Uchiha and Senju

That night, in the Uchiha Clan Grounds, within the underground basement of the residence of Homura Uchiha, the current Uchiha Clan Head.

Sharp whipping sounds rang out one after another.

The stooped Homura Uchiha stood beneath a candle stand, coldly watching a six-year-old girl undergo the punishment of the whip.

The girl was Chizuru Uchiha. The middle-aged man Kirito had seen before, Kari Uchiha, was the one whipping her.

Under Kari Uchiha's control, the whip struck Chizuru's back mercilessly, leaving bloody welts across it.

"Chizuru, do you know why you're being punished today?"

After Kari Uchiha had delivered twenty lashes, Homura Uchiha instantly activated his Sharingan and stared at Chizuru with his Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

"Because I lost."

Chizuru held back her tears and answered stubbornly, meeting Homura Uchiha's Three-Tomoe Sharingan without fear with her One-Tomoe Sharingan.

"Wrong. Completely wrong."

Homura Uchiha shouted, the three tomoe in his eyes spinning rapidly.

The next moment, Chizuru let out a miserable scream, clutching her head as she fell to her knees. Her eyes were filled with deep fear.

"Get up. I'll ask you again. Why are you being punished?"

Homura Uchiha ignored the pitiful state of the six-year-old girl and spoke coldly.

Hearing this, Chizuru struggled to climb to her feet. She stared at Homura Uchiha with hatred in her eyes and answered, "Because I'm still not strong enough."

"That's right. You got it. You're not strong enough. As a genius carefully cultivated by the Uchiha Clan, you actually lost to an orphan from the Orphanage. What a disgrace."

Homura Uchiha sneered.

"What did you say?"

Chizuru asked in shock.

Homura Uchiha did not answer what she wanted to know and simply flicked his sleeve before leaving.

Not answering was an answer in itself.

Chizuru slumped to the ground in a daze. She had thought Kirito was some genius ninja secretly raised by a Ninja Clan, and that she had only lost due to a momentary lapse. But the truth was so cruel.

A genius carefully cultivated by the Uchiha Clan had lost to an unknown orphan.

It truly was disgraceful.

An intense sense of humiliation instantly surged through Chizuru's heart.

"Miss, a single victory or defeat cannot determine the future. What matters is learning from shame and becoming stronger. Your talent is no worse than that person's. In the future—"

Unable to bear seeing Chizuru like this, Kari Uchiha stepped forward to comfort her.

But before he could finish, Chizuru glared at him and snapped, "Shut up. Are you looking down on me? Get out."

A loss was a loss. Chizuru Uchiha needed no one's comfort.

Kari Uchiha obediently left, yet there was not the slightest displeasure on his face. Instead, a faint smile appeared.

"Next time, I absolutely, absolutely won't lose. I absolutely won't... Father, Mother, I..."

After Kari Uchiha left, Chizuru lowered her head and muttered stubbornly to herself. But as she spoke, tears began to fall uncontrollably from her chin.

Meanwhile, above the basement, Homura Uchiha looked at Kari Uchiha as he emerged and asked expressionlessly, "How is she?"

"Miss will pull herself together."

Kari Uchiha answered respectfully.

"Good. Have a Medical Ninja come treat Chizuru later. Also, today's medicinal bath is not to be stopped."

Homura Uchiha said indifferently.

"Yes~"

Kari Uchiha bowed in reply.

The next moment, he used the Body Flicker Technique and vanished from Homura Uchiha's sight.

Homura Uchiha continued looking toward the basement for a while before stepping outside. He raised his head, using his Sharingan to gaze at the desolate, beautiful crescent moon in the night sky.

"Chizuru, you must become the pillar of the Uchiha Clan and lead the clansmen to continue living on tenaciously."

At the Senju Clan Compound, in the Clan Head's family courtyard, Nawaki was diligently punching and kicking a wooden post. Judging from his already battered fists, he had been training there for quite some time.

Before long, he could no longer keep going. He collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath while repeatedly shouting, "Damn it, damn it, damn it!"

A powerful sense of shame was spreading through Nawaki's heart.

Whenever he thought of what had happened that afternoon, he was so embarrassed that he wished he could crawl into a crack in the ground. He had actually brazenly told Kirito to become his subordinate in the future when he himself was so weak.

After being toyed with from start to finish by that black-haired girl from the Uchiha Clan, Nawaki had finally realized just how weak he really was.

Though she had called him trash, he could not find a single reason to argue back.

As the First Hokage's grandson, Nawaki had been doted on by countless people since childhood. Naturally, he was proud deep down—extremely proud. Although his good upbringing and personality meant he did not usually throw around the status of being the Hokage's grandson, he truly believed that he would definitely become Hokage in the future.

But what had happened today had completely shattered the pride in his heart.

Kirito and Chizuru were clearly the same age as him, yet compared to the two of them, he was utterly useless. He might even be inferior to Inuzuka Mao, who also wanted to become Hokage.

"I can't go on like this. I have to become stronger. I'm a man who'll take the Hokage Position in the future. I'll definitely do it!"

Nawaki suddenly shouted.

He did not really know what becoming Hokage specifically entailed, but he knew that the Hokage's duty was to protect everyone in the village. To do that, he needed enough power.

"Hmph. All you can do is talk big. Someone who can't even give their all in daily training has no right to become Hokage."

Suddenly, a voice came from the nearby shadows.

The instant Nawaki heard that voice, he sprang up from the ground and looked fearfully at the red-haired woman stepping out of the shadows ahead.

She was an incredibly beautiful woman, with two buns tied at the sides of the back of her head and a diamond-shaped mark on her forehead. Her eyes were deep and weathered. She looked very young, yet she carried the twilight air unique to the elderly.

She was Konoha's most respected elder, the stabilizing pillar of the Senju Clan, the First Hokage's wife—Mito Uzumaki.

"Grandma, why are you here? Don't tell me you've been here the whole time?"

Nawaki hunched his head down and spoke tremblingly, like a mouse seeing a cat.

The person he feared seeing most was Mito Uzumaki. It was not because she did not care for him—on the contrary, she loved him dearly.

It was just that her way of showing affection was more than he could handle. Every day, she made him study Sealing Jutsu that he could never learn, even calling it an expression of love.

Over time, this had made his head hurt whenever he saw Sealing Jutsu. He had cried and thrown tantrums before finally escaping that sea of suffering.

Now, he was terrified that Mito Uzumaki had heard what he said and would force him to study Sealing Jutsu again.

To hell with Sealing Jutsu. Even if he could not use Sealing Jutsu, Nawaki could still become an outstanding Hokage.

"Who has the time to watch an idiot mindlessly beat a post? I heard you hadn't eaten all day, so I came to check on you. I didn't expect to hear someone talking big."

Mito Uzumaki looked at Nawaki with disdain.

"I wasn't talking big, Grandma. I'll definitely become Hokage someday."

Seeing that Mito did not mention Sealing Jutsu, Nawaki immediately felt bold again and protested indignantly.

Seeing this, Mito narrowed her eyes. Without saying anything, she simply aimed a finger at Nawaki's forehead and lightly flicked it.

Crack.

The next moment, Nawaki's entire body spun through the air and flew away, eventually smashing down one of the courtyard walls.

"It hurts!"

Nawaki crawled out from the pile of stones, clutching his reddened forehead with both hands as he cried out.

Then Mito's voice reached his ears. "Starting tomorrow, you'll resume training in Sealing Jutsu."

"No!!!"

The moment Nawaki heard that, his headache intensified, and he let out a pig-slaughtering scream.

Ignoring Nawaki's wails, Mito turned and left. She raised her head to look at the waning moon in the night sky and sighed softly. "Hashirama, I can barely hold on any longer. But I will endure until the very end."

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