The Will (3)

Four months went by mostly uneventfully. Training still continued, but now I was given more autonomy in which way I was supposed to develop my personal skills.

It wasn't difficult to see that Madara's decision to allow me this kind of freedom wasn't driven by kindness or compassion, but more of a necessity drilled in his mind by his war-filled childhood.

Children needed to be ready for what was going to happen once the world was embroiled in the newest war. And he knew perfectly enough that despite the creations of the five great villages, everlasting neutrality wasn't going to become an instant reward.

People had scorn in their hearts and minds, and some of the leaders couldn't forget the years of the warring states just like this.

I wasn't sure how the First Shinobi War was going to happen, but I know that some of the pieces were already set. Madara was 'careless' enough to lament some of Hashirama's recent decisions in appeasing some of our neighbors.

Iwagakure had yet to develop its hatred for Konoha, and I knew that until the head of the Uchiha Clan didn't commit for any brainless operations to show dominance, there was going to be none of that degree of animosity.

Heck, if I had the chance to interfere, the first thing to do was to smooth out the issues for keeping a stable world-wide peace across the planet.

I still had ambitions to make Konoha a prominent country, but I wasn't against pushing a more peaceful agenda to prevent any brain drain and senseless bloodshed.

Not when precious manpower was wasted in some meaningless conflict.

Which is why, during one of my conversations with my disgruntled Sensei, I decided to instill more doubts within his mind. It was all in the name of subtlety, and I was careful enough to not sound 'older' than I appeared.

"Sensei, but what if… you're also wrong?"

A blink, then a frown, and finally a need for clarification from my simple query.

Talking to Madara proved to be a little easier than I originally thought, mostly because I finally got a proper glimpse over his personality as my apprenticeship with him continued.

This man had yet to become the ferocious and hateful bastard that almost led to the end of the world all because of him being influenced by Zetsu. This was… someone that still believed in Hashirama's ideas of bringing true peace in this world through diplomacy.

Sure, his way of 'talking' with nation was far more aggressive than the current Hokage, but the Uchiha still had plenty of control over his own impatience.

Which is why, against all my need to keep my interfering self away from dangerous instances, I tried to carefully leave him to think about specific topics.

Topics that were meant to leave him actually ponder over the various situations that left him angry during training sessions instead of gnashing his teeth at the 'confusing' policies created by Hashirama.

At first, I was quite careful to not stretch myself and blow my own cover in the process. Then I picked up a more comfortable pace and established something of a logical outlook within the man.

It was still work in process considering that some of my words were either ignored or outright rebuked with the classic 'I am an adult, so I know better' excuse. Which was really aggravating from time to time taking my predicament in consideration.

With that little project kept as a side-mission for the time being, I gave maximum priority to my own training schedule as Madara really gave me quite the freedom of choice over the case.

The moment I received this little 'not-so-special' privilege from the ancestor of the duck-haired avenger, I saw fit to raid the specialized library, and take back home with me numerous scrolls with C-Rank techniques and some training books detailing Leaf Concentration Practice and the Tree Climbing Practice.

Practicing took priority over learning new abilities, mostly because I knew that my current arsenal was limited by my own inabilities. My chakra network was barely developed, but it was only natural with how old my body was.

Expansion of my reserves was something that required intensive usage of my current energy and allow my own body to 'bulk up' at the demanding requirement of the only Ninjutsu I currently knew about.

Which meant that keeping up with the pattern established by Madara was going to immensely help if not more.

Control was another grimace-worthy problem that had to be taken care of since I really needed to reduce the waste of Chakra while I used any techniques.

Practicing with the initial step to refine my grasp over my energy proved to be somewhat effective after working on it for a full month.

It was annoying that the Leaf Control Practice took so long to master, but I was also aware that my subjective understanding of mastering the technique wasn't the basic version of the Practice.

Many stopped to just lift the leaf without losing control over the lift off process and the landing procedure, but I took the exercise a couple of steps further by setting myself up in different situations, each with a unique kind of distraction.

Finding a windy spot within the Village was easy, but practicing by sitting there and try to keep hold with my chakra over the twirling leaf hovering over my head turned out to be more of a struggle than I wanted.

Frustration, tiredness, and ultimately irritation. I wasn't spared by any of those as I continued to try my best in sharpening my senses by keeping track of a single leaf before latching a sliver of my chakra onto it to restrain it from following the wind's might.

Wind was my element to begin with, thus I had expected this to be the easiest of the arduous tasks I had set up myself to face.

And yet I was forced to take on this challenge for a full month before I got it down to a sufficient degree.

After making three successful attempts, I decided to switch up to another exercise to avoid getting myself too embroiled over the already-frustrating practice.

Thus I delved into the complexities of climbing trees without making use of my hands.

With how refined my control was at the point I started this new segment of the training, the exercise ended up 'easier' than I predicted. The genuine issue I found as I started practicing this different control-based training was the need of keeping some attention over my chakra manipulation while I kept on the new surface.

Since I knew that I would eventually need to keep this kind focus the middle of a future fight, I decided to take this as slowly as possible as I grew accustomed with the feeling.

Two weeks flied away and I was able to keep the distracting need to a minimum. And it was all thanks to a bunch of brats accepting the 'simple, but amusing' task of barraging me with water-filled balloons while I went on with my training regiment.

The fun part was to explain mother why I was drenched in water every time I returned back home.

It was less amusing when the vendor specialized in this kind of products would switch the water in the tiny projectiles to some of the coldest available.

Surely a chilling idea, but one that really shoved me into developing the fastest possible.

The drain was negligible, the result was mostly flawless, and I decided against trying my hand over the next step, the Water-Walking Practice as I wasn't in the mood of being further drenched for the time being.

No, the next month and a half was wasted in quickly mastering one of the few Ninjutsus that ended up catching my attention as good addition to my current arsenal.

Something not much offensive, but good enough to warrant my utmost interest for me to give it this much time to learn.

But when I started to search for anyone willing to help me with this kind of ability, I also learned that someone I knew about and that I wanted to ask for assistance was also training as intensely as I was.

I don't know why Hiruzen was suddenly busy with extra training from both his sensei and his father, but I had the undeniable suspicion that this was once again the fruit of some annoying plan from both Madara and Tobirama.

Kagami was still willing to help when I finally asked to him, but he instantly took a major dislike for his rule during the training as he was subjected to quite the humiliating disposition when I applied the technique against him.

He wasn't angry, but he would get terribly annoyed and whining each time he was to be used as a training dummy for this kind of ninjutsu.

Time passed, and I also added some intense Taijutsu and Genjutsu practicing with the Ninjutsu training. Part of me knew that something big was going to happen, and that it was going to see both Hiruzen and I as the central theme of it all.

Madara was quiet about this all and I wasn't sure that asking him directly would've yielded any positive response from him.

Then I had some trouble in talking with Hiruzen while we were both at the Academy as the brunet was quick to reject any attempt to talk. Even sending Kagami to pry some info out of the young Sarutobi resulted in nothing but silence.

Was he angry? The circumstance was the most plausible, and yet I couldn't sense any frustration directed at me from the boy. Plus, I could tell if Hiruzen had any grudge with me… especially since I would've to slight him immensely to get this kind of reaction out of him.

So what exactly happened to him?

The question kept gnawing at my brain during the few pauses I would get during training. I couldn't get much out of how little clue I had over the matter, and while I had made plans to check with either the Hokage or Mito if they knew anything of what was going on, I decided against troubling them over the matter.

I wasn't Naruto, and I didn't have any family-like relationship with Hashirama to use for some advice in this kind of situation. So I waited, patiently so, while also keeping on improving myself.

The paranoia was still there to keep me from slipping up with my pace, also inducing me to go more frequently to the weapon shop to buy special equipment in case of emergencies.

Smoke bombs were a novelty I found myself endeared to. Not many ninjas had the means to sense their opponents when their sight was obstructed.

Thus the addition of this to my available tools was a most pleasing development.

With the crescendo of the tension intensifying each day, I finally got the truth out when Madara finally decided to speak about this and… he looked surprised himself when he announced that I had been challenged by Hiruzen.

I was confused when he presented me a formal paper, but as I ultimately I stared down at the signature that legalized the document, I gained an understanding of what was going on.

Tobirama had issued the paper. And… Madara was clueless of what was exactly happening.

How was I sure the Uchiha wasn't accessory of this stupid match? The man would've bragged for days about it instead of keeping this much quiet and genuinely shocked.

So I took this as a childish effort from Hashirama's younger brother to take a shot at his 'main enemy' by pitting me against his own apprentice.

While I had simmered down the rivalry by Madara's side, I had completely forgotten that nobody had done anything with Tobirama.

Goddammit, why am I getting this big of a flaw in my plans this early on?!

The setting picked by 'Hiruzen' was one of the training grounds near to the one Madara would train me by.

The place was pretty much similar to what I was already accustomed to, but instead of being close to the large forest surrounding the village, it didn't have any trees or bushes to create natural obstacles.

The land was mostly flat and made up by dirt, with some rocks here and there to create quite the Iwa-esque training ground.

I expected this to be a simple challenge. One that didn't require the group of spectators Tobirama decided to invite for the occasion.

The Hokage was there, and so was his wife. To their left a large group of people all donning the Sarutobi Clan were already cheering on the nervous-looking brunet, and I quickly recognized Hiruzen's mother cheering him the hardest while keeping by the head of the clan's side.

Sasuke Sarutobi, one of the greatest Shinobis of the Warring States. His fame was legendary in the lore, but his abilities were mostly unknown from the show.

He looked like Hiruzen was going to during his adulthood, with the main difference being that he had a full beard instead of a short goatee.

But the presence that really got me the most incensed about considering the already frustrating, was my own mother standing on the other side. She was there, without nobody else.

I spared her a glance, offered her a helpful smile as she tried to hold back onto the silent humiliation Tobirama had unconsciously perpetrated.

Imagine being reminded that your entire clan was gone except for yourself and your own child.

Amusing? I was having a blast from the way I was glaring daggers at the Hokage's younger brother.

The white-haired jerk took notice of it with how surprised he looked as he glanced back at me, but I was quite sure the real shocking element was the degree of contempt 'someone my age' was able to hold towards an adult.

Much to my awe and relief, the uneasiness of my mother's loneliness wasn't noticed just by me. Mito merely blinked at me, trailing my glance up to my only parent before standing up from her seat beside her husband and walking to talk with my mother.

Mom looked quite awkward at this attention, but from the shy smile she developed shortly after the redhead started to talk with her as kindly and informally as possible, I knew that this issue was solved.

Of course, that didn't mean I was going to ignore Tobirama for this slight.

A little bit away from the two women talking, Madara took a couple of seconds to silently alternate his sight between me and my mother and… I felt a shiver go down my spine the way he was looking at the now smiling woman.

Instead of keeping up with my furious staring, I relaxed before turning my attention to Hiruzen.

The boy was nervous as he was in being in that much of a spotlight. He was meant to become the Third Hokage alright, but he was still at the Academy student that ended up being noticed by the Hokage's younger brother.

He was above average, but it would be incorrect to believe him to have the same fortitude as his weary God of Shinobi self.

I quickly realized that he wasn't able to stare up at me, a hint of shame flashing from time to time on his face. And I sighed as I knew that it was the fact he believed himself guilty of what is going on.

Maybe he thought I was going to hate him for this and… I merely shrugged, a tiny smile appearing on my lips.

"I'm not angry at you," I proclaimed quietly, drawing his attention on me. "But I'm quite annoyed that you didn't tell me anything and that you ignored me until now."

He blinked, finally mustering enough courage to look at me properly.

"Sorry."

"You owe me ice cream," I replied mirthfully. "And I hope you're ready to see your wallet perishing because that."

The joke seemed to get a brief smile, a tentative crack on his uneasy expression before he took a stance against me.

I reacted by taking the usual Uchiha Kata, steeling my resolve as I knew that I had to do something in the middle of the fight to make this a draw… but also not.

While winning would be immensely important, I knew that doing so would set Hiruzen to face direct humiliation with his family. And knowing how much honor was important in this particular age, I wasn't planning to see anyone committing suicide to repel the humiliation.

If I lost, then things would be bad for me. Madara would take it as a reason to deprive me of the freedom over my training schedule, and then push me through some intense pro-Uchiha training that would only limit my chances of growing stronger like I planned.

Drawing seemed the only option, but I was partly convinced that it could also result in both cases above happening at the same time because it could still be considered a humiliation for both.

And I didn't want to cause the worst case scenario.

"Today we're here to spectate the spar between Hiruzen Sarutobi of the Sarutobi Clan and Danzou Shimura of the Shimura Clan," Hashirama stated with a formal and serious tone. "This is a formal spar, and it shall be recorded as the settling of a challenge among the young men before us."

That I really wasn't aware about. Like… what the heck is wrong with Tobirama? Wasn't he supposed to be the more logical in this kind of stuff?

Why was he pushing his hatred for the Uchiha Clan to this degree of action?

I merely stared at Hiruzen, offering him a sympathetic tone while he tried to recover from his own reluctance. His posture was stiff, unwilling to grow flexible enough as his stance demanded to properly enter in action.

"If there is anything you two wishes to say, any unwillingness to proceed with this course of action… feel free to speak now that the match has yet to begin."

I turned to the Hokage, flashing him a smile. "I'm fine with this."

Then I turned back to look at my opponent. "But I hope you will agree to start this slowly."

Hiruzen blinked. "Slowly?"

"Just… follow my pace. I will explain."

He merely nodded and soon… the fight began.

Nothing too difficult or too serious, both of our Taijustus were matching evenly as we were willingly sluggish with our own pacing. I was glad that the brunet understood that I wasn't planning to go through the senseless formality of this match.

As much as this sounded as a hazard to do in front of so many important people, I wasn't losing the opportunity to give due punishment to the guilty part for this madness.

We put out some distance from our spectators, just enough to allow us to share a conversation without getting heard by anyone watching us.

"I know it was your sensei. Again."

Hiruzen turned instinctively to Tobirama, noticing just now that the man wasn't able to listen to our conversation.

"Y-Yeah. He was… quite annoyed by what happened a couple of months ago."

We exchanged some easy blows, keeping the pace 'realistic' but also calm enough to not leave any bruises on ourselves whenever the attacks passed through our defenses.

Moving quickly, we were also giving out the impression that we were merely testing each other about our own abilities before going full force.

But that wasn't the case, or at least that wasn't what I had in mind for this fruitful situation.

"I can tell," I added with a quick hum. "Which is why I think retribution is needed once more."

My opponent blinked, dodging a slow punch directed at his jaw and returning the attack with a soft kick for me to block.

"How?"

The innocent question was met with a devious smile as I knew exactly what to do to get some revenge.

It was quite apt that I just had the proper Ninjutsu for this specific circumstance. I called it a coincidence, but I already knew it was more of a blessing from the sky.

Monkey – Boar – Hare – Rat – Snake – Rat!

"Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique!"

I even decided to add the name to it so that Hiruzen could remember it for later.

Just as I finished showing him the hand seals, I found my footing disappear as the ground swallowed me whole.

Hiruzen complied with the copying, eventually replicating the event much to the spectators' growing confusion.

'Why would one of the fighters teach his opponent how to use a technique?'

I emerged quickly enough, but the young Sarutobi had some minor trouble getting out of there without munching on the earth.

He looked disgusted, but I quickly nodded at the trouble and pondered over a quick solution.

"Do it again, but stuck with me now."

Offering me a reluctant frown, he reluctantly accepted and soon we were both underground again.

The ground turned as soft as sand and easy to move through as I took hold of Hiruzen's hand and took him quickly underneath our real target.

Tobirama seemed to realize that something was wrong by how tense his legs were when we sprouted out of the ground and took hold of his legs each. He didn't have time to escape as we both pulled him down until only his head was freed from that natural restriction.

Pulling Hiruzen out of the ground together with me and without him dealing with that unpleasant issue of earth-eating, we both stared down at the incapacitated Senju.

"W-What is the meaning of this!"

"Tobirama-sama, I wish to make it clear that what happened a couple of months ago wasn't just a mean to return the favor over a certain irritating attempt you pulled against Hiruzen-kun," I started to say with a serious tone. "But also a clear message of us being unwilling to be used for any petty rivalry you have with my teacher. We might be kids, but we're far from dumb as you try to portray us."

I didn't linger with my stare over the annoyed man, turning back to Hiruzen with a bright smile.

"About that Ice Cream."

He tensed up a little bit at this response. "B-Behind-"

"May I join you for this occasion?"

I froze up as I felt a hand settling on my shoulder, while another reached for the brunet's own shoulder.

Hashirama smiled, anything resembling his serious self before that gone much to my surprise.

How much of a manchild this guys is?!

But instead of rebuking the unexpected offer, I merely smiled and nodded.

"Of course! After all, Hiruzen is the one that pays."

The young Sarutobi panicked at this 'betrayal', throwing an accusing look for having thrown out that detail in front of the Hokage.

"I suppose it's a nice morning to spend with the family, friends and… Ice cream," Another voice added, and we both glanced at… Hiruzen's father as he nodded in agreement at our proposal.

Soon the acceptance was shared by the rest of the spectators, and we all started to vacate the training ground. Our main destination was now the parlor that was near to the Academy building, a certain boy crying salty tears when his usually plump wallet was emptied of most of its content much to his reluctance.

But the most endearing bits of this aftermath was that I genuinely saw Madara smiling at how I had handled things… while also appearing a little uneasy when I gave him a smile back.

Maybe he thought I was throwing him a silent threat to not do anything of the kind against us?

I mean, I technically had done this already but… I guess that works too.

And while I enjoyed a pleasant day off from my usual training, Tobirama Senju was left to bask under the sun for a couple more of hours.

Eventually his brother came back to pick him up, only for the Hokage to chuckle the whole way back to the Academy building while pointing out how 'tanned' his younger sibling had gotten. Tobirama wasn't amused.