Chapter 42

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Title: POV

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Madara was livid, his entire life's knowledge has been overturned despite him being barely 12 years old.

From birth, he had only had in ideology inculcated into him and his brothers, 'Chakra was the energy used to win battles when used in tandem with the Sharingan.'

As an Uchiha, he was proud of his clans bloodline limit but unlike the populace, he wasn't one that found thrill in the idea of wars

He saw them as something that needed to be stopped, eradicated if possible, but alas, he was but a child.

He had to learn of the early death of his brothers in a war that they had no idea why they were fighting and what they were fighting for. As a child, he was forced to mature early and as a means of escape, he ran from his clan compound to an area where he could find some peace and quiet, away from the tension in the clan area.

That was were he met his first friend, Hashirama. He too had also experienced the pain of losing a sibling to the pointless wars and was also here to escape for his clans responsibilities and tensions.

From him, he learned that he had lost two of his brothers in a battle fought not long ago and currently, he had only a little brother left.

They both sympathized with eachother as they both had only a little brother left in their lives.

At first, they were both reserved when conversing with eachother. Madara didn't even know he had chakra or was a warrior till he saw him throw a stone in a familiar posture.

That was a posture he too knew all too well as he was taught the same thing during the kunai throwing practice.

Initially, he had wanted to eliminate him but seeing as he was his first and only friend, he decided to ignore it.

With time, they found a common ground while still keeping their secrets, they came to enjoy eachother's company with him being the big brother figure to the dumb Hashirama.

They competed in almost everything, from peeing to running to throwing stones and even training. They competed in who could throw more punches, and kicks.

It was all fun and all till Hashirama came a certain day and said he had an idea for a new technique and called it, "Super Fire Jutsu Genjutsu Slice Giant Shuriken Two Step Drop Jutsu."

What kind of lame name was that, wait forget that, was that even possible in the first place? He thought and admonished him for his stupidity.

Hashirama as always was quick to get depressed for even the slightest thing but who would have thought this time, it was a plot.

He suddenly sprang up and declared. "First to climb up this mountain without hands." And bolted without even waiting for Madara.

Madara cursed at his shamelessness but still ran after him, after all, he couldn't lose without really putting in the effort.

As expected, Hashirama won the race and reached the mountain top before me. When Madara reached, he found that we were both out of breath but didn't forget to admonish Hashirama for his shamelessness.

While they caught their breath, they gazed at the horizon, filled with nothing but trees as far as their eyes could see.

Hashirama praised the sight and talked about his ambition.

Hearing of his ambition, Madara was stumped, not because it was a foolish dream but because he didn't think of this. A land where all clans could come together and live in peace without the fear of losing their young ones to war.

A place where children will be what they are, children. And adults would be and do what they're meant to do, that being guiding the children.

Madara could see such a place taking form already but unfortunately, it was still far off in the future.

As they both sat in silence, they heard a voice that gave them the fright of their life, a fright that almost led to the deaths if not for the old man who used some form of control technique to float us back up the mountain.

I've heard of a certain clan that uses chakra to control wooden bodies to fight for them, I wonder if he's one of them. Was he here to kill them? But he looked harmless. No, he could sneak up on them without them realising, there was nothing good about people like that.

Those detestable Nara Clan Shadow ability also has the same effects but he shouldn't be from there. He has white hair so... Wait. Since he has white hair that means he's old right? Ive never seen an old man before so I wouldn't know.

Madara thought to himself as the man spoke about Hashirama's vision.

One thing led to another and they ended up being shown a scene of what one would call Gods fighting and him or someone that looks like a younger version of him easily subduing those two Godlike beings.

Instinctively, he felt that he was able to reach that level of power but that thought disappeared as soon as it came.

After some back and forth, he asked us to be his students if we want our dreams to come through. Hashirama being the dumb head that he was readily accepted and after some argument, Madara also accepted.

Unlike what we were expecting, he made some gestures and said some words and then left them to their devices, which was to not drown in what one would call a raging sea.

No matter how far they ran, they always seem to return to their starting point. They had to employ everything in their arsenal to remain standing on the water without sinking, sinking meant drowning and drowning meant death.. or so he thought.

The concept of time became lost to them and before Madara knew it, he awoke in his room back in the clan.

After asking his little brother, Izuna, he learnt that he was found exhausted in the training ground late evening yesterday, however, he could vividly remember what transpired yesterday.

After asking some more questions, his confusion only deepened. To enter their clan premises and leave him there without anyone noticing, wasn't that absurd?

Putting that aside for the moment, he did what he usually did every morning, greeted his father, freshened up, ate, and then trained.

During the training, he found that something had changed but he couldn't put a finger on it so he disregarded it as being nothing much.

In the early afternoon, he left to meet up with Hashirama as usual and recounted his experience to him. Hashirama also had the same experience as him.

Time passed and they had to go through another grueling exercise just to climb up the mountain again as the old man's voice drifted down and told them.

Later in the evening, after their 'Light' exercise as the man put it, they went through another hellish torture as they felt their bodies being torn apart and fixed repeatedly.

To top it off, they couldn't even fall unconscious as whenever they are at the edge, a sharp pain would bring their consciousness back.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, we finally fell unconscious and later, awoke to a sumptuous meal.

Madara couldn't believe such types of foods existed and considering how hungry they were, they wolves the food down after the old geezer taught them some manner.

After the meal, they were both called into a room where the old man told them some things that subverted their already existing knowledge but deep down, Madara could feel how right these words were.

Despite that, his years in the Uchiha clan had also given him an already different understanding of chakra so he found it hard to mix the two.

As the old man left, he looked at Hashirama beside him and asked. "What do you think about what sensei said?"

Hashirama also seemed to be in a dilemma which didn't surprise the Uchiha much as he too was confused.

"I don't know Madara. I feel like there's more to this thing called chakra, but all we've seen so far about it, is it being used for nothing but wars. Perhaps in his youth, chakra was something more than what we know now." The little Senju said tentatively.

"Something more than it is now, huh?" Madara muttered to himself while looking at the brown sky and the setting sun from a window inside thr cabin.

"Like this cabin, from the outside, it's a normal cabin that anyone would disregard but from inside, I don't doubt I could be lost if I wander around." Madara said as he looked around the room they were currently in.

"Of course, look at that." Hashirama said and pointed to a door behind Madara. Madara looked back and saw a door with a sign beside it. "No entering. You could get lost on the path of life."

Madara looked at this with a deadpanned look in his eyes. "Path of life?" He asked.

"It is what it is, Ma-chan." Hashirama said with a giggle.

"Don't call me that." Madara growled with some reddish tint on his face.

"Hahahaha." Hashirama laughed out loud for a few seconds before stopping and looking around. "It's good that we accepted to learn from his then, is it not?"

"Yeah, this way, we could learn more about this chakra and see if there's any other use for it except for wars." Madara also intoned.

Unbeknownst to them, the fact that Shun had told them this is already his limit. Shun's principles had always been, learn what I teach you then experiment in your own. That's the best way to learn.

As though, in response to the boys hopes of learning from Shun, words began manifesting itself on the spot Shun was seated previously. "I ain't teaching you more than this, tomorrow we move, figure out chakra on your own, there's other things to learn and no time to learn it all."

The boys noticing the appearance of the words, came to have a look and seeing it, Hashirama had to hold Madara back from rushing out blindly to look for Shun to give the old geezer a beating of his life.

At the same time, a 'Clink. Clank' sound resounded in the little room they were in and out of nowhere, a row of books arranged neatly on a book shelf appeared before them with a bold italic font in top of it saying. "Theory of Chakra,"

"What's that? This place is beginning to give me the chills." Hashirama said as he let go of Madara and his behind him instead.

"Pshh, that should be some stuff he put to make himself feel mysterious. I bet it's nothing." Madara said confidently and walked toward the bookshelf and poking it.

After poking it several times without activating any traps, he became more confident and pulled out a book and opened it only to gasp in shock.

"What is it, Madara?" Hashirama asked and rushed over.

"This.. this.. these are writings." Madara stuttered.

"Eh? Writings? Aren't those written on scrolls?" Hashirama asked.

"Exactly. How is it able to enter this? What is this even called?" Madara asked in amazement.

"Look there, it's called a bookshelf, that means this is a book. Book and not scroll..." Hashirama pointed.

Madara looked at the point Hashirama's finger was pointing at and also nodded in understanding. "Seems like we have to read up then."

Hashirama frowned However drawing Madara's attention. "What?"

"We still have to go home right?" Hashirama asked. Madara froze as he remembered what happened this morning.

What if someone followed them out, or followed their tracks to locate them here? Wouldn't they be endangering the kind old man?

As they stood silently in contemplation, another, Clinking sound was heard, looking at it, they couldn't help but widen their eyes in surprise.

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