Time for the Senju Brothers to Argue

After returning from the Ninja Academy, Shingetsu fell seriously ill.

Once again, vast amounts of chakra were being drained from her body, accompanied by a persistent high fever. The clan's medical shinobi were helpless and could only attribute it to bloodline disease.

For Kekkei Genkai shinobi, awakening their Kekkei Genkai too young was not always a good thing. Their young, fragile bodies, not yet tempered by training, often could not withstand such immense power and were ultimately consumed by it instead.

Of course, Shingetsu was not actually sick. She knew perfectly well that the God Tree had simply come to collect rent again.

It was frustrating when she thought about it. She was clearly the owner of this body, yet the God Tree, her tenant, was the one demanding rent from her.

Just look at Naruto and the Nine-Tails in his belly. Whatever else might be said about him, the prickly Kurama at least paid his rent generously. Then look at the mighty presence inside Shingetsu, practically a capitalist reborn. The comparison was enough to make her green with envy.

Thanks to the hellish training of Madara Uchiha, the great educator of the shinobi world, and the Senju Clan's practically cheat-level chakra tons bloodline, Shingetsu no longer needed others to support her as she had at birth. Now, she could just barely afford the God Tree's exploitation herself.

But having so much cellular energy and mental energy extracted left her utterly exhausted even when she did nothing. All she could do was lie limply in bed, drifting in and out of consciousness.

Half asleep and half awake, Shingetsu sensed quite a few people coming in and out of her room.

Though her awareness was hazy, she could still roughly tell who they were-

The one wiping away her sweat with a damp towel to cool her down was Hōkaku. The one sneaking into her room to feed her honey water was Tōka. The one worriedly adding another blanket and tucking a rabbit plush into her arms was Kagami. The ones rushing in and making an incessant racket before finally being chased out were Misaki and Inari. And, of course, the one periodically transferring chakra to her was Madara Uchiha.

Perhaps she was imagining it, but whenever Madara came to see her, she felt as though he had his Scythe and Gunbai in hand, looking ready to go out and kill someone.

After she had spent several days lying half dead in bed, the God Tree in her consciousness space finally recovered. Its yellowed foliage had looked ready to wither away at any moment, but now, as if celebrating its rebirth, it happily stretched its gracefully spaced branches and swayed its newly sprouted, delicate leaves. It looked as though spring had arrived, brimming with life and flourishing growth.

In return, it fed a stream of energy back into Shingetsu's body. Starting between her eyes, the cool energy spread along her internal pathways like the tangled roots of a century-old tree, slowly but steadily transforming her body and purifying her bloodline so that her body could better accommodate those special eyes.

Both the Sharingan and the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception required support from the bloodline and the body. Without the right bloodline, one could not deactivate the Sharingan at will. Without the right body, the Mystic Eyes' operation would depend entirely on the brain, and overuse would ultimately rupture the blood vessels within it.

The God Tree's modifications brought Shingetsu's bloodline closer to the Progenitor's and allowed her body to develop functions suited to the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. But it was as stingy as any capitalist by nature, so there was no way it would finish the modifications in one go. It intended to use them as a means of exploiting Shingetsu. It would probably harvest her chakra several more times before leisurely completing the work in stages.

Compared with the extraction that had lasted almost a week, the God Tree finished feeding energy back to her in barely half a day. But Shingetsu had no desire to get out of bed.

Lying in bed meant she did not have to endure twelve hours of hellish training, and she could enjoy the life of a freeloader, with everything done for her. If possible, she hoped to stay in bed a little longer.

While Shingetsu lay sprawled in bed, wanting only to laze around, bad news kept coming in throughout Konoha. First, several massive explosions erupted inside and outside the village for unknown reasons, apparently the work of a top-level Fire Release expert. Yet the places burned down were neither homes nor forests. Every one of them was a deeply concealed and highly suspicious-looking experimental base.

That news soon faded from public attention, however. Another piece of news was far more explosive and shocking-the Ninja Academy, founded less than a week ago, was already on the verge of closing.

Only a few days after classes began, students from shinobi clans started submitting withdrawal requests one after another. They simply lacked the Uchiha's resolve to walk straight out. If all those requests were approved, almost the only students left would be those from civilian families, reducing enrollment from fewer than thirty to fewer than five.

To put it bluntly, was there any point in keeping a school open with so few students?

The Uchiha Clan's wholesale withdrawal had clearly struck a sensitive nerve in some of the other clans.

These clans already watched every development in the village closely and had actively participated in something as important as founding the school. On the very day they noticed the Uchiha leaving the academy and returning to their compound, they learned what had happened from their children when they came home from school.

The Uchiha Clan's newly emerged prodigy had defeated the Sarutobi Clan's most gifted and promising young heir in a one-on-one match.

Both were unquestionably rare talents. Despite his young age, Hiruzen Sarutobi could use several B-Rank Ninjutsu in succession and had signed a Summoning Contract with the Monkey King Clan. He was undeniably a true ninjutsu prodigy. Yet beside Uchiha Shingetsu, who had awakened her Sharingan at five, his brilliance paled.

The Sharingan's power was deeply etched into everyone's minds. During the chaotic battles of the Warring States Period, those blood-red eyes had loomed over every shinobi like dark clouds. On top of that, Uchiha Shingetsu's Sharingan seemed unusual. Both its appearance and its abilities sounded extraordinary.

In truth, however, what concerned the shinobi clans enough to provoke mass withdrawals was Tobirama Senju's blatant hostility toward and targeting of Uchiha Shingetsu.

No shinobi clan that had survived the Warring States Period was lacking in shrewdness. Some of the more radical members even began to wonder whether this was a sign that the Uchiha and Senju were about to split, and whether the village would fall apart if things continued this way. Some had even secretly prepared to flee with their entire clans.

The more perceptive Shinobi Clan shinobi had all sensed an extremely dangerous warning in this incident.

The Senju and Uchiha were indeed sworn enemies, and both the Senju brothers and the Uchiha brothers had lost siblings to the other side. Such bitter hatred could rightly be called irreconcilable. Yet it was precisely because even the Uchiha and Senju could set aside that hatred and join hands that the other shinobi clans had believed peaceful coexistence was possible. It had allowed shinobi who once slaughtered one another to believe they could live together under the banner of "Konoha."

But now that the village had been built and everyone had joined Konoha, he still wanted to dredge up old grievances and keep targeting the Uchiha Clan? Was this some kind of joke?

None of the shinobi clans that had survived to this day were fools. Everyone understood perfectly well: if Tobirama Senju could target the Uchiha today, he could target the Hyuga tomorrow and the three Ino-Shika-Cho clans the day after. Who could guarantee they would not be the next "Uchiha"?

Inside the Hokage Building, Hashirama Senju was frantic over the situation. Holding the newly submitted withdrawal requests, his fingers trembled like those of a hopeless gambler who had lost everything. Having already learned the full story, he looked helplessly at Tobirama Senju standing beside him, his heart full of discouragement and confusion.

"Tobirama, it's been so long since we founded the village. Why can't you let go of your prejudice against the Uchiha?"

"...I did go too far this time."

With his arms folded, Tobirama frowned as he scanned the withdrawal requests on the desk. He lowered his head slightly, showing a rare willingness to concede. Seeing that his younger brother seemed ready to admit his mistake, Hashirama Senju immediately perked up. But Tobirama soon changed the subject.

"However, our most urgent priority is to stop the students from withdrawing and keep the school running."

"If you ask me, couldn't you just go to the Uchiha Clan Compound and apologize to Shingetsu and Madara..."

With a bang, Tobirama Senju slammed his fist onto the desk in front of Hashirama, cutting him off.

"I told you, didn't I? Uchiha Shingetsu is inherently evil, just like Madara Uchiha! She doesn't agree with your Will of Fire at all, and she has that kind of talent and potential. If she becomes a second Madara Uchiha, will anyone in the Senju Clan be able to stop her?"

"Is being like Madara really so bad? Madara hasn't done anything to threaten the village, has he?"

Faced with Hashirama's puzzled incomprehension, Tobirama Senju merely gave a noncommittal sneer and said firmly:

"Not yet. Who knows what their clan will get up to in the future..."

"Tobirama!"

This time, even the usually good-tempered Hashirama was truly angry. His expression darkened at once, though he betrayed nothing else. He looked at Tobirama with an outward calm that concealed seething fury. Seeing his elder brother like this, Tobirama felt a suffocating weight bearing down on him from deep within and could only shut his mouth.

Hashirama Senju looked him in the eyes and spoke slowly, each word stern and carrying an overwhelming weight of authority.

"Don't ever speak that way again."

"..."

Inside the Hokage's office, the Senju brothers faced each other without speaking. They remained silent for a long time, until Tobirama suddenly seemed to remember something and demanded:

"Brother, you were the one who told Madara Uchiha where the experimental bases were, weren't you?"

Hashirama's stern expression instantly crumpled, and all his oppressive presence vanished. His eyes darted about, cold sweat running down his forehead. He looked as good as guilty.

"Ha, ha... oh, you mean that..."

Remembering how Madara Uchiha had blown up the experimental bases he had painstakingly built and carefully concealed, one Fire Release technique at a time, Tobirama Senju's face turned thunderous. Those bases had held years of his hard work!

Only heaven knew how badly he had wanted to charge at Madara Uchiha and fight him to the death when he saw the ruins of his bases, burned clean by Fire Release!

"If you hadn't tipped him off, how could he have wiped out every last one of my laboratories?"

Livid, Tobirama grabbed Hashirama by the collar, looking ready to murder his own brother. He had known something was wrong. If no one had told Madara Uchiha, how could he have found and blown up every single base without missing even one?

"But if I hadn't leaked that information, Madara would have killed you."

Hashirama wanted to shout that he had been wronged. It had been a critical moment! If he had not given the secret away, Madara would have taken his Scythe and Gunbai and killed Tobirama Senju outright for bullying his student! He had done it all for Tobirama's sake!

"Couldn't you have stopped him?"

"That's exactly what I did!"

Far away in the Uchiha Clan Compound, Shingetsu, still lazing in bed, sneezed several times in a row, completely unaware that several people had her on their minds. Once she finished sneezing, she rolled over contentedly, hugged the kitten plush in her arms, and went back to catching up on sleep, still oblivious to the mess she had caused.