The walk back to the Uchiha compound was conducted in a silence so profound it was deafening. The two elders, Elder Takahiro and Elder Sadao, moved like men in a dream, their steps slow and measured. Between them, Hana's small hand was tucked trustingly into Elder Takahiro's, her other hand already working on a new stick of dango provided by a street vendor who had looked too terrified to refuse her.
They did not speak until they had passed through the main gates of the Uchiha compound, the familiar crest looming above them. They did not speak as they navigated the quiet lanes, clansmen bowing respectfully but eyeing the trio with intense, unasked questions. They did not speak until they had entered the secluded council chamber, the door sliding shut with a definitive click, sealing them in the empty, quiet room.
For a long moment, the two old men simply stood there, staring at the wall as if they could still see the events of the day projected upon it.
Elder Sadao, the more stoic of the two, slowly, carefully, lowered himself onto a cushion. His hands, gnarled with age and decades of hand signs, were trembling. He stared at them as if they belonged to someone else.
"Takahiro…" he began, his voice a dry rasp. He cleared his throat. "Takahiro, what… what just happened?"
Elder Takahiro, still holding Hana's hand, looked down at the little girl. She looked up at him, her cheeks full of dango, her eyes blinking innocently. He gently pried his fingers loose and slowly sank onto another cushion, his movements those of a man who had aged twenty years in an afternoon.
He did not answer Sadao directly. Instead, he spoke to the air, his tone one of pure, unadulterated awe and terror.
"She… she betrothed Madara-sama to the Fire Daimyo's daughter." It wasn't a question. It was a statement of unbelievable fact. "She did," Sadao whispered, nodding numbly. "She negotiated the terms. She set the dowry… or was it a penalty? My head…"
"She carved the mountain," Takahiro continued, his eyes wide. "Not just Madara-sama's face. Not just Hashirama's. She added the Daimyo's. Three founders. She re-wrote the history of the village's founding in a single sentence."
"And she established the line of succession," Sadao added, a hint of fierce, stunned pride breaking through his shock. "Madara-sama's child. The Second Hokage. It is… it is guaranteed. By contract. Witnessed by the Daimyo himself."
The two elders fell silent again, the magnitude of it washing over them. They had gone to that ceremony fearing marginalization. They were returning with a future of unprecedented political power secured.
Then Takahiro's face paled further. "The… the other part. What she said about Senju Tobirama. The… mission."
Sadao's jaw tightened. He looked around the empty room instinctively, ensuring they were alone. The casual, chilling suggestion of assassinating the Hokage's brother hung in the air between them. It was treason. It was brilliance. It was the kind of ruthless clan protection they all fervently believed in but never dared articulate.
"She is three," Sadao said finally, his voice hushed with a kind of reverent fear. "She has the cunning of a seasoned politician and the audacity of… of Madara-sama himself. She saw a problem and she… solved it. All of it. In minutes."
"She went to the Hokage's house," Takahiro murmured, remembering the final act. "She apologized. She soothed Hashirama's pride. Then she warned the Uzumaki woman of her clan's impending doom and offered them sanctuary and a business model. And then she proposed a marriage alliance with us."
"She didn't just secure our future, Takahiro," Sadao said, his eyes gleaming now with a fanatical light. "She laid the groundwork for Uchiha primacy. She has bound the Senju with an unbreakable financial contract, the Daimyo with a marriage and a fortune, and now she seeks to bring the Uzumaki and their fuinjutsu under our shared banner. She is… she is a prodigy. A divine instrument."
They both turned to look at Hana, who had finished her dango and was now quietly trying to stack the empty skewers into a small tower.
She was not a political mastermind. She was a child. A tiny, sticky-fingered child who had, entirely off-the-cuff, restructured the entire power balance of the nascent Hidden Leaf Village and positioned the Uchiha clan at its apex for generations to come.
Elder Takahiro slowly bowed his head until his forehead touched the tatami mat. Elder Sadao, after a moment's hesitation, did the same.
"From this day forward," Takahiro vowed, his voice firm now, all shock gone, replaced by unwavering conviction, "Hana-chan's security is our utmost priority. She is not just a child of this clan. She is its greatest asset. Its living will."
Hana looked up from her skewer tower, puzzled by the bowing old men. "Are you tired?" she asked. "I'm sleepy."
The two most powerful elders of the Uchiha clan immediately rose. "Of course, Hana-chan," Sadao said, his voice gentle. "Let us take you to your mother. You have… you have had a very long day."
And as they led the sleepy toddler away, they shared a look of perfect, terrified understanding. The future of the Uchiha clan was no longer in the hands of Madara, or any of them. It was in the hands of a three-year-old with a taste for dango and a genius for chaos.