The Senju and the Uchiha

Hiding alone in the thicket and keeping her distance from Diejian, Shuri furrowed her brows in frustration.

Her own older brother, Kagami, possessed extraordinary strength; he was by no means an opponent she could easily handle single-handedly.

Though she reflected on whether her actions had been too rash, it was already too late.

So, what was she to do?

It was fortunate to be placed on the same team as Hatake Sakumo, a genius who stood out even among his peers; if she combined her strength with his, it seemed there might be a way to fight back.

But—

(Senju!)

What flashed through her mind was Diejian's foolish face.

In her imagination, she gave that infuriatingly stupid face a brutal beating, then kicked him flying into a corner.

He was the tag-along of that genius whom even she, Uchiha Shuri, had to acknowledge—Hatake Sakumo—a Senju Diejian who stuck to him like goldfish feces and couldn't be shaken off.

His existence was more of a hindrance than anything else.

If she wanted to team up with Sakumo, Diejian would inevitably follow.

She didn't want to team up with a Senju.

No, when it came down to it, the "Uchiha" were strong.

Even without teaming up with Sakumo, she should be able to do it.

However, if it weren't Diejian, even if it were just a "puppy" from the Inuzuka clan, the formation would be perfect.

Why did she have to be grouped with such a "loser"?

Shuri cursed viciously while in a state of agitation.

"Loser."

After Senju Hashirama died, Senju Diejian had been unconscious following a training accident and hadn't come to the training facility for over half a year—or so the story went.

When Diejian returned to the facility, his strength had "plummeted" to a level incomparable to before.

Later, Shuri heard from Yamanaka Ina that he had suffered damage to his meridian system from his severe injuries, making it impossible to smoothly convert chakra into ninjutsu.

Although he could still complete the tasks at the ninja training facility, the Water Release and Earth Release Diejian displayed during exercises lacked their former power; their effects were at most enough to turn over some soil or plant a few flowers.

"Forest" Senju were only fit for this, Shuri sneered.

One day, during Nintaijutsu sparring with Sakumo, Diejian "messed up again," and as a result, his face took a solid straight punch from Sakumo.

Sakumo's punch, delivered without holding back, was incredibly powerful; Diejian was sent tumbling away with astonishing momentum, losing consciousness, his foolish face exposed as he rolled onto the ground like a piece of tattered rag—a miserable sight.

"Senju are only at this level after all," Shuri was sneering, only to be beaten to a pulp in the next match by Ina, who had been angered by her attitude.

Recalling this, Shuri shook her head, trying to shake off the embarrassing memory.

The top priority now was to snatch the bell from her brother and officially become a genin.

"What are you doing?"

A voice from behind.

The sensation of goosebumps rising on her back tormented Shuri.

While berating herself with "I've been caught!", she spun around abruptly and lunged at the figure standing there—Kagami.

"Nope, not caught at all."

Kagami nimbly dodged Shuri's charge and kicked his younger sister, who had face-planted into the bushes, right in the backside.

This was something only an older brother could do.

Shuri let out a shriek as she was kicked deep into the thicket.

"Stop it! What are you doing, you jerk!"

Shuri crawled out from the bushes, tears in her eyes, rubbing her small backside while glaring at Kagami.

"Uchiha Kagami..."

Watching his sister glare at him with a face full of resentment, Kagami found it somewhat amusing, yet he closed the distance without mercy, landing a palm strike on Shuri's tense abdomen.

A heavy impact to the solar plexus.

A violent cough followed, as if all the air had been squeezed out of her lungs.

Shuri wore a pained expression, groaning as she clutched her stomach and sat down on the spot.

"Shuri, we are on a mission right now. As a ninja, do what you must."

Kagami grabbed the two bunches of Shuri's twin tails and hoisted her up.

Drooling and groaning from the massive impact, Shuri couldn't bear the pain of her hair being pulled; she knelt and straightened her body, her face twisted in agony.

Yet, Shuri's limp arms were not entirely defenseless.

She quickly formed the "Tiger" seal and pursed her lips.

Instead of breath, she exhaled several fireballs—the Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique.

This was a fire-style jutsu passed down within the Uchiha clan, capable of launching a barrage of small fireballs; it belonged to a relatively simple class of techniques.

The small fireballs struck Kagami directly, igniting his clothes and causing the flames to spread.

Kagami couldn't help but let go.

Juri looked as if she were about to collapse to the ground, but she quickly rose and put some distance between them.

"Doing something like this to your own brother?"

The voice came from behind Juri, who was currently standing in a standoff.

Only then did she realize that Kagami, who should have turned into a human torch before her eyes, had vanished.

When did he get behind me—?

Shuddering at that terrifying speed, Juri felt a merciless side-kick land on her backside once again.

"Ah—!!"

A sharp, feminine scream rang out.

Juri was sent flying, but she gritted her teeth against the pain, landed on her feet, and slid backward, carving a trench into the ground.

She endured the pain in her backside, lowered her center of gravity, and assumed a stance with her staff.

Juri, now in a defensive posture, prepared to face the violent Kagami, but he did not give her time to wait.

He had already closed the distance, his palm striking her smooth abdomen once more.

"Gah..."

A second heavy impact.

With fluids leaking from the orifices on her face, Juri clutched her stomach and curled up in a kneeling position.

Kagami grabbed two handfuls of her hair, forcing her head up; she groaned, her expression twisted in agony from the pain of being dragged.

Just as Kagami was about to drag Juri away, she pulled a kunai from her robes and threw it at him.

"That would kill someone if it hit, you know."

When she regained her focus, Kagami was no longer in front of her.

The pulling force vanished, and Juri collapsed face-first onto the ground.

Kagami, having circled behind her, reached under the arms of the prone Juri, lifted her slender body, and hoisted her above his head as if to lift her high into the air.

Her body was turned away from Kagami.

Feeling the warmth provided by her brother, Juri recalled memories of the past, and her mood involuntarily relaxed.

But reality was cruel; Kagami quickly withdrew his hands, using his knee to catch Juri's backside as she fell toward the ground, obeying the pull of gravity.

Juri let out a cry of "No—," but she was powerless to escape—

"Gah—!!!"

Impact.

Flashes filled her vision.

The shockwave traveling up her spine forced a painful scream from Juri—.

"Release!"

She punched the face of Diejian, who was standing before her.

"What are you doing..."

Diejian, who had been crouching, stood up, clutching his red, swollen cheek with a dissatisfied scowl.

"That's why I said we should just leave her alone."

"Don't say that."

Sakumo stood beside Diejian, arms crossed, looking displeased.

As if to admonish Sakumo for his blatant attitude, Diejian patted his shoulder and reached out a hand toward Juri, who was lying on the ground.

Juri, of course, did not take Diejian's hand; instead, she swatted it away out of spite and stood up on her own.

"Genjutsu... since when..."

"Who knows? We only came running after we heard Juri screaming."

The entire sequence of interactions just now had been a genjutsu cast by Kagami.

Juri checked her entire body, confirming that other than her sore backside, there were no other abnormalities.

It seemed she had been caught in the genjutsu back when she was kicked in the backside in the thicket and stood up to face him.

Then, was the act of being kicked in the backside itself a fact?

She pursed her lips at her brother's brutality.

"Hey, Juri. It really would be better if we just..."

"I told you, I have no intention of cozying up to the Senju."

"But if Diejian hadn't broken that genjutsu for you, you would've been finished back there, right?"

Sakumo said this while looking at Shuri, who was huffing and turning her head away.

Stung by the truth, Shuri let out a "grr" sound, her small, duck-like lips twisting into a pout.

"That's only because I didn't expect him to use the Sharingan. I won't make the same mistake again."

"Didn't the teacher teach us carefully before the exam started? Don't make eye contact with the Sharingan."

"Shut up. It's annoying to bring that up on the day of the exam. Something that important should have been told to us way earlier. That's why the Senju are just... they can't even handle basic intelligence transmission."

"Aren't you the one who wasn't listening to the teacher? Besides, the teacher is an Uchiha too."

Watching the two argue incessantly, Diejian thought with a hint of envy, Could these two actually be getting along better than I thought?

Of course, that wasn't the case at all; if he said that out loud, he would likely be berated by both of them simultaneously.

Perhaps annoyed by the smile on Diejian's face, Shuri gave him a shove.

Declaring that the boring conversation was over, she turned around and walked away alone once again.

Diejian shrugged helplessly as he watched Shuri go, then turned to Sakumo with a serious expression.

"We can't beat Teacher Kagami in a one-on-one fight. I feel like, even if his style is different, his strength is on par with Kakuzu."

"Yeah. If it were me, Ina, and you together, maybe we'd have a chance..."

This was before Diejian and Sakumo had broken Shuri out of the genjutsu.

Kagami's vanishing chakra had been picked up by Sakumo's sensory perception.

He was likely keeping his chakra signature easy to track on purpose.

Even knowing it was a lure, the two of them had chased after Kagami.

Kagami, who appeared before them quite easily, already had his eyes transformed into the Sharingan.

---Bad.

The moment before he could avert his gaze, Sakumo, having caught a glimpse of those eyes, fell into a genjutsu and stood frozen as if bound.

Diejian, who had escaped the Sharingan's genjutsu a split second earlier, touched the bound Sakumo to release him, but Kagami did not let this opening go to waste.

Using the Body Flicker Technique to accelerate, Kagami closed the distance in an instant and grabbed Diejian's arm.

Diejian thought, Oh no, but his reaction was too slow; his body was hoisted into the air by Kagami.

Slammed into the ground with a back-throw, Diejian had the wind knocked out of him by the impact.

Sakumo, having just broken free from the genjutsu, immediately unleashed a roundhouse kick to save Diejian, but Kagami crouched quickly to dodge the strike and kicked out at Sakumo from his low stance.

Sakumo was sent flying slightly, but he crossed his arms to protect his abdomen from the impact.

Just as Sakumo was using the friction of his feet against the ground to slow his momentum, Diejian's body came hurtling toward him.

Kagami had grabbed Diejian's leg and swung him through the air like a projectile.

"Ah—!"

Sakumo dodged the incoming Diejian with agility.

Accompanied by a scream, Diejian's body flew past Sakumo.

"So fast!!"

Sakumo was stunned.

Kagami leaped out from the shadow of the flying Diejian.

The moment Diejian's body blocked Sakumo's line of sight, Kagami had followed closely behind him to close in on Sakumo's blind spot.

Caught completely off guard, Sakumo's reaction to Kagami was a half-beat too slow, and he took a solid kick to the stomach.

Bent into a "V" shape, Sakumo was sent flying backward.

In the direction Sakumo was flying, Diejian's body was still tumbling along the ground.

With a sound like a squashed frog, Diejian was crushed squarely by Sakumo's body.

(There's no way to win this...)

Sakumo apologized to the agonizing Diejian, tucked him under his arm, and made a strategic retreat.

"What do we do now?"

"The two of us don't seem to be enough. But I don't think Uchiha Shuri will cooperate."

"How will we know if we don't try? If we keep going like this, all three of us are going to be sent back to the facility together."

"That may be true... but could there be some other intention behind this?"

Sakumo lowered his voice to pose his question to Diejian.

Sakumo's question was about that one thing Kagami had said.

---The test designed by the Second Hokage to select genin by snatching bells.

Only the two who manage to snatch the bells from me will officially become genin; the remaining one will be sent back to the training facility.

This is a survival competition designed to eliminate the one with the "least current strength."

Since his "resurrection," the use of his techniques has been restricted, causing Diejian's grades to balance out—high marks in taijutsu dragged down by low marks in academics—leaving him at a low-to-average level.

Sakumo is first in the grade.

Shuri is slightly better than Diejian, placing in the upper-middle tier.

They are certainly not the type of students who would fail.

If the goal is to eliminate those lacking strength, they could simply hold back or expel the "paper-file losers" and let those at the top of the rankings become ninja.

Although strength on paper occasionally differs from actual power, that is precisely why people of similar strength should be grouped together to measure their relative power levels.

Making every team "equal on paper" is meaningless.

If they did that, those at the top of the files would be guaranteed to win.

Furthermore, Sakumo is concerned about Ina.

If they were being tested in different groups to gauge their strength, and the team compositions were changed only after they passed, that would be understandable.

However, if one person out of the three must be "eliminated," then grouping them as "Ino-Shika-Cho" from the start loses all meaning.

Sakumo believes there might be a deeper significance to this.

But Diejian shakes his head, feeling that overthinking it is useless.

The exam has already begun, and failing to get a bell means failing the test.

What matters now is how to secure a bell.

Hearing Diejian's words, Sakumo nods reluctantly and follows behind him.

As Diejian and his companions push through the thicket and move stealthily forward, the figure of Shuri, fast asleep, comes into view once again.

The bare thighs extending from her hot pants are blindingly bright.

Diejian smiles wryly, thinking, "Again?" Just as he is about to approach, Sakumo quietly stops him.

"Helping her is pointless. She'll just charge in on her own and get left behind again anyway."

"This time, we just need to make sure she doesn't go alone. Besides, she'll catch a cold if she stays like that."

Diejian turns his head back, a wry smile on his face.

It is clear that he is saying this because he understands Sakumo's concern.

Sakumo feels a headache coming on regarding his friend, whose "good-natured" personality has only intensified since that incident.

Sure enough, the awakened Shuri begins to berate Diejian, who simply laughs it off.

"That's why I said so," Sakumo thinks, feeling speechless on one hand, yet experiencing a flicker of pride as he watches his friend beckon them over with a "come here, come here" gesture.

"That is why we must cooperate. Listen to me, I have an idea."

"Shut up, Senju."

"Hey. You'd better stop while you're ahead, Uchiha Shuri."