collaborated with the Shimada clan, as well as the reason for the Shimada clan's betrayal against the Land of Fire.
Tobirama didn't give a shit about that matter personally.
The Shimada clan could defect to the Land of Water for all he cared for.
But as a Hokage, he was duty-bound to look out for any attacks that might threaten the interests of the Daimyo.
After all, the contract between the Daimyo of the Land of Fire and Konoha required the Konoha Shinobi to protect the Land of Fire's interests and safety in exchange for regular funding from the Daimyo and the peaceful and legal formation of Konoha—a formidable and united Shinobi stronghold.
According to that contract, if Konoha ever rebelled against the Land of Fire, the Fire Daimyo could hire ninjas from other nations, including the other four major elemental nations, to fight against Konoha.
As for whether the ninjas of other nations would help the Fire Daimyo…
Of course, they would.
It was just that doing so would mean giving some benefits to the Daimyos of the other major elemental nations, as well as the hidden villages of those countries.
Now, Konoha wouldn't want to see that happen, especially when Konoha ninjas had sacrificed so much for peace.
Obviously, the Fire Daimyo wouldn't want to see that happen.
Who would want their own nation to be in constant turmoil?
Wouldn't that affect the tax collection and hurt the Daimyo and the Nobility's coffers?
So, peace was the best choice.
A united front of ninjas meant fewer hassles and internal fights.
It was better to have a good relationship with Konoha by providing them with a certain amount of annual compensation.
By doing this, the Land of Fire would have more order and protection. And order meant better harvest, more prosperity, and hundreds of billions more in taxes.
But still, for safety's sake, a proper contract that could keep the Konoha in check was necessary.
Otherwise, which sane ruler of a nation would permit forming a hidden village that was akin to a united military stronghold containing 200,000+ official ninjas and over 2.5 million civilian population?
Wouldn't that be akin to axing their own feet?
All of those things were giving Tobirama quite a few headaches.
Oh well…
Putting protecting the Land of Fire aside…
If he hadn't ordered the eradication of the Shimada clan and the spy who had infiltrated the nation and collaborated with them, things could have turned bad for Konoha.
What if they formed hidden strongholds around Konoha and filled them with foreign ninjas?
What if those hidden ninjas formed a group and targeted other Konoha ninjas on a mission?
In short, Tobirama couldn't ignore them.
Now, he was even doubting whether Kirigakure and the other hidden ninja villages were colluding with several other independent ninja clans in the Fire Country.
He had decided to launch a secret investigation into the suspicious independent ninja clans within a couple of days.
How dare those bastards spy here like that?
Did they need to go to such extremes?
Even Tobirama, who Hashirama, his big brother, often called paranoid, only sent about 1,000 - 1,500 ninjas to each major elemental nation as spies.
Damn bastards.
Four major elemental nations were targeting one little Konoha.
All they knew was how to gang up.
No sense of righteousness at all.
The more he thought, the angrier he got.
Finally, he finished reading the scroll containing the detailed report about the Shimada clan raid and the details about the Kirigakure ninja.
He was surprised for a moment when he learned about the water crystal mine.
But that was only for a moment.
Konoha found a water crystal mine of far larger reserves in its lands three years ago, thanks to the speculations of Seimei and his team.
The water crystal mine under the Shimada clan had pretty small reserves.
But resources were resources.
He would secure it.
Water crystals were pretty useful for the ninjas of the Senju clan (whose main innate chakra nature affinities are Water and Earth) …oh no…for the ninjas of Konoha.
After he finished reading the report, he rolled the scroll and put it aside on his table.
Then, he leaned back, pushing his back against the backrest of the chair.
Tobirama rubbed the bridge of his nose between his brows and let out a breath of exhaustion.
He stayed silent for a moment before speaking, "I finally understand why you were so eager to retire from being a Hokage and transfer the position to me, brother."
At this, Hashirama, who had been silent until now, grinned and burst into laughter.
"Hahahahaha!"
"So you finally understand my pain, Tobirama?"
"I told you, sitting here all day, skimming through one scroll after another, is no good."
"Fortunately, you were duped…cough cough…I mean, you had stepped up to release this burden from my shoulder."
Tobirama scoffed, "It's tiring, indeed. But that's no reason to avoid it."
Hashirama still grinned and said, "Don't be like that. And it's not like I avoided work during my term as a Hokage. It was just that I needed some rest after days of hectic work."
Tobirama sneered. "Days of hectic work? More like shifting all your paperwork and decision-making to me."
"And how did you even rest? By spending days and nights inside casinos, losing hundreds of thousands of ryo?"
"If Madara were still here, you would probably be glued to him all day."
Hashirama nonchalantly waved his hands. "What's the point of bringing it up now?"
"You are the Hokage now. Deal with it."
"I am still a patient, you know."
Just thinking about the days he had to spend buried in tons of paperwork sent shivers down Hashirama's spine.
Thankfully, he had a good little brother.
However, he soon shifted the conversation to the mission report Tobirama had been reading a few moments ago.
But Tobirama, why do you look so troubled about this mission? We find and capture spies of the other hidden villages and nations all the time, after all."
"It's nothing new."
Tobirama shook his head and replied, "If that were the case, I wouldn't even bat an eye."
"But recently, their activities have been too frequent."
"Sunagakure ninjas invaded multiple border towns and even launched a couple of artificial chakra beast riots. Iwagakure ninjas are snooping around recklessly."
"Kirigakure is already hiring a lot of black market samurai and Shinobi. They probably even built a few small-scale hidden bases in the minor nations surrounding the Land of Fire."
"And now they have extended their claws toward the independent ninja clans."
"Even Kumogakure is itching to take action against Konoha."
"Right now, they are probably hoarding resources."
"All these things reek of trouble."
"If this keeps going on, the war may begin sooner than we anticipated."
Hearing the word "War," the grin vanished from Hashirama's face.
A war was nothing like the minor skirmishes with smaller clans.
After Konoha established itself in the Land of Fire, ninjas from other nations also adopted the system and created their own hidden villages.
What did it mean?
It meant centralization of Shinobi power.
Hundreds of thousands of ninjas were gathered in one place.
They had become more powerful, united, and dangerous.
A war between nations would no longer be a war between a few hundred or thousands of ninjas of a handful of clans.
It would be a war between hundreds of thousands of Shinobi.
It would be a large-scale war that would last for two, five, or probably ten years.
And tens of thousands of ninjas would be sacrificed in the process.
Additionally, Konoha might have to face the joint force of the other hidden ninja villages.
Of course, Hashirama knew that none of the leaders of the other four major ninja villages trusted each other.
They would be at each other's throats soon.
They might attack each other as soon as the war begins.
But the geographical position of the Land of Fire still meant that they would have to watch out for enemies coming from multiple directions.
After all, the Land of Fire was located right in the middle, surrounded by the four other major elemental nations in the four directions.
Fortunately, the borders of other major elemental nations were separated from the Land of Fire either by other minor nations, islands, or the ocean acting as buffer zones.
But even with that, the war would still come.
And during the war, other intelligent chakra beasts of S-rank or higher danger rating might launch a beast riot against Konoha and other hidden villages.
So, they would have to watch out for the chakra beasts, too.
All of these things were enough to frustrate Hashirama, who just wanted to have a peaceful life.
Unfortunately, the world wasn't peaceful.
So, Konoha could only fight to protect its peace.
After a minute of silence, Hashirama said in a low voice, "Then, we can only prepare. No, we must prepare."
"I won't let our enemies destroy the home we have sacrificed so much to build."
For this village, I even killed my best friend with my own hands. I won't let others shatter it. Hashirama thought solemnly.
Tobirama's expression softened a little. "Don't worry, brother. Because this time, we are not alone."
Determination flashed in his crimson eyes.
As long as I am still drawing breath, I won't let those vermin set their feet within a 100 miles around Konoha. Nor will I let their armies cross the Land of Fire's border.
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