Synopsis:
Hashirama and Madara look back at the river as they rush to leave it,
only to see their fathers and brothers rushing onward into combat.
It's clear from their previous fights that their fathers are equal,
but the presence of their little brothers shake things up. Both
fathers know that seeing the other's son die will demoralize them and
give them a chance for victory. As Hashirama and Madara both yell for
them to stop, Madara's father throws a short dagger at Tobirame,
while Hashirama's father throws a kunai at Madara's little brother
Izuna. Before either blade can hit their targets however, they are
knocked out of the air by rocks, the very rocks with messages written
on them that Hashirama and Madara had tossed to each other before as
warnings. After saving their brothers, both boys drop down in front
of them, with Madara yelling that he doesn't care who it is, he won't
forgive anyone who tries to hurt his brother.
Both boys stare each
other down, and Madara shocks Hashirama by saying that it seems they
won't be able to reach their 'stupid' dream after all. Madara's
father says that now it's three-on-three, and asks Madara if he can
handle it. Madara confesses that he can't, because Hashirama is
stronger than he is at the moment - if they fight now, they'll all
lose. Izuna is shocked that there'd be someone is stronger than his
big brother, as is Madara's father. Madara says that they're leaving,
but Hashirama asks him if he's really giving up when they're so
similar. Madara says he wishes things were different, but Hashirama's
a Senju, the same clan that killed his other brothers. Because of
that, the two will meet as equal opponents next time on the
battlefield, rather than spilling their guts right then and there. As
Madara announces himself formally as an Uchiha, his Sharingan finally
awaken, and his father says that while they didn't get any info on
the Senju, they got something good in the end anyway. Even at his
young age, Hashirama already knows what awakening the Sharingan
means.
The scene changes to a
battlefield in the near future, where Hashirama and Madara clash
swords, as Hashirama notes that Madara had already erased their
friendship from his mind. They continued to fight day in and day out,
until years had passed and they had both become the heads of their
clans - a place that was the furthest from their dream.
Locked
in combat, Tobirame manages to fatally wound Izuna with a sword
strike. Madara rushes to his brother's side, and Hashirama tells
Madara that he (Madara) knows he can't beat him, so pleads with him
to end this fighting - even after all these years, Hashirama hasn't
thrown away his dream. He insists that if their clans, the two
greatest shinobi clans, Uchiha and Senju, can join together, then the
other clans will stop coming after them and others, and one day the
fighting will stop. Madara seems to at least be contemplating
Hashirama's words, but the wounded Izuna speaks up and tells him not
to fall for their lies. Madara uses a smoke bomb, and most of his
clan left for whence they came. Some Uchiha however could see how
inferior they were in combat, so they defected to the Senju.
Hashirama reflects that
it was about that time that Madara began to change. Madara acquired
an eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, saying that Izuna died from the wound
and left his powers to his older brother, in order to protect the
Uchiha. Hashirama says he sent Madara a cease-fire agreement so they
should stop fighting to protect their clans, but Madara responds by
firing up Susano'o, and yelling for Hashirama to stop spouting such
childish dreams, as they can't come to terms.
The entire rest of the
day is spent fighting, and in the end, Madara was beaten so badly
that he lay down on the ground for the first time. The Senju clan
surrounds Madara, and Tobirame raises his sword above him to finish
him off, saying the time has come. Hashirama stops him however, and
Tobirame is outraged, asking him why. Hashirama simply glares and
tells him that he won't allow him to lay a hand on Madara. Madara
says he should finish him off himself, and just asks that he make it
quick. Hashirama says it's no good for him to act tough. If they kill
Madara now, the younger Uchiha who idolize him will simply seek
revenge. Madara says there's probably nobody in the Uchiha who feels
that way about him anymore, but Hashirama believes there is. He asks
if they can't settle this just between themselves like they used to,
but Madara says they can't, he's not the same person he was then.
Madara says that without any of his siblings remaining, he can't
possibly trust Hashirama now. Hashirama asks how he can make Madara
trust him, and Madara replies that he must either kill his brother
Tobirame, or kill himself. Then and only then will they be even, and
Madara will be able to trust Hashirama.
Thoughts:
First off, a note on this chapter title, 'Aiko'. I'm pretty sure this
is some kind of translation (or lack of translation perhaps) error or
something, since as far in as I can tell, that title has absolutely
nothing to do with this chapter. There's no character named Aiko, no
item, no place - I'm just not seeing it.
Kishimoto is making an
excellent case of showing how similar the two clans are, but he may
be pressing it a little bit. Even their formations in this chapter
seem to be exact mirrors of each other. He's playing it a little too
heavily perhaps, but I do like how it ends up paralleling directly
with Madara and Hashirama. Not even they can escape becoming
opposites of each other in regards to this fight.
That said though, it's
clear that the seeds of hatred are already inside of Madara, in a way
that they're not inside of Hashirama. While Hashirama is willing to
forgive what the Uchiha clan has done to his own family and not blame
Madara for the sins of his other clan members, Madara can't see past
the Senju bloodline in Hashirama's veins. He's willing to let a long
blood-feud ruin the great friendship he had. This makes me pity
Madara rather than particularly feel sorry for him.
Given what a prodigy
Madara was said to be, it's actually kind of surprising to me that he
hadn't already awakened his Sharingan. Maybe it explains how strong
he becomes though, if he was already that tough before ever learning
how to use it.
After that moment, the
entire chapter is a little surprising for me actually. Not the
content though, but how fast we breeze through it. We just spent two
or three chapters prior to this showing a much slower pace through
the story, and in this one we quite suddenly breeze through the
years. Part of that is due to how quickly Madara gives up on their
friendship I suppose, so the next important step is to show their
fighting through the years, I understand that...but it's a little
disconcerting to see how fast it fly by so fast.
I was expecting
something different to happen to Tobirame alone the way to show why
he's such a hardass, but I guess it's just who he is. I actually hate
to imagine what the Leaf Village must have been like under his rule
compared to his brother's.
Given what we know
about how things continue to work out in the story prior to where it
all actually began, it'll be interesting to see how Hashirama gets
out of killing either himself or his brother here. I know he'd never
kill his brother, even though Tobirame's a jerk, but I could actually
see him killing himself if he thought it would bring peace between
the clans.
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