"Nearly twenty spies infiltrated Konoha in just a single day."
In the Hokage's office, Senju Tobirama stared grimly at the document in his hands.
"These bastards really can't wait, can they?!"
"Hokage-sama, actually, a total of thirty spies infiltrated the village—ten of them were killed by Renya..."
Faced with Tobirama's anger, the ANBU agent reporting to him spoke carefully.
Hearing that, Senju Tobirama froze.
That brat's bloodlust is getting stronger.
Ever since he learned that Renya had begun researching poisons, Tobirama knew this kid wasn't the merciful type—just like himself.
But even so, killing all the spies? Wasn't that a bit much?
After a moment of silence, he gave instructions to the ANBU in front of him.
"Have Renya come see me."
Once the ANBU left, he rubbed his temples.
"That kid... didn't even leave a single one alive."
He felt it was necessary to teach Renya not to be so excessively bloodthirsty.
Otherwise, mental issues were inevitable sooner or later.
After all, being a ninja often came with psychological problems.
If no guidance was given in time, things would spiral out of control.
Especially since Renya was from the Uchiha clan—the one with the most fragile mental state.
If that kid ended up developing a psychological disorder one day, it would be a huge problem.
Still, he felt Renya was different from the rest of the Uchiha.
...
As Senju Tobirama was lost in thought, Renya pushed open the office door and walked in.
"Hey, old man, you called for me?"
As he spoke, he pulled out a chair and sat down across from Tobirama.
He was a little confused. What did this old guy want from him?
Didn't he know it was after work hours?!
He had spent the entire day chasing down spies in the village, had just gotten home, and hadn't even started cooking when the ANBU dragged him here.
"Kid, I heard you killed all the spies?" Senju Tobirama asked.
Renya nodded, not bothering to deny it.
Seeing Renya's utterly unconcerned expression gave Tobirama a bit of a headache.
He instinctively rubbed his brow and asked, "Can you tell me why you didn't leave a single one alive?"
"The fact that they infiltrated the village makes them enemies to me," Renya explained. "When I fight, I go all out to ensure my own safety. That's why they ended up dead."
There was no way he was going to go easy just to leave someone alive, right?
What if the enemy took advantage of his mercy and stabbed him in the gut with a kunai?
Ever since he realized just how fragile ninja were, Renya had never held back in a fight.
Even against opponents much weaker than him, he never let his guard down.
Even if he wanted to show mercy, he had no chance to.
His weapons were laced with deadly poison—just a single cut was a death sentence.
So far, aside from Kakuzu, everyone who had fought him had ended up dead.
If not for Senju Hashirama's intervention at the time, Kakuzu would've been dead too.
Tobirama listened to Renya's explanation and found it... surprisingly reasonable.
Battles between ninja were inherently dangerous. To ensure one's safety, going all out made perfect sense.
Suddenly, Tobirama remembered—he was the one who had taught Renya this logic...
Realizing that, Tobirama nodded and praised him.
"Kid, you did well."
"Old man, did you call me here just for that?"
Renya didn't understand what was going on with this old guy. He dragged him all the way here just to say that?
Tobirama had originally intended to counsel Renya against being so bloodthirsty, but after hearing his explanation... he started to think maybe it wasn't such a big deal after all.
The kid didn't look mentally unstable either.
Speaking of killing, Tobirama himself had taken more lives than he could count.
"It's nothing. You can go back now," Tobirama said, waving his hand.
Renya thought this old man was acting weird but figured maybe the stress had gotten to him.
After all, his brother had just died, and the news had already spread across the entire shinobi world.
Of course Tobirama was under immense pressure.
If things weren't handled well, a war could break out at any moment!
Still, Renya knew the situation couldn't be hidden for long.
Once the other nations confirmed Hashirama's death, war was inevitable.
That couldn't be avoided.
He had discussed this very scenario with Hashirama.
Hashirama had told him—
This was something that had to be faced. He couldn't protect Konoha forever.
Even though Hashirama wished for peace more than anyone, his years of experience had taught him how unrealistic that wish really was.
Human desire was endless. As long as desire existed, so would war.
And the wars to come might be even bloodier than those of the Warring States period.
Back then, it was clan versus clan.
Now, it was village versus village.
The scale of war had grown far larger...
Before leaving, Hashirama had asked Renya to tell Tobirama to protect the village well.
...
"Old man, do you want to eat at home?" Renya asked.
Tobirama sighed. "Bring it to me. I don't have time to leave right now."
He was swamped with work—how could he have time to go home and eat?
Even though he was doing his best to suppress the news of his brother's death, there was no way to keep it hidden for more than a few days.
Soon, once the other nations realized the truth, war would come.
As Hokage, he needed to buy time to ready the village for war.
After Renya left, Tobirama deliberated for a long while, then finally spoke to the corner of the room.
"Inform all clan heads to come to the Hokage's office."
Originally, he hadn't planned to reveal this so soon.
But now, an invisible hand had disrupted all his plans.
To this day, Tobirama still didn't know who had leaked the news.
And it had spread throughout the shinobi world in record time, which was baffling.
Now that the secret was out, all he could do was change his strategy.
He had to begin mobilizing for war and prepare for the worst.
And the worst-case scenario... was all four great nations attacking Konoha at once.
To prevent that from happening, he had to discuss strategy in advance so they wouldn't be caught off guard.
...
Senju Tobirama's residence.
"Hashirama-san, you really had it easy—just patted your butt and walked away, leaving us with this huge mess," Renya said with some exasperation.
Senju Hashirama had left Konoha to search for Uchiha Madara.
And now they were the ones cleaning up after him.
The worst part was, Renya couldn't even complain, since he was the only one who knew about Hashirama's faked death...
Renya felt a bit emotional.
After all these years in the shinobi world, war was finally coming.
But this time, things were different—he had become stronger.
As long as he didn't get reckless, surviving the war wouldn't be a problem.
Right now, Renya's strength was close to that of an elite jonin. Combined with his Sharingan and massive chakra reserves...
As long as he didn't face a Kage-level opponent, he could almost always make it out alive.
And against elite jonin, he could kill them with minimal cost.
He hadn't spent all those years and a fortune researching poison for nothing.
His poisons were now so potent that even a single drop was basically a death sentence.
Renya believed the toxins he'd developed had reached the ceiling of the shinobi world.
Once someone was poisoned, no one could save them.
If someone slashed him, it was a minor injury.
If he slashed someone, it was instant death.
Where was the justice in that?