The next day, the sun shone brightly.
Today, the Senju clan welcomed a rather special guest—she... was a little blonde girl who had come looking for the clan head.
If she had merely been looking for the clan head, or simply been a little blonde girl, neither of these things would have been an issue. But putting the two together felt distinctly wrong.
Wasn't the wife of Lord Kimana, Lord Hashirama's son, a blonde? And she didn't seem to have a particularly strong life force either... Could it be...
"Um... are you, no, what is your relationship with the clan head..." One of the Senju guards stationed at the clan grounds lowered his head, stuttering as he tried to form his words. Another Senju clan member looked at Arthur with a mixture of excitement and dread, waiting for him to speak, yet terrified that he might actually reveal some earth-shattering secret and get them all killed by the clan elders.
"Well... Lord Hashirama is my teacher," Arthur said with a strange expression. From the very beginning, he had called Senju Hashirama his teacher, yet now they were asking what his relationship with Hashirama was.
"I see! So it's a master-disciple relationship!" The first Senju clan member had a sudden epiphany. Then, abruptly, both of their expressions froze, as if they couldn't quite comprehend what Arthur had just said.
A master-disciple relationship?! Not some illegitimate child discovered out in the world?! No, wait, when did Lord Hashirama ever take on a disciple? No, wait... Lord Hashirama even took disciples?!
*Sigh...* Arthur sighed inwardly. It seemed the entire intelligence quotient of the Senju clan had indeed been handed down exclusively to Senju Tobirama.
Arthur walked up to them, waved his hand, and seeing that they were ignoring him—likely still trying to digest the news—he had no choice but to stride directly into the Senju clan grounds.
............
Senju Tobirama's bedroom.
Senju Hashirama was kneeling before a desk, processing official documents with tears in his eyes. He could never understand why his younger brother had to be so harsh with him.
If Itama and Wakama were still around, they definitely would have made obedient and ideal little brothers!
"Thump!"
"Ow! What are you doing?!" Hashirama clutched his head, looking up at Tobirama with a wronged expression.
"I have a feeling you were thinking about something rather unpleasant," Tobirama said, staring expressionlessly at Hashirama.
"..." Hashirama's aggrieved expression froze. His eyes darted everywhere, as if he couldn't figure out how Tobirama knew what he was thinking.
"You really were thinking about it, you idiot!"
"Thump!"
"Ah! So you were just guessing! Then why did you hit me?!"
"Thump!"
"You still have the nerve to talk back, you idiot! Write!" Tobirama roared in exasperation. It was one thing for this idiot to usually dump half of the paperwork onto him, but yesterday he had dumped all of it, and upon returning had even laughingly announced he was going to the casino. A furious Tobirama hadn't even waited to hear the second half of his sentence before giving him a thorough beating.
Even if he had said he was going out to recruit a disciple, that would have been fine—but a casino? What else could one possibly do at a casino? Recruit disciples at the gaming tables?!
Hashirama looked up at Tobirama with a resentful gaze. *Mito~ Madara~ Where are you~*
"Stop glaring, Anija! Hurry up and write! There's another stack waiting right after this one!" Tobirama couldn't stand Hashirama's look and couldn't help delivering another punch to his head.
*Itama~ Wakama~ It's all Big Brother's fault... Big Brother failed to protect you both... Boo-hoo...*
"Write! This is all the work you left behind yesterday!"
*Boo-hoo-hoo...*
"Um... Is Lord Hashirama in here?" Just as Tobirama's fist was about to descend upon Hashirama's head once more, a small blonde head poked through the open doorway.
Upon seeing the newcomer, Hashirama's eyes instantly regained their luster.
*Lily, you are my savior!*
"Lily! Boo-hoo-hoo!" In a flash, Hashirama sprang to his feet and instantly grabbed Arthur in a tight embrace, moving so fast that even Tobirama, the current reigning speedster of the Shinobi World, didn't have time to react.
"Lily... boo-hoo-hoo..."
"Um... Lord Hashirama... this..." Arthur's expression turned awkward, both of his hands suspended in mid-air, having no idea where to put them.
"Anija." Tobirama watched the bizarre scene unfold before him: a middle-aged uncle clinging desperately to a little blonde girl, while the little girl looked back at the uncle with a pitiful expression, too intimidated to voice her anger.
As the last remaining conscience of the Senju clan, he felt he ought to say something right now.
Wait, what did this little girl just call his eldest brother? Tobirama instinctively wanted to ponder the matter, but the sheer "calling-for-a-life-sentence-in-prison" nature of the scene before his eyes forced him to halt his thoughts immediately.
"Tobirama, I'm going to teach my disciple today, so let's call it a day for the official paperwork," Hashirama said, feeling a momentary surge of instinctive guilt in front of Tobirama, but then remembering he had a legitimate excuse, he puffed out his chest with renewed confidence.
"Your disciple?" Tobirama frowned, then seemed to remember something as he asked, "Is that the little girl named Lily?"
"Mm-hm!" Lord Hashirama released Arthur and nodded frantically like a pounding pestle. "Well then, Tobirama, I'm heading out to teach Lily Ninjutsu and Taijutsu now."
"No." Tobirama stated coldly.
"Why..."
"At least not until the evaluations are over."
Hearing this, Hashirama finally backed down. He hadn't actually planned to start teaching Arthur right away anyway; since it was his first time being a teacher, he hadn't figured out how to instruct someone yet. His original plan was simply to take Arthur over to Arthur's casino for a couple of rounds—with the owner there, they were bound to win at least twice.
Arthur, however, cast a peculiar glance at Tobirama, then quickly looked away for fear of being noticed. This man was far too cautious. Even though they were right here in the Senju clan grounds, in his own home, he was still afraid of people finding out that Hashirama had taken a disciple two days early, and worried others might accuse him of playing favorites.
Then again, the God of Shinobi was taking a shortcut and letting someone enter through the back door, yet absolutely no one would dare say a word about it—not with his strength out in the open.
"Anija, don't let anyone know that you've already taken Lily as your disciple. The day after tomorrow, have Lily participate in the evaluation along with the others." Tobirama then shifted his gaze to Arthur. "Lily, we won't tell you the contents of the evaluation. When the time comes, you'll have to rely entirely on your own abilities. If you don't pass, it will only prove that you aren't yet qualified to be Big Brother's disciple."
"Understood! I won't tell anyone, and Lily will definitely pass the evaluation!" Hashirama looked earnestly at Tobirama—this was the expression his optimistic self always put on for his family and for Madara.
"Yes! I will pass the evaluation, please rest assured, Lord Tobirama," Lily said with equal earnestness, her eyes burning with determination.
One golden, one dark; one large, one small—both adopted the exact same attitude.
"I believe in both of you." Tobirama looked at the two of them and suddenly smiled. Right now, he felt a renewed appreciation for Arthur; he had known all along that his eldest brother would never let him down when it came to matters of true importance—aside from the paperwork.
"Now, Big Brother, get to work on these. Lily, go practice your Ninjutsu by yourself."
"Tobirama... you're terrifying..." Hashirama burst into tears and instantly hugged Lily again.
Arthur: "..."
............
Uchiha clan grounds.
Another day passed. Uchiha Madara carved a horizontal stroke onto the wall with a kunai. As the blade fell, the carved lines formed the character for "zheng" (the tally mark).
"Holy Grail... exactly where are you..."