"I'm not talking to you. One of these days, you unfilial brat will be the death of me." Uchiha Tajima felt his head ache. He turned to Uchiha Madara, the son he had the highest hopes for, and asked, "Madara, how big is the gap between you and your eldest brother?"
"Me and my eldest brother? Four to six in genjutsu, three to seven in taijutsu, and one to nine in ninjutsu." Madara Uchiha took a sip of hot water. As his stomach warmed, his whole body relaxed.
"It looks like the gap isn't that big anymore. Your age and resources have limited your progress in taijutsu and ninjutsu. I'm sure you'll catch up to your eldest brother soon."
A trace of a smile appeared on Uchiha Tajima's face. As expected of the son he had the highest hopes for-in such a short time, he could already hold his own at four to six in genjutsu against his short-tempered, neurotic eldest brother.
"Four genjutsu in one night, and I died sixty thousand times. Taijutsu... three moves left me needing seven days to recover. Ninjutsu... nine of my jutsu couldn't withstand one of his Lightning Release jutsu."
Madara Uchiha spoke flatly, shattering his illusions. He picked up his hot water and took a leisurely sip, looking as though he had seen through all worldly concerns.
Uchiha Tajima's smile instantly froze on his face. He mechanically turned toward Indra, pressed his lips together, and forced a smile uglier than a grimace. "Xia, I might not be your biological father, but Madara is your biological little brother. Don't torment him until he goes mad."
"It doesn't matter. I'm used to it. Training with my eldest brother helps me improve fast."
Madara Uchiha had already made his peace with it. His eldest brother was stronger because he had grown up in worse conditions. Although he hadn't had a reliable father, he'd had a reliable mother who had arranged what came afterward.
Besides, this was his own Nii-san. What was wrong with a younger brother being just a little weaker than his older brother? Wasn't Izuna a little weaker than him, too? So were Xing and Yue.
Uchiha Tajima: ... Could a son really grow this strong just by being left to his own devices? Or had this unfilial brat's latent Kaguya bloodline awakened?
"From now on, Madara stays with me. If you dare interfere with his decisions, I'll kill you." Indra's scarlet Sharingan emerged. His gaze toward Uchiha Tajima was cold and utterly devoid of emotion, his threat brazen.
"Who wants to stay with you? I don't." Madara Uchiha set down his cup and rose haughtily, but the corners of his mouth, which he could barely keep from lifting, had already betrayed his mood.
Yet the moment he returned to his room, he was greeted by Indra's nightmarish lessons on proper thinking and avoiding scams.
When Izuna returned from training, he heard muffled groans of pain coming from Indra's room next door. He quietly crouched outside the door and eavesdropped furtively. After agonizing over it for a long time, he decided to open the door a crack and peek inside.
But just as he reached out, the door swung open. One tall figure and one short figure stared at each other.
"Big brother, I... heard some strange noises..." Izuna's explanation sounded feeble, and his voice grew quieter and quieter.
Figuring that teaching two was no different from teaching one, Indra said coldly, "Wash up and come over. You'll join Madara."
"Huh? Oh!" Izuna went to the bathroom, rinsed himself clean, and changed into a bathrobe. Then he washed his clothes, wrung them out, and hung them outside before anxiously returning to Indra's room.
The moment he entered, however, a genjutsu knocked him out. Indra laid Izuna beside Madara, spread out his own bedding, and drifted off to sleep.
When Madara emerged from the genjutsu at dawn, he saw Izuna lying beside him, apparently caught in a genjutsu as well. He formed hand seals with both hands and tried to release it for him, but it didn't work.
He then tried disrupting Izuna's chakra, but Izuna still showed no sign of waking.
"Big brother's genjutsu is so overpowering. There's no way to break it without hurting the person caught in it."
After studying it for quite a while, Madara Uchiha finally found a lead. He cast another genjutsu on Izuna on top of the one already affecting him, waking him that way.
Izuna woke, but he was mentally drained.
"Madara, big brother, do either of you treat me like a human being?" Izuna's little face was deathly pale, and even his voice was weak.
"Be good. You'll get used to it. Big brother puts me through this every day, too. If I can endure it, so can you."
Madara patted Izuna's head. Sure enough, he preferred having his little brother train with him. His little brother had to suffer everything he had suffered, too.
In his good mood, Madara Uchiha had completely forgotten about Hashirama at the Naka River.
After waiting by the river for several days without finding him, Hashirama began talking to himself. "That guy should be a ninja. I haven't seen him in so long. He's probably still alive, right?"
"I think he's definitely alive. He always looks gloomy, but he's pretty good-looking. I wonder which clan he's from."
"Forget it. It's probably better not to know."
Madara Uchiha had been in a cheerful mood, but when Indra began teaching Uchiha Chiri again, he left the clan grounds with a long face once more.
As soon as he reached the banks of the Naka River, he saw the guy he had knocked into the water before.
"Still alive, huh?"
"Do you have any friends, talking like that?" Hashirama Senju hugged his knees, his expression practically begging for a punch.
"Uh..." Madara Uchiha was momentarily speechless. He didn't, and he didn't need any. Having those would get him stabbed in the heart in Nii-san's genjutsu. "I have little brothers."
"I have three little brothers." Not to be outdone, Hashirama Senju looked utterly smug.
"I have three little brothers, too." Madara Uchiha folded his arms and put some distance between them, sizing up the person before him. "I also have an older bro... sister!"
He had almost slipped and mentioned his eldest brother. If his eldest brother found out, he'd definitely beat him to death.
"Huh? You have an older sister, too?" Hashirama Senju was genuinely surprised. Five siblings, and the important part was that they were all alive. In times like these, that was practically unthinkable.
"Hmph!" In truth, Madara Uchiha felt a little guilty. Big brother won't find out, right?
If he said he had an older brother and the other boy investigated, he might inevitably trace it back to his eldest brother. If he said older sister, then even if the boy learned he was an Uchiha, there were so many Uchiha that he surely wouldn't be able to trace it back to him.
He hadn't even considered telling the other boy his name.
All that could be said was that Indra's grueling genjutsu had taught him a little cunning-but not much, and all of it crooked.
"Is your sister pretty? She must be really pretty. Is she married? Ah, you're already this old, so your sister must be married."
Hashirama Senju felt a little disappointed. The boy before him was good-looking, so his older sister must be good-looking, too. If they weren't from an enemy clan, maybe he could marry her.
Especially since his little brother had recently gone missing, yet his father was still pressing him to get married. It was so annoying.
If I have to get married anyway, why can't I marry someone pretty?
Father can't have any more children himself, so he's pushing me to get married and have children. It's so annoying. I don't want to go home.
"Hey, your questions are really rude. My... sister..." A chill ran down Madara Uchiha's back as he said it. Big brother looks great dressed as a woman anyway, so calling him my sister should be fine, right? Right, big brother doesn't know. "My sister is the prettiest. My sister is really strong-she even beats up my father. Nobody's good enough for my sister."
The more Madara Uchiha called him his sister, the more easily it rolled off his tongue, giving him the illusion that having his eldest brother as an older sister might actually be nice.
"Are you sure your sister doesn't want to get married, rather than being so violent that nobody wants her?" Hashirama Senju curled his lip. He didn't believe a single word the other boy said.
Before you continue