As Senju Tobirama spoke at length, Senju Tsunade listened, feeling deeply shaken.
Clearly.
She never imagined that the two grandfathers she admired were so different in character and methods from what she had envisioned.
Great-Grandfather wanted to kill the Daimyo and the Nobles back then? And he was stopped by her Second Grandfather?
Good grief!
From her simple perspective, this narrative should have been the other way around, right?
But thinking carefully, it was actually understandable!
Of course, when she was born, Konoha had already stabilized, and as the God of Shinobi, no one dared to provoke her Great-Grandfather.
So, as a child, seeing her Great-Grandfather, she naturally naively thought Senju Hashirama was just a simple-minded man.
But, by the same token.
Could a Senju Hashirama, who became the God of Shinobi and suppressed the entire Ninja World, have easily led the world into the 'One Country, One Village' era if he were truly the simpleton she imagined?
Moreover.
What shocked Tsunade even more was that Uchiha Jin's current secret schemes were things her two grandfathers had planned back then; it was only because the timing wasn't right that they settled for the Senju Integration Plan, which led to her title as the Princess of the Land of Fire.
In an instant.
The image Tsunade held of her two grandfathers began to completely shatter.
Feeling she needed to re-evaluate everything, she finally couldn't help but ask, "Before, you only intended for Hiruzen Sarutobi to be a Transitional Hokage?"
"Yes," Senju Tobirama nodded. "Merely a puppet."
"Just as Hiruzen Sarutobi let Minato Namikaze become the Fourth Hokage because he wanted him to be a puppet, this is the real reason I didn't seem too angry after what happened with Hiruzen Sarutobi."
"Because if it were me, I would have made the same choice!"
"I just didn't expect Kumogakure's Kinkaku and Ginkaku to have the Six Paths Treasured Tools, which happened to counter my Flying Thunder God."
"I didn't wait for Nawaki to grow up, and the favorable situation spiraled out of control as a result."
"That was my mistake!"
Senju Tobirama was quite direct, telling the truth to all of Tsunade's inquiries.
The reason was simple!
Tsunade was no longer a little girl, but a top executive of New Konoha.
He needed to give Tsunade a proper lesson, to let her know how a ruler should act.
Hearing this, Tsunade fell silent instantly.
After a long pause, she couldn't help but ask: "Regarding the Uchiha's situation back then, can you tell me why you did that?"
"The Uchiha were too strong!" Senju Tobirama said coldly. "They had to be suppressed."
"In the entire Konoha of that time, only the Uchiha had the strength to seize power from the Senju Clan."
"For the sake of the Senju Clan, the Uchiha had to be suppressed, divided, and dismantled..."
Tsunade trembled all over, her mind going blank.
Such cold words left her not knowing what to say.
The so-called 'evil' and 'extreme' nature of the Uchiha were lies, merely for the survival and development of the clan... This made her realize that her Second Grandfather didn't actually feel much anger toward the Uchiha; he was just a ruler preventing others from challenging his position, thus deciding to suppress them.
It must be said, it was very successful!
The Uchiha were heavily suppressed during Tobirama's era, reaching a peak under Hiruzen Sarutobi. If not for the sudden rise of Uchiha Jin, the Uchiha might have been wiped out by now.
And it would have been more tragic than the Senju Clan!
After all, the Uchiha didn't have the backup plans the Senju Clan had; once destroyed, there would be no day of resurgence.
On the other side.
While Tsunade was pondering these cold calculations, Senju Tobirama seemed to guess her thoughts and immediately interrupted her imagination.
"Tsunade, don't overthink it!"
"While I wanted to suppress the Uchiha, I never thought of driving them to their deaths."
"It's not that I'm so kind, but because I couldn't do it!"
"The methods of those two idiots, Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo, are so stupid they make my eyes hurt."
"The Uchiha are an extreme clan; the harder you push, the more experts appear, and the higher the chance of awakening the Mangekyo."
"Look at the Uchiha now—three pairs of Mangekyo, and a hidden Mangekyo Expert, Uchiha Itachi!"
"And that's only because Uchiha Itachi is too young, and his awakening was forcibly prevented for the sake of his body."
"Why?"
"Under normal circumstances, it's good if one Mangekyo appears in a generation of Uchiha."
"The only era where two pairs appeared simultaneously was with Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Izuna, but now, three to four pairs have appeared..."
"This is the result of Hiruzen Sarutobi pushing too hard, causing the Uchiha to react this way."
"And this is even before the Uchiha were pushed to the point of extinction. If not for the rise of that monster Uchiha Jin, I have no doubt that as Hiruzen Sarutobi continued his pressure, even more Three-Tomoe and Mangekyo would have appeared in the Uchiha Clan..."
"This is why I think Hiruzen Sarutobi is stupid and useless; in his obsession with centralizing power, he didn't understand what kind of Ninja Clan the Uchiha are at all!"
"Of course, it's understandable!"
"Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others were simply too weak. For a Ninja Clan like theirs, with no Bloodline Limit and no secret technique heritage, wanting to rule Konoha for generations is nonsense."
"No matter how much of the Village's finances they embezzle or how many Ninja they train, it's useless."
"A Ninja Clan like theirs lacks the soil for top-tier experts to rise."
"Therefore, their ideas were destined for failure from the start."
"Even if Uchiha Jin hadn't risen, Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others were destined for a bad end."
"When one's virtue does not match their position, disaster is inevitable!"
"I, Senju Tobirama, dared to implement long-term rule of Konoha because the powerful Bloodline Limit of the Senju Clan ensured a high probability of top-tier experts appearing in every generation."
"The Sarutobi Clan, what do they have?"
His words were powerful and resonant.
Yes!
For someone of Senju Tobirama's level, things like Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others killing Senju Nawaki or wiping out the Senju and Uzumaki clans couldn't make him completely lose his temper.
After all, he was born in the Sengoku era; he had long grown accustomed to death.
Three of his own brothers had joined the battlefield at the age of four or five and were easily killed by the Uchiha.
Though Senju Nawaki was his grandson, it wouldn't make him lose his cool.
What he truly couldn't stand about disciples like Hiruzen Sarutobi was their lack of accurate judgment; they didn't understand their own limits!
In such a situation, the higher the position, the harder the fall!
More importantly, these incredibly stupid disciples were actually taught by him, Senju Tobirama.
It's truly—embarrassing!