Shingetsu Chapter Two

It was the first snowfall of the year in the middle of December. Izuna and I were lounging in the dining room of the compound waiting out the figurative storm.

I was six, Izuna was four, and our mother was giving birth to another sibling in the other room. Hotaru, our newest sibling, was in the nursery being taken care of by a maid.

The walls of the building we were in weren't very thick so we could hear our mother screaming out in pain in the background. Other than that it was dead quiet.

Nature was dead silent from the cold and snow, the usually busy Uchiha compound had scaled down our operations against the Senju and their allies and so was also quiet. It seemed there was no other noise except our mother giving painful life to our newest sibling.

I knew from the series that I was supposed to have four siblings in total; Izuna, who lived right until before the founding of Konoha and Haruto and two more who died young. I still can't help but worry about my mother.

I know logically that she should live to give birth to one more kid after this but I can't help but be concerned for her health.

I can't say I have grown closer to Aina or Tajima than my previous parents, but I still care for them.

Aina is prim, proper and always speaks with a kind voice but I haven't spent a lot of time with her since Izuna was born and she became pregnant again. She obviously loves me but has other duties and leaves me to the tutors or maids.

Tajima is much more harsh and serious. He hasn't hit me or anything but doesn't show any emotion at all. In my six years living as Madara, I have never seen him change his facial expression from a small frown. Sometimes Tajima will express pride in my shinobi accomplishments verbally or physically.

For example when I performed my First Jutsu Katon: Saisho no honō (Fire release: First Flame) which is the first Jutsu that Uchiha learn to build up to performing the coming of age Jutsu Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire release: Great Fireball Technique), Tajima rubbed my back and told me I did a good job.

My relationship with my parents is good but my relationship with my brothers, Izuna and Hotaru are amazing. I had a brother in my old life but we were 6 years apart and so didn't have much, in common. Don't get me wrong, I loved him dearly and will miss him but I just connect with Izuna more. I get to just act my physical age. I might be mentally 24 but my brain, body and hormones are that of a 6-year-old. We play around, have fun talking, and even train together now sometimes. It just feels like we have a deep bond. There are a few kids my own age in the compound that I am friendly with, but they all try to be as formal and respectful around me as possible because of my clan heir status. I don't want to be friends with people walking on eggshells around me. Hotaru is only two, so I don't interact much with him yet, but I am pretty protective of my siblings. Hotaru always manages to smile when he sees me, though.

Speaking of training, I have been progressing at an astonishing rate. My Skill in the Uchiha Interceptor fist has improved dramatically through sparring, and I have even started looking through the Uchiha clan library and learning the basics of other taijutsu styles.

My physique has improved with age and training, and I am now stronger, faster and more flexible than I was in my past life. I don't have an exact comparison, but I can lift solid stones around a third of the size of my body, which is probably more than 60 pounds. I can run much faster and longer than any Olympic athlete… probably. I am also much more flexible than I ever was in my past life, I can do the splits easily, and most of my joints are double-jointed. All-in-all, if I wanted to beat up my past self, I could do it with little to no trouble.

Shurikenjutsu was progressing well. I can reliably hit a human-sized moving target while moving, and I still haven't unlocked my Sharingan. I am unfortunately not on the level where I can throw kunai and hit them off each other to hit different targets, but when would that ever be useful anyway? Besides, in the grand scheme of things, shurikenjutsu doesn't matter all that much. It will be helpful now, but there is no way someone like Hashirama will get done in by some dude flinging ninja stars.

Ninjutsu is probably where I have spent the most time and seen the most growth. I learned and am on my way to master, the basic academy three even though the academy doesn't exist yet, The body flicker technique, 3 Different fire release jutsu, 1 lightning release jutsu, and I am learning a multitude of other jutsu even if I don't have enough chakra to use them yet. I found out that I have a fire and lightning affinity, so my jutsu is focused on those at the moment. I also want to work on earth and water release eventually, so I might be able to reverse engineer the hiding like a mole technique and dustless cover. I still have to use all hand signs for each jutsu, but I am working on reducing and eventually eliminating most of them. Handsigns help mould chakra, but if you can mould your chakra on your own inside of you, you can stop certain hand signs or even remove them entirely.

In the past two years, I have also started some basic Kenjutsu. Mostly, because of my size and age, I was using a Tanto and different knives. I learned the best angles of attack and where to aim for. I learned how to block and deflect other blades and throwing weapons, and I started practicing with a wooden Bokken so that I can move on to bigger weapons and have a good base.

Etiquette was going pretty well. Not really much to say here.

Math and Science was also going smoothly, seeing as I had already learned much more challenging subject matter. I was learning more about management than I had in my past life, but it was hardly enough to keep me interested.

Writing and Calligraphy were essentially done, I knew all the Kanji I would need, and there are no living Uchiha seal masters for me to learn from. All other people with fuinjutsu knowledge are too busy producing seals to feed the Uchiha's endless war with the Senju.

I wasn't wholly focused on shinobi skills, however. I actually began woodcarving, intending to make musical instruments. So far, I have managed to carve a rudimentary flute out of some bamboo and am working on creating a guitar. Getting the holes in the right places took a lot of work, but I managed to make a flute and could play 'my heart will go on.' The Uchiha have a focus on blacksmithing, and so I can quickly source strings for the guitar, but the body and making the frets in the right spot is complex, but I actually know how to play the guitar an- "Ergk!"

I was broken out of my thoughts by a small arm wrapping around my neck in a headlock.

"Brother, you gotta stop this habit of yours," said the familiar voice of Izuna behind me.

Immediately I tucked my chin, pulled down on the arm that was choking me with my left arm and used my right to grab his side. I moved my leg around his and did a hip throw.

Izuna landed on the ground with me on top of him.

Ignoring his protests, I sat on his waist and pinned his arms with mine. Izuna stuck his tongue out at me and said, "Boooo! You're always spacing out, and if I never played ninja with you, I would think you were the easiest to sneak up on."

I snorted from my nose and brought his hand above his head and used one arm to pin them. "Do you want some attention that bad? I guess I better give you some." With my one free arm, I began tickling his sides.

Izuna began wiggling and laughing under my fingers. After a few seconds, I let him go.

Sitting in the corner with a slight pout, Izuna asked, "Why do you always tickle me? You know I hate it."

"You're always so serious. I'm afraid that a frown will become stuck on your face like dad."

Izuna gave me a lighthearted glare and said, "Father is a great shinobi and father. Why wouldn't I want to like him?"

"Hmm… You'll understand when you're older."

Honestly, looking at how Sasuke how all the fan-girls and experiences from my first life. I know that broody people will always be attractive but aren't necessarily the best to be a relationship in. Of course, I am generalizing things, but I don't want a super edgy brother.

"That doesn't make sense. You're only two years older than me!"

"Exactly."

Less than an hour later, we were called by a maid to come into the room where my mother was.

I slid open the door to see my mother laying on the bed, hair matted to her face with a small smile, looking down at a small bundle. There were 3 maids and an old healer surrounding her and Tajima standing near the side of the room looking at his wife and the bundle.

"Mom!" "Mother!"

Immediately Izuna and I rushed to our mother's side.

"Hey boys, say hello to your newest sibling." A red newborn with a small black tuft of hair was wrapped in a dark blue swaddle. It was sleeping soundly, and I couldn't really tell if it was a boy or girl.

"Do you want to hold him?"

Well, I guess that answers my question. I held my arms out and nodded my head. Aina slowly passed the baby to me, and I held his butt and supported his head.

I rocked him slowly and turned to show Izuna.

Izuna had his mouth agape and was just staring at the baby.

"I-Is that wh-what I looked like when I was born?"

Aina gave out a weak laugh, and I smiled slightly. "All babies look like that when they're born," said Aina

"Eeewww," Izuna said, grossed out.

I gave a small snort remembering back when I first saw Hotaru shortly after his birth, I was also grossed out. I had only seen depictions of babies from media in my past life and was not prepared for the real thing. The colour of the baby and the smell are the things that stood out to me.

"What's his name?" I asked as I handed back the baby to mother.

Aina looked down at the baby and said, "Tajima named Madara and Hotaru, and I named Inuza, so why don't you name him Madara?"

Damn, I hadn't expected this. I guess I could pull from naruto or really any Japanese name. It would have to be some name that went well with Uchiha. Probably some name with three syllables ends with 'A,' right? Akira, which means wisdom (I think) should be good, right?

"How… about… Akira? Is that a good name?"

Tajima gave a "Hn" of confirmation, and Izuna voiced his support. Aina said, "Hmm… Akira… Wisdom, That's a good name. Say hello to Akira Uchiha."

Eventually, Akira started crying, and all the males were shooed out of the room so that Mom could feed him.

Standing outside of the room, Tajima gave two of his sons a squeeze on the shoulder then flickered away.

It was now past midnight, and the entire world was quiet. I could tell that Izuna was a bit shaken from the experience, and I knew it was time to plant the seeds of change in his mindset.

"Say, Izuna"

Yeah, Brother?"

"Do you want Haruto and Akira to die?"

Izuna frowned and said, outraged, "No! Of course, I don't!"

"Then why are we at war with the Senju?" I asked

"Well… the Senju killed the previous clan head, so-"

"Don't you realize that we are just waging war for war's sake? Very soon, I will join a battle, and in a few, you, Haruto, and Akira will as well. You could die, I could die and for what? For some person, we will never even meet? It's just a cycle of violence, Izuna! Think about it. Please."

I flickered away, leaving Izuna to think. Hopefully, this will open him up to the eventual prospect of peace and forming Konoha.

After a long tiring day, I headed to my room and fell asleep.

A/N: I kind of want to get his formative years over with and move on to some of his adolescent years. Right now I am kind of just setting everything up so we have a basis of his personality for when all the important stuff happens

I love seeing discussions about different theories related to the EMS which I still haven't decided how I am going to go about. He will (probably) get them eventually but now I haven't decided.

I think I wasn't to have a focus on politics but I will try to put as much action as possible and of course, world-building will also play a big part. I am still learning and hopefully, I will get better as I go so be patient with me, please

I want to show a bit of SI-Madara that isn't just ninja stuff based on what I like. If I was in a world with no music I liked and the ability to try and do something about it, I'm gonna do it.

I am unsure what I want to do about SI-Madara's brothers other than Izuna. I have really no idea if I should just build them up and use them as tools for SI-Madara to upgrade his Sharingan or what.

Reviews are appreciated. I really like them.

Thank you!