Uchiha Gate: From Konoha to One Piece

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Faced with Uzumaki Mito's furious expression, the First Hokage awkwardly scratched the back of his head and gave a sheepish laugh.

"Hehe! Old habits die hard, I guess!"

"So, uh... can you answer my earlier question? Why this kid...hmmm"

"By the way..."

He glanced at Uchiha Naori with a puzzled expression. "Why do you look so familiar? Have we met before?"

Uchiha Naori rolled his eyes. "I'm Uchiha Naori! We've had plenty of dealings in the past! You really are forgetful, Hashirama."

"Oh! It's you!"

Hashirama smacked his palm against his forehead as realization dawned.

"I remember now! You're that Uchiha genius who was always butting heads with Tobirama, driving him crazy!"

"I didn't think you'd reach this level of strength, though."

"Impressive!"

He gave Naori a big thumbs-up.

Since Naori wasn't hiding her strength, and with Hashirama's sharp perception, he could easily tell Naori had reached a level far beyond the usual Kage.

Although Hashirama might not have a concept of "beyond Kage," he did know that both he and Madara had far surpassed ordinary Kage-level power back in their prime.

Now, Uchiha Naori and Uzumaki Mito had clearly reached a similar tier—though they were still far from his and Madara's level.

Breaking past this level wasn't easy, though. Only those who had done it truly understood the difficulty.

"Heh."

Naori smirked faintly, neither confirming nor denying the compliment.

Tsunade and the others, however, couldn't help but glance at Naori in surprise. They hadn't expected that he used to oppose the Second Hokage so fiercely, even managing to frustrate him to the point of helplessness.

That was... pretty amazing!

"Why are we even talking about this?"

Mito rolled her eyes at Hashirama. She sighed and explained, "We revived you because Naori, Kaito, and I decided it was necessary."

"Why? We need your help to deal with Uchiha Madara."

"What?!"

Hashirama wasn't the only one stunned—Jiraiya, Sakumo, and Shikayama, who didn't know the full story, were equally shocked.

"Didn't Madara die a long time ago?" Jiraiya asked dumbly.

"Yeah, that's what I want to know!" Hashirama nodded, his expression serious as he looked at Mito and the others. "What's going on here?"

"It's pretty clear—he didn't actually die!"

Mito snorted. "Honestly, Hashirama, you must have suspected something back then, right? Don't tell me you had no clue!"

"Even Tobirama noticed that Madara's body disappeared later!"

"Uh..."

Hashirama scratched his head awkwardly. "I really didn't know. Tobirama never mentioned it to me."

"If I'd known, I'd have gone and finished him off myself!"

After all, letting Madara live would've just caused more trouble for Konoha. If Hashirama had known the truth, he'd have dragged his sick body to the afterlife to settle things with Madara once and for all.

"Is that so?"

Mito frowned. "It looks like Tobirama deliberately hid it from you—probably to stop you from doing something reckless and shortening your life even more. Or maybe he was just sure Madara was dead."

"And maybe he didn't want the world to know Madara was still alive, to avoid causing chaos in Konoha."

"But personally, I think Tobirama was sure Madara was dead, especially since even you had died."

Hashirama nodded thoughtfully. "Makes sense..."

"So... Madara's really alive?"

"He even fought with you just now, right? I could sense traces of his chakra lingering here!"

"Although..."

Hashirama sniffed the air, frowning. "Why does his chakra also have traces of my Wood Release?"

Tsunade facepalmed. "Grandpa, are you a dog? Stop sniffing like that!"

She was starting to think reviving her grandfather might've been a mistake.

His behavior was seriously ruining the legendary image she'd always had of him.

Even Jiraiya and the others looked disillusioned. This wasn't the grand, dignified First Hokage they'd imagined!

Before Hashirama could respond, Mito shot Tsunade a glare and continued, "You're not wrong, Hashirama. We just fought one of Madara's Wood clones."

"Kaito managed to destroy it with a surprise attack."

"But the current Madara isn't the same as the one you knew."

"From what we've learned, the reason he fought you at the Valley of the End was to rip a chunk of flesh from you and steal your power."

"Huh?!"

Hashirama and the others were completely taken aback.

Hashirama rubbed his chin, thinking hard. "Now that you mention it, he did bite me once. It hurt like hell—it took forever to heal! But you're saying he stole my power? How? With that bite?"

"Is that even possible? And with Madara's pride, why would he do something like that?"

Mito sighed. "As crazy as it sounds, it's true. Apparently, he was manipulated by... well, calling it a person would be a stretch—a monster, really."

"This thing told him that combining your Sage Body with his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan would awaken the Rinnegan, the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths."

"Rinnegan?!"

Hashirama, Jiraiya, and the others were floored.

They'd never heard of such a thing!

"Yep, the Rinnegan," Mito confirmed.

"And the Madara we're dealing with now very likely has those eyes. His power is far beyond what it was during your battle at the Valley of the End."

"The only silver lining is that he's almost dead from old age, barely clinging to life with some special method."

"If we force him into a desperate fight, he might temporarily regain—or even surpass—his peak power."

"But if we can hold out, he'll die. We just need to buy time."

"That's why we need your strength."

Hashirama frowned. "Can't we just talk to him? He's old and dying—there's no need to fight."

"You idiot!"

Mito snapped, furious. "Do you think we're doing this because we want to?"

"Madara's been scheming in the shadows, starting wars, and plotting to overthrow the ninja world!"

"He even sent that Wood clone to kill me, Naori, and Kaito!"

"He won't stop until Konoha is destroyed!"

"If we don't act now, he'll pick us off one by one!"

She was livid. Even now, Hashirama was still worried about Madara.

"Hashirama, you might as well just go marry your Madara!"

"You bastard! Even at a time like this, you're still obsessing over him, that damned lunatic."

Uzumaki Mito was absolutely fuming.

"Is that really how it is?"

Hearing this, Senju Hashirama's playful demeanor vanished. His expression turned grave as he said, "It seems like Madara has completely gone off the deep end. He has no intention of repenting or turning back."

"He's even more extreme now than he was during the Battle of the Valley of the End!"

"Back then, Madara at least had a sense of honor. He wouldn't resort to sneak attacks, and he'd never target children."

Hashirama's tone darkened. "And he certainly wouldn't have considered eliminating someone just because their potential and talent posed a threat."

"Since that's the case, I have to stop him. I'll bring him back to the right path—I can't let him continue to disgrace himself!"

At this point, the First Hokage turned to Uzumaki Mito and asked seriously, "Where is he now?"

To be fair, when Hashirama got serious, he was indeed both charismatic and reliable.

Even Jiraiya and the others, who had begun to lose faith in him, felt their admiration for him rekindle.

This was his undeniable charm.

"He should be at the Mountain Graveyard in the northern region of the Land of Frost," Mito replied, equally serious.

"If you've already made up your mind, let's not waste time. We can teleport you there immediately. We don't want to risk him slipping away again."

"Alright!" Hashirama nodded firmly. Then, looking a bit puzzled, he scratched the back of his head. "Wait a second… teleport me? Who here has learned Tobirama's Flying Thunder God Technique?"

"And more importantly, you've already placed a marker there? That's impressive!"

Hearing this, Mito's eyebrow twitched slightly. "More or less! Tsunade, Kaito, Naori, and I have all mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique."

"In fact, in the future, even more people might learn it!"

It wasn't a lie.

Apart from Tsunade, who was a bit of a slacker, the others had indeed mastered the true Flying Thunder God Technique—not just relying on their space-time portal abilities to teleport.

Even Mito and Uchiha Naori had mastered it.

Since signing their contract and frequently traveling between two realms, their innate space-time abilities had been constantly improving.

Furthermore, with Kaito refining and simplifying the Flying Thunder God Technique, reducing its difficulty, Mito and Naori had managed to learn it with relative ease.

After all, learning more techniques is never a bad thing!

While the portal was incredibly convenient, the Flying Thunder God Technique had its own unique advantages.

Especially considering their understanding of Kaito—this child would definitely use the Flying Thunder God Technique as a foundation to create even more powerful space-time ninjutsu, possibly even divine-level techniques.

When that time came, a solid foundation in the Flying Thunder God Technique would be essential to further their mastery of advanced space-time techniques.

Better to be prepared than regretful later.

Otherwise, they'd waste time starting from scratch.

It was the same with the Eternal Life Technique—those who hadn't mastered the foundational Life Force technique were now stuck watching their companions grow stronger and more gifted by the day, unable to keep up.

"Oh?"

Hashirama wasn't privy to these details, but he believed Mito without hesitation. Surprised, he exclaimed, "You all managed to learn it? That's incredible!"

"Especially you, Mito. I remember you didn't have any aptitude for this back in the day."

Back then, both Hashirama and Mito had tried to learn Flying Thunder God but failed miserably.

So how had she succeeded now?

"Ahem."

Mito cleared her throat and explained, "That's because Kaito improved and refined the technique. He lowered the difficulty and requirements, so we had a chance to master it."

"We weren't completely lacking in space-time talent; Tobirama's original version was just too rough and demanding!"

"You know how he is."

"His genius and intuition are so high that when he created these techniques, he only designed them to suit himself."

"As long as he could master them, he didn't care if anyone else could. It's no wonder so many failed to learn his techniques."

She wasn't wrong.

Whether it was the Exploding Tags Technique, Flying Thunder God, Darkness Technique, Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, or Edo Tensei, all of Tobirama's inventions had this issue.

Even many of his water-style techniques were inaccessible to most because he minimized the number of hand signs to an extreme.

For him, this was optimization. For everyone else? It was raising the learning curve sky-high.

Take the Water Dragon Bullet Technique, for example. Tobirama's version required only three hand signs, but the standard version required 44.

Most ninja couldn't handle the three-sign version and had to master the 44-sign one first, simplifying it step by step.

At least for water-style techniques, Tobirama left behind multiple versions and a detailed progression system, so they were still widely taught and used.

Hashirama laughed heartily. "Haha! That's so typical of Tobirama!"

"Alright, let's not dwell on that. We should get moving before Madara gets away!"

With that, Mito walked over, placed a hand on Hashirama's shoulder, and said to Tsunade and the others, "You handle the cleanup here!"

"I've already gotten the details from Kaito's shadow clone. You did a great job. Pack up quickly and head back to the front-line camp."

"We'll deal with Madara and return in triumph!"

With a thought, Mito teleported herself and Hashirama away.

Uchiha Naori nodded at Mikoto and the others before vanishing as well.

"I'm heading out too!"

Kaito gave the group a quick nod and disappeared.

This left Tsunade, Mikoto, Jiraiya, and the others behind.

"Well…"

Jiraiya and Sakumo exchanged awkward glances. "Shouldn't we go help?"

"Forget it!"

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "We're not strong enough to be anything but a hindrance."

"That's Uchiha Madara we're talking about! He's probably even stronger than he was at his peak. We'd just be asking to die."

"Let's head back to Amegakure, gather resources, and return to the camp."

The alliance treaty and reparations had already been handled by Nara Shikayama and the others.

Konoha had allied with Amegakure—not because of its strength, but to make it easier to intervene in its affairs and, eventually, annex the Land of Rain.

"Alright, I guess…"

Jiraiya and the others felt a bit dejected.

Not because of Tsunade's words, but because their own weakness meant they couldn't contribute.

It was a bitter pill to swallow.

They were strong by most standards in the ninja world, but compared to the likes of Hashirama and Madara, they were insignificant.

They had to keep improving.

Sakumo, in particular, thought of the swordsmanship techniques Kaito had offered.

"It seems I need to complete my deal with Kaito soon," he mused.

"Combining my own style with his might be the only way for me to break through to the next level."

Without it, he could feel himself nearing his limit, no matter how hard he pushed.

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