Senju and Uchiha

Juri, who had hidden alone in the bushes and kept her distance from Diejian, frowned in frustration.

Her older brother, Kagami, was incredibly strong. He wasn't someone she could easily take on alone.

She wondered if she'd acted too rashly, but it was too late now.

What should she do?

She was lucky to have been teamed up with Hatake Sakumo, a genius who stood out among their peers. If she joined forces with him, they might have a chance.

But—

(Senju!)

The first thing that came to mind was Diejian's foolish face.

In her imagination, she gave that infuriating, stupid face a thorough beating, then kicked it into a corner.

That was Senju Diejian, the genius Hatake Sakumo's tagalong—someone she couldn't shake, like a fish turd.

His presence was more of a nuisance than anything else.

If she teamed up with Sakumo, Diejian would inevitably come along.

She didn't want to work with a Senju.

No, when all was said and done, the Uchiha were strong.

She should be able to manage even without teaming up with Sakumo.

Still, if it weren't Diejian—if it were even a "puppy" from the Inuzuka Clan—the team would be perfect.

Why did she have to team up with a "dead last" like him?

Juri cursed bitterly, her thoughts in turmoil.

"Dead last."

After Senju Hashirama died, Diejian had lost consciousness in a training accident and hadn't come to the Ninja Academy for over half a year—or so she'd heard.

By the time Diejian returned to the academy, his strength had "fallen" so far that he was nothing like he used to be.

Later, Yamanaka Ina had told Juri that his meridian system had been damaged by his severe injuries, leaving him unable to convert Chakra into ninjutsu properly.

He could still complete the Ninja Academy's assignments, but the Water Release and Earth Release he demonstrated in practice had lost their former power. At best, they could turn over soil and grow flowers.

The Senju of the Forest really are suited to this, Juri sneered.

One day, during a Nintaijutsu spar with Sakumo, Diejian "messed up again" and took a solid straight punch to the face.

Sakumo's punch was powerful, and he hadn't held back. Diejian went tumbling through the air at an astonishing speed, lost consciousness, and rolled across the ground like a rag, his foolish face exposed. It was a pitiful sight.

So this is all a Senju can do, Juri sneered. But in the next match, Ina, infuriated by her attitude, beat her soundly.

At the memory, Juri shook her head, trying to banish the embarrassing recollection.

Right now, her top priority was taking the bells from her brother and officially becoming a Genin.

"What are you doing?"

A voice came from behind her.

A chill ran down Juri's spine.

I've been caught! she berated herself, then spun around and lunged at the figure standing there—Kagami.

"No, you haven't been caught at all."

Kagami deftly dodged Juri's charge and kicked his sister in the backside as she plunged headfirst into the bushes.

It was something only an older brother could do.

With a shriek, Juri was kicked deeper into the bushes.

"Stop it! What the hell are you doing?"

Juri shoved her way out of the bushes and stood up. Tears welled in her eyes as she glared at Kagami and rubbed her small bottom.

"Kagami Uchiha..."

Seeing his sister glare at him with such resentment amused Kagami a little. He closed in without mercy and drove the heel of his palm into Juri's tense stomach.

The blow struck her solar plexus with crushing force.

She coughed violently, as if all the air had been squeezed from her lungs.

Juri grimaced in pain, groaned, clutched her stomach, and sank to the ground.

"Juri, this is a mission. As a ninja, do what you're supposed to do."

Kagami grabbed Juri by both bunches of her twin tails and lifted her up.

Drooling and groaning from the heavy blow, Juri couldn't bear the pain of her hair being pulled. She rose to her knees, her face twisted in agony.

Juri's arms hung limp, but she wasn't defenseless.

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

Instead of a breath, several fireballs burst forth—Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique.

It was a Fire Release jutsu passed down through the Uchiha Clan. It fired a series of small fireballs and was one of the simpler techniques.

The small fireballs struck Kagami head-on, setting his clothes alight and spreading the flames.

Kagami had no choice but to let go.

Juri looked ready to collapse, but quickly got to her feet and put some distance between them.

"Doing this to your own brother?"

The voice came from behind Juri, who was facing off against Kagami.

Only then did she realize that Kagami, who should have been standing in front of her as a human torch, had disappeared.

When had he gotten behind her—?

Juri shuddered at his terrifying speed. Then Kagami mercilessly kicked her in the bottom again.

"Ah—!!"

A shrill, feminine scream rang out.

Juri went flying, but forced herself to land on both feet. She skidded across the ground, carving a furrow behind her.

Ignoring the pain in her backside, she lowered her stance and raised her staff.

Juri braced herself to face Kagami as he continued his assault, but he didn't give her time to wait.

He had already closed in and was driving the heel of his palm toward her smooth stomach again.

"Gah..."

A second crushing blow.

Fluid ran from every opening in her face. Clutching her stomach, Juri curled up on the ground in a full kowtow.

Kagami grabbed both bunches of her hair again and forcibly lifted her head. The pain of being dragged along made her grimace and groan.

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

"That would kill me if it hit."

When she came to her senses, Kagami was no longer in front of her.

The force dragging her vanished, and Juri fell face-first to the ground.

Kagami had circled behind her. He reached beneath her arms from behind and lifted her slender body, raising her overhead as if he were playing with her.

Her back was to Kagami.

Feeling the warmth her brother gave her, Juri recalled the past and began to relax.

But reality was cruel. Kagami quickly pulled his hands away, and his knee caught Juri's backside as she fell to the ground under gravity, no longer supported.

"Don't—!" Juri cried out, but she was powerless to escape—

"Gah—!!!"

The impact.

A flash filled her vision.

The shock that raced up her spine made Juri scream in pain—

"Release!"

She punched Diejian in the face.

"What did you do that for...?"

Diejian rose from his crouch, covering his swollen cheek and frowning in protest.

"That's why I said we should've left her alone."

"Come on, don't say that."

Sakumo folded his arms and stood beside Diejian, looking displeased.

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

Juri, of course, didn't take Diejian's hand. Instead, as if deliberately doing the opposite, she brushed it aside and got to her feet on her own.

"Genjutsu... Since when...?"

"Who knows? We rushed over when we heard you scream."

That entire series of interactions had been a Genjutsu cast by Kagami.

Juri checked herself all over and confirmed that, apart from her sore backside, nothing else seemed wrong.

It seemed she'd been caught in the Genjutsu when she stood up in the bushes and faced off against him after he'd kicked her.

So had the kick to her backside actually happened?

She pursed her lips at her brother's brutality.

"Hey, Juri. How about we team up after all—"

"I told you I have no intention of getting close to a Senju."

"But if Diejian hadn't released you from the Genjutsu, you'd have been done for, wouldn't you?"

Sakumo said this to Juri, who snorted and turned her head away.

Stung by the truth, Juri groaned, "Gnu," and twisted her little ducklike mouth.

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

"Teacher, didn't you explain it to us before the test began? Don't make eye contact with the Sharingan."

"Shut up. Telling us on the day of the test is a problem. Something this important should've been explained much earlier. This is why the Senju... can't even pass information along properly."

"You're the one who wasn't listening to Teacher. And Teacher's an Uchiha too."

Watching the two argue endlessly, Diejian thought enviously, Could those two actually get along better than I thought?

Of course, that wasn't the case at all. If he said it aloud, they'd probably both curse him out.

Perhaps Juri was annoyed by Diejian's smiling expression. She shoved him.

Saying that the pointless conversation was over, she turned around and left alone once more.

Diejian watched Juri go with an awkward shrug, then turned seriously to Sakumo.

"We can't beat Teacher Kagami one-on-one. He's a different type, but I think he's about as strong as Kakuzu."

"Yeah. If it were me, Ina, and you, we might have a chance..."

Before Diejian and Sakumo had released Juri from the Genjutsu, something had happened.

Sakumo's sensory skills had detected Kagami's Chakra, which had disappeared.

He was probably deliberately continuing to mold his Chakra in a way that made it easy to detect.

Though they knew it was a lure, the two still chased after Kagami.

Kagami appeared before them with little effort, his eyes already changed into the Sharingan.

—Not good.

Sakumo's eyes had met Kagami's for an instant. Before he could look away, he was caught in the Sharingan Genjutsu, his body going rigid as if bound.

Diejian escaped the Genjutsu a moment earlier. He touched Sakumo and released him from it, but Kagami didn't let the opening pass.

Kagami accelerated with the Body Flicker Technique and closed in on Diejian in an instant, grabbing his arm.

Damn it, Diejian thought, but he was already too late. Kagami swung him up, lifting him into the air.

Diejian was slammed into the ground with a back throw. The impact stopped his breathing for an instant.

Sakumo had just broken free of the Genjutsu. He immediately tried to save Diejian with a spinning kick, but Kagami crouched and easily dodged it, then kicked at Sakumo from his crouch.

Sakumo was knocked back slightly, but crossed his arms to protect his stomach from the blow.

As Sakumo used the friction between his feet and the ground to slow his backward slide, Diejian's body came hurtling toward him.

Kagami had grabbed Diejian by the leg, swung him around, and thrown him.

"Ah—!"

Sakumo nimbly dodged the flying Diejian.

With a scream, Diejian's body flew past Sakumo.

"So fast!!"

Sakumo was astonished.

Kagami launched himself out from the shadow of the flying Diejian.

The instant Diejian's body blocked Sakumo's view, Kagami followed close behind him, closing in beneath Sakumo.

Caught completely off guard, Sakumo was half a beat too slow to react. Kagami's kick landed squarely in his stomach.

Sakumo doubled over and flew backward.

In the direction Sakumo flew, Diejian was still rolling across the ground.

With a scream like a squashed frog, Diejian was crushed beneath Sakumo's body.

(There's no way we can win...)

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

"What do we do?"

"The two of us probably can't do it. But I don't think Uchiha Juri will cooperate."

"We won't know unless we try. If this keeps up, all three of us will be sent rolling back to the academy together."

"That's true... but do you think he might have another motive?"

Sakumo lowered his voice as he put his question to Diejian.

Sakumo was wondering about something Kagami had said.

—A test designed by the Second to select Genin by making them steal bells.

Only the two people who took the bells from me would officially become Genin. The remaining person would have to return to the training facility.

This was a survival contest to eliminate "the person weakest in strength right now."

After "coming back to life," Diejian's restricted use of techniques had evened out his high Taijutsu scores with low marks in the academic subjects, leaving him ranked in the lower middle.

Sakumo was first in the year.

Juri was a little better than Diejian, placing in the upper middle.

She was by no means a student who would fail.

If the goal was to eliminate the weakest, they could just hold back, expel, or remove the "bottom-ranked students on paper" and let the top few become ninja.

Although the strength listed in the files sometimes differed from a person's actual ability, that was exactly why people of similar strength should be put on the same team, so their abilities could be measured against one another at their respective levels.

There was no point in making every class "equal on paper."

If they did that, the people ranked higher on paper would be sure to win.

Besides, Sakumo was worried about Ina, too.

If they were being evaluated in separate classes and the team compositions changed after they passed, that would be understandable.

But if one person was to be "eliminated" from the three of them, then there was no point in grouping them together as Ino-Shika-Cho from the start.

Sakumo thought there might be some deeper meaning behind it.

But Diejian shook his head, thinking there was no use worrying about it.

The exam had already begun. If they couldn't get the bells, they would fail.

What mattered now was how to get the bells.

After hearing Diejian out, Sakumo nodded reluctantly and followed him as he walked ahead.

As Diejian and the others quietly pushed through the bushes, Juri appeared in their line of sight again, sleeping soundly.

Her bare thighs, sticking out from beneath her short shorts, were quite a sight.

Diejian smiled wryly, thinking, Again? Just as he was about to approach, Sakumo quietly stopped him.

"There's no point helping her. She'll just charge in on her own and get left behind again anyway."

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

Diejian looked back with a wry smile.

It was clear he understood Sakumo's concern and was saying this for his sake.

Sakumo was at a loss over his friend, whose kindhearted nature had only grown more pronounced since that incident.

Sure enough, when Juri woke up, she started cursing Diejian out, while he just laughed and took it.

That's what I'm talking about, Sakumo thought. He was exasperated, but also felt a little proud as his friend beckoned them over.

"So we have to work together. Listen, I have an idea."

"Shut up, Senju."

"Hey. That's enough, Uchiha Shuri."