Tell Me That you Feel It Too [Naruto]

Chapter 09: Can run, but can't hide

Those senile, old geezers seriously loved to piss him off on a nearly daily basis, didn't they?

Whether that be on his way to work—on one of the rare occasions when he had to come in later because he had to deal with other Clan business before work first—or even on his way home as if lying in wait to ambush him out of nowhere.

Which, admittedly, was fucking impressive, taking their rickety, ancient bones—that usually sounded like they would fracture after a cough—into consideration.

Obviously, Clan matters were his duty but there was a reason he had taken up Hikaku as his second helping hand in addition to Izuna—who had been his strategic right hand for years throughout the war already—when it had become clear that juggling the title of Clan Head with a freshly relocated Clan into a settlement alongside their once enemy all on his own while assisting brand new Konoha and its growth was just shy of too much to handle in a healthy and organized way without spreading himself too thin.

And Madara was anything but superficial with anything he did, pouring his passion into everything.

But his reputation as the God of Shinobi's equal and passionate approach apparently tended to make some people think he wasn't human or something. Sleep? No need. Rest? Pfffft. Honestly, he wasn't sure whether he should feel flattered or insulted.

So he simply just decided on both.

However, some of his Clan members appeared to not be able to make the crucial connection between the importance of village work and Clan security, acting as if he neglected or even betrayed their Clan by working to make Konoha thrive. Which was such an idiotic concept that he sometimes wondered if those people even used their brains.

Seriously?

How were their people to thrive if Konoha failed? After all, they were living in that same village. Thankfully though, the number of people starting to notice the importance of a stable village as a foundation for their improved living conditions was growing and some even tried to incorporate themselves amongst the other Clans with growing success.

Those people truly were a blessing.

He couldn't say that about everyone, though, and especially not about the elder folk of the Uchiha, completely stuck in their beliefs that he was neglecting the Clan to play around with his childhood friend.

Idiots, all of them.

If it hadn't been for their narrow-minded opposition, they could've made peace and started building the village much sooner, resulting in a lot fewer deaths in that useless war. Laughingly, not even the eldest of his Clan really knew anymore why it had started in the first place—not that they would admit that openly of course—instead making revenge the main reason to keep it going.

Even now, they still held their ingrained beliefs of vengeance close to their hearts but thankfully damage control wasn't too difficult as most of them were too old to do any fatal damage without him noticing. After all, anything had to pass him first before it could affect Konoha directly and so they either had to voice their concerns to Izuna and Hikaku or if they were brave enough, to him personally and pray for his support.

But honestly, all that did was give him a headache or annoy him when he had better things to do.

Like that one time, back at the beginning, when one of the senile bastards had dared to interrupt his work at the Tower—out of place, self-important air and everything included— but Madara had made sure that none of them would ever want to repeat that mistake.

Of course, them being the 'honourable elders' of his Clan—yeah right— he couldn't just tell them to piss off with their delusions of grandeur, so instead he had made that visit the most agonizing thing ever and unsurprisingly they hadn't wanted to repeat that yet.