"So Tobirama is dead after all..."
The old man's body was slightly hunched, and the expression on his face was complicated, joy mixed with regret.
In Madara's heart, Tobirama should have died long ago. From the day Tobirama killed Izuna, he should have gone to the grave with him.
"What a pity. I couldn't avenge Izuna with my own hands."
Madara murmured those words, his tone full of regret, then looked up at the giant movie poster hanging outside the theater.
A grand work directed by the Third Hokage
Saving Genin Obito
Madara's one remaining eye narrowed.
The Third Hokage of the Leaf was an Uchiha?
Impossible.
Absolutely impossible.
Madara's first reaction was that he must have seen it wrong. Tobirama was narrow-minded and had always treated the Uchiha Clan like a thorn in his side. A petty man like that would never hand the Hokage seat to an Uchiha.
He rubbed his eye and looked again.
No mistake.
The name of the Third Hokage on the poster really was Uchiha.
Interesting.
Truly interesting.
The possibility of Tobirama willingly passing the Hokage seat to an Uchiha was practically zero. Madara refused to believe it. That made the answer obvious. This clansman called Uchiha Haru must have successfully launched a coup after Tobirama's death and seized the position of Third Hokage.
So the Uchiha still had worthy successors after all.
Even though those clansmen had once betrayed him for the sake of false peace.
Still, seeing one of the Uchiha break through Tobirama's suppression, crush the Senju who held the advantage in the Leaf, and climb all the way to the Hokage seat, Madara felt deeply gratified.
The Uchiha were unmatched under heaven.
The Senju Clan was no match for the Uchiha at all.
Of course, except for you, Hashirama.
Hashirama, if you could see this now, what would you think?
Madara could not help drifting into imagination.
"Hey, are you buying a ticket or not?"
"This is a movie directed by the Third Hokage of the Leaf. If you want to watch it, hurry up and pay. There are people waiting in line behind you."
The worker's impatient voice snapped Madara out of his thoughts. The people behind him also started urging him on.
"How much..."
Madara did not finish the sentence before remembering he did not have a single coin on him. Asking was pointless.
Still, if he wanted to watch a movie, did he really have to buy a ticket?
This was a movie directed by an Uchiha.
As the ancestor of the Uchiha, did he really need to pay to watch a younger generation's film?
In an instant, Madara completed his internal justification and naturally chose to sneak in without paying.
"The ninja world has become filthy again."
As Madara watched the movie, he spoke those words in disappointment.
Even though he had long expected that once Hashirama and he were gone, the entire ninja world would once again fall into endless war, the peace they had built back then was the result of both his and Hashirama's efforts. It had been his old, pure, laughable dream. Seeing that dream shattered again still left a bitter taste in his heart.
Hashirama, all our efforts were wasted.
But I have already found the correct path.
This time, I can only walk it alone.
Madara sighed inwardly. The people of those days were gone, and the feeling of youth could never return.
He had no interest in the fight scenes. To him, they were all flashy, impractical ninjutsu and clumsy taijutsu exchanges, like weaklings pecking at each other.
Then he heard the line:
"Those who break the rules and regulations are called trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash!"
Break the shackles placed on ninja.
Comrades...
Madara's calm expression finally changed.
So this was Haru's ambition?
It really did resemble the ideals Hashirama and he had when they were young.
What a shame.
That road could not be walked to the end.
Human beings were pitiful creatures. Greed and jealousy were too deeply rooted. What would breaking ninja rules actually change? You could never make everyone your comrade. In the end, the destiny of ninja was still slaughter and death.
I wonder if this younger generation member has awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan.
That stone tablet...
Madara suddenly wanted to meet Haru and invite him into his plan.
Madara had a faint feeling that by the time he awakened the Rinnegan, he would probably already be a shriveled old man hovering at death's door, with no strength left to personally carry out the Eye of the Moon Plan.
He needed a helper.
And an Uchiha who resembled his younger self and had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan would be the ideal helper.
Madara felt the slow decline of his aging body.
He was no longer young.
One of his invincible Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan eyes had already gone blind.
But fortunately, I still have you, Hashirama.
Madara pressed a hand to his chest. Even through his clothes, he could feel Hashirama's face there. Hashirama's power still flowed within his body. With the strength of both of them combined, Madara was still confident that there was no one in the ninja world who could defeat him.
Haru would have to see the truth of this ninja world clearly before he would willingly serve him.
That would require careful planning.
After finishing the movie, Madara made up his mind.
Before he grew completely old, he had to subdue Haru.
The moment Madara stepped out of the theater, a pitch-black creature emerged from the ground behind him, its face full of anxiety and impatience.
"Why is Madara wandering around the ninja world instead of staying underground and focusing on awakening the Rinnegan?"
"What if the Leaf's ninja notice him..."
Black Zetsu followed Madara unhappily.
He had waited a thousand years. It was not easy to finally find Madara, the reincarnation of Indra, someone with the potential to awaken the Rinnegan. This was absolutely not the moment for things to go wrong.
If someone discovered him and interfered with Madara's awakening process, was he supposed to wait another thousand years?
A ninja world without Mother was hell.
Mother, I miss you so much.
The Leaf
"That's Orochimaru?"
"He's so handsome."
"Can I get your autograph?"
Ever since Haru's movie exploded in popularity, Orochimaru had been forced to endure attention that someone his age should not have had to bear.
Orochimaru had already been very popular at the ninja academy before. After appearing in the movie, that popularity exploded.
Girls from every grade formed lines just to see him. Handsome, cool, strong. Orochimaru had every trait little girls adored.
And it was not just in the academy.
Even major directors in the film world thought highly of him. If Orochimaru entered the movie industry, then in the future he could easily become a giant star, the kind who could earn hundreds of thousands or even over a million ryo per film.
Making money was nothing to be ashamed of. Haru had no objection to Orochimaru entering the film industry. There was no need for him to appear in person every time either. With a clone, he could work several productions at once and practically make money lying down.
Some powerful people with more unusual tastes had even written to Haru, asking if he would be willing to part with Orochimaru.
As for that kind of trash, Haru only sent ninja to remove the filth that was clouding their minds.
"All right, all right..."
Orochimaru wore a stiff smile on his face and signed autographs for each of the girls helplessly.
"This is so unfair..."
"In the movie, I played the heroic one who died. So why is Orochimaru more popular than I am?"
Jiraiya looked at Orochimaru with obvious jealousy.
If Orochimaru did not want all that attention, Jiraiya would gladly take it.
There actually were people in the academy asking Jiraiya for autographs too.
The problem was, they were mostly boys.
All the girls went to Orochimaru.
"That's because Orochimaru is better-looking than you."
"And stronger too."
Tsunade immediately pierced straight to the heart of the issue, dealing a heavy blow to Jiraiya.
"Jiraiya, don't be too depressed. If you want girls asking for your autograph, I can help with that."
"Hm? Tsunade?"
Jiraiya's face lit up with disbelief.
Had his springtime finally arrived?
"I can satisfy your vanity a little. If you lend me some money. Not much, just a few tens of thousands of ryo."
Jiraiya let out a sigh, utterly disappointed.
He had really thought his chance had finally come.
So she only wanted to borrow money.
"Tsunade, didn't your fifty-thousand-ryo acting fee just get paid a few days ago?"
"I lost all of it yesterday."
Tsunade's face was full of frustration. She had practiced her gambling skills for so long, so why had none of it helped at the table?
"If you want to borrow money, then no."
Jiraiya refused immediately.
Tsunade had already borrowed from him many times. In the past, a tiny bit of beauty tactics had been enough to trick away Jiraiya's meal money, but after being used too many times, even a pervert like Jiraiya had built resistance.
"Orochimaru..."
Tsunade instantly shifted targets.
Orochimaru rolled his wrist. Signing dozens of names in one go had made his hand sore. Faced with Tsunade's request to borrow money, he also refused. Lending money to a gambling addict was like throwing meat to a dog.
Besides, Orochimaru had never taken the acting fee in the first place.
He had exchanged it for the chance to study under Haru.
"Tsunade, did you forget? I never asked for the acting fee at all. I traded it for the chance to learn from the Hokage."
That finally made Tsunade lose heart. In her desperation to borrow money and stay afloat, she had completely forgotten that detail.
Mito had already taken forty-five thousand of Tsunade's fifty-thousand-ryo payment, leaving her only five thousand. Since Tsunade had now "earned" fifty thousand, Mito had also decided that for the next half year, Tsunade would receive no allowance at all.
Now Tsunade faced six months of poverty.
She would not even be able to afford a single cup of sweet milk tea.
After school, Orochimaru parted ways with Jiraiya and Tsunade at the fork in the road. Haru had sent word that Orochimaru could come to the Hokage's office today.
Hokage Office
"The estimated box office is already in."
"It's beyond anything we imagined. It broke the highest box office record in the Land of Fire. In the Land of Fire alone it already reached over four hundred million ryo. The other regions are still being counted, but altogether it'll probably reach around 1.3 billion."
"After deducting labor and distribution costs, the profit from this movie is around six hundred million."
Haru listened to the report and nodded in satisfaction.
This miraculous box office was the result of many factors piling together: the first color movie, the daimyo's full promotional support, the Leaf using its channels across the ninja world to advertise it, and the massive attention still surrounding the First Great Ninja War.
At the moment, this was the highest box office in the ninja world by an overwhelming margin.
The record would probably stand for over a decade, until living conditions improved and ordinary people had more spare money to spend.
"This is an excellent start. The name of Leaf Pictures has officially been established!"
"Thirty percent of this profit will be used to create a Leaf Ninja Welfare Fund, specifically to subsidize Leaf ninja who are injured or disabled in the course of missions."
Haru had not forgotten the village's ninja.
The film industry was going to become one of the Leaf ninja's major paths to employment.
Once the movie became a smash hit, the ninja who had once toiled anonymously on the front lines as expendable mission tools all gained varying degrees of fame and attention.
Ninja were people too. Who did not want both fame and profit, and the eyes of the masses on them?
There was no danger in this line of work, and with clones they could even work multiple film crews at once and earn more money. Once ninja tasted that sweetness, they would probably fall in love with the job as a side hustle.
It was a perfect mutual fit.
Haru had already finished the script for the next film too.
Its title would be The Birth of a Ninja Village.
The Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan grew tired of slaughter after a thousand years of conflict. Then each side produced a genius, Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha.
As they grew up, Hashirama and Madara gradually broke through the barriers of clan hatred and together established an ideal: to end the chaos of the Warring States era.
Just as everything was about to succeed, an accident happened. Tobirama killed Madara's younger brother Izuna, causing a split between the two, and a great battle followed.
In the end, for the sake of realizing the dream he shared with Hashirama, Madara chose, in his profound righteousness, to let go of hatred, forgive Tobirama for killing Izuna, and reconcile with Hashirama to build the Leaf together.
This movie was meant to fully highlight Hashirama's benevolence and Madara's strength and magnanimity.
As for Tobirama, he would just have to suffer a very slight injustice.
But adaptation was not fabrication, and elaboration was not lying. Haru could slap his chest and swear that every bit of it was true. He was not making anything up at all.
Even if Hashirama himself came back, stood in front of Haru, and watched the movie, he would have to admit it.
Tobirama, on the other hand, definitely would not.
He would only use Flying Thunder God Slash to express his affection.
This time, however, Haru was only writing the script. The actual filming would be handed over to the same two assistant directors from last time.
Haru had been very satisfied with their work.
Naturally, they happily accepted Haru's offer.
The Leaf's ninja could act, obeyed the director's orders perfectly, and all the fight scenes hit with real force while the ninjutsu looked brilliant and spectacular. None of the usual entertainment industry nonsense appeared at all. No stars acting arrogant, no backstage scheming, no hidden demands.
It was practically a divine cast.
And in the past, whenever they directed a movie, they had not only needed to deal with the censors above them, but also had to smooth things over with the criminal and idle elements lurking around film sets.
That always required money and favors.
In front of a Leaf film crew, all of those obstacles vanished instantly.
Who in their right mind would dare make trouble for a Leaf production?
One shuriken was enough to send them to meet the Sage of Six Paths.
(End of Chapter)
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