Chapter 51-Harbinger of Change!

Chapter 51

TSUNADE SENJU

There were few shinobi in the world that inspired fear in their enemies, and of those names, few could cause more dread than the very name she had just heard.

Madara Uchiha, one of the founders of Konoha, was a shinobi, unlike anything the world had seen in decades. His prowess was rivaled only by her own grandfather, who fought the man to a standstill yet at great cost to himself. The Uchiha patriarch was a ruthless warlord raised in a world rife with conflict and is, to this day, one of the strongest ninjas ever born.

"You have to be joking," she gasped, believing Akihito's words to be absurd.

Yet the young daimyo showed no shift as he continued to stare into her eyes, not backtracking from his words.

"I am afraid I am not," he added, making her speechless as she sat there trying to make sense of his words.

"But how? He died, my grandfather killed him, it broke..." She couldn't finish the sentence as she recalled recalling how his smile would never be the same after that accursed fight after he was forced to slay his closest friend.

"The how does not matter..."

"Of course, it matters!" she shouted as the wooden floor beneath her cracked her chakra, roaring with her emotions.

"Do you truly understand the severity of Madara being alive? DO YOU!" she shouted at him.

"Do you know of the horrors that man is capable of?" she questioned.

"Of course, you are not, and yet you sit here and talk that his alive, that monster is alive!" she went off in her rage, unaware of how she was suddenly surrounded by the Guardian Twelve and how the raised hand from Akihito was the only thing stopping them from trying to put a kunai through her throat.

"What reason would I have to lie to you?" he questioned, and she did not have an answer as she gritted her teeth.

"I do not know, but there has to be one," she persisted.

"This was one reason I did not speak of this to you before," Akihito added with a sigh before he stood up, reached for a box on the shelf behind him, and began fiddling with it.

"The absurdity of my statement is not lost to me, Tsunade," he began as he picked out a letter from a secret compartment in the box.

"And believe it or not, I am much more aware of the atrocities and prowess of Madara Uchiha than you would believe. I would go even as far as to say that I am more aware of them than you yourself," he added, surprising her before he suddenly turned towards her.

"How?" she asked.

"That I cannot answer, but there is someone else who might be able to confirm my words about the re-emergence of the threat of Madara Uchiha," he added as he passed on the letter to her and motioned for her to open it.

"What is it?"

"A contingency," he added, surprising her.

"Against what?" she asked as she ripped off the paper and took out the contents of the folder.

"When the Kiri-nin associated with Suzuki captured Nohara Rin, she was not the only Konoha shinobi they captured," he added, surprising her.

"They captured another shinobi, one whom I believe came face to face with Madara himself," and she stilled as she saw the photo. It was the photo of a shinobi bound in seals, yet what surprised her was the whiteish material forming the right side of his body and how familiar it was to what she had seen in Ame and near Danzo's body.

"His name is Obito Uchiha, and he should be able to tell you the truth."

Back in fire country, celebrations were being held for the Empress who was with her first child, yet those astute enough in the political ways could sense the subtle tension in the air, which unsettled many a people.

It was in one of these very celebrations that the Empress and the daimyo's other concubine sat judging the poetry drawn up in the honor of the heir, when the a servant came to inform them.

"The daimyo-sama has departed," and with that short message, he went away leaving the two noblest of women alone in their own contemplating.

"I do not understand why he had to leave today," the Empress complained, fully aware of the tension that blossomed inside the castle.

"I question the same thing," Lady Chiba added from the side.

"He has seemed more worried for the past few weeks, yet I cannot fathom how these negotiations would cause him such distress," she mentioned, knowing full well of the relationship the two daimyos had between them.

"Indeed, he has been worried. I had initially hoped that with the position of the heir now secure, he would grace me with his presence, yet he in his worries he seems to have forgotten of his other duties," and as those words registered her head snapped towards the concubine who had become somewhat of a sister to herself over the time they had been together.

"You cannot mean..."

"I am afraid so, princess."

0000

AKIHITO SHIRAHOSHI

The attack on Nagato really came as a surprise to him, and it also refreshed his memories of the real danger faced by this world. He believed that with his actions, he could have prevented the rise of the infamous 'Tobi.'

Yet it seems he had been naive. And now, if his suspicions were correct, Orochimaru had allied himself with Madara Uchiha. They were in possession of the infamous Rinnegan, and that was a scary prospect, one that worried him nearly as much as the report lying infront of him.

"Kumo is gearing up for war once more," he asked his prime minister, who nodded as he bowed.

"I have confirmed the news myself from three different sources. Kumo has been gathering supplies and clearing our routes. Of course, there is no threat of an imminent attack, but all things point out the fact that Kumo has not given up on its ambitions," and this was a headache.

The truth was that Iwa had been gutted in the Third Great War and would need a couple of years to get back to their full strength; the only villages that still had most of their strength intact were Kumo and the Lightning country, respectively. Yet, with the end of the War, he had hoped that saner heads would prevail, though it seems he was wrong.

"This could not have come at a worse time," he added through gritted teeth as he sat there shaking his head. The talks with Kiri were set to begin, and Tsunade Senju was already growing increasingly irate with every passing day, and now this.

It was all becoming too much.

"Why the hell would Kumo want to start a war again. Haven't we had enough bloodshed," he spoke as he threw the report back in frustration.

"I believe they are doing so for fear of the upcoming talks with Kiri," Hyakuya-san added.

"What do peace talks have to do with this thing," he asked.

"If Kiri forms an alliance with us, that will make it so that three of the Five Great Villages will be allied with Konoha, hence tilting the advantage in our favor. I believe Kumo fears that and is doing so because of that," he added, shaking that.

"But we are not preparing for an attack. They are," he added, though he somewhat understood the point.

"I am afraid you are missing one very important thing, my lord," Hyakuya cut in as his mind raced to formulate a plan for dealing with this disaster.

"What?" he asked with a frown.

"My lord, it is not just Konoha and its prowess that they fear now," he said as he looked straight into his eyes.

"They fear you as well," he added, his eyes widening as he asked in a perplexed tone.

"Me?" and he nodded.

"Yes, you my lord," he spoke respectfully as he seemed to carefully contemplate his words.

"When you rose to your position, becoming the daimyo of the most prosperous country from a simple lord, the other daimyos began to feel threatened by your ambition," he added.

"What ambition, everything I have done to this day has been to establish a semblance of peace and order in this damned continent. Even as a victor, I have offered favorable terms to my enemies. Our lands literally feed more than half the continent. Kumo would starve if I put an embargo on the export of food to their lands, yet they fear my ambition. Mine!" and he shook his head at the sheer absurdity of the thought.

Even now, food was being transported from their lands to Ame and Water country, both of which were devastated by war and needed emergency supplies, supplies which came from his lands, which he could have easily withheld.

"And that is exactly why they fear you," Hyakuya added.

He stilled as he realized what had dawned on him, and he closed his eyes and shook his head.

"They see your actions, and they do not see the actions of a daimyo. They see the actions of a...."

"Shogun."

0000

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A/N: Here the concept and title of Shogun is adopted form the Show 'Shogun' which means one who rules over all provinces, rather than the actual meaning of it. The accurate title could be Emperor, but it is what it is.