A new season
Winter faded to spring, sparse resources replaced by the new season, all too quickly overtaken by the heat of the summer. Seasons changed. Time passed. And yet, for the Uchiha much had not changed at all. The struggle of winter dragged on, as lands were lost to the clans to the west. Essential hunting grounds overtaken by those that had allied together. Clans whose abilities had been the stuff of stories, used to scare young Uchiha children into behaving in the past. Shinobi who controlled minds, and shadows, who grew to sizes beyond comprehension. And now these nightmare monsters were real, ganging up against them. Enough to strike an unease in even the most seasoned of their fighters. Madara knew then, as he’d feared for quite some time, their current tactics would not sustain them through another cold season. Their numbers dwindling in the growing attacks, slim resources used up even as summer showed itself. Golden afternoons and warm weather not enough of a trade off when bellies were empty and morale was low.
It was a desperate time. Choices made in secret. Madara did not know if his clan would follow in the direction he was leading. But there was no where else for them to turn.
It was a particularly fine evening when the meeting was called. Madara had called back what shinobi he could from fighting, wanting his announcement to be heard by as many as possible. He’d let no one, not even his brother in on his plan for saving the clan from what he saw as an inevitable extinction. The other clans wanted them gone....unless. One of them didn’t. Unless they had the help of a larger clan, with more influence and more resources.
Unless he went back on almost every Uchiha tradition and grudge in their collective memory and sided them with the Senju.
The speech he gave was one of pleading logic, blunt explanations of a move that seemed anything but. A small truce, to offer up what land they had and join together against an allegiance of clans that would surely come against the Senju once the Uchiha were gone...the hostility in the air was nearly as loud as the cries of disdain, arguments rising and answered by their leader with repeated mantra-
This is the only way we survive. This is the only way we survive. This was the only way...
Despite the expected disapproval, the pact was already made. Madara had lead them to an alliance none had wanted, but now they had to learn to live with.
