Akira's first time in that kind of room made the shift in stares harder to ignore. Dozens of clan leaders, each one hardened and calculating, had their eyes on him like they were weighing him against some unseen scale. The heat of their combined attention made the back of his neck tighten.
"Let's go," Hashirama said with his usual calm, guiding Akira forward. They moved together, kneeling on the futon line, up without much ceremony.
"Well, Akira, let's start," Hashirama prompted, tone light.
"Ah? Start what?"
Laughter broke out across the tent almost immediately, quiet at first, then rising as nerves eased. Even the most rigid of them cracked smiles. Akira's confusion served as the perfect disarming moment. Too many of them had been on edge for too long.
Tobirama's face barely moved, a tick in his jaw the only indication that he was unimpressed.
Behind the smiles and casual air, some of those leaders already imagined their next steps. With fertile ground locked under the Senju banner and Uchiha losing ground, it was only one fight away from shifting everything in their favor. The principle of survival had always been simple: back the winner and reap the reward.
Tobirama's patience broke first.
"Everyone is waiting for your tactics!"
Akira tilted his head and raised both brows. "What are you talking about? I already gave you the answer, you couldn't figure it out?"
His mumbling after that earned him another bulge in Tobirama's temple vein. The younger Senju couldn't hide his irritation this time.
Akira continued without caring. "I know you've been planning for this battle against Uchiha long enough, so I'll just say it plainly."
Everyone leaned forward, ears open. Even the ones who pretended to stay relaxed gave themselves away in how tightly they focused.
Akira turned his head. "Tobirama."
"Um?" The reply came on reflex.
"Your arrangement last time was solid. Do it again." Akira leaned back slightly. "That's the whole plan."
Silence fell. A few heads tilted in place. One clan leader even mouthed "What?" before glancing around to see if anyone else was as confused as he was.
Hashirama's expression shifted first, eyebrows raised higher than usual.
"Akira, stop it. This isn't the time for jokes."
Akira shrugged as though he didn't understand what part confused them. "You seriously don't get it?"
No one answered him directly, but Tobirama looked ready to stand up and grab him by the collar at this point.
Hashirama tried again gently. "Okay, okay, I was wrong to bring you along without warning today. I'm sorry, alright? Please stop playing around."
Akira finally sighed. "I didn't change Tobirama's strategy because I don't know everyone's coordination levels or strengths in depth." He crossed his arms. "Changing tactics blindly would screw over our own side."
Tension loosened just slightly at the explanation, even if only for now.
"But we lost last time," one clan leader offered meekly.
Akira immediately spoke over him without hesitating, "You lost to me. They're about to fight me now too. If you think you could break those tactics yourselves, why did you ask me at fuckin' dawn to come here?"
Someone else tried to speak but thought better of it by the time Akira looked his way.
Most of them remembered how the old strategy ripped through Uchiha lines with almost surgical precision, and they also remembered how it collapsed just as quickly when Akira turned around and used it against them after defecting temporarily.
His ability was undeniable, and terrifying.
"The Lord probably has his own arrangements," someone whispered from the back, trying to comfort himself while shifting uncomfortably on the mat.
Even so, several among them began mentally drafting retreat routes for their clans if things went wrong again.
"You're asking me to use tactics designed by me... to defeat me?" Akira raised one brow incredulously, then snorted once and looked away toward Tobirama out of the corner of his eye.
Tobirama's next attempt to argue sounded forceful, "It's fine if others are using that mess again, but our vanguard force almost died out last time! And most of them were driven off by you, so who's even left?"
Before anyone could answer, someone across the room raised his hand, cloaked in red trim and held straight, backed with purpose.
"The Uzumaki clan didn't set foot on the battlefield last time," he said simply. "We'll take up vanguard duty this time, "
"Nope," Akira cut in with a grin, not even waiting for him to finish speaking. "Don't bother."
He pointed at Hashirama without looking away from Tobirama. "Vanguard force? Hashirama alone is enough."
There wasn't even hesitation in his tone, and no one laughed this time.
Hashirama smiled wide and snapped up both thumbs like he'd just gotten picked for his favorite job again. "Okay!" he replied casually and looked around with unshakable confidence gleaming beneath it.
Akira turned his gaze back to Tobirama again. "Any questions?"
Tobirama stared… then exhaled long through his nose and shook his head once, short and stiff.
"Alright," Akira said. "We're done here."
"Yes, Lord Hashirama!"
Orders were given, and everyone moved with them as if everything had just been decided over hours, not minutes.
…
At nearly the same time,
Uchiha Clan meeting room.
It couldn't have felt any different than what Senju just experienced. The atmosphere ran ice, cold and heavy, everyone seated upright, backs straight, attention locked forward onto Madara standing center by the scrolls laid out before her.
"I assume everyone has read those," she began, not loud, but slow enough that no one could pretend they missed her words.
Nobody replied, but no one looked away either.
"I'm giving you this chance: if you find any flaw in those tactics, we end this right now. I'll step down."
Silence followed again, but not because they doubted her power or authority… They couldn't find anything wrong with those scrolls even if they wanted to lie about it.
They'd used what they learned there to defeat Senju's previous formations, and somehow every page read less like enemy intelligence and felt instead like someone had written responses to their own best guesses ahead of time.
"Do any of you think he gave this to us because he made some mistake?" Madara asked next, and again no voices rose in response.
Most of them figured out the same answer by now: Senju Akira wanted them to have it, to raise the stakes… or bait them forward into thinking they had leverage when they didn't have jack shit in hand besides borrowed plans and easy pride.
Madara stood unmoving near the scrolls before continuing,
"We're dealing with someone who thinks five steps ahead. He wouldn't hand over tactics unless he already knew exactly how he'd counter them."
Heads nodded slowly, even begrudgingly, as she paced once between rows before stopping again sharply at center, stage:
"So here's my decision, I'll challenge Hashirama Senju directly to one, on, one combat. If we win? We wipe everything clean between our clans and move on peacefully."
Faces shifted across the room, but none of them dared challenge her reasoning out loud now.
"If we lose, we join their alliance under fair terms." Her final line rang out flat but firm before she turned and walked toward the tent flaps without waiting for argument or debate from those behind her anymore.
On her way out, Izuna followed close behind until several older Uchiha called him softly aside with narrowed eyes.
"Let's talk…"
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