Ch423. Hard truth

"Just... The Uchiha clan is no longer residing in Konoha, you know?" Tsunade started...

Both Hashirama and Tobirama felt as if a bucket of cold water was just poured on them when they heard that. Both for different reasons.

Hashirama was bitter that this came to be. Konoha started with the Senju and the Uchiha clans and it should be continuing with them. He and his clan did so many sacrifices to keep it that way... to hear they were for naught was disheartening.

Tobirama felt elated but also conflicted.

On one hand, Uchiha-free Konoha was like a dream coming true for him. Finally, the ticking time bomb was away from his precious village! Whoever was responsible, Tobirama would love to congratulate them for being the biggest hero of Konoha!

On the other hand, he felt very conflicted because Uchihas were not all bad. He had a student, Kagami Uchiha, who was a nice lad. Tobirama did not dislike individuals. Rather, he didn't like the risks that particular clan was bringing to the table.

And in the end, the Uchiha clan was a part of Konoha's power. Losing them felt kind of sour for the Second Hokage despite his personal feelings. When he was the Hokage, he always strived to keep them 'controlled' but also to make them feel welcome in the village. He gave them the duty to police the village, after all. That was something every clan wanted and he relinquished it to Uchihas.

"What happened to them?" Tobirama asked with a grunt, not even bothering to contemplate the possibility that they could have gone extinct. No way that was the case. In his opinion, Uchiha's were like cockroaches.

Tsunade thought for a second if she should tell them the truth or not. She was not sure if she wanted them to spend more than a few hours in the land of the living or not. If they stuck around, the truth would eventually come out and if not, it wouldn't have mattered.

In the end, she just shrugged and decided to simply roll with it, "Danzo and Sarutobi drove them over the edge so the clan head and some of his most arrogant ponces wanted to stage a coup..." She purposefully trailed off, giving her flabbergasted ancestors time to think about her words.

Now even Hashirama was getting a bit angry but he kept it in, not outwardly showing it. He worked so much... did so much... sacrificed so much... even went against their clan's rules as clan head and made quite a few of his clansmen dissatisfied with him... all to bring the end to the Senju and Uchiha feud, and all of that was undone by his supposed successor? The Hokage?

What the hell!?

The knowledge that both of these men were Tobirama's students made it only worse.

"Sarutobi was his usual manipulative self and was purposefully pussy-footing around the issue, letting it grow bigger and bigger, building up the Uchiha's dissatisfaction with the village while Danzo flat out fed the flames behind the coup because he wanted some freshly harvested Sharingan and the supply was kinda low at that time." Tsunade lightheartedly continued.

Now... both Tobirama and Hashirama were battle-hardened veterans with kill count in hundreds, if not thousands, but their stomachs could not help but turn at how easily Tsunade was talking about harvesting parts of humans for their bloodline.

For a clan ninjas, such a thing was disgusting.

Tsunade was not disappointed and when she saw the twitches in her ancestors' expressions, she chuckled, "In the end, Danzo went behind Sarutobi's back and tricked one immensely talented but very naive Uchiha kid genius into killing off his own clan. Elderly, children, babies... it didn't matter. They were all supposed to die."

As talented and smart for his age as Itachi was... he was still a thirteen years old kid. Nobody could expect him to win in the manipulation department against old foxes like Sarutobi and Danzo. Still... Tsunade thought the notion that Konoha had to rely on one thirteen years old boy to deal with the Uchiha clan was ridiculous and she didn't understand why Itachi actually believed that.

He had options. He could have gone to another clan for help. Maybe that would have made him indebted to that clan but... clans like Nara, Yamanaka, or Akimichi, would definitely help him without asking an exorbitant price for it.

They simply were not dicks like Hyuugas.

At the very least, this way would have saved more Uchihas than just Itachi's brother.

But like a kid without much knowledge about how these things worked and what options he had to resolve such a bad situation, Itachi chose to be a good boy and do what Danzo was telling him.

It just shows that power is not really everything. Knowledge about your options is also a very important thing.

Tsunade was about to continue but, "So the Senju clan is the last remaining founding clan in Konoha, huh? That's kind of sad." Hashirama dejectedly said, his shoulders sagging in depression.

Since her grandfather interrupted her like this and brought up a quite important point, Tsunade decided to omit how the Uchiha clan survived and relocated to the village of her husband. It would need a lot of explanations and she was not in the mood for that.

She had no idea how accepting her ancestors would be of her decision to 'abandon' Konoha for Rei. Or about her usurping most of Hokage's privileges and becoming the Daimyo of Konoha. Or...

Well, there was a lot that could not be to their liking. She'd rather direct them straight at Sarutobi's ass rather than deal with all of that right now.

"Senju clan is extinct. I am the last one." Tsunade bluntly told them.

The things they were told up to now were shocking. But this was something that made them regret coming back to life. Something that hit them with enough force that if they had a working heart, they would get a heart attack.

Both of them were ninjas from the Warring States Era where the clan was above all. To hear said clan is extinct... Both Tobirama and Hashirama felt sick.

"B-But Nawaki! A-And the others? We intermarried a lot so..." Hashirama spluttered, trying to deny what Tsunade was telling him while Tobirama just stared at her, silently observing her expression and when he didn't find any form of mischief or falseness, bitter acceptance and anger started to rise in him.

"Nawaki died in the Second Ninja War, grandfather. Konoha sent him on a mission close to enemy lines despite him being the last male Senju." Tsunade bitterly spoke, still feeling resentment for that. "In hindsight, it should have been obvious to me. I only discovered what really happened decades later."

While Hashirama was having a small mental breakdown at the knowledge his line was all but culled out, Tobirama decided to retain his cold head and get some more information. "And the others? As my idiot brother already said, we intermarried a lot."

Despite mentioning that, he didn't have much hope. He didn't think Tsunade would disregard that fact.

"Checked blood tests," Tsunade shook her head, "Danzo was thorough enough to have every single person with Senju blood meet some unfortunate accident."

Tobirama's heart froze. "Danzo? You want to tell me my student is responsible for the demise of my clan?" He asked in an icy tone.

It has to be said, he did not just teach his students how to survive in the turbulent ninja world. He basically raised them as his own. He gave them access to resources they would never be privy to. Even Hiruzen, who was a member of the Sarutobi clan, would never get enough teaching material to learn all five chakra natures without access to the Senju library.

They were supposed to be far more than just 'students'. They were practically family. An honorary Senju. To hear this...

Tsunade sighed and nodded. As devious of her as this scene seemed, she was not really trying to manipulate them. This was something they had a right to know. As men who spent a massive part of their lives on bettering Konoha and serving their clan, they should be aware that their clan is considered extinct.

Keeping it secret would not be mercy. That would have been cruelty.

"Don't worry about it, I have already made him suffer a very cruel fate for someone like him." Tsunade snorted.

Both Hashirama and Tobirama wanted to protest but... they were dead. They guessed the future belonged to Tsunade now so they did not really have a justification to argue that point.

The atmosphere turned a bit gloomy because of the topic and Tsunade had one massive bomb to drop on them yet. With a sigh, she decided to rip it off like a band-aid. That was the best approach when dealing with ninjas.

"But you can have your way with the other culprit of our clan's demise. Sarutobi is still alive."