Heading to the battlefield

Hashirama, what was the point of founding Konoha? After your death, war remained inevitable. As long as humans and factions exist in this world, conflict will always be unavoidable.

As the war continued, members of the Uchiha Clan died one after another.

Relatives who had greeted Madara Uchiha on the street just days earlier, friends of his parents in this life—all those living, breathing people became nothing more than lines of text on casualty lists.

His once cheerful, sunny mother sank into grief beneath the relentless bad news. As the Uchiha Clan's leader, his father had to coordinate its war deployments while reassuring its members, and had not come home in a long time. Shisui had also been sent out to fight. Before leaving, the boy had even told him not to worry.

Though Madara Uchiha did not want to admit it, amid all this sorrow, he did feel a trace of loneliness without Shisui there to train with him.

If war could not be stopped, what was the point of founding a village?

Madara Uchiha had deliberately let himself drift through the warmth of family life without dwelling on such things, but the Third Shinobi World War dragged him back to his own reality.

Though he had failed in his previous life, Madara Uchiha still hoped to achieve lasting peace in the shinobi world. But how could he make that dream come true?

That day, after Madara Uchiha had once again comforted his mother over the death of a friend, his father, Uchiha Fugaku, made a rare return home since the outbreak of the war.

"Mikoto, don't worry. Thanks to Minato Namikaze, our Land of Fire has gained an advantage in the war against the Land of Earth. I'm sure we'll defeat Iwagakure before long."

Uchiha Fugaku had not seen his wife in a long time. Seeing how haggard Uchiha Mikoto looked when they finally reunited, he naturally understood what worried the woman he loved.

Despite Madara Uchiha watching nearby, Uchiha Fugaku carefully drew Uchiha Mikoto into his arms, comforting her as he gently patted her shoulder.

Although Mikoto had not gone to war, she was so kindhearted that merely hearing such tragic news must have been enough to break her heart.

Though Uchiha Fugaku's heart ached for Mikoto, he had returned this time with news that would inevitably anger his wife.

"You're saying you want to take Itachi to the battlefield? Why? Fugaku, he's only four!"

"Didn't you say we already have the advantage? Even if Itachi is gifted, he hasn't even attended the Ninja Academy. If something happens to him on the battlefield, how am I supposed to go on living?"

The ever gentle and understanding Mikoto displayed a rare fierceness when faced with the prospect of her child being sent to war. For the first time, she shouted at Fugaku, the dependable husband she respected so much.

"I'm sorry, Mikoto. I understand your concerns, but Itachi is a child of the Uchiha Clan, and his talent is exceptional. I want him to understand the cruelty of war as early as possible. Only then, when he gains great power someday, will he be able to shoulder a shinobi's responsibilities and better protect our clan and our village."

Fugaku himself was deeply worried about taking his child to the battlefield. That was precisely why he had waited until the situation on the front had largely stabilized before proposing it. His wife's reproaches and complaints were both expected and entirely reasonable. Even so, he still wanted to take Madara there.

Fugaku had a feeling that, though his child was only four, his maturity already far surpassed that of other children his age. Combined with Itachi's exceptional talent for ninjutsu, if Fugaku guided him properly, Itachi might become the member of the Uchiha Clan with the greatest hope of becoming Hokage.

He did not need to actually become Hokage. As long as someone in the Uchiha Clan displayed the character and strength of a Hokage candidate, perhaps the suspicion and exclusion the clan faced within the village could improve.

No one understood the Uchiha Clan's position in the village better than Fugaku, its leader. So, although taking a four-year-old child to the battlefield was admittedly rather absurd, he still wanted to take Madara Uchiha there.

"Mother, let me go with Father. I want to see what a real battlefield is like, too. Don't worry. I'll come back safely."

How could Madara Uchiha not know what a battlefield was like?

Since the Warring States Period, Madara Uchiha had been born and raised on battlefields. His schemes had sparked the Fourth Shinobi World War, and he had died in that same war.

Mikoto had received plenty of tragic news lately, but all those deaths combined might not amount to even a fraction of the lives Madara Uchiha had taken with his blade.

With Uchiha Fugaku, the current leader of the Uchiha Clan, accompanying him, there was certainly nothing to worry about. Even without Fugaku, Madara could easily survive on his wealth of battlefield experience if he were thrown into the fighting alone.

"Itachi."

Seeing Madara Uchiha step forward and agree to go to the battlefield with Fugaku, Mikoto stroked his hair, her heart aching for him.

In her eyes, her child must have volunteered to bear it all himself so that she and her husband would stop arguing.

To Mikoto, Madara Uchiha had always been such a sensible, obedient, and understanding child.

"Mikoto, don't worry. I swear on my life that I won't let anything happen to Itachi!"

Seeing his wife waver after Madara spoke, Uchiha Fugaku immediately added another assurance.

"Itachi must come back alive. And so must you."

With things having reached this point, Mikoto knew her husband was determined to take Uchiha Itachi to the battlefield. After a quiet sigh in her heart, Uchiha Mikoto placed Madara's hand in Fugaku's and gave her husband her final reminder for the journey.

"I will!"

Uchiha Fugaku, who had become the clan leader and led his men through more than a hundred fierce battles, seemed to turn into an inexperienced youth under his wife's loving gaze. Feeling the deep affection in Mikoto's eyes, he even blushed a little.

Heh. Young people.

Unlike the blushing Fugaku, Madara Uchiha stood calmly to one side and watched his parents say goodbye. Though his actual age exceeded both of theirs combined, he had never experienced love in his previous life, so he naturally could not understand their sentimental farewell.

At last, amid Mikoto's endless reminders, Fugaku set off toward the battlefield with Madara Uchiha.