Diejian took a step forward, trying to approach Juri, but a cane pressed against his throat.
Diejian had no choice but to slowly lower his raised foot back into place.
He leaned his neck back, his body stiff, while Juri continued to radiate a dangerous aura.
Still, she didn't seem intent on killing him.
Diejian remained calm and looked down at Juri.
Though Diejian showed no sign of unease, his friend Sakumo couldn't accept the sight of a weapon pressed against Diejian's throat.
After his battle with Kakuzu, Sakumo had come to understand his own helplessness, the uncertainty of a ninja's life, and how fragile yet precious life was. He had grown into a man who valued his comrades above all else.
He couldn't just stand by.
In stark contrast to his usual calm demeanor, a dangerous expression crossed Sakumo's face as he quietly reached into his coat.
His favorite short blade was hidden there.
If the other girl made so much as a suspicious move, he wouldn't show mercy.
Sakumo took a stance, ready to act at any moment and slash Juri's cane away.
Diejian himself, however, was as unbothered by Juri's actions as his relaxed expression suggested.
After all, they were comrades from the same village, and this was nothing more than a child's attempt at intimidation.
Diejian signaled to Sakumo with his eyes to stand down, noticing his obvious wariness.
Sakumo reluctantly withdrew his hand from his coat, but he didn't let down his guard.
Reconciliation with the Uchiha Clan had been his late grandfather Hashirama's cherished wish.
Hashirama had been unable to fulfill that wish in his lifetime, and Diejian wanted to carry it on.
As for the weak thought that if even my great-grandfather Hashirama couldn't do it, could I?—Diejian had long since put it behind him.
Hashirama had laid the foundation.
Tobirama had inherited his legacy in his own way, too.
So what was there to be anxious about?
In his brief but brilliant life, Hashirama had done all he could and all he needed to before passing away.
As his direct descendant, how could Diejian give voice to such defeatist thoughts?
That was right. Hashirama hadn't "failed" to realize his dream. He had entrusted it to the next generation.
---End the wars, establish a village, and turn former enemies into "family."
These were all Hashirama's accomplishments.
The Uchiha Clan's estrangement from the Senju Clan, and their relations with the other villages.
There were certainly many unresolved problems, but so what?
There was only so much a ninja could do, and only so much a single era could bear.
That was why ninjas sought out, protected, and nurtured those they could entrust with a new age.
Hashirama had already done enough.
He had fought his way from the era of war to this point. To ask any more of him would be too much.
The rest could be left to the next generation.
That was how "dreams" had been passed down until now.
The best way to repay Hashirama—and the duty of those entrusted with his legacy—was to make sure his era wasn't remembered as the pinnacle of all time.
---Long, long before Hashirama and Madara were born, there had been Uchiha ninjas who were tired of fighting.
As time passed, in some distant era, there had been Senju ninjas who longed for peace.
And many had shed tears for their ancestors, for the wishes they could never fulfill.
The unfinished dreams they carried would never die out---and in the era of Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, they finally bore fruit.
Having inherited the will of the Ancestors, who had vanished like morning dew, Hashirama created Konohagakure, a symbol of peace.
The place Hashirama had reached was surely the far shore of a dream someone from the past had once seen.
Then Diejian prayed that the place he himself would reach one day wouldn't be the far shore of "someone else's" dream, but the far shore of "the dream Hashirama pursued."
---And the first step began today.
Seeing the hostility Juri felt toward him with his own eyes, Diejian finally understood the relationship that had once existed between the Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan.
Until now, his friends had been hesitant, and Juri herself hadn't wanted anything to do with Diejian, so they had kept passing each other by.
But this encounter was unavoidable on the path Diejian had chosen.
Diejian had no intention of making Juri a test of his resolve, nor did he plan to offer cheap persuasion with empty talk about dreams.
A ninja was someone who endured hardship for the sake of a goal.
If necessary, he was willing to endure any slander or abuse. But this was a more fundamental issue.
Diejian gave a wry smile and gently pushed the cane aside.
"Even if you say, 'I'm not trying to get close to you'... it won't change anything. We're on the same team now. You could say we're bound together by fate."
"Gross."
It looked like the road ahead would be difficult.
Diejian thought how fortunate it was that their Jonin instructor was from the Uchiha Clan and seemed like a kind man.
If even their instructor treated him with such open hostility, it would really hurt.
Hashirama, who had pushed him forward, had passed away. Tobirama, who had guided him like a signpost, was no longer by his side. Ina, who had given him warmth, wasn't there either.
He couldn't honestly say he felt no anxiety, but Sakumo was still there.
Diejian couldn't help admiring Tobirama's insight, wondering if this was the reason he'd assigned Sakumo to the team.
---The village is home, and the villagers are family.
He gently touched his Forehead Protector, remembering Hashirama's words.
He felt that greatness again and couldn't help marveling at it in silence.
I really did receive so much from him.
"But I'll follow the Second's decision. I don't care what happens to that man who curries favor with the Senju, but I don't want the Uchiha Clan's position to worsen."
Juri drew her cane back to her side and glanced at Kagami with her intelligent eyes.
The way she gathered up her hair caught Diejian's attention.
"Still, Juri, after all that, you're properly calling him 'Second.'"
Diejian grinned. "I don't really call him that."
He had a feeling she was about to say, You should call him Lord Second and use polite language.
Juri always looked unhappy whenever he called her by name, frowning as she huffed, "Don't be so casual."
When Diejian asked, "Then what should I call you?" she replied mockingly, "Call me Lady Juri."
Diejian privately thought, Why does she remind me of Tobirama? Then he flatly refused, saying, "There's no need for that between teammates."
Watching the two bicker and finally manage to talk to each other, Sakumo leaned toward Kagami and asked in a low voice:
"What's your relationship?"
"She's my much younger sister."
"I'm an incompetent older brother. Though it's not by choice."
Kagami whispered to Sakumo, but Juri seemed to hear him with her sharp ears. She immediately cut in, "Don't say unnecessary things!"
Hearing that, Diejian thought of his relationship with Tsunade and decided he absolutely didn't want to end up like them.
Kagami gave a wry smile, looking a little lonely. Being treated so sharply by his younger sister seemed to be hard on him as her older brother.
Sakumo, the relatively normal one, lamented inwardly, Is this team going to be all right?
"It looks like everyone's getting along well, so let's start the activity."
*We're not getting along that well at all—*the three of them thought in unison.
When Kagami raised his head, which had been lowered the whole time, his eyes had turned red, with Tomoe appearing in them.
---The Sharingan.
Someone whispered the name, and the children stared silently at those eyes.
The Sharingan.
It was a Kekkei Genkai, a unique physical trait passed down only through certain lineages of the Uchiha Clan.
It was a Dojutsu Power that greatly enhanced dynamic vision, letting its wielder track fast-moving objects and perceive the flow of Chakra.
It could see through the structure of Taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu, and record them in the mind.
With Taijutsu, the wielder could copy the movements; with ninjutsu, they could imitate the Hand Seals and steal almost any technique—except for Kekkei Genkai that required special talent.
They could also cast genjutsu without using Hand Seals, simply by making eye contact with the person they were looking at.
Ninjas who fought against the Uchiha Clan would be tormented by the anxiety of having their Taijutsu seen through and the fear of having their ninjutsu stolen. They would be forced into an overwhelmingly disadvantageous position where they couldn't even make eye contact.
Its power was so great that some said "it was impossible to win one-on-one," and it was a threat known throughout the Shinobi World.
Before Diejian's eyes appeared the back of his late grandfather Hashirama.
Sakumo saw his father, who had died in the war.
And Juri---.
"Unless you're especially confident in dispelling genjutsu, you'd better not look directly into the Sharingan."
At Kagami's reminder, accompanied by a pat on the shoulder, Diejian and Sakumo jolted back to their senses.
Diejian immediately looked away.
Could he have fallen under a genjutsu in that brief moment?
He shuddered at the power.
"Too bad, Diejian. If you'd reacted a little sooner, you might've avoided it."
Kagami praised him. Although Diejian had still fallen for the Sharingan's genjutsu, he alone had tried to look away in the instant before it took effect.
Tobirama had been drilling Diejian on the Sharingan's abilities and how to counter them, so he'd instinctively looked away.
He glanced to the side. Sakumo had looked away as Kagami instructed, but Juri kept staring into Kagami's Sharingan.
Her eyes hadn't changed to reflect the Sharingan, so it seemed she hadn't awakened it yet.
Kagami lightly poked Juri on the forehead with a finger. She was a member of the Uchiha Clan, yet hadn't even tried to look away. He gave her a helpless smile.
Juri pressed both hands to the spot he'd poked and frowned her delicate brows in displeasure.
Seeing Juri's mannerisms, Diejian thought, Even her smallest gestures look like a painting. He compared her with her older brother Kagami.
Even to a man, Kagami was handsome, with refined features.
Diejian privately marveled at how the Uchiha Clan had so many beautiful women and handsome men, then glanced at his grandfather's Face Rock.
Next he thought of his own face, said to resemble his grandfather's when he was young, and of his teacher Tobirama's appearance.
I guess I can't win in that department...
Diejian was still at an impressionable age.
He cared about little things like this, too.
If something bothered him, it bothered him.
A hard-to-describe sense of defeat welled up inside him. It was only natural at his age.
"The Uchiha Clan is part of Konoha. I doubt you'll have a chance to fight them."
Kagami said.
Diejian hoped that would be true.
"Here's what you'll be doing next."
Kagami lifted his hand, two bells dangling from it and jingling as they swayed.
Unlike Diejian, who had a question mark hovering over his head, Sakumo raised one eyebrow in surprise, while Juri gave an annoyed snort. Both seemed to understand what the bells meant.
"So one of us is getting sent back, then! The Second came up with a pretty nasty test."
"What happens to whoever doesn't get a bell, Teacher?"
"What's going on?"
Sakumo shot a sharp glare at Juri for insulting Tobirama with her disrespectful words, then got right to the heart of the matter.
But seeing that Diejian still hadn't understood, unlike the other two, Kagami couldn't help laughing.
He wondered whether the boy was optimistic or spoiled.
"This is a test designed by the Second to select Genin by having you fight over the bells. Only the two people who take a bell from me will officially become Genin. The remaining person will be sent back to the training facility. It's a survival competition to eliminate whoever is 'the weakest right now.'"
"Huh?"
Diejian blinked blankly, just as Kagami had expected, and Kagami gave a wry smile.
Understanding what Kagami had said, Diejian lowered his head and furrowed his brow in distress.
Diejian and Sakumo.
They'd talked about the days they'd spend running side by side as Genin more than once.
And for Diejian, becoming a Genin was the starting point of a dream he'd only just managed to reach.
He absolutely couldn't be sent back to the facility.
But, and yet---Diejian looked at Juri's profile.
Her long lashes were lowered. Unlike her brother's, her eyes were narrow, and they trembled slightly as if she were thinking about something.
If he became a Genin alongside Sakumo, it would mean Juri would be sent back to the facility.
Then his connection to the Uchiha Clan would---.
It was good to have Kagami, a Jonin instructor, by his side, but kicking the "Uchiha" out for his own sake went against Diejian's principles.
"Why do you have to do something like this? Can't you make an exception?"
"Letting someone without ability become a ninja will only hasten their death. A ninja who lacks strength must be protected by the village until they can stand on their own. That's the Second's thinking. Not sending children to their deaths---that was the First Lord's wish, too."
Hashirama's ideals, and Tobirama's ideals.
They seemed cold at first glance, but they made sense.
Diejian bit his lower lip.
Sakumo also folded his arms and pondered, troubled.
"Isn't it simple? Senju, you can just go back to the facility."
Juri's expression seemed to say, "What a brilliant idea." She lifted her head and looked down at Diejian with scorn.
As if that could ever happen.
But then again, Diejian couldn't bring himself to give up either of them.
He couldn't casually abandon the starting point of the dream he had struggled so hard to reach.
There was one option: have Sakumo withdraw.
Sakumo was neither Uchiha nor Senju. He belonged to neither a prestigious clan nor a clan that used secret techniques. In short, he wasn't "essential."
Besides, with his outstanding abilities, he should be able to become a Genin in next year's exam—.
Diejian lowered his head, his eyes full of troubled uncertainty.
"Uchiha Juri, can't you just give it a rest? Why don't you go home, then?"
Unable to tolerate Juri's outrageous words any longer, Sakumo stepped forward to defend Diejian.
Diejian looked up in surprise. Seeing the dangerous atmosphere between Juri and Sakumo, he recalled how pathetic he had acted just moments ago and felt ashamed of his own thoughtlessness.
So what should I do...? Maybe I should just let myself fail?
Kagami, who had been silently watching the situation, wondered.
The one who broke the tension before it could erupt was none other than Diejian.
"Stop, you two. There's no point in fighting among ourselves here."
"Hmph... So what do you plan to do, Senju?"
"Well... I don't know yet."
"See? This is what I mean when I say all Senju are good for is running their mouths. Enough. Shut up."
Juri made an exaggerated gesture of exasperation. At her attitude, a vein popped at Sakumo's temple again.
Diejian put out a hand to stop Sakumo.
"Hey, Juri. Do you have a dream?"
"Haah, I thought you were going to say something—"
"Please answer me."
Overwhelmed by Diejian's serious expression and forceful tone, Juri drew in a sharp breath.
His gaze was as steadfast as a tree rooted deep in the earth, yet held a supple gleam like a willow leaf.
Juri pretended not to notice that Diejian's presence had intimidated her.
She glared fiercely at him, straightened her back, lifted her chest, and declared her pride in the Uchiha.
"I want to raise the Uchiha Clan above the Senju. One day, the Uchiha will make this village prosper. In the end, Konohagakure wouldn't even exist without the power of the Uchiha Clan."
The Uchiha were no inferior to the Senju.
What was there to fear?
What was there to be ashamed of?
As a proud Uchiha, the eldest daughter of a distinguished family that inherited the Sharingan, she was in no way inferior to the Senju.
One day, she would awaken the Sharingan and change this village.
And then—.
Juri glanced at Kagami.
(One day, I'll make my big brother—)
In response to Juri's bold declaration, Diejian only murmured, "I see," then closed his eyes.
(What's with this guy...?)
Juri made no effort to hide her distrust. As if even looking at Diejian irritated her, she turned her gaze away, while Kagami watched her in silence.
After a while, once Diejian had opened his eyes, Kagami hung two bells from his belt.
"The test ends when two of you manage to take the bells from me."
After confirming that all three had nodded silently, Kagami snapped his fingers.
"—Then, begin."
The bells rang out with a clear chime.
Kagami used the Body Flicker Technique and vanished before the three of them.
Diejian drew a Kunai, while Sakumo unsheathed his short sword. They stood back-to-back, keeping watch in every direction.
Ignoring Diejian's call to "come over here," Juri ran off by herself and hid in the bushes.
(As if I'd team up with a Senju...)
Once, Uchiha Madara had attacked the village, and Senju Hashirama had stopped him.
It was a duel that went down in history.
At the place later known as the Valley of the End, while the First, Hashirama, was stopping Madara, who had brought the Nine-Tails with him, two deeply divided factions were fighting to the death—literally—within Konohagakure.
It was a small-scale battle, but one that would decide the village's fate.
The "Sharingan" Uchiha sought to reclaim their former glory.
Believing that Madara's attack presented the perfect opportunity, they took up arms.
They raised their clan crest, intending to reclaim the name "Uchiha," once hailed as the strongest during the Warring States Period.
The "Konohagakure" Uchiha wanted to coexist with the Senju.
They had endured an unprecedentedly great war and understood the suffering of endless conflict.
Raising their symbol with its spiraling tip, they sought to protect the village and help the Uchiha Clan prosper in a way that was different from war.
Their irreconcilable beliefs deepened the division within the Uchiha Clan. Madara's attack served as the catalyst for a fierce clash between the two factions.
In the end, however, the "Sharingan" Uchiha were a minority. They were utterly defeated, and the "Konohagakure" Uchiha took complete control.
The only problem was that Kagami and Juri's parents belonged to the "Sharingan" Uchiha.
Kagami Uchiha stood up for the "Konohagakure" Uchiha and protected their honor.
Having witnessed the entire battle at Hashirama's side, Kagami was certain that neither Madara's attack nor the Uchiha coup could possibly succeed.
Besides, Tobirama would never forgive the "Uchiha" for their foolish actions.
They would be wiped out—he had no regrets about fighting his own clan if that was what it took to escape that fate.
Kagami loved the village. He loved the Uchiha Clan.
From the day Uchiha Madara launched his attack, the world had become a parched hell, blanketed in sand, for Uchiha Juri.
While she lay unconscious under Kagami's Genjutsu: Sharingan, everything had changed beyond recognition.
When she woke, Kagami told her the truth.
He hadn't let her take part in the fighting, but Juri was still an Uchiha. She had the right to know the truth and face it, so Kagami told her of the Uchiha's hopelessly foolish actions.
—To protect the village. To protect the Uchiha. To protect their honor.
(I don't care about any of that.)
The clan had split apart. Her home, Konohagakure, had been thrown into turmoil. Her brother and parents had tried to kill one another.
What was Juri supposed to do?
The Uchiha Clan was her pride.
Konohagakure was the precious home where she had been born and raised.
Her brother and her parents were all family members she loved dearly.
Because she loved them all so much, Juri didn't know where to direct her hatred.
What should she resent? What should she hate?
Where had the bright future of Uchiha Juri of Konohagakure gone?
Where had those days gone, when her mother hugged her, her father praised her, and her brother stroked her hair?
And where had that gentle world gone—the one where, as a member of the first graduating class of the Ninja Academy, she made a name for herself in Konoha and earned the praise of her beloved family...?
One day, as Juri was tormented by her pain, she happened to look up and see the Hokage Rock.
The Hokage statues, their resolute faces guarding the village.
Looking closely, she saw two figures moving atop them.
(Senju... Hashirama...)
One was a man she knew well.
The founder of her home, the place she cherished—Konohagakure.
Then who was the other, smaller figure...?
(Senju... Diejian...!)
A classmate from the Ninja Academy, the grandson of the Hokage, Hashirama.
And a direct descendant of the old enemy, the "Senju," as well as the next clan head.
Standing beside Hashirama, his hair swaying in the wind, Diejian touched his Forehead Protector, as if carefully confirming how it felt.
—That's right. The Senju.
Juri felt as though she had received a revelation. Her mind suddenly cleared.
But the feeling was like a cloudy sky being swept clear by a storm.
Without her realizing it, her tainted heart had already reached its verdict.
I lost my parents. My brother lost our parents. The Uchiha Clan is suffering. And what are the Senju doing?
Aren't we supposed to be allies?
—It's all the Senju's fault.
The heroes of Konoha: Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara.
Madara, the leader of the Uchiha, left the village because the Senju couldn't be trusted.
Those worthless Uchiha fools dared to act high and mighty because the Senju were spineless.
Her remarkable brother had to help the Senju because they were all cowards.
It was all the Senju. All the Senju—.
Juri's dream was to establish a Uchiha regime that would replace the Senju.
But she couldn't achieve that through force.
Her remarkable brother wouldn't allow it.
Juri understood Kagami's intentions.
She didn't like it, but she knew Kagami cared about her.
She also knew that their parents' actions deserved condemnation.
She didn't want to accept an embrace from Kagami, whose hands were stained with the blood of her parents.
And she also thought it was fortunate that she hadn't accepted an embrace from her parents, whose hands were stained with Kagami's blood.
—Senju!!
In other words, she had resolved to prove that the Uchiha Clan was superior to the Senju Clan.
—Most things are the Senju's fault anyway!!
And so, an Uchiha girl who had roused herself to oppose the Senju was born.
Before you continue