[NARUTO][Pillar Madara] short story

During the alliance ceremony, they swore an oath to the gods, exchanged cups, and drank the clear wine, which should have proved that there is no gap between the two.

"All of this is meaningless now." Tomona said, "I know you can't forget, brother, but..."

The second half of the discourse finally hangs there.Avoiding his sight.

"This used to be Madara and my village."

Hashirama said.His expression was a bit like Uchiha Madara's, cold and unpredictable.

"...not anymore."

"Everything is fine in the village." Tomona tried to prove something, but he knew what Hashirama meant.But he couldn't let Senshou Zhujian go on like this.Konoha still needs him, and even this world that has just pacified the war also needs the fame and power of the ninja god.He knew that his eldest brother knew this too. "We're all waiting for you."

Zhu Jian slightly turned his gaze.In the shadows sat the one he was waiting for, the man's eyes met his gaze, his mouth curled up mockingly.

"I'll be alright."

He knew it was a lie when he said it.

"You can't see the road after that."

Saying so, Madara turned and left.Madara at that moment was very innocent: he was full of ambition like a child, chasing the battle, and the image of his back was the blade heading straight for Hashirama.He dropped this sentence like a puzzle, and let Hashirama ponder over and over again.

He couldn't see it, and he couldn't imagine it.

He wouldn't know what Madara was chasing until much, much later, in the second life he gained after death.Only then did he finally understand what was clinging heavily to Madara's body, causing the man's eyes to always cast into the depths of the darkness, trying to seek the ultimate answer in a sense beyond reality.

Much later Hashirama will wonder what decision he would have made if Madara had told him all about Infinity Tsukiyomi - if it hadn't been a false illusion.In the face of an ideal that is so brilliant that it is hypocritical, will he deny it outright?Would he object to the possible excessive sacrifice?Will he tell Madara that the dream is doomed not to beat the reality?Or will he refuse Madara to guard the boundless dream alone and become an ideal sacrifice?He imagined all kinds of possibilities, but there was no one answer: he would stand by Madara's side.

This may be the reason why Madara never said a word to him.

He can imagine how a man cuts off all the passages of speech contemptuously, cuts off all possibility of understanding with ridicule, throws away all the precious values ​​of the world, and embarks on the road of being an enemy of the world with pure fighting spirit.

It was a proud and crazy choice.But it is also an equally desperate choice.

However, between the despair and rejection that Madara used to wrap himself, he only left that gap.

The gap that allowed Hashirama's long knife to penetrate his chest from behind.

Hashirama never realized until Madara's death that loss can change a person so profoundly.

When a person dies - it's not just a simple, physical disappearance, but leaves a horrific hole somewhere invisible, eroding everything that should be there .The process was silent and imperceptible, and when he realized it, the unstoppable emptiness had replaced his real existence, and what was left was only the shell of "Thousand-handed Bashirama" that people needed.

Even if he does recover.No one among Konoha doubted that their Hokage-sama had recovered from that serious injury.The traitor to the village is dead, the village has recovered from the devastation, and that's the end of it all, and even the Uchihas don't have to delve deeply into the meaning behind the actions of the former chief.Not to say is good.When people saw Hokage-sama on the street, they bowed respectfully, and the children delivered the flowers they picked to him. The village was running in an orderly manner, and everything was flawless—not a single trace of destruction, not a single comment , nor a look of hatred to confirm the existence of that person.This is how their ideals once fell into this world and grew stronger. It should have been a sight that comforted him, but something was decisively missing.He stood on the street of Konoha with a smile, and heard a voice screaming in the distant rain.

...I want to protect our...no, my village...*

He closed his eyes briefly.When he opened it again, he saw Madara standing on the other side of the street.

The man's expression was one of pity.

In the general forgetting, he was the only one who continued to remember.As if attracted by something, he endlessly approached that vacancy in the gap of reality, just like a moth pounces on a flame, and a stone falls heavily into the bottom of the water.Let that vacancy eat away at his memory, leaving one fleeting illusion after another.

That didn't make him sad.The mood of nostalgia is like ripples in the water, which disappears with just a slight flash.All that remains are glorious memories, the moment when everything has not yet begun, the moment when the dream is still shining, it seems that any word or anything is bringing him back to that origin, when their ideals are still one, and the road is still the same. is one.

in those complicated everyday.

Between their intimacy and coldness.

Among Konoha, Hokage, clansmen, hatred, loss, war—all of these.

When did they part ways?

He pondered, realizing that the question would never be answered, because the person who could give him the answer would never answer again.On the contrary, the vacancy of the answer makes their differences covered with a layer of unexplainable tragedy: the reason is unknown, and there is no way to save it, as if their fight was doomed long before they met, and all efforts will only push them to the end. ending.

It wasn't a thought that Hashirama would admit - could succumb to.

Only occasionally, in the irreversible weakness of his body, he would feel something watching him in the dark.

are you waiting

He asked silently, and then saw the man sitting quietly in the corner of the room sneer.

Ahhh.

This isn't something Madara would admit—would do.

Togama found Hashirama in the Valley of the End.

He sighed and turned to his brother after giving the signal.The man seemed as safe as yesterday, only Tobima knew that he was slowly but surely walking towards another world.

"You shouldn't have come this far without a word."

He sat down beside him, trying not to sound like a reprimand.

"Sorry. Just walking...unconsciously."

Hashirama said.He didn't have the strength to go to the top of the falls anymore, so he just sat at the bottom and watched the water flow down the once-cut riverbed.There seemed to be some uneasiness remaining in this violently destroyed landscape, and no bird or animal dared to come to the waterfall.The sound of water made the surroundings seem even more silent.

"The villagers will be upset. . . . especially in this place," Tomona said.The furrows on his brows seemed to have lasted for a long time.

"Is it really okay to forget, Togama?" Hashirama shook his head, "In a few generations, people will forget our name, the dispute between Uchiha and Senju, and Madara...but just like this valley , What has happened will not disappear easily, and those things that are temporarily hidden under the water will resurface one day sooner or later."

Tokai narrowed his eyes.

"Don't forget this. Just like don't forget how Konoha was built, don't forget how we fought, and don't forget what wrong things I did." Hashirama whispered, "Now I can only Please, Tobuma."

"That's not my brother's fault..."

Togama was still talking, but Hashirama wasn't listening.The boy on the other side of the river stood up as if feeling bored.He was wearing a black robe, and his short hair curled up like a hedgehog.

and many more.

He spoke in a low voice, and the words dissipated before they were formed.

The boy on the opposite side turned his head.He cast a glance at Hashirama from the distant past, then grinned.

The next moment, he disappeared as if he never existed.

"Big brother?"

Hashirama stared at the empty river bank.

He knew there had never been anything there in the first place.

"Let's go back."

He stood up while talking, listening to the rain that never stopped, and walked towards their past.The nothingness of the absent one weighed so heavily on his heart, there was no more waiting to deceive, no more memory to feed on.But he embraced the emptiness in his shell with a smile.Because there is not much to go.

The End.

6. The Lone Man

As he walked towards the darkest depths, he always saw the man.

It was a vision that was cursed and could not be driven away.

After he buried the flesh and blood of Hashirama into his body, a continuous high fever hit him.

It's been like this before.Even if ninjutsu and chakra can be used to suppress the blood from another ninja, the inherent mutual repulsion will never be easily eliminated like fierce poison.He fell where no one could see, struggling on the boundary between lucidity and delirium, neither alive nor dead, only countless dreams surrounded him.Sometimes it is the past that he has long forgotten, and sometimes it is a fantasy without any reason, where Quanna did not die, Uchiha and Senju never fought, and he and Hashirama never quarreled.And sometimes the dream was even more terrifying. He lay down on the scorched ground and saw the skin melt, the muscles scattered from the bones, and the flesh decayed rapidly like hell in disguise, and countless hellfires danced far and near, like manjushahua.