Konoha, Year Five.
"Renya, Madara-sama really has left."
A spiky-haired kid said with a complicated expression to the aloof boy in front of him, who was chewing on a blade of grass.
Renya had said before that Madara-sama would leave Konoha in just a few days.
At the time, he hadn't believed it—but now, just a few days later, it had come true.
The spiky-haired boy was named Uchiha Shun and had a good relationship with Renya.
"Alright, I got it."
Renya spat out the grass from his mouth, his expression calm, as if he had already known.
"Renya, how did you know Madara-sama would leave?"
Uchiha Shun asked curiously.
Even the powerful shinobi in the clan didn't know about Madara-sama's departure—so how did Renya?
"It was bound to happen."
Renya looked at Shun and said,
"Madara-sama had previously gathered the clan and asked them to leave with him, but they didn't want to give up the hard-earned peace. No one was willing to follow him.
And with Madara-sama's pride, of course he would leave alone."
"So that's how it is!"
Uchiha Shun suddenly understood, then said angrily,
"If I had known Madara-sama was leaving today, I definitely would've gone with him!"
"Even if you wanted to follow Madara-sama, he wouldn't bring a brat like you along."
Renya curled his lips.
Uchiha Madara had grand ambitions—he wouldn't take a burden with him.
Hearing that, Uchiha Shun was immediately displeased.
He looked Renya up and down and muttered under his breath,
"Tch, you're not even taller than me."
Renya: "..."
That hit right where it hurt. For a moment, he had no comeback.
Renya was six years old this year and stood at 1.2 meters tall.
Uchiha Shun, also six, had already reached an astonishing 1.4 meters—an entire head taller than Renya.
That height didn't look like a six-year-old at all—no one would question it if you said he was ten.
Sometimes, Renya was curious—what on earth did this guy eat to grow so fast?
He even observed him for a while but found no explanation.
In the end, Renya chalked it up to Shun developing faster than he did.
"Alright, you can leave now."
Renya waved his hand, signaling Uchiha Shun to go.
Seeing this, Uchiha Shun hesitated for a moment and said,
"Renya, how about coming back to the nursery?"
Renya frowned and said impatiently,
"I'm not going back to the nursery. I can take care of myself—I don't need you worrying about me."
"Alright then."
Uchiha Shun sighed and turned to leave.
After seeing Uchiha Shun off, Renya closed the courtyard gate and returned to his room.
"Uchiha Madara has defected..."
Renya murmured softly.
Renya had always been hiding a secret—he was actually a transmigrator.
When he first realized he had transmigrated into a member of the Uchiha clan, he was scared.
He was worried he had arrived at the wrong time—if it was during the Night of the Massacre, then he'd be completely screwed.
Later, after some asking around, he learned that this was during Konoha's founding era.
This made Renya breathe a sigh of relief.
The founding era was relatively peaceful in the history of the shinobi world—danger levels were low, and there was plenty of time to grow.
After all, with Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara around, what country would dare target the Land of Fire?
Heck, it would be a blessing if those two didn't target the other countries first.
The original Renya's parents had been killed by the Senju clan before Konoha's founding.
He had been placed in the Uchiha nursery—basically an orphanage full of Uchiha orphans who had lost their parents.
Uchiha Shun was someone the original Renya had met in that nursery.
After transmigrating, Renya proposed leaving the orphanage.
The head caretaker at first didn't feel comfortable letting him live alone, but after Renya's persistent efforts, she finally agreed and even arranged a small courtyard for him.
Every Uchiha orphan received a monthly stipend—not a lot, but enough for food and daily needs.
Renya sat cross-legged on the floor and began refining chakra.
The chakra refining method wasn't a secret within the Uchiha clan.
As one of the major clans from the Warring States era, they had those kinds of resources...
Every Uchiha clan member, upon reaching the appropriate age, could receive chakra refinement training for free.
It was essentially a way to test whether they had the potential to become shinobi.
Even though the founding era was relatively peaceful, no matter what time it was, strength was always the most important thing!
Only with power could one have the ability to protect oneself.
So Renya trained diligently every day.
In addition to chakra refinement, he also had to do physical training.
But he was still young—he couldn't overtrain.
If his height stopped at 1.5 meters for life, he'd be done for.
...
Hokage's Office
"Why would Madara do this?"
The First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, upon hearing the news of Madara's defection, stared at the symbol of Konoha hanging on the wall, his heart full of mixed emotions.
He slowly stood up, both hands pressing on the desk, his knuckles turning white from the force.
Images of moments with Madara surfaced in his mind—from their meeting in childhood, to their vow to found Konoha together, to the countless disagreements that followed...
"Hmph, it's come to this in the end."
Senju Tobirama snorted coldly, his eyes full of undisguised disgust.
He had always been wary of Uchiha Madara.
Even though his brother Hashirama had tried to maintain the friendship between the Senju and Uchiha, Tobirama still worried the Uchiha clan would bring danger to Konoha.
Sure enough, Madara turned out exactly as he had suspected—ambitious and dangerous.
He should have ignored his brother's advice back then and just taken out Uchiha Madara!
Seeing Hashirama looking so devastated, Tobirama grew even more furious and immediately ordered:
"Brother, notify all jōnin except the Uchiha.Keep a close watch on their movements—I don't want any more chaos in the village!"
Hearing that, Senju Hashirama sighed."Tobirama, you've always held a grudge against the Uchiha and targeted them constantly. It's exactly your behavior that drove Madara away..."
Senju Tobirama: "???"
He looked at Hashirama in disbelief, eyes full of shock, as if he couldn't believe his brother would say something like that.
He had no idea how his brother could blame Madara's defection on him.
Just as Tobirama was about to retort, Hashirama spoke earnestly:
"Tobirama, the war between the Senju and Uchiha has long since ended. You need to learn to let go of your hatred..."
Tobirama said nothing, his face cold as he listened to his brother ramble.
This kind of thing had happened more than once—it was always the same.
Let go of hatred... accept the Uchiha... Konoha is one big family... unity is most important...
He was sick of hearing it.
But what Hashirama said next completely stunned him.
"Tobirama, I think you're biased against the Uchiha. So I want you to adopt an Uchiha orphan. I hope that through living with this child, you'll be able to let go of your hatred toward the Uchiha,"
Hashirama said.
"Brother, you're not joking, are you?!"
Senju Tobirama roared.
"I'm serious."
Hashirama's expression was stern.
"No way. Absolutely not!"
Realizing his brother wasn't joking, Tobirama flew into a rage.
He couldn't understand how his brother could come up with such a brain-dead idea...
Did he get his head slammed in a door or something?