A new day came and Rei was up among the first among the residents of the Senju Mansion. He made himself breakfast and sat down on the porch with the platter in his lap, enjoying his sandwich, the morning breeze caressing his skin, and the chirping of the birds.
It was a nice peaceful morning and...
'God, I feel like an old man.' Rei inwardly chuckled. 'But... It isn't so bad.' He contently added, staring at the sunrise on the horizon.
Unfortunately for Rei, his cool protagonist moment was interrupted... once again like every single before it... by the reanimation of Tobirama Senju joining him on the porch.
"You are up early.: Tobirama awkwardly tried to start a conversation.
Rei inwardly sighed, knowing there was no way for his moment of peace to return even if he chased Tobirama away. Looking at the man, Rei donned a helpless smile and resigned himself to his fate. "Hm? Why would you think so?"
Tobirama was damn glad he could not blush as he tonelessly spoke, "Considering the... noises coming from Tsunade's room yesterday until late midnight, I thought I wouldn't see either of you until lunch."
As reanimated corpses, Tobirama and Hashirama didn't need to sleep or eat. Hence, they had decided to look around the village for a bit during the night and maybe help with a bit of rebuilding.
No doubt, there will be many shocked civilians to see their ruined houses rebuilt with the wood release this morning. Ninjas will also rejoice at not going to be forced into too many compulsory D-rank missions for the village since Tobirama used his shadow clones to take care of some rubble and clean up.
And because Tobirama was using clones but Hashirama had to be present to finish his work, Tobirama was back in the Senju Mansion sooner.
"Fortunately for you, it was me and not Hashirama who noticed otherwise your nightly activities would have been promptly and rudely interrupted." Tobirama flatly remarked.
Rei gave him a long stare at that. He wondered if Tobirama was going to say something about the fact Tsunade was not the only loud female voice coming from that room yesterday but the Second Hokage seemed to selectively forget about that.
Rei chuckled to himself, "Eh, you are quite cool for an old virgin."
"I am not a virgin!" Tobirama instantly rebuked, affronted at the accusation.
His rebuke was a tad bit too fast to convince Rei but he didn't want to aggravate him further so he only nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders, "Ok."
"I am really not!" Tobirama exasperatedly exclaimed.
"Sure." Rei once again easily agreed with him and Tobirama could only grumble under his nose at that.
An awkward silence spread between them, and Rei didn't rush to interrupt it. Tobirama approached him so the man definitely had some aim. He would start talking when he is ready.
And Rei was right. Tobirama could not keep quiet for much longer. After throwing a few glances in Rei's way, Tobirama's curiosity won over his silent embarrassment and he got to the point.
"Tell me, what exactly are you trying to accomplish with this world conquest of yours?" The Second Hokage asked in a serious tone.
Tobirama recognized that Hashirama should have united all ninjas under his banner. Even if by force. That's why seeing somebody actually do what his stupid brother should have done was intriguing for him.
He wanted to know Rei's reasons.
After all, what could motivate someone to accomplish this?
"Ah, so that's what is bothering you." Rei nodded in understanding. "I want to make the Great Chakra Revolution into a possibility."
"The... what?" Tobirama furrowed his eyebrows and Rei laughed a bit. He simply pulled that out of his ass, imitating the Industrial Revolution's name of his previous world. It was natural these words would mean nothing to the Second Hokage.
Smiling at managing to baffle the man, Rei continued, changing the angle of his explanation, "Do you think being ruled by mundane men like Daimyos are qualified to lead superpowered individuals like ninjas?"
"So you will try to overthrow the Daimyos next." Tobirama stated, a bit disgruntled. He wasn't sure he liked that course of action.
"Not really." Rei hummed, "I won't have to move a finger now that every big ninja village is in my grasp. This old-fashioned feudal system will disappear by itself in time." He admitted.
Tobirama broodily tilted his head and stayed silent for a moment as he crossed his arms on his chest. He tried to think about why that would be the case but he just didn't get it.
When he noticed, Rei didn't blame him. The man was an old ninja and set in his ways.
Rei decided to explain it to him as if he was five, "In a world with super-powered individuals and mundane people, the super-powered individuals will always inevitably take the reins. The survival of the fittest is still a thing, no matter how the weak shriek about equality and whatnot." He paused for a second to let his words sink in.
"The ninjas should have overthrown Daimyos long ago but they were far too preoccupied with fighting among themselves and far too scattered all over the world, grouped only in small groups. They didn't have the numbers and time to threaten the Daimyos and when this or that clan started to be threatening with its growth, the nobles simply made some problem to pit it against the clan's enemies." Rei gave a meaningful look to Tobirama who looked as if he bit into a sour lemon as he understood what Rei tried to say.
That was exactly what was happening between Uchihas and Senjus. Their rivalry has been going strong since ever but time heals all wounds. The only way for the hatred between the clans to last was if someone was fanning the flames.
And from Tobirama's expression, he understood this point and started to put two and two together.
There was a saying in the Warring States period. Only the Senju clan can match up against the Uchiha clan. That's why whenever one faction hired Uchihas, the other hired Senjus and vice versa.Tobirama knew the possibility that some of their clashes might not have been necessary at all. But no ninja would ever accept that. It was the same thing as saying the death of his companions was meaningless.
"Hashirama changed that." Rei continued, "He made ninjas group up into a larger force led by one leader. He completely changed the rules of the game and the Daimyos of the major nations realized that if they wanted to have a fighting chance, they too would have to accept the formation of a hidden ninja village. They were forced to accept and even nurture the biggest threat to their rule. Care to guess how they kept the ninja villages in line now that they couldn't just hire them to wage a war against each other?" He chuckled, blatantly putting the answer into Tobirama's mouth.
Tobirama tried to find a good counter argument. He really did. But even to his ears anything he thought up sounded weak. Maybe if it was Hashirama, he could come up with some naive bullshit with all his heart that would have worked only if one completely forgot that politics existed, but Tobirama could not be so carefree.
"The ninja wars." He glumly replied, glaring into the space.
"Yes. No ninja village would just say 'Yes, Sir!' when ordered to start a war. They decided for themselves when to go to war and the Daimyos knew it. They don't have as much influence over the ninja villages as one would think. They are just figure heads when it comes to ninja matters. Yes, they are theoretically above Kages in hierarchy but… not really. They compensate for that by being good at politics and business so through them, they can somewhat keep ninjas in check. They can also make various conflicts, and continue doing what they were always doing best. They fan the flames of hatred. This time not between the clans but on a larger scale, between the villages. All to keep the status quo in the world." Rei carefreely said.
"I still don't understand why would the unification lead to the abolishment of the Feudal System." Tobirama disgruntledly remarked.
"That's quite simple. Now that ninjas don't have to fight with each other, they can focus on developing chakra in both personal and technological ways. Humans only need proper conditions to rapidly advance. In a few decades without war, without worrying about war, and without having to spend all the time on preparing for eventual war, our society will advance by leaps and bounds in our ways. That's what I call the Great Chakra Revolution. And with this advance, the old system will become ineffective." Rei tried to portray the situation to the man who was so old he was practically already a dead man walking.
He only hoped Tobirama would get it since you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
"With the ninja villages under one banner, the Daimyos will be unable to do anything." Especially since Rei owned the two richest trading companies in the world. "They will realize this soon enough and the only way to survive for them would be to adapt. And when humans adapt to their surroundings, that's where the biggest changes happen. They will not necessarily lose their influence or wealth, but they will sure as hell lose their iron grip over their nations."
Rei's old world went through various political regimes and not every revolution had to be bloody. And with superpowered people on one side, and the wealthy but completely mundane rulers on the other, it was obvious which of those will be forced to adapt to the ways of the other.
Just as Rei thought Tobirama would be satisfied with his answer, the Senju surprised him with his sudden insight.
"I have no idea if things will go according to your imagination but you didn't answer my original question. I'll applaud you for the attempt to redirect the topic and admit that you might believe in your reasoning to a degree but I'd still like to know the real reason. Why are you doing all this?" Tobirama tried to stare a hole through Rei with his gaze.
Rei silently groaned and wondered why must these old geezers all be so damn perceptive.