Chapter 178: Hiruzen Sarutobi: You Maniac, Do You Even Possess the Clearance to Discuss Madara-sama?

"He wants to schedule a summit with the Hokage?"

Madara Uchiha's demand exceeded the strategic projections of everyone present.

Instead of executing a complete liquidation of the personnel or immediately extracting himself from the sector, he wanted to open a dialogue with Hiruzen Sarutobi?

Hanzo felt his composure slipping. Why was the shinobi market so heavily saturated with psychopaths?

If you want a meeting with my Big Brother, submit a formal request! It isn't as if I couldn't arrange an introduction! What is the logic behind initiating a kinetic strike first?

Could he be coveting Nagato's so-called 'Rinnegan'?

Thinking of this, Hanzo felt there were simply too many defective units operating in the shinobi world.

Nagato indeed possessed high R&D potential in ninjutsu.

But that was merely the baseline metric for a Konoha genius, merely mastering multiple chakra nature transformations.

Kakashi possessed the exact same hardware specs!

It was nowhere near the level required to create a monopolistic gap against his peers.

With his theoretical metrics being merely acceptable, his actual combat yield was severely depreciated.

Anyone with basic logic should realize those eyes merely possessed a strange aesthetic pattern. Why authorize lethal force over them?

"The First Hokage and Big Brother were truly visionary executives."

"We must deploy the Will of Fire to aggressively restructure these people's cognitive pathways!"

"This is highly likely some obsolete Warring States-era fossil crawling out of an unmapped sector."

Hanzo concluded his internal audit.

"Summon the Hokage-sama?" Hearing Madara Uchiha's demand, Yahiko plummeted into despair.

For Nagato's sake, how could they possibly demand the CEO of a major conglomerate personally deploy into a high-threat zone?

Let alone Hiruzen Sarutobi—even the old Hanzo wouldn't have sacrificed an arm for an entry-level associate like himself!

"What is your assessment?" Minato narrowed his eyes, consulting Hanzo.

Armed with the Flying Thunder God Jutsu, having cautiously established a vast network of warp coordinates along the route, Minato was confident. While he might not be able to liquidate this anomalous hostile, safely evacuating the personnel back to Konoha was absolutely within his operational bandwidth.

Minato was an operative who maintained absolute, chilling rationality in 99 percent of market scenarios.

If it weren't for Nagato's red hair barely indicating he was likely Kushina's relative, Minato wouldn't have risked a kinetic exchange with such a high-level threat for Ame operatives.

Trust between Amegakure and Konoha was still in the seed-funding stage.

They weren't a unified corporate entity yet; they barely even qualified as partnered assets.

"If you authorize an immediate extraction, I can guarantee our egress. He cannot intercept us."

Minato audited Madara Uchiha, his expression locked in maximum alert.

His sensory hardware and chakra reserves were overclocked to their peak efficiency, ready to trigger the Flying Thunder God at a millisecond's notice.

Yahiko and Konan immediately stared at Hanzo with extreme anxiety.

But they remained silent. Though Minato's proposal sounded ruthlessly corporate, it was objectively the most optimal risk-management strategy.

Both Hanzo and Yahiko had been instantly suppressed upon contact. How could they possibly rescue Nagato?

They couldn't expect Minato Namikaze to liquidate his own life for this, right?

Nagato was just an associate, not the Hokage!

Madara Uchiha analyzed Minato with a gaze of profound appreciation, nodding slightly.

"Although this brat relies on a dirty jutsu framework, his strategic logic as a shinobi is impeccably optimized."

"Radiating a warm, sunny PR image on the outside, yet executing decisions with chilling, clinical rationality. He is a high-value asset!"

"He actually shares some operational overlap with Izuna..."

"Hiruzen's HR recruitment metrics are quite solid." With the Rinnegan reacquired and his biological hardware partially revitalized, Madara had the bandwidth to casually appraise Minato. "He is perfectly qualified to serve as a Konoha High Commissioner!"

Tobi, intercepting Madara's telepathic broadcast, was completely stunned.

How could Madara-sama undergo such a massive paradigm shift in just half a year?

Previously, he and Black Zetsu had spent countless fiscal quarters aggressively lobbying Madara to optimize his workflow, to abandon the proxy franchise model and return to a direct management role, all to no avail.

And now, a total 180-degree pivot!

Moreover, the tone he utilized to review this yellow-haired operative was incredibly bizarre.

It was as if Madara were a senior Konoha executive or Hiruzen Sarutobi's mentor, issuing a performance review for a highly capable junior associate!

"That is naturally because Hiruzen Sarutobi has successfully downloaded your corporate vision, Madara-sama!"

"Although the Hokage is merely the inheritor of your youthful ideology, even that limited data package places him lightyears ahead of the rest of the shinobi market. Thus, compared to standard operatives, he is exceptionally outstanding!"

White Zetsu A-Huo, submerged beneath the terrain, merged into the telepathic conference call.

"Hahahahaha!"

Madara Uchiha burst into hearty, uninhibited laughter. "You little brat, you always know exactly how to manage my PR!"

"However, your analysis is highly accurate."

Tobi was instantly hit with massive system shock.

Wait...

Was this still the same A-Huo who used to constantly inquire about the flavor profile of feces?

No wonder this unit received priority incubation resources from the Gedo Statue and was promoted to the Director of White Zetsu Intelligence!

Hanzo frowned heavily.

He certainly wanted to execute an extraction, but could they actually clear the zone?

"When this anomaly launched his strike, my sensory radar detected zero fluctuations."

"If I don't import Big Brother to serve as a strategic deterrent, Amegakure will face perpetual market volatility! Furthermore, I've already fully committed to this PR narrative. If I abandon Nagato now, my entire brand identity collapses."

"But if I officially request Big Brother's deployment, it severely depreciates my own executive value as his sworn brother."

Hanzo calculated rapidly, and suddenly a lightbulb went off.

He drafted an optimal strategy.

Following the corporate merger between Amegakure and Konoha, Hanzo and Hiruzen frequently exchanged memos. Thus, Hanzo possessed a relatively updated database on Konoha's current operative roster.

Take Minato's Flying Thunder God Jutsu, for example.

Hanzo had previously conceptualized integrating Amegakure into Konoha's 'Flying Thunder God Defense Grid'.

This would enable rapid distress signaling during hostile acquisitions, or allow Ame to rapidly deploy reinforcements to Konoha.

The bottleneck was that permanently engraving mass quantities of Flying Thunder God markers inside Amegakure was too aggressive an expansion. It would inevitably trigger HR friction and resistance from grassroots Ame operatives.

But this crisis offered a unique loophole!

With a high-threat entity present, establishing the Flying Thunder God network within Amegakure was entirely justified. The Ame operatives would only feel immense brand loyalty toward Konoha for the bailout.

And Hanzo could frequently piggyback on the network for face-to-face executive meetings with his Big Brother!

Hanzo was highly confident his Big Brother would grasp the strategic synergy.

And even without this underlying agenda, Hanzo firmly believed that based on the deep rapport and current corporate synergy established between them, Hiruzen Sarutobi would absolutely deploy to rescue him!

"Let us proceed with this protocol."

"Does this arrangement meet your approval?"

Hanzo took a deep breath. "Please release Nagato first. I will offer myself as collateral. Allow Minato to return to headquarters and file a formal request with the Hokage-sama."

"Nagato is still a junior associate. In the past, due to my executive failure to counter the PR manipulation orchestrated by Iwagakure and Sunagakure, this child suffered a catastrophic tragedy."

"The Hokage-sama audited this incident, expressing deep regret and issuing a severe reprimand regarding my mismanagement."

"Today, please allow me to temporarily offset that liability, you nameless elite."

This dialogue was, naturally, entirely fabricated by Hanzo.

But Hiruzen Sarutobi had mentored him: if you are going to execute a political PR stunt, you must fully commit to the performance.

It required capital investment and entailed high risk, but promised massive ROI.

The beauty of Hanzo's execution was that he simultaneously elevated Hiruzen Sarutobi's brand reputation.

"Hanzo-sama!" Yahiko and Konan were utterly horrified.

Trading Hanzo as an asset to redeem Nagato was not a transaction they could fully endorse.

Nagato was indeed their sworn comrade.

But Hanzo was the most critical corporate bridge between Amegakure and Konoha, representing the future dividends of thousands of Ame operatives.

If his hardware were permanently decommissioned, the resulting economic crash would be apocalyptic!

Minato was equally stunned, thinking internally: "No way..."

"I only call him Granduncle because Martial Grand-Sensei instructed me to, but has he actually downloaded a fraction of Grand-Sensei's PR manipulation techniques?"

Minato could clearly read the boardroom dynamics.

Since this nameless anomaly was willing to negotiate, Nagato was essentially immune to liquidation.

The same applied to Hanzo.

As long as Grand-Sensei eventually arrived on site...

If this anomaly merely wanted to generate casualties, Hanzo and the others would have been terminated long before Minato even established a connection.

"Intriguing." Madara Uchiha paused, genuinely surprised by Hanzo's massive software upgrade compared to his previous iterations.

He had previously assessed Hanzo as a bankrupt guard dog.

Now, the man warranted a direct evaluation.

Combat metrics were undeniably paramount, but this level of executive grit deserved marginal commendation.

"Approved."

Madara Uchiha nodded. "Consider this your performance bonus."

Stepping on Nagato's chest, Madara reverse-engineered Tobi's chakra and vitality, injecting it back into the boy.

Nagato's hollowed cheeks and pale hair rapidly regained their color and volume.

Tobi shook his head, thoroughly exasperated.

He wasn't stingy with this chakra allocation; as a specialized 'Son of the Divine Tree', his hardware was fundamentally superior to the defective knock-offs cultured from Hashirama's cells.

He could fully recharge this expended capital by docking with the Gedo Statue for a couple of fiscal days.

Tobi merely felt that Madara-sama's operational logic was as convoluted as ever!

"Your corporate philanthropy is truly unmatched." A-Huo delivered another heartfelt endorsement, causing Tobi to glare at him again.

What was his agenda?

Nagato rebooted, his processor completely overwhelmed.

First, his optics were forcefully harvested, and he was rendered totally defenseless within two frames, barely able to process the audio of Hanzo's negotiations, lacking even the bandwidth to broadcast a retreat order.

Then, he was flooded with massive vitality reserves, despite being pinned to the ground in a highly undignified posture.

Which psychopath had launched this hostile acquisition?

What was the core objective!

Hanzo and Minato were equally baffled. After this sequence of transactions, who could accurately audit friend from foe?

"Are you not transferring custody?"

Madara Uchiha stated coldly.

Hanzo took a deep breath, disarmed his kusarigama, and slowly walked toward Madara.

Once Hanzo entered the perimeter, Madara casually hoisted Nagato with a relaxed posture and tossed the asset directly into Minato's arms with a single hand.

"I will return immediately." Minato stated grimly, instantly converting into a flash of golden light.

Yahiko and Konan exchanged glances, feeling that this entire scenario had vastly exceeded their cognitive bandwidth.

Hanzo sat cross-legged on the ground, signaling zero intent to deploy covert tactics or initiate countermeasures.

The enemy's tech was too anomalous.

Hanzo ran several queries but failed to cross-reference this effortless chakra-and-vitality-draining 'Preta Path' with any known jutsu in the shinobi database.

"Your Amegakure has finalized a merger with Konoha?" Madara asked, his mood highly optimized.

He had to admit internally.

After re-equipping the Rinnegan and acquiring high-value vitality assets, Madara had reclaimed his executive monopoly over the situation, no longer constantly recalculating risk margins for his long-term plans.

Madara was no fool; executing a roadmap stretched across a twenty-year fiscal timeline naturally invited immense market volatility.

Moreover, deep within his subconscious core.

Madara felt that his current iteration had cleanly severed all ties with that isolated, obsolete CEO hiding in a cave, holding board meetings exclusively with White Zetsu!

That was not his true brand!

The Asura of the Shinobi World was meant to execute glorious, high-impact operations on the global stage!

"The merger is complete. Our two subsidiaries will jointly pursue absolute market stability and peace."

Hanzo responded with measured dignity. "This is a strategic trajectory no entity can alter."

Madara scoffed disdainfully. "And if you are liquidated here today?"

"The outcome remains unchanged."

Hanzo chuckled. From his perspective, he was already operating on borrowed time.

Liquidation held no terror for him.

If Hiruzen Sarutobi hadn't bottlenecked his kinetic output back then, Hanzo would have been reduced to organic slurry long ago!

"My termination will not breach the alliance contract between Amegakure and Konoha, and the corporate vision for peace will absolutely not be disrupted by a single personnel loss."

Hanzo stated evenly, "Hiruzen Sarutobi is the Hokage, and he is my Big Brother. The Will of Fire's IP is not merely distributed within Konoha; its franchises extend to Amegakure."

This statement crashed both Madara's and Yahiko's processors.

Amegakure was officially licensing the Will of Fire?

"Amegakure discussing the Will of Fire?" Madara couldn't help but interject. "What nonsense are you broadcasting?"

"Why fixate on the branding if the core product is functional?"

Hanzo smiled lightly. "As long as it guarantees adequate food, shelter, and immunity from the depreciation of war for the workforce, I am fully invested in what the Will of Fire can deliver—especially under my Big Brother's executive leadership."

At this moment, Yahiko was utterly captivated.

Hanzo, sitting cross-legged on the ground with an overwhelmingly powerful, black-robed anomaly standing right behind him, was calmly and eloquently pitching his corporate ideals and convictions.

It was incredibly charismatic!

Although licensing the "Will of Fire" as their core philosophy generated some internal HR friction...

What did it matter?

As Hanzo stated, if the product is viable, why obsess over the trademark?

Madara fell silent for a moment.

Even if their methodology was primitive and their theoretical framework flawed, Madara maintained a baseline respect for any operative genuinely pursuing global peace.

Especially one with the grit to deliver a corporate pitch directly to his face while ignoring the threat of liquidation.

"Somewhat interesting."

Madara opted to terminate the dialogue, quietly awaiting Hiruzen Sarutobi's arrival.

"Hiruzen is a highly intelligent executive."

"I likely won't secure his buy-in during this fiscal quarter, but I must patch his corrupted data regarding peace."

"Once he realizes the supply chain of hatred cannot be severed, he will inevitably seek alternative frameworks. I can then engineer a scenario to grant him read-access to the Sage of Six Paths' stone tablet."

Madara formulated his negotiation strategy for his impending summit with Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Konoha.

Training Grounds.

Hiruzen Sarutobi hyper-focused on the massive fireball he had just generated.

He extended his hand.

Invisible chakra deployed, surgically striking the 'core' of the jutsu. Instantly, the fireball destabilized into a chaotic vortex of azure chakra energy.

With another gesture, Hiruzen imported this ambient chakra directly into his own reserves.

He was essentially a walking fuinjutsu database. Fuinjutsu possessed an innate, overwhelming administrative privilege to bind and absorb chakra, particularly pure chakra stripped of its nature transformation data.

"What is causing this?"

Hiruzen examined his hands, genuinely perplexed.

He had always relied on a stable, risk-averse R&D schedule, steadily expanding his talent limits at a linear rate before converting them into tangible combat metrics.

After all, his personal power scaling was, in a macro sense, directly pegged to Konoha's corporate valuation.

And currently, Konoha's growth hadn't triggered the exponential scaling required for a qualitative mutation, so his progression should have remained linear.

"This anomaly..."

"Did some Konoha operative suddenly unlock a massive talent multiplier?"

"Has another prodigy on Minato's level entered the market?"

Naturally, Hiruzen couldn't deduce that, under the world-shattering strategic pressure applied by Izuna and Tobirama, the Uzumaki-Uchiha dynamic had been aggressively fast-tracked within Konoha.

It was no longer a trivial matter of HR romance.

They were grinding their stats in a fierce internal competition to validate their ninja ways and ideological portfolios for the Will of Fire!

"It might not be a single genius operative. Perhaps Orochimaru's R&D division filed a breakthrough patent, or Hanzo's integration quotas in Amegakure are exceeding projections."

Hiruzen couldn't precisely audit the source of this 'massive talent KPI bonus'.

With too many revenue streams, accounting became inherently complex.

Especially since this bonus system lacked itemized receipts or a fixed payout schedule.

"Regardless, a surplus is always a positive asset!"

Hiruzen continued executing Fire Release after Fire Release, utilizing his most optimized chakra nature to train 'Spirit Release' in capturing the muscle memory of a jutsu's core.

Fire Release erupted across the training ground, detonating into formless chakra data, and downloading into Hiruzen's hardware.

This training loop repeated seamlessly. The Hokage was efficiently grinding his daily 'Spirit Release' proficiency caps at virtually zero operating cost.

"Currently, it isn't just Fire Release. I can achieve preliminary lock-on for the 'cores' of other elemental jutsu as well."

"Step by step. The current bottleneck is the deployment method; I cannot execute remote interception yet."

"I am restricted to projecting tangible chakra, which imposes severe operational limits."

Hiruzen audited his own vulnerabilities.

He needed to schedule a comprehensive networking session with the Uchiha executives soon.

Fugaku, Isshin, Yashiro, Shisui, Obito...

And, of course, the infamous Uchiha Tobirama.

The deeper he dug into the archives and theoretical frameworks left by Tobirama Senju, the more Hiruzen realized his own hardware was severely lacking. Ninjutsu as a technology was simply too volatile.

There was always some rogue developer engineering an unreasonable 'mechanic kill', weaponizing an obscure variable from some forgotten sector to bypass raw stat advantages via information asymmetry.

Hiruzen Sarutobi harbored a corporate vision.

He dreamed of a market where shinobi combat completely deprecated these flashy, exploitative mechanics. Both factions would transparently declare their assets and engage in kinetic acquisition based purely on raw, verifiable metrics!

Naturally, the Hokage failed to recognize a critical paradox:

Forcing a zero-mechanic environment was, in itself, the ultimate administrative mechanic.

Even if Hiruzen realized this, he would aggressively deny it, arguing: "The market dynamics are completely different!"

Moments later.

A flash of golden light.

Minato appeared before Hiruzen, his expression locked in critical severity.

With Hiruzen's authorization, Minato had installed encrypted Flying Thunder God markers in the Hokage Building and Hiruzen's primary training grounds, ensuring zero-latency reporting during market crises.

Maximizing the logistical advantage of a space-time operative was standard protocol.

"Grand-Sensei, Amegakure has suffered a catastrophic breach!"

Minato transmitted the intel packet to Hiruzen at maximum efficiency.

Hiruzen was shocked.

Wasn't the Yashiro Uchiha incident enough? Another unidentified shinobi elite was disrupting the market?

The geopolitical waters of this industry were getting absurdly deep.

But without hesitation, Hiruzen authorized the bailout for Hanzo.

Exactly as Hanzo had modeled.

A direct deployment by the Hokage himself offered an unprecedented PR platform to permanently lock the brand loyalty of the Amegakure workforce to his executive portfolio.

"Grand-Sensei, who else are we deploying?" Minato inquired rapidly. "The logistics route is extensive; we cannot exceed payload limits!"

"What is the current proficiency of Seisui's Flying Thunder God Jutsu?" Hiruzen asked, already knowing the answer.

"His talent metrics are off the charts!" Minato replied instantly.

Minato and Seisui shared a highly optimized dynamic. One was sunny and naturally dense but possessed a post-market patch of ruthlessness; the other was blunt but boasted hyper-agile processing speeds. Their personalities generated an incredibly synergistic chemical reaction.

Coupled with the Flying Thunder God Jutsu as a shared R&D sector, they frequently held joint scrums.

"Go, summon Seisui!"

Hiruzen issued the executive order decisively. "Requisition the Konoha High Commissioners currently on active duty. The personnel count will be strictly capped by the maximum payload you and Seisui can transport for a zero-latency round trip. Execute immediately!"

"Understood, Grand-Sensei!" Minato initiated protocol.

Hiruzen extracted a storage scroll.

As the smoke cleared, he was fully equipped in the Warring States-era plate armor formerly utilized by Hashirama, a corporate asset gifted to him by Mito.

"Based on Minato's intel analysis, the unidentified anomaly raiding Hanzo shares identical operational signatures with the entity that engaged Yashiro Uchiha. A classic Warring States-era psychopath."

Hiruzen adjusted the heavy plating.

If the hostile actor truly originated from the Warring States period, deploying Hashirama Senju's original hardware would serve as an overwhelming psychological deterrent.

It was a preemptive strike on their brand morale!

In high-stakes acquisitions, these seemingly trivial atmospheric details heavily influenced the final ROI.

Moments later, golden light flashed again.

Minato arrived, successfully extracting Fugaku, Seisui, and Hizashi.

"Hokage-sama, by hot-swapping the Flying Thunder God Jutsu between Seisui and myself, we can securely transport Commissioners Hizashi and Fugaku for multiple seamless round trips."

"I have forwarded the memo to the Anbu and Root divisions; they are mobilizing toward the Amegakure sector at maximum velocity!"

Minato reported with absolute precision.

Hiruzen nodded.

This was merely because Minato and Seisui's biological hardware hadn't fully scaled yet.

One had just reached adulthood, the other was still locked in a juvenile chassis.

Otherwise, a peak-performance Tobirama possessed the chakra reserves and space-time bandwidth to execute this operation entirely solo.

However, stringing their current capacities in a tandem array was perfectly adequate.

It was a modern iteration of an ancient hyper-express courier system.

Seisui and Minato functioned as dual processing units; the moment one throttled, the other instantly took the load, ensuring their mobility metrics remained permanently maxed.

"Deploy!"

Hiruzen barked the executive command.

The personnel linked physical contact with Minato's shoulder, initializing the Flying Thunder God sequence.

Along the route, Minato and Seisui hot-swapped the jutsu, executing high-speed, absolute-linear jumps toward Amegakure. In a matter of seconds, they breached Hanzo's active combat zone.

"They've arrived!"

As Hiruzen and his team materialized, Yahiko involuntarily gasped.

The latency was virtually zero.

In this moment, Yahiko finally comprehended the brutal logic of how Kusagakure, despite maintaining decent defense metrics, was thoroughly liquidated by Konoha in under a single fiscal hour.

The application of the Flying Thunder God Jutsu in 1v1 PvP was merely a micro-level feature.

Its macro-strategic valuation was absolutely paradigm-shifting.

It completely rewrote the fundamental logistics of battlefield economics.

"This—"

Upon identifying Hiruzen Sarutobi, Madara Uchiha intended to launch his dialogue from a position of mysterious superiority, but his processor instantly stalled.

Wait...

Why are you equipped with Hashirama's armor?

A standard operative might fail to authenticate the specific legacy of this vintage Warring States model.

But Madara Uchiha could cross-reference the micro-abrasions and verify this was the exact hardware Hashirama deployed during the Final Valley acquisition, merely patched with some post-market repairs.

Because both of their armor sets had been thoroughly totaled during that merger!

"Hiss—" Madara absolutely loathed to admit it, but...

Subjected to years of rigorous physical conditioning, Hiruzen's current chassis was robust and imposing, filling out the plate armor with perfect ergonomic synergy.

Combined with the baseline aura of absolute executive authority he naturally radiated as the wartime Hokage...

Compared to Madara's archived memories of a constantly goofing-off Hashirama, Hiruzen actually projected a much closer aesthetic to Madara's ideal Hokage brand.

"How could my logic circuits output such an assessment?" Madara aggressively purged the anomalous thought from his cache.

During this brief latency, Madara hadn't been idle. Concealed beneath Tobi's chassis, he had stealthily hot-swapped the Rinnegan, bringing his core system back online to full capacity.

This plug-and-play biological maneuver wasn't a standard feature available to the general market.

It strictly required overwhelming vitality and elite medical ninjutsu specs. Madara, possessing Yin-Yang Release, was functionally capable of compiling life itself.

"Hokage. You have logged in." Madara initiated the dialogue.

"I have arrived." Hiruzen narrowed his eyes, auditing the target.

Madara's aesthetic branding was highly erratic.

Cloaked in a hood, his optics obscured as if encrypted by fog, his entire facial structure masked by White Zetsu tissue, projecting zero identifiable biometric data.

"You lacked the clearance to deploy here."

"Yet I deployed anyway."

The two executives traded encrypted corporate jargon.

Minato felt another surge of profound respect for his Grand-Sensei.

Seamless networking with internal staff was one thing, but establishing instant rapport with an anomalous psychopath?

And this wasn't merely empty bandwidth.

The millisecond Hizashi made landfall, he had booted up his Byakugan, overclocking it to maximum resolution to brute-force Madara's encryption!

Unfortunately, White Zetsu's—and specifically Tobi's—Transformation Jutsu operated on an architecture nearly identical to Hashirama's Wood Clones.

Forget the Byakugan; even Madara's legacy Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan had failed to detect the backdoor exploit, resulting in him getting backstabbed.

"This entity's chakra signature is highly anomalous. He is running a sophisticated chakra-spoofing protocol."

Hizashi silently logged the data.

On the flank, Fugaku had long since activated his three-tomoe Sharingan, his combat metrics fully spiked.

He had officially abandoned the corporate intellectual career track; recently, he had been deep-diving into kinetic training, fully committing to the 'Brute Force' personnel class.

"You are the entity responsible for the kinetic strike on Yashiro Uchiha, correct?"

Hiruzen signaled Fugaku and Hizashi to hold their positions, locking his focus on Madara.

Madara's internal logic shifted, and he authorized a fully transparent admission. "Correct. It was my operation!"

"You operate behind encrypted proxies and launch repeated unprovoked strikes against Konoha and its subsidiaries. What is your strategic objective?"

Hiruzen stated with heavy executive pressure. "If your faction holds a legitimate grievance against Konoha's brand, declare it on the open market!"

"You are a Warring States-era operative, correct? If this is a legacy historical dispute, the current Konoha conglomerate possesses the capital and bandwidth to negotiate a settlement."

"But repeatedly targeting Konoha personnel and our allied subsidiaries is an un-auditable, unforgivable market violation!"

"Operatives endowed with the Will of Fire will liquidate threats to global peace at absolutely any cost!"

Though Hiruzen's posture was aggressive, he strategically avoided burning the bridge entirely.

In his assessment, this anomaly's operational logic was highly unorthodox.

Claiming he was exclusively targeting Konoha?

Technically accurate.

But running a post-incident audit revealed that every single outcome had aggressively optimized Hiruzen's own corporate agenda.

For example, the Yashiro incident prematurely triggered the ideological friction between the Shinobi Code and the Will of Fire, allowing Konoha to execute a total cognitive restructuring with minimal PR blowback, while simultaneously centralizing the noble factions.

Even this Amegakure crisis—

Though Hanzo suffered hardware damage, Nagato, the Uzumaki asset, was released intact.

Properly leveraged, the residual anti-Konoha sentiment within Amegakure would instantly crash to zero.

Under external market pressure, the two subsidiaries would rapidly execute a total cultural integration!

Naturally, these could be statistical anomalies.

But based on his extensive behavioral modeling of shinobi psychopaths, Hiruzen subconsciously maintained a diplomatic channel to potentially recruit him.

After all, to date, the entity had generated zero confirmed personnel terminations.

In the shinobi industry, given Konoha's elite medical infrastructure, 'not dead' essentially equated to 'zero net loss'.

To catalyze massive geopolitical shifts, the operating costs paid thus far were practically rounding errors.

It was a brutal metric, but it was market reality.

Madara Uchiha quietly processed Hiruzen's broadcast.

Were they threatening a liquidation campaign against him?

He naturally didn't care. The critical data point he extracted was the policy statement.

Liquidate threats to global peace?

Did he threaten peace?

In Madara's internal audit, he was the absolute most pro-peace entity in the entire global market!

His entire corporate roadmap was dedicated to executing a permanent, one-time liquidation of a millennium of conflict and the unbreakable supply chain of hatred!

Therefore, he obviously did not fall under the classification of Konoha's 'enemies'.

This was merely a minor miscommunication in PR.

"Hiruzen is indeed highly capable. Despite my deep encryption, he successfully parsed my Warring States origins."

"His corporate rhetoric is also highly polished, unlike Hashirama."

Madara formulated his response, speaking with a heavy tone. "Hiruzen Sarutobi, your performance metrics as the Third Hokage are barely acceptable."

"I summoned you to issue a market correction: the peace you aggressively pursue is merely a localized bubble. While it may project short-term ROI, the entire framework is guaranteed to experience a catastrophic crash."

"Your strategic roadmap is a dead end. A millennium of shinobi market data definitively proves this. Whether operating under a decentralized Clan-System or the centralized One-Village-One-State monopoly, neither architecture can yield long-term geopolitical stability."

Madara suddenly compiled a clever micro-strategy.

He needed to heavily fortify his encrypted identity.

Although he had reabsorbed the chakra from Nagato's Rinnegan-modified hardware, his specs were still far below peak market value.

Given his notorious PR reputation in the shinobi world—

Madara refused to feed himself false analytics. If Hiruzen Sarutobi authenticated his identity, every major conglomerate would instantly freeze their internal rivalries and launch a joint venture to liquidate him first.

Even Onoki, who was currently fighting a multi-front market war, would follow suit.

Or rather, Onoki would be howling at the front of the pack, begging the hidden villages to form a united front.

And the other subsidiaries would unequivocally agree.

After all, which corporation didn't have a few traumatized senior executives on their board?

"The One-Village-One-State architecture is a fundamentally flawed system architected by Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha. Their initiative projected a veneer of global peace, but objectively generated a significantly higher casualty yield."

"The shinobi subsidiaries failed to establish mutual deterrence. Instead, by centralizing personnel into highly structured military-industrial complexes, the efficiency of mutual liquidation actually spiked, scaling the brutality of warfare."

Madara lectured Hiruzen, though he was essentially delivering a scathing performance review of his younger self. "Log my data carefully: this roadmap is non-viable! Cease misallocating your executive talent into a deprecated framework."

Before Madara could terminate his broadcast, Hiruzen erupted with a furious roar, forcefully overriding the channel.

"YOU MANIAC!"

"Standing at this executive summit, I projected you would deliver high-level strategic insights!"

Hiruzen's expression was locked in absolute, unyielding severity. "I never calculated you would output such utterly vulgar garbage!"

Madara was stunned.

"During the obsolete Warring States fiscal era, the market was in total anarchy! Shinobi factions were locked in an infinite feedback loop of revenge liquidations, forcing literal children onto the active combat roster!"

"It was Hashirama-sama and Madara-sama who executed the joint venture to stabilize the market! They finalized the first successful merger to terminate the millennium-long Senju-Uchiha blood feud, centralizing previously warring factions into a unified corporate alliance!"

"Post-merger, the volatility of global kinetic conflicts plummeted! Major conglomerates now run extensive risk-balancing calculations before authorizing strikes, ensuring large-scale market crashes only occur on a decadal timeline."

"This is an infinitely superior ROI compared to the Warring States era!"

"Admittedly, it hasn't achieved a 100% liquidation of war, but it is an epoch-making technological leap! Both myself and the personnel of every other subsidiary owe them an immense debt of gratitude for preventing the shinobi market from regressing into total bankruptcy!"

Hiruzen raised his hand, pointing directly at Madara, and unleashed a heavy verbal barrage. "And you? Aside from spewing empty PR rhetoric here, what tangible market value have you generated?"

"Operating behind proxies, dealing in theoretical vaporware, operating under the delusion that you've unlocked the ultimate algorithm, while functionally holding zero market share! You likely just sit in an offline server all day generating empty simulations!"

"Do you seriously believe your metrics grant you the clearance to issue performance reviews on our Founders, Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha?"

"Let me update your database: YOU LACK THE CLEARANCE!"

Hiruzen was genuinely infuriated.

In his analytical model, Madara Uchiha's (the stranger's) thesis was absurd to the highest degree.

The Warring States era was equivalent to a completely unregulated black market, where decentralized cannibalization and hostile takeovers were infinite, actively depreciating the final margins of basic human empathy.

Terminating such a dark age—what possible strategic error could be found in that?

On the flank, Fugaku was completely mesmerized.

Good heavens!

The Hokage-sama's endorsement of the Great Clan Head wasn't merely superficial PR?

He genuinely, from the bottom of his core architecture, authenticated Madara as a Konoha Founder—an indispensable asset to their corporate identity!

Madara Uchiha, however, experienced a total system crash.

Logically, given his temperament, being subjected to such a vicious dressing-down should have triggered absolute fury and an immediate kinetic escalation.

But was Hiruzen Sarutobi actually insulting him?

Running an audio playback... yes, Hiruzen was verbally attacking him, but it was mathematically impossible to classify it as an insult against him.

"Although I had already downloaded this data..."

"But receiving hard confirmation that Hiruzen so aggressively idolizes my youthful iteration..." Madara's emotional processors were heavily conflicted.

As the direct disciple of Tobirama Senju, for Hiruzen to furiously defend him in front of an 'external contractor', firmly cementing his legacy as a Konoha Founder and the pacifier of a chaotic era...

What more data was needed?

This was undeniable proof of absolute, zealous alignment with his younger self's brand!

Madara paused the thread for a moment to stabilize his internal cooling systems.

He was going to debate Hiruzen Sarutobi!

Armed with the Infinite Tsukuyomi blueprint and a superior macro-understanding of the market, Madara firmly believed that possessing the factual high ground negated the need for aggressive volume.

"Hmph."

"Excellent PR spin. Then care to audit exactly why Madara Uchiha engaged in a lethal kinetic strike against Hashirama Senju?"

"Your Konoha PR department has perpetually kept those files classified. But if a primary Founder cannot maintain alignment with the corporation's vision, doesn't that inherently prove the architectural framework is unsustainable?"

Madara sneered, "Madara Uchiha was naive to the point of sheer incompetence, but he at least possessed a primal, predatory instinct. He detected the fraudulent metrics behind the One-Village-One-State model and the Will of Fire."

"Yet your board of directors remains addicted to this toxic asset, lacking the executive courage to audit reality?"

To aggressively spoof his identity, Madara invested heavy capital, relentlessly initiating smear campaigns against his former self.

Given his established brand identity in the shinobi market, the Asura of the Shinobi World was notoriously incapable of public self-criticism.

This tactic successfully bypassed all filters.

Even Hiruzen merely logged this mysterious entity as a highly tenured veteran from Hashirama and Madara's generation, without ever flagging a direct correlation to the Founders themselves.

The authenticity of Madara's death was universally accepted market consensus. No one believed Hashirama could be spoofed, especially since Hashirama nearly liquidated his partnership with Tobirama over the autopsy protocols.

Madara's encryption protocols were functioning flawlessly.

It must be said, having rebooted his ambitions, Madara's processing power had once again reclaimed the strategic high ground.

"You are merely a depreciated asset that Madara-sama previously liquidated, aren't you?"

Hiruzen sneered coldly.

Under standard protocols, it was impossible for him to address Madara Uchiha as 'sama' within village limits.

But this was an external B2B interaction.

While Madara Uchiha had accumulated numerous operational violations, he remained an inextricable Founder of Konoha, and Hashirama had unilaterally vetoed the revocation of his Konoha employee status.

Internal and external PR had to be strictly segmented. That was an internal HR dispute, completely irrelevant to third-party contractors!

After all, the First Hokage, Hashirama himself, had authorized a pardon.

As a mere 'junior executive', Hiruzen had no jurisdiction to overturn it.

Legally speaking, Madara Uchiha retained his legitimate credentials as a Konoha operative, Employee ID 002!

It just wasn't currently optimal to publicize that data point.

Madara's language module temporarily stalled.

He was liquidated by himself?

"You are merely attempting to leverage the historical data of the Final Valley kinetic exchange between Madara and Hashirama-sama."

"That engagement resulted in severe market friction, but it was fundamentally a collision of ideological portfolios, not a thesis that the corporation itself lacked market value!"

Noting Madara's silence, Hiruzen issued a chilling smile. "Even a flawed regulatory framework yields infinitely higher returns than absolute market anarchy."

Madara frowned deeply.

"Are you stating the Village model represents order? And that any localized order inherently outperforms the Warring States era?"

In Madara's projections, this was merely a strategy of delaying inevitable bankruptcy!

Hiruzen chuckled.

"As long as a regulatory framework can guarantee the survival baseline of its individual assets, even if it contains critical structural bugs, it maintains absolute priority over total systemic collapse."

"Admittedly, post-IPO, Konoha's internal equity balance experienced volatility."

"But Madara utilized kinetic force to brand his legacy onto the corporation. He forced Konoha's board to realize that regulatory frameworks require continuous, agile updates, and that legitimate stakeholder grievances cannot be dismissed under the PR smear of 'inciting anarchy'."

Hiruzen stared directly at Madara. "Madara and Hashirama-sama—one symbolized the alert system for continuous iteration, the other symbolized the foundational operating system. Standing at the Final Valley, they were perfectly synergistic. One is the root, the other the branch. Their core logic remains permanently cached in the minds of Konoha personnel."

"While vaporware theorists like you..."

"Are likely running simulations for a 'perfectly optimized order', perpetually chasing extreme outlier scenarios."

Hiruzen shook his head. "I highly recommend you review Madara-sama's operational logs and whitepapers. Even if he liquidated you in the past, do not constantly attempt to depreciate the Asura of the Shinobi World's brand. Instead, try to comprehend his absolute resolve in sacrificing his entire portfolio merely to issue a system warning to Konoha!"

Madara's internal systems critically overloaded.

"What exactly is your relationship to Madara Uchiha? Aren't you Hashirama's disciple? Why are you acting as his PR proxy! Was his kinetic strike against Konoha not classified as corporate treason?"

"Your strategic bandwidth is significantly narrower than my initial projections." Hiruzen gave Madara a look of sheer bewilderment. "I can forgive low-tier operatives for failing to parse the data—but given your hardware specs, you should understand that it was mathematically impossible for Madara to calculate a victory condition against Hashirama-sama."

"Their power scaling hierarchy was definitively finalized during the initial Senju-Uchiha merger."

"Furthermore, what kind of corporate treason involves a scheduled 1v1 duel?"

"If it were a legitimate coup, why did Hashirama-sama refuse to revoke Madara's Konoha credentials?"

"If you intend to publish critiques on Madara and Hashirama-sama, I strongly advise you to properly audit the historical logs and comprehend the core ideological friction driving Konoha's history. Believing you possess administrative vision while outputting zero factual data is highly laughable."

Although Madara remained silent.

The Tobi unit bonded to his epidermis detected a catastrophic spike in Madara-sama's core thermal output.

In layman's terms: he was seeing red!

What did he mean 'he calculated it was mathematically impossible to win against Hashirama'?

In that exact millisecond, Madara felt an overwhelming urge to uninstall the Tobi armor, declassify his identity, and force a complete ideological reboot of Hiruzen Sarutobi!

Do I know my own data better, or do you?

You've apparently compiled the definitive guide on me!

Madara Uchiha was visibly experiencing a severe PR meltdown.

He never projected that Hiruzen, the successor to his youthful corporate vision, possessed such devastating debate algorithms.

Madara even hypothesized that if he summoned his younger iteration into the server, even he wouldn't be able to counter-argue this aggressively!

Madara processed the data for a moment, his lips twitching.

He opted to bypass the ideological firewall and pivot the dialogue back to his primary core competency. "Even assuming your dataset is valid, the shinobi market's supply chain of hatred cannot be frozen."

"Your isolated comprehension of their executive intent yields zero systemic ROI!"

"Given Konoha's currently depreciated market cap, it is impossible to maintain your brand integrity in this brutal industry. The continuous drain of global conflicts will inevitably force your board into extreme measures, aggressively liquidating your own personnel to maintain military leverage!"

Madara's queries continuously looped back to pure combat metrics.

What if Kumogakure suddenly spawned an operative boasting Hashirama-level or Madara-level stats? How would the board react?

Dismissing statistical anomalies was poor risk management; the probability was never absolute zero.

In Madara's framework, to secure his buy-in, Konoha's system needed to scale to a point where they could simultaneously suppress four major competitors—only then would they barely meet his minimum standard for an evaluation.

Furthermore, they would need the hardware to withstand at least one anomaly of his exact tier to validate their architectural model.

Only then would the data be statistically significant!

Otherwise, this artificial order and peace would instantly collapse under the pressure of maximum kinetic force.

While it generated attractive short-term yields, its long-term viability was massively inferior to the Infinite Tsukuyomi roadmap.

"Insolence!"

On the flanks, Fugaku Uchiha and Hizashi Hyuga initiated combat protocols simultaneously.

"Excellent deployment timing!"

Madara's optics narrowed. He could finally launch a hardware demonstration; he was absolutely exhausted from the verbal debugging.

He genuinely couldn't out-debate this guy.

Fusing Lightning and Water nature transformations, a Storm Release crossbow bolt materialized, radiating a bone-chilling lethality.

It generated zero excess acoustic waste, optimizing entirely for maximum armor-piercing capability.

Hizashi's arms snapped forward like a fully drawn composite bow releasing its payload. The bolt tore through the atmosphere with a shrieking aerodynamic tear, locking directly onto Madara's left flank, moving so fast it left only corrupted visual artifacts in its wake.

Simultaneous with the Storm Release launch, Fugaku's Fire Release payload finalized compilation.

The Majestic Destroyer Flame saturated the airspace, superheating the localized atmosphere into a boiling, distorted anomaly.

Two lethal kinetic strikes entered the terminal phase instantly, yet Madara's positional coordinates remained static.

Madara swept a cold glance over the synchronized pincer maneuver, a sneer rendering on his lips. He merely extended both hands, opting for a bare-handed interception of the Storm and Fire releases.

In the next frame, the projected detonations and kinetic shockwaves completely failed to render.

The Storm Release bolt was securely locked within his palm, failing to generate even a micro-fluctuation in the localized energy field.

The volatile Lightning data thrashed wildly, attempting to execute its explosive payload, but was aggressively firewalled by an invisible administrative force, instantly becoming fully compliant.

Fugaku's Fire Release was seamlessly intercepted by Madara's secondary manipulator; the massive volume of hyper-lethal fire was instantly compressed into a single, nullified pixel!

A highly optimized application of the Preta Path allowed Madara to instantly freeze two lethal jutsu threads.

"Worthless chakra assets."

The repulsive force of Shinra Tensei detonated, applying a massive velocity multiplier to the captured bolt and fire.

They were redirected on a direct collision course with Hiruzen Sarutobi!

Hiruzen's gaze sharpened.

While Madara Uchiha was executing the Preta Path protocol...

The Fire Release was standard data, but the core architecture of the Storm Release—usually heavily encrypted from Hiruzen's optics—was now exposed in raw, uncompiled clarity.

Essentially, Madara had utilized the Preta Path to reverse-engineer and decompile the Storm Release structure right in front of Hiruzen!

Hiruzen raised his right hand.

The hyper-lethal Storm and Fire returns suddenly stalled in mid-air just inches from his chassis.

They weren't deflected by a firewall. They weren't absorbed.

Beginning from their absolute core chakra nodes, they began to systematically decompile, melting from the top down like a deleted directory.

The lightning artifacts instantly powered down; the fire textures rapidly lost saturation.

Under the optics of all personnel present, the Storm and Fire releases suffered a catastrophic structural crash, dissolving at a rate significantly outperforming the Preta Path's absorption metrics!

They were reformatted into benign, compliant streams of raw chakra, downloading smoothly into Hiruzen's reserves.

The entire sequence was executed with a chilling, clinical silence, forming a massive PR contrast to the explosive violence projected milliseconds prior.

The combat zone plunged into an eerie, absolute silence.

Fugaku and Hizashi were frozen in their deployment stances.

They possessed exact analytics on the lethal yield of their respective payloads, and were deeply shocked by Madara's casual hardware interception.

But the Hokage-sama's effortless, one-handed deletion protocol was equally anomalous.

It completely bypassed their entire cognitive database regarding ninjutsu mechanics, operating on logic they couldn't even begin to parse.

Audio channels remained entirely muted.

Madara Uchiha and Hiruzen Sarutobi locked onto each other with extreme intensity.

Both processors were looping the exact same query.

"What kind of jutsu framework is this guy running?!"

Hiruzen's internal threat sensors were blaring: "This isn't standard chakra absorption—he decompiled the jutsu architecture while simultaneously maintaining enough bandwidth to buffer it!"

"That repulsive kinetic wave was also highly abnormal. Zero hand-seal input, instant execution, massive yield. It projected overwhelming suppression metrics against both Fire and Storm release."

Despite his brand identity as the 'Professor of Ninjutsu', Hiruzen was genuinely stunned by Madara's tech stack.

He had zero data on this!

It wasn't even documented in Tobirama-sensei's classified archives!

One exchange of code, and the true experts instantly recognize the skill gap.

And Madara Uchiha was running identical diagnostics.

"What jutsu was that? A framework missing from my database?"

"It wasn't chakra absorption. It resembled the dampening script that precedes Preta Path execution, but the trigger latency was infinitely faster and more aggressive."

"How did Hiruzen compile a high-tier mechanic rivaling the Rinnegan? Isn't his hardware classed as standard?"

Both executives silently revised the other's threat rating upward by several tiers.

"Suboptimal."

"I initially planned to run a few kinetic exchanges with Hiruzen, but if he possesses this caliber of tech, the friction will be severe."

"Standard Five Elemental releases won't bypass his defenses, and I cannot afford to leak Rinnegan intel yet. Booting up the Sharingan adds unnecessary complications; my visual signature is too heavily patented."

"Sustained combat will cause Tobi's spoofing protocols to fluctuate, and both the Byakugan and Sharingan are actively monitoring the logs."

Madara's sensory suite was pinging massive chakra clusters approaching rapidly from the perimeter.

The Konoha rapid response units were closing in.

"When low-tier assets aggregate, even a corporate titan can occasionally experience logistical friction."

"Extraction is the optimal move."

"I need to officially incorporate a subsidiary organization. I cannot personally deploy for every minor acquisition. Relying solely on White Zetsu AI is inefficient; I need to recruit high-yield kinetic operatives."

Madara narrowed his eyes.

His primary search queries immediately flagged two highly depreciated assets: the deceased Second Mizukage and Second Tsuchikage.

And perhaps a few barely-functional living personnel.

"Market validity is not determined via boardroom debates."

"Hokage, take my data packet offline and run your own analysis."

"I am temporarily suspending kinetic operations, but the shinobi market's cycle of hatred will serve as an independent auditor to prove my thesis."

Madara stated evenly.

"Hokage-sama, the target is initiating extraction!" Fugaku roared instantly.

Hizashi's Byakugan remained hard-locked on the anomaly.

Minato and Seisui spooled up their combat engines, Flying Thunder God kunai readied for immediate deployment.

"You are the textbook definition of a brainless Uchiha. Every time you open your comms, you broadcast sheer incompetence."

"The Hyuga operative has upgraded to Storm Release, yet the Uchiha is still spamming legacy Fire Release. Utterly stagnant R&D." Madara sneered at Fugaku. "This is Madara's genetic legacy? What a catastrophic disappointment."

Having been verbally outmaneuvered by Hiruzen all day, Madara finally isolated a low-level target he could easily dunk on.

He couldn't resist a quick PR smear!

"Hokage, a severance package for our meeting."

"The core truth is encrypted within." Madara's palm generated a pitch-black receiver, tossing it toward Hiruzen.

Though the velocity was high, the trajectory flagged zero hostile intent.

Hiruzen effortlessly caught the Yin-Yang Release hardware.

"As for these optics."

Madara extracted the counterfeit Rinnegan synthesized from White Zetsu tissue, crushing it in his palm. "Merely the vaporware delusions of an incompetent asset."

"I expect you to have upgraded your firmware by our next summit."

Seemingly eager to avoid another verbal counter-attack from Hiruzen, Madara's avatar instantly deleted itself from the local server.

He didn't execute the Mayfly Jutsu. Instead, he deployed Limbo: Border Jail to project a clone to a remote coordinate, leveraging the Limbo dimension to execute a zero-trace space-time extraction.

"Signal completely lost."

"Zero sensory pings!"

"What kind of extraction protocol was that?"

Hizashi, Fugaku, Minato, and Seisui all displayed expressions of severe system shock.

Hiruzen was not particularly surprised.

If this anomaly had the audacity to demand a 1v1 summit, he inherently possessed a guaranteed zero-day exploit for extraction.

Hiruzen closely inspected the black receiver Madara had transferred.

Madara's core logic was simple: by delivering a piece of highly optimized Yin-Yang Release hardware, he aimed to prove to the 'Professor of Ninjutsu' that absolute technical perfection was attainable.

Therefore, absolute peace also possessed a perfect algorithmic solution.

Madara even projected a hypothesis: given Hiruzen's staggering talent metrics, he might just reverse-engineer fragments of Yin-Yang Release. He could potentially gain read-access to the Sage of Six Paths' stone tablet without requiring proprietary Uchiha optics!

Factor in a global market war mobilized by Hiruzen...

Once Konoha's balance sheet crashed, Hiruzen would inevitably run the calculation:

In this industry, a single subsidiary advocating for peace is functionally useless. A global monopoly must be established to forcefully mandate peace across all factions simultaneously!

Only then could the shinobi market's systemic bugs be permanently patched.

Despite his grand strategy, absorbing a barrage of his own ideological rhetoric from Hiruzen left Madara's internal systems running dangerously hot.

He initiated a core directive: return to base and execute a massive post-mortem analysis!

If another debate summit was scheduled, he absolutely would not lose the PR war again!

"Not just the Second Mizukage and Tsuchikage..."

"Kinkaku and Ginkaku—the defective units who liquidated Tobirama—possess salvage value."

"The Second Kazekage's hardware is also viable."

"I need to locate their physical servers and reformat them into Six Paths Puppets. Retaining their original soul data would optimize performance."

"I will assign Black Zetsu to the acquisition."

Madara strategized internally. Since he had officially logged back into the shinobi market, he was going to deploy maximum capital!

However, Madara had no intention of launching a crude, uncoordinated swarm attack against Konoha with these puppets.

The threat signature would be too obvious.

If Hiruzen detected the pattern, Madara calculated his successor wouldn't hesitate to deploy extreme countermeasures.

Although the current build of the Edo Tensei was highly unoptimized, Konoha might possess classified workarounds to reboot Hashirama at near-peak operating capacity.

After all, the original developer was Tobirama Senju.

That would trigger a catastrophic market failure!

The core objective remained stress-testing Konoha's infrastructure. Madara didn't intend to maximize casualties; he wanted to force Hiruzen and the Konoha workforce to mathematically prove that the shinobi market was structurally immutable.

In Madara's self-assessment, the benchmarks he was setting were perfectly calibrated—representing legitimate market volatility they would eventually face regardless.

He was a highly professional system auditor!

Following Madara's anomalous extraction.

Hanzo exhaled a massive volume of tension.

From the millisecond his Big Brother logged in, his internal metrics stabilized. He held zero anxiety regarding system failure.

Meanwhile, Fugaku, Hizashi, and the others remained somewhat disoriented.

They had never encountered a hostile entity boasting such anomalous stealth and overwhelming combat stats, possessing virtually zero exploitable vulnerabilities.

But Hiruzen's 'Spirit Release' undoubtedly injected a massive morale boost into the Konoha ranks.

Our Hokage-sama operates on an equally anomalous tech stack!

"Big Brother, what is our next strategic directive?"

Hanzo inquired seamlessly, his tone entirely casual despite his severed left arm continuously leaking hydraulic fluid.

"Indeed, Hokage-sama, what are our orders?" Fugaku looked at Hiruzen with absolute, verified reverence.

This display granted the Uchiha brand massive PR credibility in front of an external contractor!

Seisui watched the scene unfold silently, his internal logs highly complex.

He was forced to authenticate the reality: his disciple had likely surpassed his own peak historical market cap in Konoha.

He had evolved into Konoha's absolutely irreplaceable, undisputed CEO!

☆☆☆

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