Year 20 of Konoha, autumn.
"You brat, Mori! Do you even understand what you're saying? Are you questioning Konoha? Questioning Lord Hashirama's shinobi way?!"
"This is outright treachery!"
"Stand down! How dare you make such statements at a clan assembly! Do you want the efforts of our clan over the past decades to be wasted?"
"This is the clan head Tobirama's decision! You won't shake it with a few words!"
A fierce quarrel erupted within the Senju compound.
Several elderly clan elders shouted in agitation. One of them even gripped his cane and stood up, trembling, shock and anger written across his lined face.
Whether it was Senju Hashirama or Senju Tobirama, even after they served as clan heads, both had maintained a certain respect for these elder statesmen of the clan.
Yet the young man they were berating did not budge. He met their eyes without retreat, his words sharp as knives.
"Fully merge into Konoha?"
"Heh… nice phrasing. How is that any different from dissolving the Senju clan?"
"Our thousand-year honor scattered in a day. If the Senju perish in a few decades because of this, each of you old men will be guilty. After you pass on, how will you face Old Clan Head Butsuma?"
Seeing them invoke the names of the Senju brothers to pressure him, Senju Mori was unfazed. He directly raised the name of the former clan head, Senju Butsuma.
"You— you—"
"Outrageous! Truly outrageous!"
When it was clear Mori had no intention of backing down, the elders flushed red with anger.
At that moment, several young voices rose at Mori's side.
"Hmph! A bunch of short-sighted old fossils, fooled by a few flowery words until they can't tell north from south."
"Brother Mori, let's go. No need to bother with them."
"They can't even swing a ninjatō anymore, yet they still dare point fingers at clan affairs!"
Unlike the aging elders, a group of young Senju had gathered around Mori, speaking up in turn.
Their words were anything but polite, tinged with open contempt.
The elders' ire shifted to the youths. The oldest elder swept his gaze over them and, even more displeased, demanded, "Look at what you've turned these children into. Tell me, where is Tao?"
"He just made jōnin and already ignores clan rules? He won't even attend a clan assembly?"
Mori narrowed his eyes and replied with acidic calm, "Attend for what? To hear you explain how to carve up the clan and bury the thousand-year prestige of the Senju of the Forest?"
"Nonsense!"
"Arrogant whelp!"
The elders grew even angrier, their voices stern and severe.
In the end, the Senju clan assembly broke up in discord.
"We can't discipline you!"
"We're old. We're old!"
"No sense of rank or respect! We've given decades to the clan, and now the youngsters ride on our heads!"
"Wait until the clan head returns. Let's see how you explain yourself then!"
Before leaving in a huff, the elders tossed out a few harsh lines, their canes thudding the wooden floor.
The current Senju elders were relics of the Warring States era.
For certain reasons, during Senju Hashirama's tenure as clan head, not a single new elder had been appointed, and his younger brother Senju Tobirama continued that practice.
How to put it?
To Mori, it felt like a policy of "one elder gone, one elder less," and that was that.
After this assembly, not only did the elders storm off angry, the young Senju wore scowls as well.
The internal clash that shattered the clan's former harmony had one trigger: a proposal by the current clan head and Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama.
"Let the Senju clan fully merge into Konohagakure."
He was not the first to raise it. His elder brother, the "God of Shinobi," Senju Hashirama, had proposed the idea when founding Konoha.
But unlike today, even Hashirama, with all his towering prestige, faced fierce opposition from nearly all Senju at the time.
Hashirama was not Uchiha Madara. Though he held high hopes for the newborn village, he would not force his clansmen to fulfill his ideals.
So, officially, the proposal was set aside.
Unlike the idealist Hashirama, his brother Tobirama was a thorough pragmatist.
Back when Hashirama was Hokage, Tobirama already handled a large share of state affairs.
The Ninja Academy and the Anbu were institutions founded in the First Hokage's era; only the Konoha Police Force was established under the Second Hokage.
Like his brother, Tobirama also carried great expectations for Konoha's future.
Influenced by Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, he believed it was precisely the existence of large ninja clans that created distance and division among Konoha's shinobi.
Thus, during the First Great Ninja War that broke out after Hashirama's death, Tobirama led Senju shinobi to shed blood on the front lines for Konoha.
At the same time, he quietly reduced the clan's influence in the village, opening many key posts and granting them—selflessly—to other clans and even to civilian ninja.
So even though the Senju produced two Hokage in succession, which sounds impressive, the limited "Hokage family" privileges they once had effectively ended with Hashirama's death.
Tobirama bore the Senju name, but in essence he was Hokage of Konoha, not Hokage of the Senju.
Up to now, among his many students, even the clan he dislikes most, the Uchiha, has one disciple, yet there isn't a single student bearing the name Senju.
That is the strongest proof.
Mori saw it clearly. The plainest reading of Tobirama's actions: he does not want Konoha to have a third Hokage from the Senju.
As the First Great Ninja War wound down under Tobirama's leadership, Kumogakure of the Land of Lightning even sent an alliance invitation to Konoha not long ago.
After years of laying groundwork, Tobirama finally revealed the dagger, showing the Senju his true intent.
He not only revived Hashirama's old idea but also added his own, laying out concrete measures.
In Tobirama's plan, Senju clansmen would no longer live clustered in the compound. They would disperse and live freely throughout the village.
Beyond that, he would no longer forbid—indeed, he would encourage—Senju to marry civilian ninja of Konoha, members of smaller clans, and even nobles of the Land of Fire.
He gave it a fine name: "merging into Konoha."