Akira's words loomed over the room, impossible to ignore.
One clan leader after another froze in place, some stared blankly at the floor, others exchanged sidelong glances, but none moved to speak right away. The absurdity of what Akira had revealed didn't quite register at first. Most assumed it was some cruel joke tossed out to stir chaos. It wasn't until Hashirama's expression tightened, completely devoid of humor, that the reality sank in.
Every man in that tent had known Hashirama for years. This wasn't someone who'd entertain mockery at critical moments. If he wasn't laughing or refuting it, then it had to be true.
Someone nearby choked on their breath and whispered, "Could it… really be?"
Hashirama ended the speculation with one sentence, flat and final.
"Since Akira lets you go, just leave."
There was no room left for doubt after that.
It didn't matter that Hashirama wasn't technically king. He would not make declarations lightly on serious matters, especially not in front of so many clans watching for weakness.
"In other words," one leader stepped forward again, his tone bitter, "you're okay with him sabotaging his own people?"
"I…" Hashirama faltered.
"Yes. That's right!" Akira's words cut through the hesitation and reclaimed the floor. "You don't want to stay here anymore, do you?"
His body tensed, shoulders squared, chin raised, his energy shifted in less than two seconds from casual to confrontational. The weight of chakra bled off him fast enough that two clan leaders near the back took half, steps away out of instinct.
Hashirama glanced at Tobirama. The look was quick, but it was clear. They were tied together in this now. Whatever Akira did next, they would bear it together.
Click,
Three distinct pulses swelled through the air. Chakra pressed down from above like heavy hands on their shoulders. Even the floor groaned beneath the weight and thin cracks split the stone tile under their feet.
No one dared to respond now, not even the man who spoke up in protest moments earlier.
"Don't make me say it again." Akira's stare locked forward, unmoving.
Hashirama's stance beside him wasn't casual either. Those named had lost their window to argue, with the "Three Heroes of Senju" unified above them, no one wanted to test if there was bluff behind Akira's threat.
One by one, the clans named earlier began walking out, heads bowed, mouths shut tight. None dared look directly at anyone on their way past the crowd.
Except for the Bamboo Cutter chief.
"This is too much!"
His shout snapped tension into the tent again. He trembled with rage, face flushed, bone spikes already twisting up through his skin without warning. Chakra pulsed through him, a dangerous mix of offense and defense ready to go off at once.
Thud,
Before he could leap forward, steel sank into his back and his feet crumpled out from under him with no resistance.
"Earth Release: Heavy Rock Technique!"
Boom!
Stone beneath the Taketori patriarch cratered under his own weight as the technique activated mid, fall, crushing him down into the floor with brute force. A wide hole formed instantly beneath him, half, meter deep, two meters across, his body sunken into stone like it gave out beneath him from gravity alone.
"Die, !"
He moved on instinct, raw fury bending his limbs as bone surged out from his spine toward where the attacker had been behind him.
Right before they could strike, the bones stopped mid, air. He gasped and twisted, his chakra unresponsive inside his limbs as if it'd shut off entirely.
"What… what is this?!"
"Sealing Technique: Golden Needle Acupoint Lock," came Akira's calm answer behind him.
Designed to twist chakra channels inward and bind them fully, it was sealing work built on medical principles, and Hyuga inspiration. It turned pressure point discipline into total blockage. Akira hadn't just invented it, he'd used it mid, combat with perfect execution.
Around them, silence dropped flat over every witness as realization set in,
Akira had moved himself across the battleground using the kunai only seconds ago, and no one had seen it happen.
"How is that…?"
Others tried to track how he'd relocated through so many visible projectiles without triggering any of them, but even that answer fell apart once they considered how precise his control had to be mid, fight.
Fast in close combat; untouchable at range; chakra, locking in melee, it was impossible to chase or trap someone with those skills combined.
More than one clan leader found themselves afraid for the first time in years.
"If Senju Akira decided to kill me right now… I wouldn't even see it coming."
Bits of whispered conversation cracked open between elite clans seated closest to each other, all with similar thoughts brewing just beneath their calm expressions:
"Good thing he's on our side."
Tobirama said nothing out loud, but his hands clenched tighter behind his back than they had since battle ended. He knew that technique intimately, it was supposed to be flawed beyond use. He'd shelved it himself months ago out of frustration and danger, and Akira had mastered it?
"Flying Thunder God… perfected in just months?" Tobirama felt his jaw tighten slightly as he watched Akira return to Hashirama's side again without urgency or fanfare.
There wasn't even ten meters of ground between where he'd stood and where he returned, but somehow that distance now felt difficult to process after what they'd just witnessed.
Clans spoke amongst themselves beneath hushed tones, many reevaluating everything they thought they understood about Akira's strength, or his motives for punishing certain groups so brutally today.
Some stared at Tobirama briefly, but most now realized that Akira might actually be stronger than him outright.
Someone finally gave words to what others had begun piecing together,
"He's planning… to build the village now."
Hashirama's original dream, it had been shouted loud when he took leadership, but hardly anyone expected it would start this way. Quiet elimination of bad eggs disguised as wartime alliances, the moment peace took hold, they were simply cut loose under pretense of insubordination or aggression.
Including Uchiha, that angle stung most of them deeply now that it made sense in reverse.
Akira had predicted even that much?
They looked at one another again and saw mirrored shock in every direction around them, including those who should've known better already.
At last, someone managed to murmur below breath,
"It looks like Senju Akira already has the Uchiha figured out too…"
While everyone else processed that silently from their seats beneath the stage, Hashirama stood frozen above, watching nothing in particular.
Below him, the clan leaders' expressions shifted across their faces over and over again until they settled not in fear, but subtle satisfaction.
He tilted his head slightly, watching their reactions carefully, but found himself struggling to understand them fully this time around.
"Akira was so confrontational just now... shouldn't they be angrier?"
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