Chapter 75.3- One Thousand Hands

“I can not promise that you will all live through this. I can not even promise that your deaths will mean something— that shall be for you and your loved ones to decide. What I can promise, what I have always promised, is victory. I promise you that when we are through, no one. Not Iwa, Not Kiri, Not motherfucking Kumo will deny or strength. We are the great tree. We are Konoha. We are Hashirama Senju. We are Madara Uchiha. All of us. Not just me, not Uzume. We are the past, present, and future of the greatest village on the fucking continent. No one will stand in our way and live, this I swear. Follow me, put your faith, your trust, your hopes in me. Believe in me. I will give you victory after victory. Let the Raikage come” I said, spitting to the side.

“I swear that you will get the chance to spit on his grave when I am done, just as you have pissed on the Tsuchikage’s. My name is Shorirama Senju. Remember it. Victory will be ours, I swear it. I swear it on my name, on my clan, on this village. We are Konoha and we will win” By the end I was shouting as I felt their frenzy take me and grab a hold of me by the neck, never letting go. A better man might have tried to inspire them by appealing to their better natures. I was a more honest one as I appealed to who they truly were. Hiruzen and his will of fire were nice as an ideal, but in war, the only thing that kept you going was the desire to kill the other guy before he could kill you and the was what I promised.

“Follow me” I said, turning around. Around my shoulders stood my Kage cloak. Apparently Uraume had had Shiba begin work on it the second I’d set my eyes on the seat. And it was perfect, Aburame silk from the beginning to the end, ridiculously expensive for most, a pittance for the Hyuga. It hugged my frame in just the right way while giving enough space for it to billow behind me as I cut through the air at a rapid pace. Right behind me ran Uzume and Uraume. Behind them Kizuru, Toshiro, Shikahime, and Inoken. Behind them, Shiba, Orochimaru, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and then so on. War had come to Konoha and I had beaten it off, now it was time for Konoha to go to war.