What it takes to be Hokage

Chapter 10

Madara closed his eyes and tried to calm his breathing.

He was too young for this.

He didn't want to do this.

Yet he'd done this a thousand times before.

Just not like this.

He'd never imagined he'd have to do this.

Izuna's slightly elevated breathing from next to him told Madara that the boy felt the same way. Yet they were both compelled to obey. They had no choice. None at all. Lest they join those kneeling in front of them.

"By Clan Law, you four have been found guilty of treason." Taijima soft, toneless voice drummed loudly into Madara's eardrums and he wished he was out on a mission, fighting Hashirama, killing an enemy . . . anything! Just so that he didn't have to be here.

Here. . .

. . . Where his face was cold, an expressionless mask that belied his true feelings and almost a mirror of his father's. His hands were calm, by his sides and completely under his control. His entire posture was relaxed, as though he'd been doing this his whole life.

He was sixteen now.

Two years since Naruto had landed in this world. Roughly a year and a half since he'd seen the blond on the battlefield.

Two years to lie about his skills because with Naruto's guidance he'd grown a hundredfold stronger and faster than had he done it on his own.

Yet it was still not enough.

He and Izuna still could not take control of the Uchiha.

These four before Madara and Izuna, kneeling with angry –defiant– scowls on their faces. They had tried.

And for that treason, for that failure, they were to be put to death.

Four pairs of unmastered Sharingan swirled angrily towards two perfectly calm and controlled Dojutsu. The bratling Heirs to the clan. Madara and Izuna. Completely emotionless. They obeyed their father's ordered without hesitation. And what was worse, they were powerful. Extremely powerful. Sixteen and fourteen yet both had managed to accomplish what those double and even triple their age could not.

And their skill was still growing.

They had three tomoe while most could only hope to gain two by the time they were 20. Madara was using his Sharingan now, not a single tomoe moving at all. A display of the control he applied; in essence, a true Heir to the Clan. Yet, why did they feel they could not place those two brats in charge? It was that uncertainty which had guided their admittedly foolish attempt to kill Taijima, a man as skilled as the Senju Clan Head and a man who had helped birth the two monsters he'd ordered to kill his own clansmen.

"The sentence for your treason is death. Be glad that I am merciful in this. I should have cut out your eyes and left you to the enemy." With that last cold statement of indifference, Taijima glanced, merely glanced, at his sons. They did not nod, they did not look to each other. They simply raised a kunai and struck, once, twice each and the four Uchiha traitors were no more.

Izuna and Madara had turned their heads down, standing straight and waiting, waiting for the order to say that they could leave.

That waiting, was a supreme effort of control. The blood was hot, the blood was wrong. This was the blood of their clansmen. Madara wanted to run, to run from himself and that which he had to do, all in the name of the Uchiha Clan. It wasn't the Uchiha that were so corrupt. No, it was Taijima. His father. One day . . . the day would come, where Taijima would no longer be able to control his sons and when that day came things would get better. They had to.