"Look beyond the surface to see the essence."
"Just looking at the results, after the first Five Kage Summit, Konoha possessed:"
"First: Through selling seven Tailed Beasts, Konoha accumulated massive wealth and land—the most fundamental capital for development, eliminating the need to worry about the Daimyo's economic control."
"Second: With the Uzumaki Clan's sealing techniques as allies, they had the most stable Jinchūriki. Without external interference, it would almost never go berserk."
"Third: Konoha has the Uchiha Sharingan, which naturally excels at controlling Tailed Beasts—giving them an innate advantage whether suppressing their own Tailed Beast or controlling other villages' Tailed Beasts."
"Fourth: They planted a ticking time bomb in each of the other five villages. Every Tailed Beast rampage would weaken each ninja village, indirectly strengthening Konoha."
"Huh?"
"There are that many benefits?"
Hashirama froze, having never imagined distributing the Tailed Beasts would benefit Konoha so much.
"Your brother probably guessed all of this, but just didn't feel comfortable telling you."
"Tobirama, you knew all this?"
Hashirama turned to look at Tobirama, once again stunned.
Tobirama's gaze shifted slightly, but he still nodded in acknowledgment.
Back then, he hadn't completely opposed distributing the Tailed Beasts partly out of respect for his brother's will, but also because he'd seen these benefits and indirectly pushed the distribution forward.
As a master of forbidden jutsu, he knew full well the level of sealing techniques in other ninja villages. They wouldn't be able to successfully utilize Tailed Beast power for a long time, which gave him peace of mind about the distribution.
And in reality, no village had deployed Tailed Beasts in combat during the First Great Ninja War.
"Oh no, doesn't that make me a fraud who deliberately deceived the Five Kage?" Hashirama slumped, feeling somewhat distressed.
Tobirama also rarely stood his ground firmly:
"Big brother, stop being naive! Do you think the other four Kage couldn't see through all this? Do you think they were truly convinced by your ideals?"
"Then why did they accept?"
"With your strength, big brother, could they say no? Besides, you even bowed your head to them—if they didn't give you face after that, would they dare start a war with you?"
Furthermore.
Everyone was a founding Kage who'd pacified their nation's civil wars. Even though Hashirama's strength was ridiculously overpowered, that didn't mean the other four Kage were trash.
They were all founding Kage—how could they be convinced by Hashirama's few words?
At the end of the day, they agreed because they believed the benefits they'd gain from the Tailed Beast distribution outweighed the costs.
"Huh?"
Hashirama stood there with his mouth hanging open, feeling like maybe he was the only idiot in the whole world?
"Wait, sir, if there are so many advantages, why did multiple Great Ninja Wars still break out later?"
Hashirama was simple but not stupid—he quickly grasped the key point again.
Speaking of this.
Even Kai felt helpless.
Distributing the Tailed Beasts wasn't the optimal solution, but it was genuinely quite good.
Those four advantages alone were enough for Konoha to sit back in the fountain and wait for victory.
It was practically a god-tier starting hand.
But Konoha after the Second Hokage... you couldn't even call it bizarre.
Using the Great War as an excuse to exhaust the Senju Clan's members
Watching the entire Uzumaki Clan get wiped out
Pushing for the Uchiha Massacre
Allowing the Fourth Hokage Minato to die in battle and ostracizing the new Jinchūriki
And so on...
If they'd just avoided doing even one of these things, the Third and Fourth Great Ninja Wars probably wouldn't have started.
But Konoha stepped on every single landmine, crippling both its hands and feet, as if desperately afraid it wouldn't die fast enough.
You're holding four 2s, four Aces, four Kings, and both Jokers—and you still manage to lose. Kai couldn't wrap his head around it no matter how hard he tried.
All he could say was: absolutely legendary.
However.
These future conflicts and developments were too complex to explain in a few words.
It would be better to take Hashirama and the others to witness it firsthand later—that would be clearer and more convincing.
"The reasons are complex, but they can mainly be attributed to different levels of competence in handling the drawbacks of Tailed Beast distribution."
"(O_O)?"
This time, not only did Hashirama not understand, even Tobirama was confused.
"What are the main drawbacks of distributing the Tailed Beasts?"
Kai looked at Tobirama, who answered decisively.
"The Tailed Beasts' immense power itself is a drawback!"
"Correct. More precisely, it can be divided into external and internal factors."
"External factors mean other ninja villages controlling Tailed Beasts to attack. This isn't easy—you'd need at least a Perfect Jinchūriki. Let's set that aside for now."
"The key is internal factors—namely, Tailed Beast Rampages."
"Are Tailed Beast Rampages really that hard to handle?" Hashirama asked doubtfully. He hadn't captured any Tailed Beasts yet, so he only had a vague concept of their power.
But judging from the Tailed-Beast-transformed Kinkaku just now, it seemed... maybe... perhaps... not that threatening?
"The Tailed Beasts themselves aren't that powerful. What's powerful is their unique ability: the Tailed Beast Bomb."
Aside from the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails, the other Tailed Beasts' overall strength really wasn't impressive.
The Fourth Kazekage could suppress the One-Tail Shukaku by himself, proving that certain specialized Kage-level shinobi could counter Tailed Beasts effectively.
But Tailed Beasts had one broken strategic-level ability: the Tailed Beast Bomb.
A normally charged Tailed Beast Bomb could easily obliterate an entire mountain. In the entire Naruto world, you could count on one hand the number of shinobi who could withstand that kind of power at close range.
So the truly terrifying thing about Tailed Beasts wasn't riding them into enemy villages to cause havoc.
It was controlling a Tailed Beast and, from several kilometers or even dozens of kilometers away, quietly firing a Tailed Beast Bomb at your village.
In an instant, the entire village is done for!
Doesn't matter how many elite shinobi you have, doesn't matter how many trump card jutsu you've got.
Under a nuclear explosion, all are equal.
That's what a true strategic weapon is!
Why did Hashirama think the Nine-Tails was dangerous after the Battle of the Valley of the End, even though his Sage Art: True Several Thousand Hands could easily handle it with one hand?
Because he wasn't afraid of the Nine-Tails' physical strength—he was terrified after seeing Madara's Sword-Shaped Tailed Beast Bomb reach the opposite shore and obliterate a massive area!
That's what he feared—the Nine-Tails firing a Tailed Beast Bomb at Konoha.
That's why he used the Uzumaki Clan's most secure sealing technique when sealing the Tailed Beast later.
...
Kai pointed to the distance, at the explosion zone where Hashirama had just batted away the Tailed Beast Bomb.
The latter immediately understood.
An explosion like that—if Konoha Village got hit with a few of those without warning, the entire village would cease to exist in an instant.
"That kind of destructive power really is an enormous threat to the village!"
"But after distributing the Tailed Beasts, everyone has this power. Maybe it could create mutual deterrence..."
Hashirama stopped mid-sentence, because the First Great Ninja War currently happening was already slapping him in the face.
"Mutual threats have never been able to stop wars. They can only delay the outbreak of war and increase the casualties when war does come."
"I'm sure the Second Hokage understands this quite well, right?"
Hashirama looked at his younger brother again.
"Tobirama, if you knew all this, why didn't you stop me back then?"
"Big brother, we have the Uzumaki's sealing techniques—our Jinchūriki is extremely stable. Even in the unlikely event of a Tailed Beast rampage, we still have the evil... I mean, we still have the Uchiha Sharingan to control the Tailed Beast. The village is fundamentally safe!"
Tobirama defended himself. He'd never hidden his wariness of the Uchiha.
But he also fully recognized the power of the Sharingan, especially after seeing Madara tame the Nine-Tails into being as 'docile' as a kitten.
That's why he'd insisted, against all opposition, on making Uchiha Kagami one of his personal guards.
On one hand, he valued Kagami's convictions and wanted to use him to reform the Uchiha Clan and ease tensions.
On the other hand, he valued Kagami's talent and abilities, hoping he could properly assist Hiruzen while serving as insurance against Tailed Beast rampages.
Unfortunately, no matter how well he planned, he couldn't predict future changes.
"But what about the other ninja villages? They don't have those advantages."
"I know. Precisely because they lack advanced sealing techniques and would struggle to perfectly suppress Tailed Beasts for a long time, I agreed to the distribution."
"Why?"
"That way, every time a 'Tailed Beast Rampage' occurs in their village, their strength will be significantly weakened, making Konoha even safer!"
"Tobirama, why are your thoughts so devious?"
Tobirama: "..."
Tobirama felt wronged and shut his mouth, turning his head away. He didn't want to argue with his simpleton brother about right and wrong.
Right, right, right—all the blame is mine!
For the sake of the village, he could only be the bad guy.