The same ancestors

The group escaped from Tobirama Senju's Bringer-of-Darkness Technique.

Held in Toshihi's arms, Setsuna clung to his shoulder and looked back.

Their Senju pursuers poured out of the darkness. They moved incredibly fast, closing the gap with every leap.

Setsuna gritted his teeth and squeezed out every last drop of chakra.

He spread his fingers and clawed at the air toward the approaching figures.

A pitch-black hand reached out of the shadows, its fingers spread, and slapped at the Senju Clan's ninjas.

The leading ninja's pupils contracted, and his forward charge came to an abrupt halt.

But Setsuna was too weak, and his Shadow Technique had only just taken shape. With a sweep of a Senju ninja's blade, the newly formed shadow hands shattered into wisps of black smoke and vanished into the air.

Still, that was enough to widen the gap.

Seizing the opportunity, Toshihi and the others used several consecutive Body Flicker Techniques, carrying the children across the last stretch of buffer land and plunging into the dense forest of the Uchiha Territory.

None of them dared stop. Only after passing five hundred meters beyond the sentry post did the Jonin land together and set the children down one by one.

Setsuna swayed the moment his feet touched the ground. The battle had taken a great deal out of him.

Kagami quickly reached over and caught his arm.

Still shaken, the children stood dazed where they were, gasping for breath.

Toshihi did not hurry them. He unfastened the waterskin at his waist and passed it around for the children to share.

The oldest child, an eight-year-old, took a gulp from the waterskin and swallowed hard before speaking in a daze. "That man... was Tobirama Senju... He's terrifying."

The children nodded, still rattled.

Setsuna flexed his limbs and felt a trace of warmth returning to his depleted chakra pathways.

With recovery power level three as his foundation, his stamina recovered far faster than before.

He spoke dismissively. "Tobirama Senju is nothing special. He's just fifteen or twenty years older than us. If you're this scared of him now, won't you die of fright when you meet him on the battlefield? Take him seriously tactically, but look down on him strategically. Tobirama Senju is just a paper tiger who bullies the weak."

Kagami tilted his head. "What does that mean?"

Setsuna explained, "Don't let one clash scare you out of your wits. Admit he's strong, but don't admit he's unbeatable."

Setsuna smiled confidently. "Once I'm his age, I'll string him up and spank him."

"I think someone else is going to get strung up and spanked."

Toshihi slapped Setsuna on the bottom, making him stumble a step.

"What did you say back there? You think you can insult the clan head?"

Setsuna shrank back.

I'm done for. I got carried away when I used the Shadow Technique and blurted out 'Madara Uchiha, fuck eighteen generations of your ancestors' again.

The more satisfying it had felt to shout it, the more he regretted it now.

He cautiously lifted his eyes, searching Toshihi's face for any sign that he was joking.

The children fell utterly silent.

Toshihi nudged Setsuna's shoulder, signaling him to move. "Let's go. Once we're back at the clan grounds, I'll report this to the elders of the Disciplinary Hall."

The Disciplinary Hall.

At those words, terror appeared on every child's face.

Setsuna's heart sank. He tugged at Kagami's sleeve and whispered, "What's that place for?"

Kagami turned to him with a worried look. "It's... where clan members are punished for doing something wrong."

Setsuna went pale.

He whipped around to Toshihi and pointed at his own nose. "That's not fair! I just saved everyone's lives! If my Shadow Technique hadn't held off our pursuers, we'd still be trapped in the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique! That counts as a contribution! A contribution!"

Toshihi did not even lift his eyelids. "As far as I know, this isn't the first time you've insulted the clan head. Unless you learn your lesson, I don't think you'll ever stop."

Setsuna puffed out his cheeks and glared angrily at Toshihi.

After a moment, he looked away, raised his chin, and snorted:

"Fine, punish me. If I, Uchiha Setsuna, so much as furrow my brow, I'll take your surname."

Toshihi's lips twitched. For the first time, an indescribably complicated expression appeared on his usually stern face.

He said, "We already have the same surname."

...Huh?

Setsuna blinked, unable to process that for a moment.

Kagami cautiously poked his arm and asked softly, "Setsuna, don't tell me you thought you and the clan head... didn't have the same ancestors?"

Setsuna stared at him blankly.

Setsuna opened his mouth and asked stupidly, "We do?"

Kagami nodded firmly. "Insulting the clan head's ancestors means insulting your own ancestors, too."

Setsuna was bewildered. In the game, plenty of characters were Uchiha, but the players controlling them weren't one family. They could freely spew every colorful insult imaginable at eighteen generations of someone else's ancestors.

That had left Setsuna feeling that he and his opponents weren't family either.

And in the game, the one he cursed most often... was Madara Uchiha.

But that wasn't his fault. Who told Madara Uchiha to have so many character forms? From boyhood to youth to adulthood, then even Impure World Reincarnation, followed by his Six Paths form. The developers had even given him a Lu Bu Form as overpowered as the Jade Emperor himself.

Setsuna had practically developed PTSD that made him start cursing whenever he heard Madara Uchiha's name.

In the Arena, Madara was the most absurdly overpowered ninja for players who insisted on playing him exclusively.

But now that Kagami had pointed it out, it seemed Setsuna had been cursing his own ancestors all along.

Setsuna's entire face went blank. In an instant, he seemed to lose all his color, like an uncolored line drawing.

Toshihi rubbed his brow and closed his eyes, unable to bear the sight.

If word got out, how would the Uchiha Clan ever save face?

Kagami glanced at their clanmates, who were struggling not to laugh, then at Setsuna, who looked ready to shatter. Pressing his lips together to suppress his smile, he asked:

"Setsuna, what was that ninjutsu you just used? It was amazing!"

At those words, Setsuna perked right up like a balloon being inflated.

"It's the Ten Shadows Technique." He puffed out his chest, his smugness sweeping away all his misery over insulting his own ancestors. "You can use hand shadows to summon different animals to fight for you. It's really powerful."

Kagami tilted his head in confusion.

What confused him was the part about summoning animals.

Imitating Setsuna, he raised his middle finger and earnestly asked, "What animal is this?"

Setsuna froze.

That was a middle finger. What animal could it possibly be?

He did not know much about animals, but giving people the finger had once been part of his daily routine.

In the Arena, the middle finger meant mockery. It meant, "Even if I lose, I'm still going to piss you off." The one thing it had nothing to do with was animals.

"Th-this is Diglett," he stammered, making it up as he went. "That's right. This is Diglett's hand shadow."

He raised his middle finger and declared firmly, "This is Diglett."

Then he raised three fingers. "And this is Diglett's evolution-Dugtrio."

He tried to cover his embarrassment with Diglett from Pokémon, a favorite among players.

The children gathered around, exclaiming in amazement as they all copied Setsuna and raised their middle fingers.

"So this is Diglett's hand shadow!"

"Is this how you position your fingers for Dugtrio?"

"Setsuna, you know so much!"

Toshihi could not watch any longer.

He strode over and rapped each of them on the head.

"Don't copy Setsuna. That's an extremely offensive, rude gesture. If any of you dare use it, I'll have you spend two days in the Disciplinary Hall learning proper behavior."

The children answered a dejected "Yes" and hid their hands behind their backs.

Toshihi looked at Setsuna, not knowing what to say.

After all, Setsuna's genius exceeded anything he had imagined.

Five and a half years old, and he had invented his own ninjutsu. Although it was still immature, few in the entire history of the Uchiha Clan had accomplished something like that at his age.

Besides, the technique really had saved their lives.

But... the way he used it was an utter disgrace to the Uchiha.

Toshihi felt he would never forget the sight of that giant black hand bursting from the shadows with its middle finger raised.

In his twenty-odd years of life, he had seen countless ninjutsu, but never one activated by giving someone the finger.

Toshihi sighed, thinking he absolutely had to tell the elders of the Disciplinary Hall to teach Setsuna some discipline and manners.

After all, the Uchiha's young clan heir could not merely be powerful. Everything he said and did represented the clan.

On the other side of the Neutral Zone.

Tobirama Senju stood with his arms folded in the forest clearing where the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique had dissipated, gazing intently in the direction the Uchiha group had vanished.

A faint sound of landing came from the canopy behind him.

The three Senju ninjas who had pursued the farthest knelt on one knee. "Lord Tobirama, the targets have entered the Uchiha Territory. We failed to intercept them."

"Mm." Tobirama nodded.

The ninja hesitated before continuing. "During their retreat, the enemy released another black hand, blocking our pursuit route and widening the gap over the final stretch."

Tobirama tapped his arm twice with his fingers.

"Did you see clearly who used the ninjutsu?"

"Yes. A child with spiky hair and whites showing on three sides of his eyes." The ninja frowned as he recalled it. "Its form resembled the Nara Clan's Shadow Possession Jutsu. And the hand seals-no, I didn't see him make any hand seals."

"No hand seals?"

"...Correct."

The mountain wind passed through the Neutral Zone's woods, stirring Tobirama's short, silver-white hair.

The Senju's original purpose in this operation had been to intercept evidence of the Uchiha passing intelligence to the Hagoromo Clan.

But they had found no intelligence, which meant this had never been a supply transport team.

It was an escort. They were protecting a person, not intelligence.

That child.

Tobirama closed his eyes, reviewing every detail in his memory.

A one-tomoe Sharingan, still glowing scarlet in absolute darkness.

He looked about six years old.

Even among the Uchiha, who produced geniuses in abundance, awakening his eyes at that age placed his talent among a select few.

More troubling still, within the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique's domain, the child had been completely unhindered by the darkness. Instead, he had used it to unleash a technique Tobirama had never seen before.

The Uchiha truly never stop producing geniuses.

If he's allowed to grow, in fifteen years...

No, just ten years, and the Uchiha will gain another top-tier fighter capable of shifting the balance of the Warring States.

But the Uchiha will certainly keep him under tight protection...

His brow twitched as he recalled the child's shouted insult toward Madara Uchiha.

He seems quite dissatisfied with Madara Uchiha. Perhaps that could be used to drive a wedge between them... deepen his conflict with the Uchiha Clan...