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Nine years had passed.
Back when shinobi clans were scattered everywhere—Konoha stood out from the rest.
The others were still merely clans.
Konoha had become a village.
It was as if a collection of warring tribes had awakened one morning to discover that one of their rivals had leapt several stages ahead and founded a city-state.
In those nine years, Konoha's mission system gained the trust of everyone. Civilians depended on it, merchants spoke highly of it, and nobles and daimyō sent their contracts through it. What started as an experiment became the first organized mission network for all of society.
The village's military strength had grown just as quickly.
With Manji leading, Konoha welcomed many children from civilian families who had lost their homes to war and raised them in the village. Some were so young they had to be carried by their parents, but soon they would grow up to become the next generation of Konoha shinobi.
Manji also founded the Shinobi Academy and created a standing military force.
For the first time, shinobi weren't grouped just by bloodline. Uchiha, Hyūga—and recruits from civilian families all trained together and served side by side.
The old barriers between clans were starting to break down.
Konoha was turning into a true village, not just in name.
..............
Inside the Konoha Council Hall, Manji sat behind a wide desk in his dark elder's robes, flipping through a stack of reports.
Madara and Izuna stood on each side of him, both clearly impatient.
"Great-Grandfather, when are we finally going to unite the Land of Fire?" Madara asked, looking up at him with open expectation.
"Exactly!" Izuna jumped in. "We spend every day completing missions. When do we get to rescue all the other clans still suffering outside Konoha?"
Their attitude came directly from the education system Manji had created.
Konoha's children learned that life outside the village meant hunger, war, and constant clan fighting.
To be fair, this was more an uncomfortable truth than propaganda.
Madara was fourteen, and Izuna was thirteen, an age when it's easy to be ambitious but hard to be patient.
Manji tilted his head. "You're both still young. Why are you so concerned with unifying the nation?"
The brothers exchanged a glance before answering together.
"BECAUSE WE WANT TO HELP THE VILLAGE!!"
Madara looked at Manji with admiration. "You've already made Konoha this powerful. Why don't we go out and conquer the rest?"
"Right!" Izuna nodded. "The village is stronger than every clan around us. Why hasn't Father unified the Land of Fire yet?"
Konoha had been founded when Madara was five. He and Izuna had grown up watching Manji shape it from an Uchiha settlement into the country's strongest power.
They respected Tajima's strength on the battlefield, but they respected Manji's leadership of the village even more.
Tajima could win wars.
Manji built the power that made those victories possible.
"You're only thinking about what you can take," Manji said, softening his tone. "Konoha might be stronger than the other clans, but if we force them to submit, we'll just face years of rebellion."
"Military strength is just a tool, not what unity is built on. We have to show those clans that joining Konoha means safer homes, steady work, and better lives. That's the only way unification will last."
Madara and Izuna nodded, but it was clear they only understood part of what he said.
Then Madara's face lit up. "That makes perfect sense, Great-Grandfather. So… can you give us an S-rank mission?"
He looked at Manji with eager eyes.
Izuna added. "Please, Madara and I spend every day catching cats for old women or tracking down villagers' missing dogs. It's boring. We want to leave the village and complete a real mission."
"An S-rank mission isn't possible. Neither of you is ready." Manji's face turned serious.
"..." Their shoulders fell.
"I might consider a B-rank assignment, but you need to know that a B-rank mission could mean blood," he went on.
History had already moved away from how things were supposed to go.
Konoha had been founded earlier in this timeline, and Manji's focus on peace kept the village out of pointless wars. Madara and Izuna grew up sheltered from the bloodshed that had once defined every Uchiha childhood.
In the original history, Madara would already have killed several people by this age. Here, the closest he had ever come to taking a life was helping butcher pigs during village festivals.
"WE'RE NOT AFRAID!"
The mention of blood had the opposite effect from what Manji intended. Madara's eyes lit up.
"I've been waiting for a chance to test my sword," Izuna added, looking just as excited.
Manji tapped a finger against the desk, studying the two brothers while he considered the risks.
Before he could decide, the doors opened.
"Grandpa, let them go."
Uchiha Tajima entered the room and closed the door behind him. "If they spend their whole lives protected inside Konoha, they'll never become capable shinobi. They need to experience the world beyond the village while they're still young enough to learn from it."
Since Konoha's founding, Tajima had stepped away from his former position as head of the Uchiha Clan and devoted himself to field missions.
He could have stayed in the village and enjoyed the power of being a cofounder, but Tajima was never suited for administration. He knew his strengths, so he chose to serve Konoha as a fighter.
Manji and Tajima may have started the village together—but everyone knew who was really in charge.
Manji designed the village's institutions, wrote its laws, and set up every system that kept it running.
Konoha was his village.
"All right. If you're both set on getting real field experience, I'll assign you a B-rank mission." Manji said.
Madara and Izuna straightened at once.
Manji leaned over the desk and looked through the available mission scrolls. He passed over a few contracts before picking one.
"There's a small village near the Land of Fire's border that's been attacked by bandits again and again. The people there lost almost everything and spent months saving up enough money to ask Konoha for help."
He lifted the scroll. "They were desperate, so I let them pay only a small part of the fee."
Manji tossed the scroll across the room.
Madara caught the scroll one-handed. His face lit up, then he puffed out his chest and answered like a veteran commander. "Leave it to us, Great-Grandfather. Izuna and I will complete the mission without fail!"
He grabbed his just-as-excited brother by the arm, and they rushed out of the hall to get their gear ready.
"..." As soon as they left through the doorway, Tajima's confident look faded.
He kept watching the empty doorway, unable to hide the worry in his eyes.
Just a moment before, he argued that his sons needed danger and hardship to grow. But now that they were leaving, every fatherly instinct told him to call them back.
Manji noticed right away.
"There's no need to worry. Do you remember the ANBU division I created?"
Tajima turned toward him.
"Whenever Konoha's younger shinobi go on field assignments, ANBU operatives follow them from the shadows. They watch the whole mission and step in before the team faces anything they can't handle."
Back when other nations didn't have their own shinobi villages, Konoha's ANBU had a different main job. Instead of carrying out assassinations or secret missions, their best operatives quietly protected inexperienced teams from surprise dangers.
Madara and Izuna would be allowed to face real danger.
But they would never have to face it alone.
The worry faded from Tajima's face.
"You've already thought of everything..." He let out the breath he had been holding and smiled. "Looks like I was worried for nothing."
Manji smiled back. Neither of them needed to say it. Outside Konoha's walls, the two boys were probably safer than most clan leaders were in their own homes.
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