A/N: Follow up of 'Gentle Blaze'. Basically, Madara's POV as he raised Hinata to be one adorable gentle terror. Same Konoha!Gaara AU as Child of the Wind, Son of the Fire.
Uchiha Madara was not ashamed to admit that his first impression on his disciple was that she was a spineless weakling.
Not that he would be surprised—she was a Hyuuga after all. Those prim and proper stuck-ups were too glued to their stupid traditions that they refused to raise their women to the raging inferno that their ladies were born to be.
(Perhaps he was a bit biased with prejudice at first, but he was right, okay?)
It was only when she looked at him square in his sharingan, accepting his genjutsu with defiant stubbornness did he realise that not all Hyuuga was spineless.
This one. This one has the potential to grow.
And he would drown himself if he failed to raise hell with her flame.
The first time he escorted her home after training was a test of patience on its own.
Madara has scoffed when he heard the Hyuuga's servants called his disciple 'Hime-sama' and didn't even allow the girl to tend to her own needs.
Oh, Uchiha Madara was so close on setting the whole Hyuuga compound on fire then, especially after witnessing the way his disciple being denied her autonomy to be independent while in the same time being at the receiving end of her clan's scorn for being weak.
Contradictory. Such blasphemy! They expected her to be strong when they denied the rights of her own independence?
Madara always knew that the Hyuuga's brains didn't understand the simplest logic at all.
How the hell you trained a flickering spark into a raging inferno in such controlled confinement? Flickering sparks like Hinata needed to be nurtured with the urge to survive—not being kept within this sheltered pit they called 'love' and never been exposed to offensive elements! She needed to learn to venture out of her comfort zone. She needed to devour the wet grass around her to keep her flame burning without being dimmed in the process. She must seek her own fuel using all means possible because only then, she would grow to beautiful inferno he would take pride to burn in.
Madara was vicious with Hinata after that.
He didn't hold back. Let her bleed. Let her pale pampered skin being littered with bruises. Let the scars he left on her be the reminder that she was never meant to be a sheltered flame. Let her singed clothes be a reminder that the world outside Konoha's gate would show no mercy to her.
Hinata accepted everything that he threw her way with pure determination. She never complained. She never whined. She accepted everything and still bowed respectfully to him at the end of each of their training.
There were whispered words across Konoha saying that he was too harsh with the poor girl.
"She is just a little girl," they said.
"He could've been more gentle with her," they sighed.
"Such a disgrace of a man, to hurt a lady like that," they scorned.
Madara responded to those disapproval words with a sneer. It was an insult to his person when they questioned his teaching methods, but Hinata has held her head high and sought Madara even outside their scheduled training—a subtle defiance to their condescending words.
(He was so damn proud of her. His stubborn little flame.)
Madara started to understand why Itachi so easily considered her as an Uchiha.
The Uchiha clan traditionally treated women as an equal of men. Uchiha women of his time were hardened souls that bathed in the blood of their foes and fought alongside their men as equal comrades.
That was one of the many reasons that Uchiha men tend to like ladies that could crush their jaws in one punch. The stronger the Uchiha male was, the more likely he would fall for a woman that would not hesitate to knock some senses into him through a physical punch.
Yes, that sounded masochistic—but the whole clan played with fire. What do you expect?
Madara honestly hoped that the pink-haired brat could get this message because honestly, that was the only way to get Sasuke to notice her. God damn it, he was too ancient to deal with pre-teen girl's squealing for fuck's sake. The brat should start throwing punches instead—preferably the punches that could crack the Earth.
Totally unrelated, but Tsunade is free now that Gaara is off with Tobirama in a training journey. Haruno Sakura, for the sake of Madara's almost non-existent sanity, please get that memo.
Hashirama's granddaughter was the dream spouse of every Uchiha of Madara's time—male and female alike. If Madara was inclined to women, Senju Tsunade would be among the first candidates he would court.
Regardless, Itachi was now not the only one of the remaining Uchiha who has accepted Hinata as the honorary member of the clan. Behind that gentle spineless attitude of a Hyuuga, there was a hungry fire that burnt, bidding her time to grow as an inferno.
Hyuuga Hinata may be born from a rival clan, but her spirit burnt the same as a pure Uchiha.
Madara didn't hesitate when she approached him with one of Itachi's old training swords.
Instead, he retrieved his own sword and obliged her silent request.
"Madara-sama, may I have a word?"
Madara schooled his expression to the neutral face he used to wear back during his first life—the diplomatic face he wore whenever he had to accompany Hashirama to a peace negotiation all the way back then a full century ago—and turned around to face the father of his disciple.
Hinata has come to him with suggestions of her own jutsu in their previous training.
Madara has a fondness for reading Tobirama's letter to his student (after heavily censoring the necessary parts, of course) since he has noticed that the Konoha's jinchuuriki brothers were a huge inspiration that motivated his dear disciple.
Having heard of Naruto's success combining his Wind chakra to his Rasengan and Gaara's success of mastering Suiton jutsu from one of the letters, the Hyuuga princess wished to have her own jutsu to show off too.
Which led them here today, as she asked him to wait for her by the door while she retrieved the scrolls for the Hyuuga's jutsu from her room. The plan after training today was that they could start brainstorming to create her jutsu.
Madara didn't mention anything when Hinata stubbornly denied his refusal to look into the Hyuuga clan's secret. He didn't argue with the little stubborn flame and simply nodded to accept her decision despite knowing that the secret of a clan's jutsu was forbidden to be seen by outsiders' eyes. Madara was aware that the elders of the Hyuuga clan would be pissed if they know that Hinata showed him those scrolls.
However, it was a symbol of trust, and it would be an insult to his beautiful stubborn flame if he doubted her confidence in him.
Though, it seemed that the Hyuuga probably didn't have the same confidence in her as he was if Hiashi was using this kind of tone.
Madara followed Hiashi inside and took the offered seat with enough politeness to make Tobirama have a seizure. He sat there silently, arms tucked inside the sleeves of his yukata as the Hyuuga's Clan Head slowly poured the tea. Placing the ceramic cup in front of Madara, Hiashi gingerly retreated to his seat and stared at the legendary Uchiha. There was nervousness in those colourless eyes, and Madara fought back a smirk at the thought that his reputation still holds that it caused people to be nervous simply by being in his presence.
"What is it that you wished to speak about?" he asked diplomatically, hands tucked neatly in his yukata's sleeves, one brow raised with poised elegance befitting of his months being tortured by Mito in etiquette classes.
"About my…eldest daughter."
Madara fought the twitch of a scowl upon hearing the somewhat resigned tone in Hiashi's voice.
"Dear Hinata, yes," Madara hummed instead, keeping his sharp gaze on Hiashi's eyes. "What about her?"
"She is…," Hiashi inhaled a deep breath, "…not as talented as her younger sister."
Madara's brows twitched.
"I understand that she has grown better under your care," Hiashi continued when Madara remained silent. "And I am grateful for that," he added as if an afterthought. "But we have agreed to name Hanabi as the heiress instead of her."
There was a long silence.
"And…?" Madara said, wondering what the hell took Hinata so long. "Why would that concern me?"
Did she want him to burn her house?
"The elders wished to marry her off to Neji—for the continuation of the clan," Hiashi's voice trembled with a nervous tremor so obvious that Madara has to wonder if it was because the Hyuuga feared him or it was something else that invoked such unsteadiness in the Clan Head's voice. "She is a good enough of a shinobi, but the elders considered that it would be a waste of your time to train her when she would not even be going to lead the clan."
Madara was smouldering in rage.
"Whether she is a waste of my time or not, it is up to me to decide, right?" he spat through gritted teeth, his sharingan whirled to life when he opened his eyes.
He caught the relief in Hiashi's eyes with crystal clarity.
Huh.
Perhaps the house he needed to burn in this compound was not the Clan Head's house.
Not surprisingly—considering that Madara already sensed their chakra the moment he stepped into this room—the Hyuuga elders that were hiding next door decided to make their entrance.
"With all due respect, Madara-sama," the head elders of the Hyuuga stepped forward, fixing his gaze with Madara's sharingan. "If you wish to train a Hyuuga, please consider Lady Hanabi. We would be honoured to have her to be under your care. She is far stronger than Lady Hinata—"
The old man choked on his own words and collapsed onto his knees when Madara very casually flared his chakra.
The legendary Uchiha rose from his seat, not even sparing a fleeting glance to the Hyuuga inside the room as his focus was on the more familiar chakra hiding just behind the door. His lovely flame. His little stubborn fire. His current pride and joy. Madara could determine from the fluctuation of her chakra that she was upset—that she was genuinely worried that he would choose Hanabi over her when she has been progressing so well—and it almost broke his heart.
Did she really have such little trust in her own sensei?
Madara dusted his yukata, sharingan still whirling viciously—now switching to his Mangekyou—and his chakra was still flaring with enough murderous intent he wasn't even surprised that he felt Hashirama's chakra approaching the compound.
His chakra must have felt murderous enough that his old friend decided it was worth to check the situation out.
Madara strode straight towards the door Hinata was hiding behind, sliding the door open and caught her by the collar before she could even scramble away. She flushed slightly and evaded his gaze, but he could feel the worries and insecurities brimming from her person. He placed a grounding hand on her back, leading her out without even sparing a glance to the stunned Hyuuga elders.
"Madara-sama!" One of the female elders called out to him. "Please reconsider. Lady Hanabi is—"
She was silenced when he turned his head and fixed his Mangekyou on her wrinkled old eyes.
"Go ahead and worship your tame sheltered flame," Madara said with a voice so smooth and calm it was downright terrifying, his fingers curled on the fabric of Hinata's jacket. "Watch me raised hell with my raging inferno."
With that, he shifted his arm to wrap around Hinata's shoulders and body flickered her away from the compound.
He needed to get out of there or otherwise, he would burn the whole Hyuuga compound down.
Hinata was hiding a sob when he finally released his grip on her shoulders.
He let her cry because crying was never a weakness—no it was not, as it was the purest of human's emotions and it would take a great courage to cry in front of someone else—but offer nothing to comfort simply because he was horrible at comforting children.
He definitely did not squawk and flail when she lunged onto him, toppling him off balance as she embraced him tight, burying her face to his chest and created a damp spot at the front of his yukata.
"Thank you, sensei."
Madara didn't reply but simply wrapped his arms around her small shoulders.
She understood his unspoken promise anyway.
"Hinata-chan?"
Hinata tore her gaze away from the giant bruise on her shin, her balm-coated fingers halted mid-air as she turned her head to meet Izuna's gaze.
"Yes, Izuna-sama?"
"Drop the sama, damn it. I told you to call me nii-chan," the long-haired Uchiha scowled, sending a dirty look towards his elder brother when Madara snorted. "I'm 19. Not that much older than you."
"You," Madara coughed nonchalantly, eyes still fixed on his calligraphy, "was 19," he coughed to his sleeves, pretending to squint at his work, "a century ago," he choked those words out, only to be followed with more fake coughing.
Izuna glared at his elder brother. He curled his lips in distaste but kept his gaze fixed on Hinata, adding nonchalantly;
"The only person you should treat like an old man is your idiot of a sensei over there."
Madara rolled his eyes. "The pond missed you, Izuna. Want a reunion?"
Izuna scrunched his face in horror. Hinata giggled.
"Yes, Izuna-nii?" she repeated, keeping her face turned towards him, though her fingers have resumed its lazy circles on the bruise, being careful to avoid the fresh burn near her knee.
"Do you still like Naruto?"
Hinata shrieked and dropped the balm container. Her cheeks flushed pink and she was all but flailed as she completely turned around to face Izuna.
"How did you know?!"
Izuna's eyes widened, staring into her bright pink face with contemplative consideration. The younger of the revived Uchiha ancestor shifted his gaze back and forth between Hinata and Madara before he huffed, obviously amused.
"You two are a match made in heaven."
Madara's brows twitched, hand curled slightly tighter around his calligraphy brush.
"Eh?" Hinata blinked, closing the balm container as she reached for the burn salve. "Sensei and I?"
"Yep."
"One word of us being romantically compatible…," Madara growled threateningly. "I'm gonna dunk you and your insufferable romance in the pond, Izuna."
Izuna rolled his eyes, hardly affected by the threat this time.
"Ew, no," the younger ancestor said, openly shuddering. "You're too old for her, Aniki," he grimaced, shaking his head as if wanting to be rid of that thought. "I'm just saying that she is just like you."
Madara cocked an eyebrow, slightly interested. Hinata tilted her head in confusion.
"The blushing. The flailing. The extremely questionable taste in men," Izuna listed down, counting on his fingers. "You two are a match made in heaven. Perfect duo of sensei and student."
"I did NOT flail," Madara growled.
Izuna shot him an unimpressed look.
"You blushed every time the damned Senju flirted and teased you."
"I WAS RED IN ANGER!"
"You lost a considerable amount of your brain function every time that Senju was in one feet radius of you," Izuna huffed, rolling his eyes. "It happened throughout the time I was haunting you—back then a whole century ago before you left the village."
"HE WAS INFURIATING!"
"You tripped on literal nothing every time Tobirama's falcon arrived."
"I DID NOT—"
Hinata guffawed, struggling to hold onto the small container of the burn salve as laughter racked down her body.
"See? Match made in heaven," Izuna grinned, shifting his attention from the fuming Madara towards Hinata. "Where was I?" he asked casually. "Ah! The insufferable lack of courage to admit your crush," Izuna went on, pointedly ignoring Madara's glare in favour of throwing a teasing look in Hinata's direction—he was completely pretending that his brother was not there.
"I—I," Hinata stammered, lost at words for being called out like that.
Izuna smiled gently at her.
"A piece of advice, Hinata-chan?" the young Uchiha ancestor said, grimacing again. "Don't wait for a whole century and one revival to admit your crush like a certain idiot over there."
Madara bared his teeth, brows twitching in annoyance.
Izuna pretended to not notice.
"My heart could not bear to see a wonderful kunoichi like you follow the footsteps of my romantically constipated Aniki in chasing after your love," he resumed with a soft sigh, clutching his hand dramatically over his shirt, right above where his heart was supposed to be. "Once is enough. I could not stand any more idiots in the family."
Hinata wisely moved out of the way when Madara stood and stormed past her towards Izuna.
There were scuffles, a high-pitched wailing as Izuna being dragged across the hallway, followed by a loud splash before the window of Itachi's office slid open as Sasuke poked his head out and yelled at them;
"Don't kill the fishes!"
Sasuke has the balls to giggle at the drowning Izuna.
"MY LIFE IS THE ONE WHO IS THREATENED YOU INSUFFERABLE BRAT—GRURGRGUR!"
It was a whole one minute of mental debating whether she should interfere and save Izuna from dying for the second time when Itachi made the decision for her.
"Madara-ojiisan," the Clan Head called out calmly from the window of his office. "I'm rather fond of the fishes in the pond. They were a gift from Tobirama-sama."
Madara stopped holding Izuna's head underwater.
"ANIKI YOU BASTARD! YOU CARE MORE ABOUT THE SENJU THAN ME—"
Madara dunked him again, splashing water everywhere.
Hinata burst out laughing.
She loved the Uchiha's compound.
"You're one horrible friend."
Madara snorted, pointedly ignoring Hashirama's pout as he stood regally by the sidelines, watching his disciple slipped into the beginning kata of the new jutsu they have created together.
"Your Mokuton bunshin is far sturdier than normal bunshin," he retorted, nodding towards Hinata. "We need to test her technique, but I couldn't risk anyone's life else I would face Minato's wrath."
Hashirama turned his head so slowly to face Madara, eyes widened with horror.
"Why?" the Shodai said with a trembling voice.
Madara cocked an eyebrow.
"WHY EVERYONE IN MY LIFE IS A SADISTIC PSYCHO?" the Shodai wailed, falling onto his knees with a flair of drama that could rival Madara's as he curled onto the ground, hands clutching his hair tightly.
Hinata halted and threw them a confused look.
"Sensei? Shodai-sama?"
"Go on, Hinata," Madara nodded, side-stepping the trembling lump of his dramatic best friend as he gestured towards Hashirama's Mokuton bunshin. "Do your worst."
"Yes, sir!"
And she did.
Madara activated his sharingan. It would be a waste if he did not capture this captivating beauty into his sharingan's crystal clear memory.
Hinata moved with grace and poise—a graceful dancer in a dance of death as she whirled around Hashirama's bunshin—her palms flickered with cold lightning.
Two Palms. Four Palms. Eight Palms.
Each hit was infused with lightning chakra that only flickered more violently for every consecutive hit—an attack meant to maim and kill instead of merely incapacitating her opponents.
Raiton Hakke Rokujūyon Shō
Hashirama stood shakily on his knees, eyes boggled so wide Madara almost worry that his best friend's eyes would pop out of their sockets. Well, emphasis on the almost.
Sixteen Palms.
"That is the Hyuuga's Hakke Rokujūyon Shō," Hashirama exhaled in a hitched breath, eyes unblinking.
"It is."
"She infused it with lightning."
"Yep."
"Madara, that attack is deadly."
Thirty-two Palms.
Hashirama's bunshin cracked, losing its colour as it shifted back to wood.
"Sixty-Four Palms!"
The last hit she bestowed upon the bunshin flared with cold lightning that illuminated the dark training ground. By the time the lightning faded into the calm darkness of the night, Hashirama's bunshin was a pile of scorched woods in a deep crater beneath her palms.
"It is meant to be deadly," Madara hummed, ignoring the horrified choking noises his friend was making.
His mind was already whirling back to the time Hinata suggested this addition to the Hyuuga's family jutsu.
"This attack would more likely kill than incapacitate," he mused, removing one hand from his sleeves to smooth the paper of the scroll.
"I'm inspired by Sasuke's Chidori and Naruto's Rasen Shuriken," she said, looking up at him with hopeful eyes. "Is it not good?"
"No," Madara shook his head, despite still being shaken that she even dared to suggest this deadly technique. "To infuse your lightning chakra into this jutsu is a brilliant idea," he murmured, his pitch-dark eyes flickered to meet her pure white orbs. "It is just not you to suggest something so deadly."
Hinata smiled softly, hands came up to rest upon her heart.
"Do you remember what you showed me back then, sensei?"
"Your greatest fear," Madara hummed. "You fear that you're not strong enough to protect the people that you love."
Understandable fear. It was Madara's fear too.
Heh.
Perhaps Izuna was right. They were indeed a match made in heaven.
Hinata's smile turned grim as she looked up to meet his gaze, the stubborn fiery will burnt in her colourless eyes.
"You started a war for Izuna-nii, sensei," she said, her soft voice was strangely firm. "You turned your back upon the peace that you dreamt of for your beloved little brother."
Madara cocked an eyebrow. The topic of his past was not something that they casually discussed. Regardless, he affirmed her words with a nod and a simple response.
"I did."
Hinata beamed, looking up at the stars with a far-fetched gaze. Her eyes softened considerably, and he wondered if she was thinking of Naruto. Hinata remained silent for a few more seconds before she snapped out of her trance and shook her head, turning around to meet Madara's gaze with fierce determined eyes.
"So, it would be fitting of your student to raise hell for the people she loves, wouldn't it, sensei?"
In the present time, Madara closed his eyes upon that memory and huffed an amused laugh.
When he opened his eyes again, Hinata has straightened her back, twin fiery blue lionesses burnt bright upon her palms.
Madara couldn't help but preen in pride. Oh, she was definitely not done.
"Shodai-sama!" she called out gently. "I have another jutsu to test. May I have another bunshin, please?"
Hashirama whimpered to the ground, mumbling something about Madara ruining this poor gentle child.
Madara grinned.
This. This is his vicious wildfire.
It has been two years.
Two years he held this stubborn little flame in his palms and nurtured her to bloom to this wonderful inferno that stood regally in front of him.
Today would be the day he unleashed her to devour the world.
"Try not to kill each other, you two…," Hashirama mumbled, standing at the centre of the sparring arena, playing the role as the referee. "This is a graduation test…," he sighed, eyeing Madara's gunbai and full-body armour in utter disapproval. "And Madara! No Susanoo!"
Madara rolled his eyes.
He has no intention of being purely offensive against her. This is a graduation test after all. It was her skills that needed to be tested today. Not his.
"We'll do our best, Shodai-sama!" Hinata cheered with voice deceivingly soft and gentle as she bowed politely to the Shodai.
Hashirama cringed and announced the match to start. As he retreated out of the arena, Madara vaguely heard him muttering something under his breath about his Konoha being filled with deceivingly sadistic scary fluffballs.
Madara rolled his eyes again and turned his attention on his student.
She struck first.
The gigantic fiery ball blazed through the arena straight towards him. It was the basics of katon jutsu, so Madara honoured the challenge with his own fireball. Her blue flame clashed with his vibrant orange one, and he didn't hide his smug smirk when his bigger attack swallowed hers in a massive explosion.
He wasn't expecting for her to blaze through the flame to meet him one-on-one.
(But he was proud. Oh, he was so damned proud. Look at his stubborn little flame. Look at her. Looookkk.)
There was a loud clang as the blade of her sword met the metal of his armour—the clashing metals thrummed with the power of the impact. She gave him a tiny cheeky grin, pressing the tip of her sword at the sensitive skin of his jaw as she planted her free hand on his shoulder and swerved for a round-kick across his face.
He caught her ankle and threw her a good metre away before she could even touch him.
There were gasps among the audience's seat.
"That is a daring move," he hummed, wiping the trickling blood of the tiny wound on his jaw. "You caught me off guard."
"Lesson one," Hinata beamed at him, sheathing her sword as she stood. "Never show your opponent that you fear them. Appear strong when you are weak and appear weak when you're strong."
Madara nodded in approval.
He saw her next attack with perfect clarity of his sharingan.
Her chakra-covered palm cracked his shoulder-plates, but she did not pause to celebrate the success. Three more consecutive hits and he has to shift from merely defending to being offensive. Madara's chest inflated, filling his lungs with his fiery chakra.
Hinata was barely able to distance herself from being burnt as majestic blazing phoenix flew out of Madara's mouth.
Madara only saw the bunshin's smile when it was too late.
"Hakke Rokujūyon Shō!" Her voice chimed firmly from behind him.
Her clone in front of him slipped into the same kata too.
Two Palms. Four Palms. Eight Palms. Sixteen Palms.
His armour cracked upon the double force of her jutsu, slowly being forced to disintegrate to useless pieces.
Thirty-two Palms.
His armour gave up—the breastplates cracked to pieces. Damn it. He should have worn his actual made-for-war armours instead of this lighter, made-for-sparring one.
Madara hissed and tried to move out of her range.
Sixty-four Palms.
Two different palms met his unprotected body. The bunshin dispelled herself as Hinata took the chance of his temporary distraction to use his shoulders as a leverage, driving her knee towards his throat.
She has been aiming for his throat all this time. Nasty little brat.
Madara scowled and raised one hand to deflect her knee, the other hand reached to grab her collar, pushing her down to sprawl on the ground. He pinned her there, grinning down to her sulky pout.
"Nice try, little dragon," he approved.
"Lesson two," she grinned back, not resisting his hold at all.
Madara turned around the exact time the girl beneath him turned to puff of smoke (when has she swapped places with the bunshin has escaped his keen observation) and the real her attacked his unprotected back. He braced the impact of her kick using his forearms, twisting his wrists just in time to grasp her ankles, trapping her there. Hinata huffed and flailed before she ended up resting her hands on his shoulders as a support. Her pure white eyes stared directly into his sharingan, the tiny cheeky grin he has grown to adore was on her face.
"Always have a trick or two up your sleeves," she hummed, angling a kunai to his neck. "The element of surprise is your best friend."
Madara huffed an approving laugh.
"The fox brat influenced you way too much," he commented, enjoying the flush on Hinata's face and Naruto's loud squawk from the sidelines. "Bunshin tricks, huh?"
"I can finally do a Kage Bunshin…," the girl mumbled, cheeks flushed pinker when she realised that her crush has indeed returned to Konoha in time to witness her graduation spar. "Sensei! That's playing dirty," she scolded half-heartedly.
"I did no such things," Madara grinned, but couldn't resist to tease her. "Naruto!" he called to the blonde teen. "What do you think of her now?"
"Sensei!" Hinata reprimanded the exact same time Naruto flailed; "Ehhhhhhh?!"
Madara didn't expect for Naruto to blush that pink. Huh. He needed to deal with that fox brat later.
Madara tightened his grip on Hinata's ankles when the girl started squirming for freedom. The tip of her kunai pressed slightly over his neck, slicing yet another tiny wound when she suddenly gasped, her voice was dangerously dreamy when she spoke after that.
"Nidaime-sama is so dashing…," she sighed in the same tone she usually reserved for Naruto.
Madara only realised that she played him when he turned his head around, only to meet the unimpressed gaze of his long-separated fiancé. She took the chance of him being distracted to free herself from his grip.
"I can't believe you fall for that," Tobirama sighed loudly to his palms in pure exasperation. "Idiot."
"What do you expect?!" Madara yelled back, despite the blooming happiness in his chest. "I can't resist you!"
Beside his silver-haired fiancé, the Shukaku brat rolled his eyes and promptly strode away from his sensei to greet the still flushing Naruto.
"At least don't be so obviously vulnerable!" Tobirama countered with the same volume, looking completely exasperated despite the fond quirk of his scowling lips.
Hinata's twinkling giggle stopped Madara's responding tirade. The teenage girl blinked innocently at him as if she didn't just successfully pull a foolish trick on one of the most legendary men in the shinobi world.
"Lesson three," she hummed, showing him three fingers. "Know your opponents' weakness and use the knowledge wisely."
Madara scowled at her. Though, the very next second, his scowl twisted to a proud smile.
"Brat," he spat fondly—there was no heat in his voice, just pure fondness. "You hang around Izuna way too much."
Somewhere among the audience, Madara could hear his baby brother's loud yell of denial.
"You started it first, sensei," she hummed, pulling out her sword.
Madara watched in brimming pride when her fiery blue chakra coated the blade.
(Uchiha Madara would never admit that he spent way too much time forging that blade. Never. Tobirama could cock those elegant silver brows all that he wanted—there was no way that Hinata's sword was in any way being inspired by Raijin no Ken whatsoever.
Tobirama should stop thinking that the world revolved around him.
It was not. Really. Shut up.)
Hinata lunged, fire-coated blade swinging elegantly. Madara greeted her attack by a slight shift of his weight and a flick of his wrist to block her fiery blade with his gunbai.
"Madara-sensei."
Madara peered around his gunbai to look at her, wondering why the hell her voice cracked like she was crying.
He blinked in confusion when his gaze met her teary determined eyes.
"Thank you…," she said, rolling her body over the surface of his gunbai, leapt onto the air and landed behind him. Madara turned around just in time when she swept low to graze his open side with the blade, slicing his skin open and burning the raw wound with the blue flame coating her blade. Her voice wavered as she added; "…for believing in me."
Madara felt his own throat tightened, but he showed no hesitation as he honoured her challenge, swiping his own kama towards her arms—slicing her pale skin open.
"I will never regret it," he hummed, face a complete stoic mask of the legend he was. "I will never regret giving my faith to a pampered Hyuuga brat."
She choked a laugh, wiping her tears with one hand.
The next second, she was suddenly in front of him—the flat of her palm met his chest in one powerful hit.
The impact pushed him a good metre back—the spot where her Gentle Fist hit him sang with thrumming pain that resonated with his pride over his stubborn little flame.
"Thank you," she said, lowering her hand. "For not giving up on me."
Madara huffed. "The Uchiha clan is infamous for our impossible stubbornness. Giving up is never an option."
Hinata beamed and slipped into the beginning of the Hakke Rokujūyon Shō kata.
Madara decided that he would endure Hashirama's lecture after this. This would be so worth it.
His sharingan switched to Mangekyou as blue chakra cloaked his body, gigantic ribs of his Susanoo curved around him.
"Madara!" Hashirama shouted from somewhere in the sidelines, the Earth rumbled beneath their feet as giant tendrils of wood lashed out of nowhere towards Madara. "That is crossing the line!"
The wood didn't reach him as they were trapped in the jaws of a water dragon.
"Tobirama!"
"Calm down, Anija!"
There were more of that argument he was sure—the Senju brothers never have a short argument—but it fell to Madara's deaf ears. The legendary Uchiha heard nothing else than the thrumming power of his disciple's chakra—the gentle yet powerful thrumming of Hinata's lightning and the heat of her fire. His eyes only saw the teenage girl he has raised for the past two years, capturing the determined flicker of her white eyes and the curl of her lips into his sharingan's perfect memory.
Hyuuga Hinata was the sole focus of his attention now.
"Sensei," she called out from her kata crouch.
Blue flames cloaked her hands, the chakra weaved and flickered until they formed twin majestic blue lionesses in her hands.
She has taken inspiration from Obito's jutsu that injured Yondaime Hokage fifteen years ago and combined it with her Gentle Fist technique. It was less deadly than her Raiton Hakke Rokujūyon Shō, but it will burn. Oh, it will burn. Like Obito's chakra that razed the Yondaime's body and kept burning the Hokage from within until Tsunade healed him, this attack will burn her opponents without mercy.
It was a good thing that Uchiha Madara loved fire.
"Thank you for everything, Madara-sensei," she said truthfully, bowing her head low in uttermost respect.
Madara quirked a fond smirk.
Though, the next second, his smirk grew to a mad grin, his dark mane flared as wild as his powerful chakra when he yelled—voice booming across the whole arena;
"Give me your all, Hinata!"
This is Hyuuga Hinata.
His stubborn little flame. His vicious wildfire.
"Yes, sir!"
His raging inferno.
A/N: Epilogue in the next chapter everyone! R&R