Chapter 25 - 25. Peace... Was Nowhere To Be Found.

Shiroken was honestly bored. He was just stuck here, slowly ending Minoshiki's life. It was taking too much time.

He couldn't even close his eyes as he was frozen. But after spending a long time, he just fell unconscious. But then his unconscious mind was at work. ​​

As he was made of Natural Energy, he tried to feel everything around him. It should be possible since everything had Natural Energy.

In the beginning, he couldn't, but slowly as if his inner eyes were opening, he started to see things. It was all black and white as if it was some kind of a see-through vision.

But he could hear sounds faintly. At first, he saw the surroundings of the cavern he was in. It wasn't too big and seemed to be underground, instead of being some cave in a mountain.

"Can't I look outside?" Shiroken's mind wondered.

There were some roots of trees. So he tried to feel the Natural Energy in them. It took him an unknown amount of time, but eventually, he was able to sense it.

He looked outside. It was a jungle. The first thing his mind wanted, was to look for the villagers.

But there were limitations. He couldn't see further than a few trees. This meant he wasn't strong enough.

...

When Shiroken was busy trying to increase his sensory range. A certain black blob tried to break into the crystal.

~MUST KILL HIM. If he can defeat such a strong Otsutsuki, what will happen to mother?~

*CLANK*

He tried to dig through the crystal for days, but nothing worked. "Damn you, what is this made of?"

Eventually, he decided to leave a white humanoid thing inside the ground to keep an eye on it. So that when the crystal breaks or something happens, the black blob can return.

...

Konohagakure,

*Cough*

"Grandpa, what happened to you?" A blonde little girl worriedly ran to Hashirama.

"Nothing, my little Tsunade. I'm just old now, *COUGH* I need to talk to Mito, will you go out?" He sent her away.

Once he was alone with his wife, he handed her a small scroll. "I believe something has happened to me. I do not know when my end might arrive. This scroll has some things that have happened in my life.

These must be kept a secret forever, and only the Hokage and the elders are to know about this."

Mito worriedly held Hashirama's arm, "But... You told me so many times that your body can heal forever?"

"I don't know, Mito. Maybe it's the result of all the bad deeds I have done. One of the biggest ones being too recent. I worry for the village now, Mito. There are powers out there that can stomp on us like insects. And I gravely offended one of them.

"I just hope the peace I tried to bring lasts long enough for this cycle of hatred to wash away," Hashirama said with a saddened face and a weakened voice.

Mito also felt that Hashirama seemed too weak now. She took his warnings seriously. "Have you told Tobirama?" She asked.

"Not yet, he's too paranoid. I'm afraid, if he knows I suddenly fell sick, he will start suspecting people. Mainly the Uchiha." Hashirama concluded.

They continued talking, unknown that just under the ground they sat, someone stayed still, listening to everything.

It was yet another white humanoid thing, who was also responsible for what had happened to Hashirama. The reason was simple, a being so powerful like Hashirama had no need to be alive anymore, not after he had played his part in the grand scheme of things.

[A/N: There is no canon information on how Hashirama died. It's dumb to assume he died in a fight, not after how he caught the beasts. The only thing left is some kind of disease.]

...

The peace pact Hashirama had signed was for the 5 villages and nations.

But peace was nothing but a farce. Now the 5 countries went from fighting each other to instigating a fight in small nations, between clans and villages.

What was there to gain? Money. When small nations went to war, their industries get destroyed, their agriculture cycles get disrupted. Then, they have no choice but to buy all things from others. This way, the Five "Great" Shinobi Countries made money.

However, contrary to normal beliefs. These actions were not taken just by the 5 Shinobi Villages. Instead, this was done by the 5 Daimyo, the feudal lords. To keep the treasury full and their countries from starving, they promoted the war in smaller nations.

The Shinobi Villages meanwhile made money by getting themselves hired by these war-torn regions for various missions.

So, the dream of Hashirama was never a reality. His idea of peace was myopic and delusional.

In just one year, Hashirama's peace treaty started to crumble. Sunagakure started to show signs of hostility, and the land that was leased to it was now full of Sunagakure Shinobi. They refused to acknowledge that the land belonged to the Fire Country.

Sensing an inevitable conflict. Hashirama, who now looked as if he had aged a hundred years in just one year, made Tobirama the Hokage. In another year, Hashirama passed away, silently in his sleep. There was no one who could have defeated him, but he died from what everybody believed to be an unknown disease caused by his overuse of regenerative ability.

Tobirama tried to keep his village as strong as possible. Wanting to prepare it for what was to come, he brought many changes. He had already started the ninja academy and the Chunin exams. Next, he created the Konoha police, and the role was given to the Uchiha clan. He also developed many great Jutsu that would help the village for generations.

Slowly, the conflicts that the 5 countries had started in small countries began to spread into their boundaries, like cancer spreading from one part to another.

Tobirama, wanting to prepare for any big confrontation, headed to Kumogakure with his escort unit. He wanted to sign a peace deal with them, and from the initial talks, Kumo was interested too.

However, when the peace treaty ceremony was taking place, the Gold and Silver Brothers, Ginkaku and Kinkaku staged a coup d'état that left the 2nd Raikage, A, on the brink of death.

Tobirama was able to escape from there with his team intact. But, they were hounded by Kinkaku Force, a special team of at least twenty highly skilled shinobi from Kumogakure.

They tried to race to Konohagakure, but it was too far away. Nobody had guessed a coup would happen so suddenly. The Kinkaku Force was also elite.

They were about to catch Tobirama and his subordinates, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Koharu Utatane, Homura Mitokado, Danzō Shimura, Kagami Uchiha, and Torifu Akimichi.

Tobirama knew that someone would have to stay to stop them. So after a small one-sided discussion, he decided to act as a decoy so that his subordinates could escape. But before he died, Tobirama appointed one of his students, Hiruzen Sarutobi, just 22 years old, to be the next Hokage.

But this was just the start of the war. Hiruzen, with the elder advisors of the previous Hokages, tried to keep their village alive. The war was bloody, Sunagakure and Iwagakure had come to knock on their door.

Kirigakure did not fight Konohagakure at that time. They targeted Kumogakure. Kumo also had to quickly elect a new Raikage as the previous one was heavily injured in the coup.

Handling Sunagakure was not very hard for Konoha, all they needed was to make sure their food supplies were destroyed. Next was Iwagakure, which was the trickiest.

In the end, all nations had suffered so much that they came to sign a mutual armistice treaty.

The Era of Hashirama ended with the beginning of a new shinobi world, filled with war, suffering and malice. Peace... was nowhere to be found.

...

Shiroken was still inside the crystal. He had no sense of time so all he could do was try to look outside with his newfound Nature Sense. Every day, he would see an inch further. This meant he was getting stronger. To him, Minoshiki was like a battery.

He occasionally saw a few people outside, mostly Shinobi, running from one tree to another. But he had no idea what was exactly going on outside. He often missed his family, being carefree with them and playing.

He missed Saiken's constant nagging to drink more milk to stay healthy, and also eat the cake because he liked making them.

He missed stories from Kurama and Gyuki. He missed playing around with Son Goku. Most of all, he missed his home.

~I wonder how are they doing now~

...

Tea Country,

It was a beautiful green country, with a lot of pastures. A reason for being named the Land of Tea was for its tea-houses, which were just too many. Even on a desolate road, you would find a tea stall.

Jin and Monari had set up the camp in the jungle, and they headed out to see what this place was all about. Being a small country, learning everything was not too much of a problem, and since there existed few to no shinobi, it was an ideal place for their village.

They came to find out about generations of rivalry between the Wasabi family and the Wagarashi family, two powerful clans in the country with much monopoly on the only biggest port in the country.

"Are you thinking what I am thinking?" Jin asked his wife with a smile.

Monari nodded. She had become much better now, although she would never forget the day Shiro and the beasts were taken away, she came to accept the reality.

"Of course, my husband. Let's use their rivalry against them and reap the harvest ourselves." she planned.

"Then you go to one family, I will go to another. Good luck," Jin and Monari walked in different directions.

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[A/N: Guys, I received some requests to not make MC forgive Hashirama. This is understandable and he won't. They will meet again later.

But, about Tsunade, he did say he's going to end the Senjus but those dumbasses got nearly extinct on their own. Only Tsunade would remain.

Next, some are asking to make MC go edgy, crazy for revenge, see humans as evil and stuff. Bros, the main tag of the fic includes wholesome and a slice of life. You can't be wholesome if MC only screams bloody murder all the time and tries to kill everything that moves. He's not Joffrey and I hate edgy MCs.

He will be angered, Konoha is fu*ked for sure, but he was raised to be a good boy by the beasts. Instead of going edgy, he will see the true nature of the world and decide to force them to get on the right path, which will of course involve some killing. This is how he will be different from the Otsutsuki. Now, all this leads to Tsunade. Can you see this kind of wholesome MC kill the last remaining Senju, who is a woman and already can't further the pure Senju bloodlines?

Besides, as he will meet many Jinchuriki, he will also see how the tailed beasts and some of the Jinchuriki had created a bond of friendship. In the end, this fic is about relations, not revenge. The overall story is going to be a positive one, not edgy and dark. There will be some dark scenes though.]

[You can see the Blob and Tobirama with his students on my Discord - https://discord.gg/DgHkrAn OR see them on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mister_immortal_novel]

GIVING STONES IS GOD'S WORK!

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Special thanks to *Douglas Flower* *Umar Latif* *Julian Rocamora* *Darrien Steely* *Franklin Walley*

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