The pull of blood

"Hey, you bastard! Plenty of people like my big... sister, okay? I couldn't beat them all up in a day!"

Madara Uchiha would never let anyone bad-mouth Nii-san. Never mind all the people on Asagiri Mountain who had their eyes on Nii-san-there was even someone at home competing with him for Nii-san every day. It was infuriating.

If Nii-san had been training with him, he never would have run into this obnoxious nuisance.

"Ahahaha! All right, all right, you win. Looking at you, I bet your sister beats you up plenty!"

Hashirama Senju scratched his head and laughed, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration. If the other boy could have an older sister, why couldn't he have a younger sister? Besides...

Tobirama looked pretty quiet and gentle. Why couldn't he be a little sister?

"Actually... I have a little sister."

Hashirama Senju felt a little guilty saying that, but not much. No one would find out anyway, so what was the harm in bragging a little away from home?

Even if his father found out that a ninja with a little sister had gotten too close to someone from another clan, who would suspect him?

At that thought, even his tiny pang of guilt vanished.

"What? What's your little sister got to do with me?" Madara Uchiha folded his arms, his expression practically saying, I can't stand you. Get out of my sight.

"Hahaha! My little sister is sweet, cute, and obedient. Does your big sister listen to you?" Hashirama Senju planted his hands on his hips, feeling he had gained the upper hand.

"Oh? Can your little sister pin your father down and beat him up? Is she as pretty as my big sister?" Madara Uchiha scoffed inwardly. What good were sweet and cute? He had sweet, cute little brothers too. Could a little sister fight as well as a little brother?

"Uh... no." Hashirama Senju scratched his head, but then another thought occurred to him. "You're a ninja, right? My name's Hashirama. Sorry, but I can't tell you my surname."

"Oh. I know you're a ninja." Looking haughty and utterly uninterested, Madara Uchiha picked up a pebble and stood on the riverbank, throwing it at the fish.

"Uh... what's your name?" Hashirama Senju scratched his head. He suspected that this boy's sister was violent because the boy drove her to it. He had such a good-looking face, but his personality was awful-even worse than Tobirama's.

"Invincible." Madara Uchiha made up a name on the spot. His experience of being whipped in genjutsu had taught him that he couldn't reveal his given name to others, let alone his surname.

"Huh? Does your family always give people such arrogant names?" Hashirama Senju had the strange feeling he was being tricked, but had no proof.

"What's wrong with that? My big sister is Unrivaled, I'm Invincible, and my little brothers are Speechless, Wordless, and Helpless. What's the problem?"

Madara Uchiha spouted nonsense with a perfectly straight face. Whether the other boy was one of those damned Senju or not, anyone asking his name had to be up to something. Since he hadn't attacked, Madara could refrain from killing him for now.

Nii-san had taught him that, so it had to be right.

But Indra hadn't realized that his lessons were leading Madara further and further astray.

One person whose thinking was rather twisted was teaching another whose thinking wasn't fully developed. Together, they had veered miles away from what they had intended.

Indra's original intention was for Madara to kill Asura's reincarnation if he encountered him and could manage it. If he couldn't, he still shouldn't trust him or become deeply involved with him.

Madara had taken that to mean this person was scheming against his Uchiha clan, so he would trick him first, then kill him in front of Nii-san and earn Nii-san's praise.

Because Madara Uchiha had changed, there was no longer any innocent friendship between him and Hashirama.

They had truly become an evil Uchiha and a deceitful, despicable Senju.

"Hehehe, your family... certainly has some unusual names. But that means you must be pretty strong, right? In times like these, anyone whose brothers are all still alive has to be strong. Want to spar?"

Ever since he had been knocked into the river last time, Hashirama Senju had formed a rough estimate of the boy's strength. They were evenly matched, but he would have to fight him to know for sure.

Madara Uchiha folded his arms and stared silently at him. Here it comes, here it comes. He's making his move. He's going to gather information on me. The scenes from the genjutsu hammered at his mind again and again-taking things by force, vicious strikes to the heart, romantic swindlers. Every sequence frayed his nerves.

It all matched!

The person in front of him was a Senju ninja, here to toy with his feelings.

Hah. Who did he think Madara Uchiha was?

As if he would fall for a tasteless guy like this.

They could at least send someone with decent clothes and looks. He wasn't even as pretty as Nii-san dressed as a woman.

Madara Uchiha didn't hesitate. The moment the invitation came, he attacked. Training with Nii-san had taught him to strike first and talk less, or he would get a blast of Water Release straight into his mouth.

Hashirama Senju hadn't expected the sudden attack. He had suspected the boy might be an Uchiha, but now he dismissed that concern. They had fought the Uchiha for so many years that they knew them inside out.

The boy had launched a surprise attack without even taunting him. He definitely wasn't an Uchiha.

An Uchiha wouldn't choose such a tasteless name, either.

The two were evenly matched in taijutsu, but a clear gap emerged when it came to ninjutsu.

Madara Uchiha chased Hashirama Senju with Water Release in one hand and Lightning Release in the other. Ever since learning that the Great Fireball Technique was meant for cooking-and that he had been using it for so many years-he had developed a deep aversion to it.

Thanks to the despicable Senju's trickery, both of them fell into the river, and the Lightning Release in Madara Uchiha's hand spread through the water.

Luckily, Madara reduced the flow of chakra as soon as he hit the water. Only the residual power shocked them, leaving their bodies paralyzed as they floated like corpses alongside the fish.

But Madara Uchiha's recovery fell far short of Hashirama Senju's. Within just fifteen minutes, Hashirama Senju could move again, and he pulled Madara out of the river as well.

"You electrocuted quite a few fish."

Hashirama Senju fished the dead fish out of the water, then cut a few branches to build a crude rack.

By then, Madara Uchiha could move too. He sat up, stripped off his clothes, and laid them on the rack to dry over the fire.

"Bastard! If you hadn't dragged me into the water, this never would've happened."

Seeing that it was already late and he still hadn't gone home, he knew his father would question him if he found out. But then he remembered Nii-san. His father certainly wouldn't dare confront Nii-san, so he would hide in Nii-san's room once he got home and stay there.

With that decided, he was in no hurry to return. Instead, he started grilling fish.

Since he had begun studying under Indra, he had avoided making hand seals whenever possible. As long as he knew how the chakra flowed, he could spare himself the trouble.

Just like now, he grilled fish with the Fire Release that appeared in his palm. As long as he didn't make hand seals, no one would know what jutsu he was using.

"Are you staying here to grill fish? I'm heading back first." Hashirama Senju put on his now-dry clothes. To avoid getting caught sneaking out of the clan grounds to play, he had to leave first.

"Aren't you taking some of these?" Madara Uchiha pointed at the fish on the ground. There were too many for him to carry alone. If only his big brother were here-he could take them all with a spatial Sealing Jutsu.

"Your jutsu caught them, after all, but since you're offering, don't mind if I do." Hashirama Senju wove some branches into a simple basket and made one for Madara too. The two parted ways in the darkness.

Meanwhile, having gone all day without seeing Madara Uchiha, Indra stood on a rooftop with an icy expression. He formed a one-handed seal and extended his perception. Suddenly, he stopped, frowning as he muttered to himself, "What's going on? Why did I sense a blood connection within the Uchiha?"

"A thousand years have passed since Ninshu. It's impossible for any of my direct bloodline to still exist. Was that just my imagination?"