"Heh... it's different, Madara." Yanbai chuckled softly. "Itachi and I might have a relationship much like yours and Big Brother Hashirama's."
"So you and he are... friends?" Madara Uchiha narrowed his eyes slightly.
As he mulled over those words, faint ripples stirred in Madara Uchiha's heart.
If Uchiha Itachi and Yanbai were friends...
Then... what about him? Was Yanbai's relationship with Madara Uchiha something other than friendship?
Yet that feeling of elation lasted only an instant before Yanbai shattered it himself.
"That's how it looks on the surface. In reality, I suppose I see him as a son?" Yanbai's gaze grew somewhat vacant, as though he were recalling something.
Madara Uchiha: "..."
He saw Uchiha Itachi as a son... what the hell?
Madara's composure, which had only just settled, cracked in an instant.
His heart froze.
Layer after layer of frost scraped the inner walls of his heart, leaving them bloody...
He really was... such a fool!
So Yanbai meant that he and Madara were friends, while he and Itachi shared a mother-son bond?
As Madara Uchiha tried to steady his nearly collapsing state of mind, he heard Yanbai continue, "I met Itachi when he was very young, then taught him as though he were my son. To me, he's much like Muye and Silver Moon, I suppose?"
Hearing that absurd answer...
Madara Uchiha couldn't help retorting, "You don't... see me as your foolish son too, do you?"
That venting remark seemed to drive the ice out of Madara's heart.
Like a fool, he waited for Yanbai's explanation.
Yanbai fell silent for a few seconds, then said, "You're different from him."
Those words again.
Madara Uchiha felt himself falling apart once more. He pressed for an answer. "What exactly do you mean by different?"
"Madara, I don't see you as