Naruto, Madara is my girl.

Blood sprayed from Tobirama's mouth with another wet burst-puff!-as his fingers slipped down uselessly, unable to hold back his enemy any longer. Flashes of memory snapped through him like lightning: training halls, conversations with Akira, old battles, and then the man's words ringing in his ears-

"You'll die."

Only now did it set in just how far ahead Akira Senju had been thinking.

He turned his head slowly and spotted Akira, body pierced by kunai, run through by two swords front and back, yet the bastard was smiling without remorse, lips tugged into that same knowing curl that pissed Tobirama off even now. It wasn't just mockery. It was confirmation.

'You knew. You really knew.'

Tobirama could only exhale, lips curling into the faintest bitter smile.

"Never once... did I escape his game."

His vision blurred, dimming. And then-snap!, Akira's injured form burst into smoke before Tobirama's eyes, and only paper drifted down in its place.

"A shadow clone? When...?"

His stunned mind ticked back to that earlier moment, the split-second Akira had brushed against him while fighting Ginkaku.

"That small moment... He swapped us then?"

Laughter started bubbling out of him, low and broken as it rattled out his throat. "I see... I see... Hahaha..."

He couldn't even read the message on the note, but it didn't matter. Knowing Akira Senju, there'd be no damn way he left things unfinished. If he'd planned this much already, then that note would be nothing less than insurance, insurance that Konoha would answer in kind.

Tobirama's glassy gaze drifted to the Raikage standing over him. He had no fear left, just pity swimming behind glassed-over eyes.

Raikage sneered. "I'm sorry, Tobirama Senju. If you remained alive, you would've grown into too great of a threat."

Tobirama chuckled weakly through blood-coated teeth and whispered with what little breath he had left. "Third Raikage... You don't know the monster you've just awakened."

Scoffing, the Raikage leaned down with his chest puffed in triumph. "Regret? If you die here, the Senju are nothing. Once you're gone, Hidden Cloud will rise!"

Tobirama didn't reply. The breath he had left carried only one thing, a calm smile on his dead face.

It made the Raikage flinch.

"Tch."

He yanked his bloodied hand free from Tobirama's corpse with disgust and stood tall again.

"Kill Kinkaku and his squad. Retrieve Tobirama's body intact and send it back to Konoha, blame the Gold and Silver Brothers. Eliminate Tobirama's last guard if they're found at the border on sight. Spread disinformation implying he colluded with those two dogs."

His tone was clean and cold, too calculated for someone usually ruled by hot blood. The secretary hesitated before following orders.

"My Lord… you might want to see this first."

Raikage narrowed his eyes but accepted the paper Mystic handed him. The faint tremor in the other man's fingers was enough to send cold tension crawling up his back before he even looked down at the ink.

His pupils contracted instantly.

"'Third Raikage… daring enough to lay hands on prey I've already claimed?'"

Signature: Senju Akira.

Raikage stumbled back two steps-not from force, but from sudden weight in his chest.

"This… This is fake."

He said it again, and once again, but every repeat had less conviction than the last.

Hidden Cloud had grown strong over decades of bloodshed, but even now they taught new recruits about the old legends, the Twin Gods of Konoha, Senju Hashirama and Senju Akira. Everyone knew about their war against Uchiha Madara. Everyone knew about Akira Senju's death… and everyone secretly thanked the heavens for it.

None could forget how the five nations held feasts in private when Akira died. None could forget how completely he'd rewritten what was possible in battle strategy, and he'd died at eighteen. (T/N: FINALLY! CONFIRMATION ABOUT THE MC'S AGE! IT TOOK 45 CHAPTERS BUT HORRAY!)

Raikage remembered the rumors-that if Akira had lived even five years longer, there wouldn't have been five great nations anymore. Only one. Konoha's empire, with Akira wearing its crown from the shadows.

Panic coiled deep in his gut now like heat trapped in steel armor under midday sun.

"Wh...what now?" Mystic asked softly beside him.

"What now!?" Raikage snapped at her, inwardly as shaken as his subordinate. "I don't know what now! Anything we do might be part of that bastard's setup!"

His throat tightened as realization slammed into him again, that look on Tobirama's face before he died wasn't fear or pain-

It was amusement.

And despair swept over him with suffocating weight when he noticed just how broken Ginkaku looked as he bled helplessly across the battlefield, reduced to nothing by one man's plans.

All of it… felt orchestrated.

No matter which path he took forward, it felt wrong.

Raikage wanted to scream, but instead gave cold orders between clenched teeth-

"Preserve both bodies, don't touch them again."

"Yes, Lord Raikage!"

Mystic bowed deeply but added one last question with hesitation lingering in her tone.

"Should we pursue the surviving Hokage guards?"

Raikage's glare made thunder crack behind his eyes. Mystic understood instantly, bowed and backed away without another word.

Left alone again, Raikage turned toward where Kinkaku was screaming, surrounded by soldiers trying to restrain him clumsily amid blood and chaos.

His knuckles cracked as he rolled each shoulder forward with mounting fury that needed somewhere to go-

"Let him go," he hissed under breath. "Let me finish him myself."

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