It Was All Madara Uchiha's Fault

"Waaaaah-"

The four-year-old's wails assaulted Setsuna's eardrums.

Setsuna crouched on the ground with his hands over his ears and his face buried between his knees, almost ready to start wailing himself.

"Kagami, do something!" Uchiha Setsuna, who had always believed himself capable of anything, lifted his scrunched-up little face and cast a pleading look at his companion.

Standing before the sobbing child, Kagami had worked himself into such a panic that a fine sheen of sweat covered his forehead.

He put both hands on his head and bent his fingers, trying hard to imitate twitching rabbit ears. "Look, Xiao An, a bunny-a little bunny!"

The child glanced at him through tear-blurred eyes, opened their mouth even wider, and cried a pitch higher.

Kagami's smile froze. His rabbit-ear hands wiggled awkwardly, then dropped in defeat.

"You're no good at this!" Setsuna shot to his feet.

He had forgotten that the soles of his feet were still swollen. The moment he straightened up, pain made him bare his teeth, and he swayed, nearly falling.

He steadied himself against a corridor pillar, then marched toward the four-year-old with a menacing air.

Clenching his fist, he shook it in front of the child's face and forced a threat through gritted teeth. "Keep crying and I'll punch you!"

The sudden appearance of this little terror frightened the child into a hiccup. Tears still clung to their cheeks, and a bubble of snot swelled and shrank beneath their nose.

The silence lasted only a second before that little mouth opened again, and the crying became ten times louder.

"Waaaah!!"

Setsuna was almost screaming along.

And all of this was that bastard Madara Uchiha's fault.

It had started at the Cremation Ground.

Earlier, at the communal cremation site, Setsuna's parents and the sixty-five-year-old man had all been cremated, their ashes carefully gathered into clay jars by their families.

But before the last cremation pit, this four-year-old had stood alone, chewing on the fire lighter until its casing was soaked with drool, with no intention whatsoever of throwing it into the pit.

The child was simply too young to really understand what death meant.

Madara Uchiha had walked over.

He crouched beside the child and asked in what he thought was a gentle voice, "Do you need help?"

The child went rigid the instant Madara Uchiha approached. Madara Uchiha had no idea that his mere presence was enough to make an ordinary child's blood run cold.

The child froze, unable to speak or even nod or shake their head.

Taking that silence as consent, Madara Uchiha formed the tiger seal with one hand and breathed out flames. The Great Fireball landed squarely in the cremation pit.

The child was utterly unprepared.

They watched their older brother disappear into the blaze, the flames reflected in their wide eyes as a warped expanse of searing orange.

Then a piercing wail burst from that tiny body.

"Waaaaah!"

Madara Uchiha instantly stiffened.

A trace of genuine embarrassment visibly crept onto the cold face that the entire shinobi world called the "Asura."

"A boy of the Uchiha Clan," he tried to salvage the situation, "mustn't shed tears so easily."

The sudden increase in his oppressive presence made the boy shudder and cry even harder.

The Asura of the Ninja World stood there, helpless before a four-year-old.

After a moment of silence, he made a decisive choice.

"Toshihi." He pointed at the bawling child. "I leave the task of escorting the children safely back to the clan compound to you."

Before he had even finished speaking, he used the Body Flicker Technique to beat a hasty retreat, vanishing with a swish.

All that remained in the clearing at the Cremation Ground was a lingering wisp of dust, swirling in the morning breeze.

Toshihi stood where he was, looking in the direction the clan leader had vanished, his face utterly expressionless.

Then he looked down at the four-year-old, who was crying so hard he could barely breathe.

He looked up again at Setsuna, standing a short distance away, and Kagami, who had finished training and just hurried through the entrance to attend the funeral.

His expression shifted ever so slightly.

"Ahem." Toshihi cleared his throat. "I still need to take Kurama Setsuko to register. I'll leave the children to you."

With that, he grabbed Setsuko and fled with the Body Flicker Technique too.

Which had led to the current scene beneath the corridor: Kagami holding the still-crying child and turning to look at Setsuna.

Setsuna looked back at him.

The two stared at each other, with a bawling hot potato caught between them.

Damn you, Madara Uchiha!

Setsuna cursed inwardly through gritted teeth.

You're just a coward who won't own up to what you did! You make someone cry and then run away-what kind of Asura of the Ninja World is that?

And it's not just Madara Uchiha. Toshihi's just as bad!

He acts like such a dependable Jonin, but the moment a kid starts crying, he runs faster than anyone.

These adults-they're all useless!

"What do we do?" Even the normally gentle Kagami was close to giving up. "If only Mom were here," he muttered.

Setsuna's eyes lit up. "Right! We can ask your mom for help."

Kagami shook his head. "Mom is the Medical Team Captain at the Uchiha Third Settlement. I don't want to cause her trouble."

Setsuna deflated at once.

He crouched in front of the child, took a deep breath, and put on his most patient expression. "If you stop crying, I'll show you an incredibly powerful jutsu. I guarantee you've never seen it before."

The child's sobs weakened. He blinked at Setsuna, still sniffling.

Remembering the jutsu Setsuna had used to stop the Senju, Kagami's eyes brightened. Under Setsuna's shocked gaze, he raised his right hand and stuck up his middle finger. "Is it the Shadow Technique?"

"Hey!" Setsuna guiltily glanced around to make sure Toshihi wasn't there, then said awkwardly, "If Toshihi sees that, my confinement will get extended indefinitely."

"Doesn't this just mean Diglett?" With an innocent expression, Kagami wiggled his finger, then added two more and held them in front of the child. "Look, Xiao An, this is Dugtrio."

The child blinked blankly and let out a croaking hiccup.

Setsuna was certain now: Kagami had a hidden devious streak.

This was the scene Kurama Setsuko found when she came looking for them after completing her residence registration.

The morning light fell softly beneath the corridors of the Uchiha Clan Compound.

The little curly-haired boy was holding an even smaller child, while the little bald boy opposite him performed shadow puppets in the sunlight.

The little bald boy's voice drifted faintly over-

"And then I used the Fūma Shuriken to send Madara Uchiha flying into the sky..."

The child's eyes went round.

The little curly-haired boy almost laughed too hard to keep hold of him.

She stopped, hesitating to approach, afraid that an outsider burdened with a blood feud would ruin this rare moment of warmth.

But Kagami noticed her. He coughed, suppressing his laughter, and greeted her. "Miss Kurama."

Setsuna turned to glance at her, then gave an awkward huff and turned his face away.

Kurama Setsuko lowered her head, afraid to look at Setsuna. Biting her lip and twisting the hem of her clothes, she took half a step back and stammered, unable to form a complete sentence.

"I, I..."

Resting his chin in his hand, Setsuna said irritably, "If you don't need anything, stay out of my sight. I don't want to see you."

"Setsuna!" Kagami called softly.

He wasn't trying to reproach him. He simply felt that saying it so bluntly was rude.

But he had no grounds to stop Setsuna from being unfriendly. He had no right to ask Setsuna to forgive someone who had caused his father's death.

Setsuko gathered her courage and took a few steps forward. "I have something to give you."

Setsuna looked at her in surprise. "What?"

"It, it's something Big Brother Huorong... gave me."

She lowered her head and rummaged through her pocket. Her trembling fingers and panicked emotions made her tears fall again.

Setsuna looked away, forcing himself not to watch her.

Reason told him that, in a sense, this girl was innocent, that he had no reason to hate her. But emotionally, he still resented her.

If his parents were still alive, perhaps he could have learned what it felt like to have parents, rather than merely peeking into memories and imagining what it was like to have them both.

"Here."

Setsuko held out a dark pouch embroidered with a war-fan design.

"Th-this is what Big Brother Huorong gave me. I, I thought I should return it to you..."

Her voice grew quieter as she spoke.

Somewhat bewildered, Setsuna took the pouch.

This had belonged to Huorong, something his father had once used. But Huorong was gone, while this object remained.

For the first time, he understood what a keepsake of the dead was. His emotions tangled together, and his chest felt painfully tight.

He squeezed the pouch and felt a few hard objects inside.

When he tipped them out, three pieces of candy wrapped in paper lay in his little palm.

"I, I..." Setsuko stammered. "Because I often suffer from nervous exhaustion, Big Brother Huorong gave me candy. He said, he said it would help me feel better."

Setsuna unwrapped one. Inside was an irregular, dark-brown lump of brown sugar.

He had no concept of its value.

But Kagami and Xiao An both stared.

In this era, sugar was an extremely precious source of sweetness. Extracting it from grain depleted already meager food supplies, while obtaining honey required planting flower fields that took up space needed for crops.

In this era, sweetness had always been a luxury.

They could only get a tiny piece at New Year or on their birthdays. They would lick it, wrap it up again, and repeat, making that sweetness last at least half a month.

Kagami was a little older and knew these were keepsakes from Setsuna's father, so he quickly looked away.

But Xiao An couldn't control himself yet. He stared fixedly, drool spilling from his mouth.

Setsuna looked at the candy in his palm and fell silent for a moment. Then, to everyone's surprise, he popped it into Xiao An's mouth.

Xiao An's eyes widened, and his tongue kept licking the candy in his mouth.

"Is it good?" Setsuna asked.

Xiao An nodded emphatically. "It's good."

Setsuna handed Kagami a piece. "For you."

Bewildered, Kagami accepted it with both hands.

"Eat it," Setsuna said.

Only then did Kagami dazedly put the candy into his mouth.

Watching this, Setsuko couldn't understand why Setsuna had so easily given away two of the last three pieces of candy Huorong had left behind.

Then Setsuna did something she understood even less.

Setsuna unwrapped the last piece, bit off half, and offered the remaining half to Setsuko. "Here. Everyone gets a share."

With trembling hands, Setsuko accepted the half-piece of candy and put it into her mouth as Setsuna had done.

"Is it sweet?" Setsuna asked.

Setsuko finally crouched down and burst into sobs, using every ounce of strength to say, "Sweet."

She was crying, yet it felt as though some heavy burden upon her had vanished without a trace.

Setsuna couldn't understand the girl's sudden flood of emotion.

He brushed the sugar crumbs from his hands and tucked the pouch safely against his body. "I'm going to see what Toshihi's doing. Now that Madara Uchiha is back, things with Hagoromo should probably be wrapping up too."