"Asura...?" Xue Ge thought for a moment, but the name meant nothing to him. Just as he was about to ask something, he suddenly coughed up another mouthful of blood, lost his balance, and dropped to his knees.
"What a fragile body. You couldn't even withstand a single blow?" Madara Uchiha looked down at Xue Ge with contempt. "You might as well just die."
"...Cough, cough... hah..."
Xue Ge struggled to muster his chakra and soothe his internal injuries, but it did nothing. He could only inch his way over to a rock and lean against it to ease the strain a little.
For the first time, he felt that learning Medical Ninjutsu really was necessary.
"Cough, cough... then why haven't you done it?" After catching his breath for a while, Xue Ge looked up at Madara Uchiha and asked.
Another man like Danzo, another situation where my fate isn't in my own hands... how annoying...
"You aren't strong enough to warrant my attention, but I have a few questions for you. Where did you come from?" Madara Uchiha asked.
"...Konoha."
Xue Ge felt that the man looming above him underwent a subtle change the instant he heard that word. Was he imagining it? If not, did this man have some connection to Konoha?
Come to think of it, something about the man had seemed familiar at first glance... He had never seen that armor before. Was it the hairstyle?
"Someone from Konoha... are you a Konoha shinobi?"
"No, I'm a student."
"A student? Ah, hmph. That Ninja Academy Tobirama started? I never thought it would still be around. Hmph, a greenhouse like that..."
Right. At the very least, he seems to be from the Second Hokage's generation.
Xue Ge quietly filed that thought away.
"Hey, brat, tell me: what happened to your limbs and your eye?"
"...Lost them in the war four years ago."
"Four years ago? Hmm, during the Great Shinobi War? So you're a war orphan?"
"I was born in the Land of Rain. I was two back then," Xue Ge answered weakly. His stomach felt so empty.
My body needs energy to recover. I probably haven't eaten for a day or two...
Smack!
While Xue Ge was lost in thought, Madara Uchiha jumped down from the rock and landed in front of him. Without warning, he leaned in, pushed aside the hair covering Xue Ge's left eye, and brutally dug out his Prosthetic Eye.
"Urgh-!" It was not his real eye being gouged out, but the man had acted without a word of warning, making the Prosthetic Eye scrape his socket bloody.
Madara Uchiha inspected Xue Ge's empty eye socket for a moment, then let go and walked to the river to wash his hands. Xue Ge collapsed where he was, drawing weak breaths.
Only six this year? That means he has some talent. If he had a Sharingan, suffering like this would surely have awakened its tomoe. Probably two tomoe.
As Madara Uchiha considered this, he looked at his fingers and frowned.
Strange. Is there something in that brat's blood? Why else would my fingers feel like they're burning?
Unusual blood, decent talent, a war orphan from outside the Five Great Nations, stubbornly hard to kill, and summoned here by me... could this kid really be the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path?
At this point, Madara only knew that something called the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path existed. He knew neither its precise purpose nor what it looked like, only how to summon it.
Unfortunately, the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path's seal had not yet weakened, and summoning it was impossible without the Rinnegan. Madara knew none of this. Instead, through a strange twist of fate, he had hooked a reckless young fool like Xue Ge.
"When two opposing powers become one, all things in creation are born..." Madara murmured, glancing back at Xue Ge.
Madara had no idea what these supposed "all things in creation" were. Although he had implanted Hashirama cells, his body had shown no response, leaving him doubting whether the prophecy was even real. But what was he to make of summoning a brat now?
Could this be connected to the prophecy? Are the "all things in creation" born in the prophecy actually a person? This brat?
The Child of Prophecy?
No, no. Hiss... wait, then what is the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path supposed to be?
The more he thought about it, the more confused Madara became. He shook his head, walked over to Xue Ge, and picked him up by the scruff of his neck.
The sudden jolt made Xue Ge's stomach turn again, and he spat a mouthful of foul blood onto Madara.
"..." Madara's face darkened. "You little..."
Xue Ge merely glanced at Madara with half-dead eyes, then went limp.
He did not know whether Madara would kill him, but if he did not play dead now, he really would die. He felt as though he had never been injured this badly in his life.
Besides, he had already developed his own rules for dealing with people: do what he was told, and ignore anyone bothering him for no reason.
"...Forget it. An adult shouldn't lose his temper with a child."
Madara shook his head, dragged Xue Ge to the river, and dunked him in along with his own robes to wash them both.
...Blub, blub, gurgle... if I'm still alive... if I ever... this Asura... Xue Ge struggled to curse the man, but even thinking was exhausting.
When Xue Ge regained consciousness, night had fallen. He was lying atop the rock where Madara Uchiha had been sitting earlier, with firelight glowing below.
"Mm... urgh..." Xue Ge could not help sucking in a breath through his teeth as he propped himself up.
He had slept for who knew how long again. His condition had improved a little, but moving was still difficult... Right now, his flesh-and-blood body was less useful than his Prosthetic Limbs.
"Finally awake. I thought you were dead. You really are hard to kill." Madara Uchiha's voice reached him. Xue Ge looked down and saw Madara sitting beside a fire, apparently... grilling fish?
Whoosh! A skewer of grilled fish struck the rock beside Xue Ge like a Kunai.
"By now, you've gone about three days without food, brat. That's for you. Don't die," Madara Uchiha said coldly.
"...Cough." His stomach really was gnawing with hunger.
"Crackle, crackle..." "Chirp, chirp..." "Rush-"
Xue Ge barely made a sound as he chewed. All Madara Uchiha could hear were the forest, the running water, and the fire.
A little later, Xue Ge forced his battered body down from the rock, then used his Prosthetic Limbs and crutch to hobble over and sit beside Madara Uchiha.
"Had enough?"
"No."
"Want some more?"
"Mm."
"Heh. You certainly don't stand on ceremony."
Madara scoffed and tossed Xue Ge a vine net from beside him. Inside were two or three fish that had already been
cut open and gutted.
"If you want to eat, do it yourself."
"..." Xue Ge silently began skewering the fish.
Madara quietly watched Xue Ge grill his fish, his thoughts drifting.
A riverbank, two people, late at night. It was a scene he had not experienced in so long. Except this brat was not as stupid as Hashirama, nor as talkative. He wore a stiff expression all day and avoided speaking whenever he could, like a dead man.
What a killjoy. For once, there's a living person to talk to, and he turns out to be a clam.
After staring at Xue Ge for a while, Madara shook his head and looked up at the star-studded sky.
"Sigh..."