Uchiha Madara had loved his younger brother since childhood. From the very moment of Izuna's birth. Even the most malicious tongues, discussing the personality of the leader of one of the two strongest clans, agreed that Madara loved power and authority slightly less than he loved his kinsman. No one knew the secret of such love. It simply was, and that was all.
So, Izuna's death greatly changed the strongest Uchiha...
He even agreed to an alliance with Hashirama, may he forever walk around frowning like his albino brother. Now that was someone who should have been finished off. But the white-haired one turned out to be stronger than dear Izuna. And he lost...
Perhaps that's why Madara decided to end the war? In memory of his brother, who gave his life for it? The Uchiha wasn't deceiving himself—he and his brother were warriors. Not murderers, as many considered them, but warriors. They enjoyed dancing with their enemies and defeating them. They had no equal in the clan, and few could stand against them outside of it. The Senju also turned out to be excellent dancers...
After his brother's death and accepting the fact that they would never see each other again, Madara declined significantly. He talked about him to everyone, often cried, and remembered Izuna's smile. The younger one was a cheerful person, not afraid to tease and flick the forehead of the main "show-off" of the shinobi world. What's more, he even had fun with Tobirama, sticking notes on his back during battle with the words "kick me" (when he could afford to, of course). The younger Uchiha head did not want to kill the red-eyed Senju.
"He's a wonderful dance partner, it would be a shame to end our association," Izuna would shrug every time his older brother demanded Tobirama's death. "Isn't that why Hashirama is still alive?"
And every time, Madara had nothing to say in response.
Hashirama was stronger, but not so much that he couldn't be killed while he was trying to non-lethally wound you. Perhaps the great Uchiha could have long since become the only God of Shinobi. Even now, he could instantly recall a dozen instances when he could have finished off that eternally smiling idiot!
But he didn't finish him, and Izuna died...
After Madara had bored all of his brother's acquaintances (some of whom he didn't even know) with talk about him, the second stage of grief arrived: revenge. To take revenge on the Senju clan for his kinsman with his new, improved eyes seemed like the best idea, and so easy to execute! The young Uchiha head focused on that.
The result was defeat and even forgiveness from Tobirama. How it happened, Madara didn't know, but he was sure Hashirama's idiotic smile was involved.
The second God of Shinobi was like a brother to the Uchiha...
Then came the truce and the construction of the new settlement began. The Village Hidden in the Leaves. It had a nice ring to it!
And during one of his walks with Hashirama through the developing streets, Madara stumbled upon him...
"I am Sensoma of the Tomura clan," the boy answered the Senju's question firmly, while looking at the Uchiha.
There was no doubt—it was him. The same kid who, at two years old, had managed to attack Izuna! Of course, then and now, he wouldn't have stood a chance against the younger clan head, but the fact itself! And his brother had said then that he would have loved to have the boy for himself. Even when he was deemed a complete mediocrity, and the appearance of his chakra was explained as a fluke and an anomaly.
But Izuna hadn't wanted to stop...
"We will not bring the orphans of our enemies into the village, especially such untalented ones!" Madara had protested. "He's just trash! Get him out of your head!"
"He is an excellent dancer," the younger one disagreed, his head in the clouds as usual. "His jump, his swing... I would like to see what becomes of him by the age of fourteen."
"A weakling," the elder one declared. "An exceptionally inept one, who proved to be a weakling even compared to his parents."
"At two years old, he put up the same resistance as they did."
"A fluke and an anomaly."
"A fact!"
The arguing brothers glared at each other. Madara didn't understand Izuna's interest and was not going to yield to his whims. The boy was nonsense, he wasn't needed, but he couldn't cause any trouble in the clan either, but Izuna... The child could become his weakness, and Madara knew that for sure.
"Fine," the younger one suddenly backed down easily. "Then I'll send other clan members to him. Perhaps someone will take him."
"Why do you even need him?!" the clan head exploded, furious that he couldn't understand his relative, who was an open book to everyone else.
"He's just a very good dancer," Izuna smiled, leaving the room. "I saw it in his eyes."
And now, almost five years later, looking into the eyes of the grown-up Tomura, Madara admitted his brother had been right. The kid recognized him! He was only two years old then, no more! He could barely even speak properly! But he remembered him, and judging by the coldness in his young eyes, he remembered him as an enemy.
"Do you know each other?" Hashirama instantly oriented himself.
"Barely," Sensoma answered first. "Madara-sama had the honor of killing my parents. My father was a shinobi, albeit not a strong one, and my mother..."
The Senju frowned and shot a disapproving glare at the Uchiha, who, in turn, opened his mouth, trying to take a breath.
It can't be! Him! This little brat! Even the intonation is exactly the same!
"But I am sorry for the death of your brother, Madara-sama," the boy adjusted his glasses. "I believe he was a good man and a much better shinobi."
"Aha," Hashirama closed his eyes and scratched the back of his head, frantically trying to figure out where to go. "I think I'll be going... Y-yeah... Business! I have business!"
The Wood Style user vanished, leaving the stunned Uchiha with this small disaster, who wasn't the least bit intimidated by the chaotically released chakra pressuring everyone within a twenty-meter radius, nor by the fact that one of the Gods of Shinobi stood before him, nor by his own sharp words...
"Alright," Tomura shuffled his feet, looking after the fleeing Senju. "I'll be going too... find myself an opponent..."
The boy was talking about chess, of course, because for fights, opponents always found him themselves. In the four days Sensoma had spent in the nascent Konoha, he had already clashed with boys from different clans nine times. Clan kids were no match for ordinary ones, so he was beaten seven times, and the other two he won by what they call "the skin of his teeth." However, there were no kids his own age among them.
But Madara, hearing about an opponent, once again returned in his thoughts to that conversation with Izuna:
He's just a very good dancer.
Had his younger brother seen that in him five years ago? Sometimes, even he had moments of insight.
"Wait..." the Uchiha called out hoarsely to the boy, who had already taken four steps. He turned around, looking at the God of Shinobi with interest. "Would you like to... go with me... to talk..."
The people who became unwitting witnesses to this scene walked around with their mouths open for the rest of the day. Madara Uchiha—a God of Shinobi and head of the Uchiha clan—was timid in front of an orphan child whose parents he himself had killed who knows how long ago! Obviously, no one who told their friends about this was believed.
"Why not?" Sensoma, for a moment, felt like a shrewd negotiator. "Let's go, Madara-sama."
A week later, Madara Uchiha overcame all his awkwardness towards Sensoma. They talked a lot, shared their thoughts, and generally hit it off very quickly. This scared Hashirama a little, made Tobirama wary, and Shikogeru didn't care. A God of Shinobi wouldn't harm an orphan, would he? Especially not while walking around with such a lost look on his face, at first.
It all started, of course, with awkward apologies, like: "About your parents—I'm sorry. They were in the wrong when... Still, that doesn't justify murder, but... Anyway, I'm sorry." Even such a gesture of goodwill from the Uchiha was perceived by everyone around as something amazing. And Sensoma's reaction, as if he simply wrote these words down in his internal notebook and forgot them, was simply stunning.
Next, the boy himself began to look for common ground, almost ceasing to meet with his friends from the Ino-Shika-Cho. He wouldn't have known how to approach the God of Shinobi if he hadn't accidentally started a conversation about his younger brother.
And then it all took off.
Of course, from his past life's professional experience, Sensoma knew all about sibling relationships, their hidden brotherly love for each other, and how they love to boast about their close relatives. But the fact that Madara was taking his younger brother's death so hard surprised him. It was a world of assassins, after all... Although, wait: a shared village, childhood friendship, and a truce between clans... It was all clear—children.
From his communication with the Uchiha, the teacher gleaned one important fact for himself—the adult shinobi of the Sengoku Jidai remained children at heart. Shikogeru, Hashirama, Madara. They couldn't properly enjoy their childhood, so it stretched throughout their entire lives. Idealism, foolish dreams, and serious mental anguish...
Against this backdrop, Tobirama looked like the most adult person in the shinobi world. In the ordinary world, everything was familiar to the former teacher who had grown accustomed to the local realities, so he wasn't worth looking at.
After talking his fill about Izuna, Sensoma managed to steer the subsequent conversations in the direction he needed, namely—battles.
Madara Uchiha was just as embarrassed as Shikokura when talking about his exploits on the battlefield, while Sensoma gazed at him with happy and enthusiastic eyes. The boy loved listening to stories about battles. Sometimes he would mumble something under his breath like, "I'll make a note of that..." and begin to reason aloud about how he could have gotten out of one situation or another.
The head of the red-eyed clan was a little shocked by this child's behavior, especially because his younger brother was almost the same.
I saw it in his eyes.
Kindred spirits. This was the definition the hot-tempered and serious Madara, who was somewhat timid in the presence of this boy, could apply to reality. The guilt for his parents' death only intensified his shyness, and the all-forgiving nature emanating from Sensoma and his indifference to everything not related to battles was simply amazing! However, the latter was very close to the legendary Uchiha.
"You what?" Shikogeru asked with emphasized calmness when Madara stated his demands in the newly built Nara clan quarter.
"I want to take him as my student," the Uchiha crossed his arms over his chest. "Sensoma Tomura will be trained by me personally."
"And what did the head of the Uchiha clan find so amazing in my ward?"
Silence filled the room, so thick that the clan heads could hear the children playing outside the walls. Occasionally, Sensoma's voice reached their ears. Madara hesitated with his answer, and Shikogeru, somewhat bewildered by the God of Shinobi's assertiveness, waited for his response.
"I found in him a memory of my younger brother," the Uchiha decided to answer with maximum honesty. "Izuna and the boy... they are very similar. That's why I'm going to take him as a student. Besides, from the looks of it, he'll be a decent shinobi if he's taught."
"That's a bit strange," the Nara head replied, carefully choosing his words. "I'm not going to interfere in your personal life, but... do you even know about Sensoma's potential as a shinobi?"
"What's wrong?"
Shikogeru sighed and stood up. Walking to his work cabinet, he pulled out an inconspicuous thin folder and handed it to the Uchiha.
"Read it. Perhaps after this, you'll change your mind about taking him as a student." Madara impatiently dove into the reading, snorting disbelievingly under his breath, clearly not trusting the Nara. However, when he finished the document, his face took on a confused and broken expression, like a child whose toy had been taken away.
"But how could this be...?" he asked into the void. "Izuna always had excellent chakra."
Shikogeru wisely pretended not to hear anything. The Uchiha himself realized his slip-up, but instead of being embarrassed as he was with Sensoma, he became angry:
"This won't stop me. I still want to take him as my student."
"Well," the Nara head spread his hands. "To be honest, I'm no teacher, except for my own children. I can't teach Sensoma clan techniques—they'd eat me alive. So, you can take him," he smirked, watching the young head's face light up. "I would like to say..."
Madara's face darkened, and Shikogeru calmly knocked on the wooden wall exactly four times. Obviously, the knocks were audible from outside, so the Uchiha wasn't surprised when the boy in glasses entered the room without warning.
"Sensoma, what do you say?" Nara began. "Madara-san is offering to take you as his student."
"You know about my problem, right?" the child asked, somewhat surprised, from which the Uchiha concluded that he had no idea about his plans.
Madara nodded silently, grimly examining the child. A strong, flexible body, a decent face, slightly blurred by glasses, brown hair, and bright blue eyes. As a shinobi, he wasn't hopeless. But he would be weak if he didn't come up with something about his chakra quantity. Madara would help him come up with something. In memory of his brother.
"Well-l-l... you're a terrible teacher, Shikogeru-san," the boy drawled seriously, looking at the ceiling. Madara and Shikogeru just smirked, recognizing their ward. "Besides, I won't get my hands on clan techniques, so you don't have much to teach me anyway."
"Neither does Madara," Nara noted, as if casually.
"Fire techniques..." the gaze of cold, calculating, childlike-adult eyes fell on the startled Uchiha. "Not suitable. Sharingan—not suitable. Uchiha Kata—misses the mark, but... the Sharingan allows you to copy techniques. How many Earth techniques do you know, Madara-sama?"
"It feels like you weren't the one offered to become a student of a God of Shinobi," Madara grumbled, standing up. "Nine. The element itself doesn't come easily to me. In any case, that's more than he can give you," he nodded towards Shikogeru. "I'm sure I'll find something to teach you."
"I agree, Madara-sama," Sensoma smiled, understanding that he didn't have much choice. "But I'll still be living here, right?"
"Live wherever you want," Madara smirked and left the room.
"I second that," Shikogeru leaned back on the floor. "My home is always open to you, Sensoma."
The teacher in the boy's body smiled. Finally, at the age of seven, his real combat training would begin.
And from there, it wasn't far to actual battles...
The next day, Madara took his newly-minted student... no, not to training. First, the Uchiha decided to find out everything about Sensoma's body and mind from professionals, who happened to be the Uzumaki he so disliked. And the only Uzumaki Madara knew living in Konoha was in the Hokage's residence and was his wife.
"Mito will tell you more than the Yamanaka," he explained to his student, who was curiously examining the surroundings in the village head's house.
"I didn't know you got along with the Uzumaki," the other replied.
"We don't get along," Madara gritted, having already seen the smiling Hashirama and his wife, who always maintained the most harmless and sweet face in the world when she saw the Uchiha head.
"Hey, Madara, good to see you!" the Senju immediately went to shake hands with his childhood friend. "I didn't know you'd find a student! And so quickly! And... such a one!"
The God of Shinobi's delight was as strong as the despair on the face of his namesake. However, for the memory of his younger brother, the latter could tolerate even more than this.
And, for example, Mito...
"Glad you dropped by, Madara-chan," the former Uzumaki smiled sweetly, maintaining a universal coldness in her eyes. "Darling, your brother is waiting, as are the Hokage's duties. Entrust Madara-chan to me."
"Hah, alright," the First Hokage smiled simply at his wife, completely oblivious to the bloodlust that had thickened between these two. "Good luck with the check-up! Do your best, Sensoma-kun!"
"He's surprisingly blind to the hatred of his loved ones," the boy stated a fact after the Hokage left. "But he gets along with people quickly."
"Oh yes," Mito smiled at him too, but now with interest in her eyes. "Even with shitty people like Madara-chan. What did you do for him to choose you as his student? Kill virgins using their parents' limbs as clubs?"
"He's just a child!" Madara finally snapped, which caused considerable surprise in the Uzumaki.
"He stood up for you," she feigned, bringing a hand to her mouth. "Boy, run from him. It's quite possible he'll want to... ahem... Do you know the word 'sex'?"
"I do," the teacher in the child's body laughed, giving the woman points for the jab. "Don't worry, I haven't killed any virgins. Yet. Madara-sama is teaching me because I tried to finish off his brother when I was two."
"Just like that?" the Uzumaki hid her astonishment.
"Oh no, first they slaughtered my family," the child mocked, matching her taunting tone.
Madara couldn't figure out if he was mocking him, or just responding to Mito to defend his teacher. Still, Izuna would have done something similar in his place. And would have attached a "kick me" note too.
The Uzumaki and the Tomura started talking. Mito masterfully drew fuinjutsu seals on the child's body, he masterfully engaged in a verbal skirmish with her, and Madara masterfully (though boiling with rage) tried to ignore the buckets of mud "Mito-san" was pouring on him. In the end, the procedures were finished.
"Alright, Sensoma-kun, wait in the house for now," Mito dusted off her hands. "You can go out to the courtyard, I'll allow it. Just try not to trample my flowers. Madara-chan, of course, has no idea that the word 'beautiful' exists, but you understand me, right?"
"I will try very hard not to harm your plants and not to let Madara-sama do it," the boy answered her seriously, adjusting his glasses.
"Splendid. Wait."
And she left, leaving them at the threshold of the house.
"That was a long time ago, wasn't it?" Sensoma asked, as if casually, as he walked into the inner courtyard where the hostess had let them.
"I sort of cut off her... ahem..." Madara blushed.
"Yes, yes, teacher," Sensoma grinned and was all ears.
"Well... in a fight with me, she once lost her female attributes," the serious Uchiha found his words, clearly reliving the moment in his head.
"The front ones, or the back ones?" his newly-minted student inquired matter-of-factly.
"All of them," Madara answered dryly, in a tone that made it clear the conversation was over, and moved forward.
The "courtyard," as Mito called it, turned out to be a large field of sand, with some plants planted along the edges. Sensoma even recognized a couple of flowers, but the rest were unfamiliar to him. After circling one of the "strangers," the boy learned that the sand was only in the middle of the yard, while on the sides lay normal fertile black soil. The information was of mediocre usefulness, but it was something.
"And where are Mito-sama's favorite flowers?" the boy turned to his teacher. The latter was single-mindedly trampling some bush with a scattering of small blue flowers against dark leaves, hissing something under his breath. "Ah-h-h... Well, yes, they are quite beautiful..."
A few minutes later, the Uchiha clan head's small revenge was over. Sensoma was under no illusions about his new teacher—in a normal situation, he would have attacked the Uzumaki with his fists, but, firstly, Hashirama was nearby, and secondly, it seemed Madara had really decided to make a shinobi out of the reincarnated one. This arrangement suited him...
"What do you like to do in your free time?" the Uchiha asked Sensoma casually, wiping his shoes on the sand.
"I like to play chess," he bent a finger.
"Is that something like shogi?" Madara raised an eyebrow. "Not a bad hobby, especially for life in the Nara clan. Is there anything else?"
For the first time, the boy hesitated and even turned halfway, clearly trying to hide his uncertainty. He took off his glasses and thoughtfully ran his fingers over them.
"I love," he sighed. "Just don't laugh. I love to fight."
The legendary Uchiha, who thought the boy would never surprise him again, was surprised once more. Of course, his interest in battles hinted at it, but to say it so openly... Madara even activated his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan for a second, hoping to see Izuna's chakra under a skillful henge, or, at worst, his reincarnation.
Alas, the Sharingan showed nothing.
"Th-that's..." he stammered. "That's a very rare hobby..."
"Do you think it's abnormal?" Sensoma asked calmly, clearly used to this attitude.
"Ha," Madara smirked and grinned, looking predatorily at the small child's figure. "Let's have a sparring match as teacher and student. Right here. You love to dance, don't you?"
"I don't quite understand what you mean," the boy rushed towards the man in a skipping motion. "But I'm all for it!"
It was not befitting of a God of Shinobi to fight a seven-year-old child who wouldn't even grow up to be a proper shinobi, but the Uchiha didn't care. It was here and now that Sensoma's potential as a fighter would be revealed. And as the shadow of his younger brother...
It was clear to the last of the weak and small Tomura clan that he was not destined to stand against the legendary shinobi, but when else would he get the chance to clash with an opponent whom he simply could not defeat? The children of clan shinobi and just older kids no longer brought him joy. But Madara Uchiha was the perfect opponent.
"Let the training begin," the teacher cracked his neck, activating his Sharingan. "First test—taijutsu."
The Sharingan gives the user celestial reflexes, anticipation of movements, reading of techniques, and much, much more, but Madara activated his eyes only to make it easier to weaken himself. It would be harder to hold back without them, as his trained body would simply react to the external stimulus and put the boy down with the first blow. There was no point in infusing his body with chakra either.
Sensoma, on the other hand, infused his body to the limit, boosting all his parameters. Right now, in terms of strength, he could match an ordinary man of about thirty—the peak strength of a commoner. Not much for a shinobi, but for a man from twenty-first-century Russia in a seven-year-old's body, it was a tangible plus.
The boy took a Muay Thai stance and jumped at Madara. He was ready and easily parried the child's attacks, simultaneously delivering his own small and annoying pokes, kicks, and pats on the back. Sensoma endured them, not daring to complain, and methodically attacked his opponent with his hands and feet.
After a minute, Madara had only just warmed up and was starting to lose interest in his student, so the latter changed his stance.
Boxing punches brought dynamics to their fight, as now Sensoma moved more, not bothering with kicks. The Uchiha danced around him, gradually getting used to the new style.
Karate came to Madara faster than boxing did. With a powerful leg thrust straight at the dark-haired man's ear.
The leg was blocked, but its owner had no intention of stopping, jumping with the second and hitting the teacher's shoulder, not hard, but palpably. He grunted. A hit.
After another five minutes, the reincarnated one had changed all the stances he knew, and some even twice. Madara was getting bored, so he went all out with the "teaching."
"The first rule of a shinobi is not to expose your back!" he boomed seriously, deftly slipping past a right hook like an eel and getting behind him. "The enemy can strike it!"
A kick in the rear fully revealed the potential of attacks from behind to Sensoma.
"He's calm now," the reincarnated one thought coldly. "—Relaxed and thinks I've shown everything. After every attack of mine and his, he jumps... Correction—he only jumps on those movements that didn't reach their target. If I swing wildly..." the boy ducked after a feint and spun a powerful leg sweep that should have knocked the Uchiha off his feet. "—He jumped over the attack. Dodges in mid-air. While he's jumping, I can catch him. You can't change your altitude in a jump..."
As if awakening a second wind, the boy, with a grunt, began to pummel the man with his fists, counting the jumps, their height, and the duration of the body's time in the air.
Madara was about to stop this boring dance when the boy suddenly accelerated during his next jump and grabbed the shinobi by the leg!
The grip was so strong that the Uchiha involuntarily circulated chakra through his body, tearing his limb from the grasp!
"Quite a trophy," Sensoma waved the God of Shinobi's left boot in front of his nose.
"Be proud," Madara laughed. "If you were older, and this fight was real, it could have been my whole leg!"
After the phrase, the smile immediately left his face, and his bare foot gathered a pile of sand and threw it at Sensoma. He could have done it with his boot on, of course, but it was more convenient to spray the sand over a wider area with his toes to make it harder to dodge.
The former teacher, as an adherent of traditional "vulgar brawls," had often thought about the trick of throwing sand in the eyes, so he had countermeasures... The most difficult to execute, but also the most effective, was the one he decided to use. Its difficulty lay in correctly assessing the opponent beforehand. If the fight had just begun, this move was useless.
"He won't hit me directly, that would be boring," the reincarnated one thought, boldly closing his eyes and stepping straight into the flying sand. "—From behind is also not great anymore... From under the ground is unlikely. From the sides is boring. The air..."
Madara watched as the brave little one decided to just close his eyes. Then he made a big mistake, simply rushing blindly straight at him. Then the Uchiha decided to put a decisive end to this sparring match, especially since someone was already watching them.
The boy had shown himself well, but he certainly didn't expect a full-body strike from above.
When Madara had almost landed on the child, the latter suddenly ducked and did a backflip, instantly creating distance only to throw sand right in the Uchiha's face a second later!
"Did he understand the principle of the First Tomoe?" a quick thought flashed, and then the legendary warrior began to use the style of the Second Tomoe.
The child had a problem with this, and he was already out of breath. So when Madara saw Hashirama watching them out of the corner of his eye, he just shouted, without getting distracted:
"Wait a moment, Hashirama!"
But young Sensoma surprised the Uchiha again, instantly stopping right in the middle of his opponent's attack, literally offering his entire body to the devastating leg kick of the God of Shinobi. The latter, of course, did not let the leg land.
"We can finish, I don't mind," the boy said, breathing heavily. "You defeated me by improving your style right in the middle of the fight."
"It's just a more advanced form of the first," Madara answered, sounding a bit stunned. "There are three in total. You handled the first one yourself. I've never seen anything like it..."
"Heh. Our fight isn't over yet," Sensoma smirked, clearly hinting at a "next time."
"I hope so," the Uchiha smiled back and turned to his old friend, deactivating his Sharingan. "Well, what is it?"
A second! Sensoma's body was ready for this move, and the trick with stopping the fight was conceived precisely for it, but the teacher himself had said he hoped the fight wasn't over! And the first rule of a shinobi...
"Don't expose your back, right?" asked... Madara, intercepting his student's leg. "Excellent. You've learned the lesson. You would have managed to hit me, but you revealed your first trick to the Sharingan. You've been moving a little slower than you could from the very beginning of the fight, haven't you?"
"Exactly," a sour Sensoma sat down on the sand. "Your eyes are truly powerful..."
"If I didn't have them, you would have won," Madara nodded seriously and headed towards the Hokage. After moving a sufficient distance away, he muttered, barely audible. "But you were born without them, and that's the only major difference..."