The stones collided in midair, traced bizarre paths, and slammed into the little brats' bottoms.
"Who's there?"
"Ahh, a ghost!"
The children scattered, pain and terror making them scream for their parents. Several even lost their wooden sandals as they fled.
The surroundings instantly fell quiet. The white-haired brat they had surrounded lowered the arms shielding his head and looked around in confusion.
Then his gaze shifted toward Tobirama Senju's hiding place. Red light swirled in his eyes, each bearing a single tomoe.
This child's senses were sharp-unnaturally sharp, in fact.
As one of the finest sensory ninja alive, Tobirama Senju could conceal himself from almost anyone in the world. That was also what gave him the confidence to conduct repeated investigations deep within the Land of Lightning.
Yet a child who looked barely four had pinpointed him at a glance. It really... piqued his interest as a researcher.
The Sharingan excels at tracking movement, but it shouldn't possess such exceptional detection abilities, comparable to the Byakugan. Is this a mutation caused by Senju blood?
With that thought, Tobirama Senju stopped hiding. He leaped down from the tree, landed beside the white-haired child, and brought his fingers together like a blade to strike the back of his neck.
But the child was remarkably agile. He reacted instantly, twisting aside and diving away. After an ungainly half-roll on the ground, he sprang up and retreated. His hand swept across his waist, bringing a not particularly sharp blade wrapped in cloth against his palm. He crouched slightly, the single tomoe turning in his eyes, as wary as a tiger cub baring its teeth and claws.
His reflexes far surpass those of his peers, and his combat instincts are excellent too. This child is quite a find.
"You should be able to beat those brats, shouldn't you? Why didn't you fight back?"
The question bewildered the white-haired brat. His One-Tomoe Sharingan widened as he studied the uninvited guest before him, his face filled with utter shock. Only after a long pause did he stammer out a reply.
"...I stole a sweet potato. I deserved to get hit. Stealing is wrong, but I was hungry... I'm a bad kid..." His voice sank.
His moral compass is surprisingly sound. Just what you'd expect from a child of the Senju Clan.
"What's your name?"
"Uchiha Ichiro. That's my name. May I ask..." He stared at Tobirama Senju's white hair and red eyes, his voice hesitant. "Are you my dad?"
No, but I could be. The dead have no custody rights, no naming rights, and no say in the matter.
If I take him away as his father, he'll obediently cooperate with all my experiments, won't he? Senju Ichiro has a nice ring to it.
The more Tobirama Senju considered it, the more feasible it seemed. He was about to acquire a son for free when a sudden shout rang out-
"Tobirama! I finally found you! How could you go out to play without your big brother? Boo-hoo!"
Tch, damn it. Why did my brother come looking for me? Wasn't he having a wonderful time hauling bricks at the construction site?
Watanabe Ichiro, now going by Uchiha Ichiro, quietly enjoyed the show. On his skill panel, ["Coincidence"] glowed faintly gold. The lifespan cost had been paid, and his wish to "have Hashirama Senju find us" had come true.
Tobirama Senju was looking at him like a lab rat, making it obvious he was up to no good. Being imprisoned in a laboratory would leave Watanabe Ichiro unable to farm points, so he had activated his skill outright and brought Hashirama Senju here.
The lifespan deducted was minimal. Apparently, Hashirama Senju really had been taking it easy lately, making him quite likely to come looking for them.
One thing had gone unmentioned: Watanabe Ichiro had later examined the description of ["Coincidence"] in detail. This skill was extraordinarily powerful, and its operating mechanism might involve parallel dimensions. Upon activation, it searched countless possible futures for one that matched the user's wish, then exchanged lifespan to steer the future in the desired direction.
It altered the future without leaving any inconsistencies and could not be detected by anyone. It was incredibly powerful.
There were two rules governing its lifespan deductions.
The first was its stringent activation conditions.
Once activated, it deducted a certain amount of lifespan whether or not a wish was made. There was no room for regret, and unlike that foolish Reaper in Naruto, it would not let him exploit a loophole.
Furthermore, the lifespan deducted doubled with each use, so every activation required caution. He had to avoid exhausting his lifespan before even activating his disguise.
The second was that fulfilling a wish cost lifespan. This depended primarily on how likely the event was to happen, rather than the scale of the change.
For example, if making Tobirama Senju kill a particular Uchiha clan member cost half a year of lifespan, making him kill Hashirama Senju might cost over eighty years.
He had neither a motive to kill Hashirama Senju nor the strength to do it. The probability of fulfilling that wish was extremely low, and the price would be enormous. Even then, the outcome might not be what the user actually wanted.
For instance, he might kill him one moment only to revive him through Impure World Reincarnation the next. That would still satisfy [Tobirama Senju kills Hashirama Senju].
Another point to keep in mind was that the method of fulfilling a wish might be unacceptable.
For example, a wish for [world peace, with people no longer fighting] could be fulfilled by killing everyone. The dead did not fight, and the world would thus be at peace.
So it had to be used cautiously. [Getting what you wished for] was guaranteed, but the way it happened might not be satisfying.
"Hmm? Who's this little fellow?"
"I'm Uchiha Ichiro."
"...Ichiro? Uchiha Ichiro?"
Hashirama Senju's smile gradually faded. He looked Watanabe Ichiro up and down, then crouched and gently questioned him about his family background, his expression turning complicated.
The moment he saw Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju knew his plan was ruined. He folded his arms and leaned off to one side, closing his eyes to rest.
With his brother's gentle nature-the sort that would not even let him experiment on prisoners-there was no way he could abduct this child.
Sure enough, Hashirama Senju held Watanabe Ichiro there and chatted with him at length. After learning about the tangled grievances and relationships involved, he finally decided to return him to the Uchiha Clan.
"No matter what mistakes his parents made, the child is innocent. I'm also eager to see how far an Uchiha child with Senju blood can grow..."
Tobirama Senju glanced at the appearance of Watanabe Ichiro's disguise and offered a reminder.
"Brother, this child's life among the Uchiha won't necessarily go smoothly."
He looked very different from an ordinary Uchiha and was descended from rogue ninja. Either trait would be difficult for the Uchiha clan members to accept. Being ostracized was practically a certainty.
As for the Senju Clan, would its members show kindness to a child with a pair of Sharingan? Most likely not. The Senju clan members had yet to move on from the war and might hurl weapons at him the moment they saw his Sharingan. He would have people staring at him with murderous intent every day.
Thinking about it that way, this child would be safer staying in my laboratory. At least, for the sake of sustainability, I wouldn't go too far... Hmm, probably not.
"Whether it's the Senju or the Uchiha, you should at least ask the child what he thinks."
Tobirama Senju added this casually from the side, though he held little hope for the child's future life.
"You're right. Ichiro, would you like to return to the Uchiha Clan or the Senju Clan? The Uchiha clan grounds are where your father lived, and the Senju clan grounds are where your mother grew up."
Hashirama Senju explained it to Watanabe Ichiro in the simplest terms he could.
Watanabe Ichiro tilted his head and considered it for a moment, his eyes filling with indecision. "I don't know where I should go, but my name is Uchiha Ichiro."
The Senju Clan barely gets any screen time later on. Joining them won't be much use. The Uchiha Clan is more useful.
"All right, then come with us, Ichiro! I'll take you home!"
Tobirama Senju looked at the hand Hashirama Senju had so naturally extended toward him, his expression speechless. "After making that grand declaration, you could take him back yourself, Brother..."
In the end, he sighed helplessly, placed his hand on Hashirama Senju's arm, and activated the [Flying Thunder God Technique]. They vanished from the spot.
Before you continue