The two walked up to him, flanking him on the left and right. Madara spoke up first:
"Yo. Long time no see."
Xuan twitched his mouth to the side. What an incredibly weak greeting. The correct way to greet someone in this situation was to charge forward and kick them straight into the river.
"Uh... your name is..." Madara asked hesitantly.
"Hashirama," Senju Hashirama replied dejectedly. It was obvious he was in a terrible mood today.
"What's going on? You've been moping around since we got here. Did something happen?"
"Why are you asking? I'm perfectly fine," Hashirama replied, his voice clearly trembling with unshed tears.
"Who are you trying to fool? Why don't you just tell us."
"It's nothing."
"Come on, just say it."
"No, really, it's nothing."
Madara was just about to try and comfort him when Xuan reached out and stopped him. While watching the two of them interact was quite amusing, acting like a couple of old biddies going back and forth was going to take forever. It was time for him to step in.
Madara shot Xuan a puzzled look. Seeing Xuan wave him back, he was confused but obediently took a few steps away.
Xuan chuckled and said loudly, "Be a man! If you're sad about something, spit it out! Stop dawdling around like a little girl. Come on, if you're feeling miserable, I'll spar with you. You'll feel much better after a good brawl."
Even as Xuan spoke, he was already moving. Condensing chakra into his foot, he stomped down violently toward Hashirama.
Bang!
Gravel and shattered rocks from the riverbank exploded everywhere. Hashirama dodged at the absolute last microsecond, his face turning pale with fright.
"Holy crap, you're trying to kill me, aren't you?! You definitely want to kill me!"
Xuan cracked his knuckles. Wasting no time on nonsense, he threw a punch straight at Hashirama's face.
Hashirama's gaze sharpened. Right now, he was incredibly heartbroken and frustrated. He desperately needed to vent. There were many ways to vent—like pouring your heart out to someone, or, alternatively, having a really good fight.
Sidestepping to dodge the incoming punch, his left hand parried the strike, leaving the center of Xuan's chest wide open. His right hand, already brimming with chakra, hammered straight toward Xuan's heart.
The Senju's Taijutsu really is something! Xuan thought internally.
His eyes shifted slightly as his left hand pushed Hashirama's fist away, and the two immediately engaged in a rapid, echoing flurry of blows. After about half a minute, Xuan landed a solid hook on Hashirama's jaw, sending him stumbling back three steps. Hashirama touched the corner of his mouth; a trace of blood seeped out.
That hit finally ignited Hashirama's true fighting spirit. Circulating his chakra throughout his entire body, he explosively accelerated, suddenly appearing right in front of Xuan with an incredibly fast uppercut aimed at his jaw.
Like hell I'm going to keep fighting you.
Xuan sneered internally. His silhouette vanished without warning, reappearing directly beside Uchiha Madara.
Madara glanced down at his feet, where a marked kunai was firmly wedged between the rocks.
Suddenly, Madara felt a massive force hit him from behind, as if someone had violently kicked him. He stumbled forward three steps, whipped his head around, and glared.
"What are you doing?!"
Pointing at Hashirama with a perfectly innocent expression, Xuan said, "You're up. Just don't kill him."
Madara opened his mouth to shout, but a furious Hashirama was already charging straight at him. Swallowing his words, Madara rushed forward and clashed with him.
Senju Hashirama's Taijutsu was excellent. By Xuan's estimation, there were very few people in the Warring States Era in this age group who could match him. If Xuan hadn't been here to intervene, the Uchiha Madara of the original timeline would have been slightly inferior to him at this age.
However, due to the constant pressure Xuan applied, Madara's current strength was at least a full tier higher than in the original story, making his Taijutsu unfathomably stronger.
As a result, two minutes later, Madara had Hashirama pinned to the ground, raining chaotic blows down on him.
> According to Uchiha Madara's recollections decades later, that was the most satisfying battle of his entire life—because it was one of the very few times he ever managed to pin Senju Hashirama down and beat the absolute crap out of him.
Men's friendships are forged through their fists. Xuan couldn't remember who said that, but it made a hell of a lot of sense.
Five minutes later, the three boys were lined up side-by-side along the riverbank, each holding a skipping stone. Hashirama's face was black and blue, mostly courtesy of Madara.
Madara's face fared relatively better, though his nose was broken again. Whenever he touched it, tears uncontrollably streamed down his face. Ever since Xuan broke it that one time, his nose seemed exceptionally prone to snapping.
Only Xuan stood there with a beaming smile, completely devoid of any injuries. He had hit and run, leaving Madara to tank all of Hashirama's fury.
The three threw their stones simultaneously.
Skip... skip... skip...
Two stones successfully landed on the opposite bank, while one sank into the water at the very last second.
Hashirama and Xuan both shot Madara a sideways glance, their eyes practically screaming the word:
"Loser."
"You two bastards," Madara gritted out, his fists clenched tightly.
After this little scuffle, the relationship between the three of them clearly took a massive step forward. Hashirama finally revealed the reason behind his grief—even though Xuan already knew.
"My younger brother... he died."
As he said this, Hashirama cried heartbreakingly.
Then, he stared melancholically at the river.
"The reason I come here is because watching this river flow makes it feel like the heavy knots in my heart are being washed away with it. Your names are Madara and Xuan, right? I'm guessing you've felt something similar. Do you have brothers?"
Madara turned to look at the river, as if a painful memory had been triggered.
"I used to have five brothers. Used to..."
As he said this, he subconsciously glanced at Xuan beside him before looking back at the flowing water.
"I don't even know what my parents in this life looked like; they died when I was very young. I don't have any blood siblings. I used to have five cousins. Now, only two are left."
Xuan also stared deeply at the river, putting on a melancholic act. As for what he was actually thinking, only he knew.
Hashirama looked at the two of them in shock, muttering,
"Used to?"
Madara tossed the stone in his hand.
"We are shinobi. We never know when we might die. If there's any way to guarantee we don't end up dead, it would be to completely lay our hearts bare to our enemies—to hide nothing from one another and become sworn brothers. But that's impossible. The human heart is unfathomable. No one can truly see what's inside someone else's heart."
Saying that, he threw the stone in his hand.
"For all you know, the other person is actually burning with rage."
The stone skipped across the water.
Looking a bit lost, Hashirama asked,
"Can we really never lay our hearts bare to one another?"
"I don't know. But I often come here to think about it, hoping to find a way."
The stone kept skipping across the water until it finally landed on the opposite bank with a sharp clack.
"It seems I've finally found the right direction this time. It wasn't just you guys. This time... even I made it across."
Uchiha Madara smiled softly.
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