A young man in red armor, with a smile as bright as the sun and long straight black hair like a waterfall, stood on the treetop. Next to him was a man wearing blue armor, with a white hedgehog head and a serious face.
There was no doubt that the people arriving were the two brothers Senju Hashirama and Senju Tobirama.
Hashirama glanced casually at the scene, then immediately started laughing.
"Hahaha! Little Akira, I haven't seen you for a few years, and you've become so strong!"
Hashirama patted Akira's shoulder and laughed heartily. Even Akira, who could easily kill several Uchiha, was forced into a grin by him.
However, Akira did not blame Hashirama but looked at Tobirama on the side with a reproachful look. Afterall, Hashirama sometimes behaved inappropriately, and as his younger brother, Tobirama's education of him was obviously lacking.
Tobirama gave a helpless look in return, then glanced at Hashirama, who was cheerful at the time, and admitted silently that he was truly powerless to educate his brother.
Akira also understood this. When he left the Senju clan, he had repeatedly told Tobirama to take good care of his brother. Unexpectedly, Hashirama's personality remained exactly the same as in the original work.
Helplessly, Akira sighed.
Tobirama did the same. Thinking about how unreliable his brother was, he couldn't help but sigh as well.
Akira and Tobirama communicated quickly and exchanged information through eye contact in a very brief time. Therefore, their simultaneous sighing made Hashirama puzzled.
Just as Hashirama was about to ask Akira for the reason, Akira chose to take the initiative to avoid the topic of meeting Madara later.
"Hashirama, aren't you planning to get married? Why do you have time to come here?"
Upon hearing Akira's question, Hashirama lost his composed demeanor and started laughing again.
"Hahaha! It was my wood clone that came, otherwise Tobirama wouldn't have allowed me out."
As he spoke, Hashirama suddenly stopped smiling and turned his gaze to Mito, who was already unconscious in Akira's arms.
"More importantly, are you okay, Mito? I heard from the Uzumaki clan's young patriarch Yusuke that your healing ability is amazing."
"Well enough," Akira calmly answered Hashirama's question. "Also… I met Uchiha Madara."
As soon as Akira finished speaking, Hashirama and Tobirama's expressions froze instantly.
"How is that possible?"
Tobirama showed an incredulous expression, while Hashirama looked around again and then shouted to Akira and several of his subordinates:
"Evacuate immediately!"
Perhaps it was the tempering of over ten years of war that changed his carefree demeanor into a calm and capable one. Even his voice seemed measured and authoritative, no one dared underestimate him now.
And things played out just as Akira had imagined. After hearing Hashirama's order, the subordinates protected the key individuals without saying a word, as if escorting them from danger.
"Retreat!"
….
Inside the highest voting meeting room of the Uchiha clan.
Although Madara was the clan leader, four people had gone into battle and only she returned. Her return gave those who had sought to steal her position an excuse to launch an attack.
"What happened? Didn't Kiroto go on the mission with you? Why are you the only one back?"
It was the Kiroto's father who questioned her first.
While losses were common during the Warring States Period, once someone spoke up, others joined in eagerly with criticism.
"Yes, what about the other two companions?"
"They seemed brave when fighting us but went weak when facing the Senju?"
…
Facing their accusations, Madara remained as unmoving as stone. She sat silently with her hands clasped, watching them insult her without showing even the slightest emotion.
Seeing no reaction from Madara only made them bolder. In addition to accusations, they began airing personal grievances and outdated beliefs.
"It's been said that women should marry and have children. Wouldn't it be a waste not to continue an excellent Uchiha bloodline…"
"Exactly! A woman's role is to take care of her husband and children, she should give up leadership and marry someone instead."
…
Hearing their "insults", Madara might've struck them down if this had been earlier, but instead of reacting violently, she thought of Akira again. How he used to follow her around as a child and said he would marry her one day.
He had spoken those same words even as an adult, with the same childish tone, but with a duller expression that made her lips curl subtly in memory before she caught herself.
Izuna took immediate notice of this unusual reaction, his sister rarely tolerated humiliation without consequence, and his expression shifted drastically. To him, she wasn't smiling from joy but from rage barely contained beneath laughter.
"Enough!"
Izuna slammed the table and raised his voice at the council members.
"Onee-sama is not someone who abandons her companions! She must have met Hashirama Senju himself! Afterall, this mission involved sneaking up on one of the 'Three Heroes of the Senju'. There's no way they'd allow us to succeed so easily."
"Perhaps our intelligence was deliberately leaked by them, a trap to begin with."
"Right, onee-sama?"
After this reminder from Izuna, many stepped back from their accusations. It truly made sense, between Senju Hashirama with overwhelming battle strength, Senju Tobirama ensuring peace behind enemy lines, and their most mysterious strategist, the Uchiha had gained no advantage in years. This was why Madara faced so much criticism as leader.
For someone that important to appear on a battlefield, Hashirama's participation made perfect sense.
Madara had only been given recently promoted Chunin for this mission anyway, cannon fodder disguised as reinforcements.
Those seeking fault took advantage immediately through "divide and conquer".
"Izuna… if you were clan leader I'd have no objections, but your sister? She even interacted with the Senju clan as a child…"
Izuna wanted to refute, but even he couldn't deny that last part. Years ago, Madara's father had died alongside the previous Senju chief in an effort to clear her name from suspicion rooted in those past ties…
Caught off, guard by truth wrapped in insult, Izuna fell silent for just a moment too long…
Meanwhile,
"So annoying!"
Madara finally broke her silence, not with an explanation but with fury. She slammed her hand down, thud!, and shattered the table before everyone's eyes.
Her eyes gleamed crimson, the Mangekyo Sharingan had activated before anyone noticed, and she scanned everyone present with unmistakable dominance.
"I'm the one who gave up on Kiroto, and the rest too. I left behind those who disobeyed orders on the battlefield. What? Do you have a problem with that?"
Her glare alone silenced them, but Izuna stepped forward too. With his own Mangekyo Sharingan ignited next to hers, the display of power instantly killed any further dissent from within the hall.
"Since no one has objections, and I have matters to attend, this meeting is over."
She rose without waiting for permission or response. Her presence alone emptied the room faster than any formal dismissal ever could.
Izuna followed close behind, uninterested in further conversation either,
Back at their mansion.
Madara avoided him entirely. She needed silence, not because of what they said, but because from now on… there would be another friend standing across from her on the battlefield.
She locked herself away without another word.
Lying on clean tatami mats with nothing else to do, her thoughts meandered again… back twelve years… to a scroll Akira had given her when they were children.
She searched until she found it, a worn and patched scroll buried inside an old "treasure box".
"…Forget it," she sighed after placing today's scroll from Akira beside it.
…but curiosity gnawed at her resolve…
"What did he write inside?"
Unable to resist, Madara broke the seal.
Scrolls rained out of thin air, flapflapflapflapflapflap! Thousands of them covered every inch of space.
Over four thousand days' worth of letters.
Years of devotion sealed and hidden.
Even she couldn't stop her eyes from trembling briefly, not at sentiment, but from simple human shock at constancy…
It only lasted a second.
Her usual expression returned, the pride back in her spine.
…but her mouth curled again before she knew it.
"Akira… I acknowledge you!"