Translator: PapaSmurf0700
Madara Uchiha.
This was a visitor Black Zetsu had not imagined. Compared to Emiya Shirou, Madara was a pawn it had planned to abandon. It hadn't expected this pawn to find its way here at this particular time. This seems... a bit improper. Madara shouldn't know it, nor should he know Emiya Shirou. Why did he have to come looking now?
Theoretically, he shouldn't have. In practice, he had his reasons.
When Madara secretly went to Konoha Hospital to visit Hashirama, he overheard a conversation. Hashirama, who was supposed to be resting, was sitting up in bed with his wife, Uzumaki Mito. The couple's relationship was very harmonious, with an air of mutual respect.
Hashirama's awakening couldn't be hidden from his wife. Tobirama held great respect for his sister-in-law and had immediately sent word to her, so she would no longer have to worry. Mito knew her husband's condition and was surprised he had woken up so early. Fearing something was wrong, she hurried to the hospital to check on him before returning to guard the Nine-Tails.
There was no problem. Mito had always understood her husband and his friendship with Madara. When she arrived and saw Hashirama's pain over having killed him, she hoped to persuade him to let go of his emotional baggage. Before Madara had tried to destroy Konoha, she had not disliked him.
Naturally, the couple started talking about Madara. Hashirama, with his straightforward personality, didn't hide his thoughts. He told his wife of the resolve born during his life-and-death battle, his determination to kill Madara to protect Konoha.
"At that moment, I knew I had to kill Madara. I must protect Konoha at all costs. Even if it's my friend, my brother, my child, this is a resolve born to protect the village. Compared to that, my friendship with Madara is no longer important. He could never understand my determination."
Outside the room, the eavesdropping Madara's face was cold and indifferent.
Inside the room, the listening Mito frowned. Due to guarding the Nine-Tails, her chakra consumption was immense, and her spirit was weary. Even so, she forced herself to consider her husband's words. "Sacrifice everything to protect the village?" she asked, a hint of unease on her face.
She knew how much he had lamented his friendship with Madara. To protect the village, could anything be discarded? His friend, his brother, his child... these were the people he had desperately tried to protect in the past.
To protect Madara, he had argued countless times with Tobirama. To protect Tobirama, he had once almost committed suicide in front of Madara. Now, to protect this village, he chose to sacrifice the very people he had once desperately protected.
But wasn't the purpose of building Konoha to protect these people from the pain of war? His thoughts made Mito feel something was not quite right. In her exhaustion, she couldn't immediately judge.
"Hashirama," she frowned, thinking of a terrifying question. "If we are willing to pay any price to protect the village, then what do we do when that price one day becomes so painful that we can't accept it?"
Hashirama hesitated for only a moment. He remembered killing his best friend, a choice more painful than sacrificing his own life.
"A painful price?" he lowered his head, his answer both pained and resolute. "If it's for the sake of protecting Konoha, there is no price that cannot be accepted, right?"
Mito suddenly realized the terrifying aspect. This kind of thinking was too terrifying. If one day this will is passed down, what will happen to Konoha in a future he cannot see?
The first thing humans imagine as a price is their own life. Someone sacrifices their life for Konoha and becomes a hero. And then, the price will continue to increase. There are prices more painful than sacrificing one's own life. Companions who live and die together. Someone kills their friend to protect the village.
Uh... something like that wouldn't happen.
Hashirama killed Madara because he was controlling the Nine-Tails and wanted to destroy the village. Madara's act was unforgivable.
What other prices are there? Family members. Someone kills their own family for Konoha.
Uh... that's impossible. Konoha's future couldn't possibly be that bad. Even in the Warring States period, the purpose of fighting was to protect relatives.
Mito's moral views were still simple. Her imagination quickly came to a halt. "I must be overthinking," she sighed.
"You must be too tired," Hashirama said gently, seeing the weariness on her face. "I was worried the Nine-Tails would cause trouble, so I brought it back. Is it behaving?"
"It's okay," Mito thought of the big fox. She knew they couldn't just seal it in the back hills forever. "If you insist on sealing it, it's not safe there. It could break the seal any day. The only safe way is to seal it inside my body as soon as possible. Only our Uzumaki clan's chakra can completely seal it."
"In that case, it might become more violent, right?" Hashirama asked, adding guiltily, "And you, with the Nine-Tails inside you, might be seen as an unsafe factor by the people of the village."
"In the future," Mito's voice lowered, "I will try not to show my face in the village."
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay."
The couple seemed harmonious and happy. Outside, Madara, having been single for a long time, found the conversation a bit boring and was planning to leave. However, a sentence caught his attention.
"Speaking of which, the doctor Tobirama found is really strange. His identity is so mysterious that it's even being hidden from me. But his medical skills are truly superb, so I don't have to worry too much anymore."
Madara's figure quietly departed. This was just too perfect. He also needed a doctor to help him with the transplant surgery. Coincidentally, this was killing two birds with one stone. If this mysterious doctor disappeared, it would surely cause panic throughout Konoha. Hashirama's condition was a top secret.
This would inevitably tie up Tobirama's energy. As long as the doctor wasn't found, he would be a sword hanging in the air, because he could leak to the ninja world that Hashirama only had ten years of life left. Tobirama would be in no mood to study the 'corpse' he left in that secret room.
As for after capturing this doctor... the fact that his old friend Hashirama only had ten years left...
Madara stood outside Emiya Shirou's house, looking at the flickering candlelight, a mocking sneer appearing on his lips.
Hmph. Hashirama. Compared to the goal I want to achieve, our friendship is not that important. I have already made up my mind to kill you to achieve my own goal.