Izuna: I Will Carve "Caged Bird" Onto the Senju Clan

Within the Uchiha compound.

Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Izuna, Uchiha Yan, Senju Hashirama, Senju Tobirama, and Konoha's Five Elders stood before the Uchiha Clan's ancestral stone tablet.

"Why can't I see anything at all?" Senju Tobirama stared at it for quite some time. "Uchiha Yan, did you just make this up?"

"Hmph. Go ahead and resent your unfortunate fate of not having the Sharingan. This is the Uchiha Clan's ancestral stone tablet. You need the Sharingan to see what is written on it." Izuna mocked.

"Tobirama, Izuna is right. You really do need the Sharingan to see the contents on it," Uchiha Yan explained.

Uchiha Madara stood at the very front of the tablet for a long while.

"So that's how it is." Madara could not help but say this after reading its contents.

"Madara, what does the tablet say?" Hashirama was curious as well.

"It records the origins of the Uchiha Clan, as well as the origins of the Senju Clan."

"What?" Senju Tobirama frowned. "Why would an Uchiha Clan tablet record the origins of the Senju Clan? Were the Senju and Uchiha enemies even in ancient times, so it was recorded here?"

"Madara, tell us in detail." Hashirama was dying of curiosity.

"The tablet says that the Sage of Six Paths founded the Ninja Creed and had two children. The elder was called Indra, and he inherited the Sage Eyes. The younger was called Ashura, and he inherited the Sage Body. But the Sage of Six Paths favored his younger son and passed the Ninja Creed on to Ashura, which left Indra dissatisfied. As a result, Indra awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan. From then on, the descendants of the two brothers fought for a thousand years. That is the origin of the Uchiha and Senju."

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Senju Tobirama said angrily. "Uchiha Madara is staring at a stone tablet none of us can understand and making things up, claiming that the Uchiha and Senju ancestors were biological brothers—and that the Uchiha were the elder brothers?"

"Hmph. I don't want relatives like you either. But that is what the Uchiha Clan's ancestral stone tablet records. The Sage of Six Paths was biased. The Uchiha were the legitimate eldest line, yet he passed everything to the second son. The Uchiha are the main family, while the Senju are a branch family. If this were the Hyuga Clan, they would have carved Caged Bird marks onto your heads." Though Izuna found it absurd as well, he quickly accepted reality: the Uchiha were the elder brothers, and the Senju were the younger brothers.

"Utter nonsense!" Tobirama refused to believe it no matter what. "Even if they really were brothers, the Senju would be the elder brothers at most!"

Senju Hashirama, however, looked delighted. "Madara, I never expected the Senju and Uchiha to be descendants of the Sage of Six Paths. No wonder I felt close to you the moment I saw you. Turns out we're all relatives."

"Brother, that doesn't make sense. Even if what this Uchiha tablet records is true, Indra and Ashura lived a thousand years ago. Then why did the Great Toad Sage say that you two were Indra and Ashura?" Senju Tobirama asked in confusion.

"Hmph. What's so hard to understand about that? As the Uchiha clan head, my brother naturally inherited the abilities of his ancestor Indra—the Sage Eyes. Didn't your brother Hashirama likewise inherit Ashura's Sage Body?" Izuna explained.

"That does make sense." His brother had the same parents as him, yet Hashirama's physique was clearly nothing like that of an ordinary human. There was only one explanation: his brother had inherited the Sage Body, while he had not.

"There's more," Uchiha Madara said, ignoring Izuna and Tobirama. "The tablet says that overusing the Mangekyo Sharingan will lead to blindness. The Uchiha need to fuse with the Senju's power, and the Mangekyo Sharingan can then awaken into the Rinnegan."

"That is probably what 'the interaction of two opposing forces yields All Things in Nature' means."

"The Rinnegan? The Rinnegan, one of the Three Great Dojutsu? The Sage of Six Paths possessed the Rinnegan. Who would've thought that the end point of the Sharingan was the Rinnegan?"

Blindness? When Senju Tobirama heard that excessive use of the Mangekyo Sharingan would cause blindness, he only thought it was good news. Once those three pairs of Uchiha Mangekyo Sharingan went blind, he would see how Uchiha Yan could keep acting so arrogantly before him.

"Uchiha and Senju fusion? How exactly do we fuse them? The Great Toad Sage said the enemy was very powerful." Hashirama urgently wanted to know how it worked.

Uchiha Madara shook his head. "The tablet doesn't explain in detail."

"And the tablet also contains a method for achieving peace in the ninja world."

"A method for peace?" Hashirama immediately became interested. Although Konoha's founding had safeguarded peace in one region, Hashirama's wish was for peace throughout the entire ninja world.

"The tablet says to fuse the Nine Tailed Beasts, become the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki, and activate the Infinite Tsukuyomi, creating an enormous genjutsu that covers the entire ninja world. If everyone is immersed in the genjutsu, the ninja world will have peace."

"A genjutsu?" The moment Tobirama heard of the Infinite Tsukuyomi, he felt it was unreliable. "This is obviously false peace. How can that count as a ninjutsu for peace?" Tobirama said furiously.

"Yan, did you already know about this Infinite Tsukuyomi? Is that why you had Hashirama and me capture the Tailed Beasts?" Uchiha Madara looked at Uchiha Yan.

"Lord Madara, I only discovered it recently as well. Capturing the Tailed Beasts was purely to prevent anyone with ill intentions from using them as weapons of war. Besides, the Infinite Tsukuyomi makes everyone live inside a genjutsu. It is false peace," Uchiha Yan said. "True peace is something we need to create with our own hands."

"That's right!" Izuna agreed. He was currently planning to have a second child with Uori, living through the happiest and most fulfilling time of his life, so he utterly detested this so-called Infinite Tsukuyomi.

"Madara, what do you think?" Hashirama looked at him.

"Falsehood is falsehood in the end," Uchiha Madara said. "No one is to bring up the Infinite Tsukuyomi again. We will pretend this never happened."

"Then the question now is how to fuse the powers of the Uchiha and Senju. Do Uchiha and Senju need to join together and have children?" Uchiha Izuna said.

As soon as he spoke, everyone's eyes turned in unison toward Senju Tobirama.

Tobirama froze for a moment, then immediately protested, "No, why are you all looking at me?!"

Everyone knew that Senju Tobirama hated the Uchiha most of all. Have him join with an Uchiha? He would rather die.

"Madara, you need to get moving too," Senju Hashirama said. "There are quite a few good girls in the Senju Clan. If there's one you like, I can arrange it for you. We're relatives, so there's no need to be embarrassed."

"Lord Hashirama, you're too late," Uchiha Yan cut in. "Miss Shino has always been devoted to Lord Madara. You wouldn't want Lady Mito to lose such a good friend, would you?"

"Shino?" Uchiha Madara frowned. "Who is Shino?" Madara had little interest in women, but he was still somewhat curious upon hearing that someone liked him.

"Brother," Uchiha Izuna could not help sighing, "Miss Shino is your assistant."

Madara: "...Her?"