Senju Hashirama is in Love?!

After enduring devilish training for so long, Kyogawa felt both physically and mentally exhausted. The prolonged, high-intensity regimen had left his muscles aching, though now, instead of Kawarama helping him with massages, the task had fallen to his other three brothers.

Just as doing anything for too long leads to boredom and fatigue, causing one to lose motivation, Senju Kyogawa no longer felt as driven as he had at the very beginning.

Seeing Kyogawa pushing himself so hard, his brothers suggested he take a few days off; they were genuinely worried that Kyogawa was like a string pulled too tight for too long, destined to snap.

And so, Senju Kyogawa gave himself a day off.

To be honest, Kyogawa himself felt quite tired.

Having granted himself a break, Kyogawa decided to sneak out of the clan grounds to hunt some game; he hadn't eaten meat in ages, after all.

Once he had prepared his tools, Kyogawa intended to slip out of the compound.

However, he discovered an unexpected figure in the forest.

That sneaky person up ahead, sporting a black bowl cut and wearing a tacky green outfit...

If he wasn't mistaken, that had to be his eldest brother, Senju Hashirama, right?

Hashirama's ears twitched a few times.

A few seconds later, as if he had suddenly noticed something, Hashirama whipped his head around, but he saw nothing but swaying blades of grass.

He stared vigilantly at the bushes, only for a wild rabbit to hop out.

Hashirama looked at the little rabbit with its white fur and red eyes, scratching his head in confusion.

Could it have been his imagination?

Hashirama still felt uneasy; after all, if Senju Butsuma found out who he was meeting today, it might cause unnecessary trouble.

Thus, Hashirama cautiously stepped forward to investigate the situation.

Walking to the edge of the brush, Hashirama felt as though something had been hiding there. He ripped the bushes aside, only to find a few ants crawling right in front of him.

There was nothing there—not even a human footprint—only some scattered, messy branches and leaves.

Maybe it was just some other small animal, Hashirama thought.

After checking for himself, Hashirama finally felt relieved. He stopped his paranoid searching and continued forward, striding toward his destination, looking quite happy and light-footed.

Hidden in a tree, Senju Kyogawa let out a sigh of relief. It was fortunate he had noticed Hashirama's movements in advance and tossed a rabbit into the bushes to avoid detection.

However, watching Hashirama's increasingly jaunty gait as he seemed to confirm he wasn't being followed, Kyogawa couldn't help but ponder.

Why is Brother Hashirama so happy?

Come to think of it, he's been sneaking out for several days now... There's no war recently, and he has no missions to complete...

He's been leaving early and returning late these past few days...

The more Kyogawa thought about it, the more wrong it felt. He recalled how Hashirama always seemed to be in a daze during dinner these past few nights, occasionally giggling at thin air.

Sometimes, he would even laugh foolishly while practicing ninjutsu.

Could it be...

Has Brother Hashirama fallen in love?

The more Kyogawa thought about it, the more likely it seemed. After all, Hashirama was twelve years old now, the prime age for a first crush, and children in the Ninja World were generally quite precocious.

It seemed perfectly normal for Hashirama to fall in love at this age and arrange to meet a young girl outside the clan grounds for a date.

But why not meet inside the clan grounds? Kyogawa wondered. In his view, Butsuma wasn't the type of father to restrict his children in such matters; in fact, he believed Butsuma would be quite happy for Hashirama to be dating a girl, as it would mean branching out the Senju clan sooner.

Could she be a girl from another ninja clan? The more Kyogawa thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.

He couldn't sit still anymore. Although Hashirama was an eldest brother he deeply admired—and one could even tell at times that Hashirama's true nature wasn't as simple as it appeared, perhaps even being a bit of a "hidden dark" type—he was still just a little bean who had never been in love.

Even though Kyogawa hadn't been in love either, he firmly believed that the bystander sees more than the player.

He decided to follow Hashirama to see what was going on.

He wasn't stalking him, he told himself; this was clearly just looking out for his big brother. That was what Kyogawa thought to himself.

And so, Senju Kyogawa followed Hashirama to the Naka River—

The very place where he often came to catch fish. Kyogawa had even encountered Izuna, who might be from the Uchiha Clan, right here.

At the mere thought of the Uchiha Clan, Kyogawa's mood turned subtle.

He hid behind a large tree and observed carefully.

Kyogawa noticed that his brother Hashirama first picked up a stone of suitable size from the ground, then weighed it in his hand.

Kyogawa was just wondering what Hashirama was about to do.

But Hashirama suddenly stopped moving; he stood still, as if waiting for someone.

Big Brother is eyeing the opposite bank. It looks like the person he's waiting for isn't from the Senju clan, Kyogawa deduced.

After a while, Kyogawa saw a figure appear in the bushes on the opposite bank—a boy about the same height as Hashirama. The boy was dressed much more fashionably than Hashirama, clad in black, with long hair that spiked up in every direction.

Looking closely, wasn't that boy the same one Kyogawa had met in that town in the Land of Lightning—Madara?

Kyogawa had a deep impression of Madara, and his feelings toward him were quite positive.

After all, that was the boy who had contributed so many Cuddle Points to Senju Kyogawa.

Come to think of it...

Ever since Senju Kyogawa returned from that mission, he discovered that his older brother Senju Hashirama's Cuddle Points had also become [7], making it difficult for him to determine who the protagonist of this manga actually was.

Was it Madara, or was it Senju Hashirama?

Then again, Madara's features were truly exquisite. As a rule, protagonists were usually good-looking people, so looking at it this way, the possibility of Madara being the protagonist seemed higher than Hashirama's...

In the few seconds Senju Kyogawa spent pondering, Senju Hashirama and Madara moved simultaneously, both of them tossing the stones in their hands in perfect unison.

The two stones skipped and danced across the surface of the water before reaching their respective opposite banks, where they were caught in the palms of Madara and Hashirama.

Huh? It was just stone-skipping...

Senju Kyogawa couldn't help but give them a deadpan stare. He had actually thought his brother Hashirama was about to do something earth-shattering with those stones... turns out it was just skipping them.

"Hashirama..." Madara, on the opposite bank, suddenly called out Senju Hashirama's name.

"Yeah... I know..." Senju Hashirama replied.

Senju Kyogawa was left wondering what kind of riddle they were playing at.

But soon, he didn't have to guess anymore.

Because Senju Hashirama suddenly hurled the stone in his hand, aiming directly at Senju Kyogawa's hiding spot.

Senju Hashirama had discovered Senju Kyogawa.

And so, Senju Kyogawa stepped out.

Since he had already been found, there was no point in hiding anymore.

"Eh?" Senju Hashirama's eyes turned into little dots when he saw that it was Kyogawa hiding there.

Senju Kyogawa awkwardly raised a hand to greet the two of them:

"Hi! Brother Hashirama... and..."

"Long time no see, Brother Madara."