Senior

The ghostly flames in the stone cave flickered.

Ye knelt on one knee, his shoulders rising and falling faintly.

He raised his head, his bangs slipping to either side.

His lips parted slightly as his body instinctively shrank back half an inch.

His gaze was filled with wariness, yet it also concealed a longing that was about to overflow.

From Madara's perspective, the child had clearly been struck in his most vulnerable spot by those words, "my grandson," and was desperately suppressing his emotions.

In reality, Ye was holding back laughter.

So hard that his abs were nearly cramping.

He took a deep breath, his lips trembling twice as though countless words were lodged in his throat.

In the end, he rasped out two words.

"Senior."

On the stone chair.

Madara's expression froze.

His entire body seemed nailed in place by a Binding Jutsu.

The burning anticipation that had just welled up in his cloudy Sharingan was like being doused from head to toe with a basin of ice water.

Senior.

It was the form of address he had personally chosen.

"Just call me Senior."

When he had said that, he had felt like a chess player plotting every move, using distance to control the measure of a new piece.

Now, those two words came crashing back at him, turning into a blunt knife that stabbed viciously through his chest and into his heart.

Every stroke of them was barbed.

Madara's Adam's apple bobbed, but nothing came out.

[Ding! Extreme Regret Points from Madara Uchiha: +4000!]

Ye lowered his eyes, using his bangs to hide his face.

Damn, four thousand.

This old man's Emotion Points were even easier to earn than Obito's.

Time slowly passed within the stone cave.

The ghostly flames burned down one length after