"Too slow, Izuna!" The spiky-haired boy laughed, his eyes scarlet with the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. "You won't be able to protect our clan like that!"
"Enough talk, Brother!" Izuna gritted his teeth and dodged, sweat beading on his forehead, but his eyes remained sharp.
Qingyu: Why "Nii-san"? Didn't you secretly call him "Onii-chan" in private?
Izuna: Stop twisting things!
The whole secretly calling him "Onii-chan" thing...
The whole secretly tweaking his own memories thing.
The whole not wanting to embarrass himself in front of Tobirama thing.
He spotted an opening and suddenly changed direction—not retreating, but charging forward.
Three shuriken flew from odd angles: one aimed straight at his face, the other two cutting off his escape to either side.
Madara raised an eyebrow and casually knocked the shuriken aside.
But in that instant, Izuna had already closed in, thrusting his kunai straight at Madara's throat.
"Clack!"
Madara caught the tip of the kunai between two fingers.
"Not bad." Madara let go, and his Sharingan faded.
"You've finally learned to use a feint to create a real opening for a kill. Too bad it was still too obvious. I had at least three ways to counterattack just now."
"Like what?" Izuna asked, sitting down and catching his breath.
"For instance, I could have predicted your path when you changed direction and blocked it with Fire Release. Or pretended to fall for it, then used the Substitution Technique to stab you once you got close. Or..."
"Just used the Mangekyō Sharingan's ability."
Izuna fell silent.
"The Mangekyō... is it really that powerful?"
"Powerful enough to change the course of a battle." Madara's voice grew low.
"But powerful enough... that it comes at a price."
"What price?"
Madara didn't answer. He simply looked toward the lights in the distant clan settlement. "Father said the Senju Clan advanced another thirty miles. The next battle might be the decisive one."
"We'll win!" Izuna said firmly.
"With you there, and me there, the Uchiha won't lose."
Madara ruffled his younger brother's hair. "Idiot! Wars aren't won by just one or two people. But... you're right. We won't lose."
The setting sun stretched their shadows long across the ground.
"Izuna."
"Yeah?"
"If one day I'm gone, you have to protect yourself—and the clan."
"What are you saying, Madara? How could you possibly—"
"It's just a hypothetical..." Madara cut him off.
"Promise me."
Izuna looked at the seriousness in his elder brother's eyes and finally nodded. "...I promise."
"Good." Madara stood. "Let's keep training. Today I'll teach you the ultimate Uchiha Style shuriken technique: Eight Light Return."
"Huh? Doesn't that require the Three-Tomoe Sharingan?"
"Better to teach you now than to run out of time."
The memory ended abruptly there.
Qingyu came back to himself and found he was still sitting at the dining table, a half-cold rice ball in his hand.
"Your brother..." he said softly.
"Yeah." Izuna's voice was calm, but Qingyu sensed a faint tremor beneath it. "That idiot was always saying ominous things."
"What happened after that?" Qingyu couldn't help asking. "He..."
"After that, he used the Mangekyō Sharingan to lead us to victory in that war, but we lost a lot along the way." Izuna paused.
"After that... I suppose I died of my injuries, and then he and Tobirama's older brother built Konoha."
Izuna's tone was so flat as he said it, as if he were talking about someone else.
But Qingyu knew he wasn't.
As someone who'd crossed over, he did know the story well, but the real emotions in that memory still stirred something deep within him.
Actually, Izuna hadn't awakened the Mangekyō during his battle with Tobirama, had he...
In his final moments...
Worried that his brother would eventually go blind, worried that his death would leave his brother grieving, worried about the Uchiha Clan.
It was these feelings that awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan in Izuna just before he died—and led him to leave his eyes to Madara, who was on the verge of blindness.
"No... Brother! Don't let them deceive you!"
The memory ended abruptly there.
Izuna: Back then, just standing behind my brother was enough to make me happy...
"Do you want to see my memories?" Tobirama suddenly asked, breaking the delicate silence.
"Yes." Qingyu tapped the droplet-shaped fragment.
This time, it was night, and the scene was a cramped laboratory.
A young Tobirama, who looked to be in his early twenties, frowned at a complex diagram of chakra pathways. His trademark silver hair gleamed in the lamplight.
"No..." he murmured.
"The rate of water-nature chakra decay as it flows through the pathways is twelve percent higher than the theoretical value. Is it resistance from the pathway walls, or an inherent property of the chakra itself?"
He picked up a pen and rapidly worked out the figures on a sheet of paper.
The laboratory door opened, and a tall figure walked in.
"Tobirama, still at it?" The voice was warm and rich.
"Big Brother?" Tobirama looked up. "Weren't you negotiating with Madara Uchiha?"
Hashirama Senju scratched his head. "We finished. We've got a temporary three-month truce. That Madara... he's just as difficult as ever."
"Why negotiate at all?" Tobirama set down his pen, his expression stern.
"The Uchiha Clan attacked our supply convoy just last week and killed seventeen people, including three children. With blood like that between us, how could negotiations possibly settle anything?!"
Hashirama fell silent and walked to the window, looking up at the night sky. "Because... I saw another possibility."
"What possibility?"
"A world where children don't have to go to war." Hashirama turned around, his eyes shining.
"Tobirama, do you believe it? Do you believe the Senju and the Uchiha could stop killing each other, build a village together, and protect the children so they can grow up in peace?"
Tobirama stared at his elder brother for a long time, then finally sighed. "Big Brother, you're far too naïve... The Uchiha Clan is warlike by nature, stubborn, and easily seduced by power!"
"Madara isn't like that!" Hashirama retorted, then softened his tone.
"And even if some of them are like that, it doesn't mean they all are. We have people in the Senju Clan who are greedy for life and afraid of death, and those who betray their comrades, don't we?"
Tobirama had no rebuttal.
Because that was human nature, and human nature couldn't withstand a test.
"Exactly... That's why I can't trust the Uchiha Clan so easily!"
How could he trust a clan that could gain such immense power through nothing more than intense emotional upheaval?
"Just give it a try, Tobirama." Hashirama patted his younger brother on the shoulder.
"Help me! Let's create a world where children can live with smiles on their faces. With your wisdom, and my strength!"
"...I'll look into it," Tobirama finally said.
"But not on the battlefield. If we're really going to build a village, we'll need to carefully design its defenses, the system for training shinobi, the mission assignment process..."
"Then I'm counting on you!" Hashirama laughed. "I knew you'd support me!"
"I never agreed!" Tobirama turned back to the blueprints, but the faintest hint of a smile touched his lips.
"I'll just... look into whether it's feasible."
The memory ended there.
So this was why Tobirama had remained so resolute in protecting Konoha even after Hashirama died.
"As someone who protects the village, I have no intention of yielding, not even one step!"
The memory ended there.
Tobirama: A naïve idealist, almost to the point of foolishness... But his ideals really did change the world.
Qingyu let out a long breath.
"Your big brother..." he said to Tobirama. "He was a very special person."
"A naïve idealist, to the point of foolishness," Tobirama remarked, but there was no sharpness in his tone.
"Just an ordinary person..."
"You both had remarkable brothers," Qingyu said with a sigh.
"Obviously," Izuna and Tobirama replied in unison—a rare occurrence.
Qingyu couldn't help smiling too.
Better not tell them what happened afterward...
Their laughter gradually faded. Qingyu gazed out at the night beyond the window:
The old tales of the Six Dynasties have become nothing but private family records...
To the east lies Jieshi, with verses left behind...
Am I not just a speck of dust in history, too?
Before you continue