It was not that Naruto and Sasuke were completely unable to fight ninjas from the Warring States Period. The problem was that while the two of them were fighting five adult ninjas, they could not guarantee the safety of the three children.
Those three children were too badly injured. They had to find somewhere to settle them down and get them treated immediately.
After escaping the pursuit of the five adult ninjas, the rescued young ninja broke free from Sasuke's support. His hand still gripped his blade tightly, and the way he looked at Naruto and Sasuke was sharp and savage, like a lone beast.
"Put down your weapon. We're not your enemies," Sasuke said.
Naruto added, "Sasuke's right. You two need your wounds treated too, don't you?"
The young ninja glanced at his younger brother on Naruto's back, then quickly fixed his eyes on Naruto and Sasuke again. "Kurohi! Get behind me!"
The child on Naruto's back immediately struggled, trying to jump down.
Afraid he would fall, Naruto had no choice but to bend down and set him on the ground.
The child immediately darted behind the young ninja and glared at Naruto and Sasuke with the same fierce, piercing look.
"Seriously!" Naruto said angrily. "Sasuke and I saved you two!"
Only after his younger brother was behind him did the young ninja from the Warring States Period relax slightly. He shielded his brother behind him and looked at the black-haired boy the blond ninja his age had called "Sasuke."
"He called you Sasuke just now, right?"
"Yeah."
Standing beside Sasuke, Naruto noticed that the young ninja seemed to trust Sasuke a little more than him.
"Hey, blondie. Why did you tell him to use the Sharingan just now?"
Before Naruto could answer, Sasuke said, "Sasuke Uchiha."
He had directly revealed his name. Based on the Senju clan crest on those five adult ninjas earlier, Sasuke guessed that the young ninja in front of them was very likely a member of the Uchiha clan from the Warring States Period.
Sure enough.
When the young ninja heard Sasuke call himself Sasuke Uchiha, he was visibly stunned for a moment. The child ninja behind him, however, lit up with joy.
"Proof."
The young ninja hid his shock and the hope rising inside him, staring hard at Sasuke and demanding evidence.
Although he was asking for proof, he did not actually expect someone around his age to reveal the Sharingan.
At their age, very few people could awaken the Sharingan. Even his and Kurohi's older brother had not yet awakened the Sharingan Kekkei Genkai.
But the two people in front of them were the brothers' final lifeline.
The adult ninjas of the Senju Clan behind them had not given up on hunting them down.
As long as the two people before them could produce even a little evidence, he and Kurohi would have no choice but to believe them.
So when the young ninja, who seemed to be an Uchiha, saw Sasuke reveal the Sharingan, the shock and joy in his eyes could not be hidden at all.
"Three tomoe! Big brother! He has three tomoe!!"
The child ninja behind him was so excited he shouted it out.
"He really is an Uchiha..."
The young ninja finally felt the weight lift from his shoulders. He swayed and nearly collapsed.
Fortunately, Naruto grabbed him in time and steadied him.
"That's great."
The young ninja's happiness did not last long before his expression turned downcast and frustrated.
He punched the nearby tree hard.
If only he had held on a little longer, then Togakushi...
"Do you have another companion who was injured and swept downstream?" Naruto asked, his wide blue eyes fixed on him. The question finally brought wild joy to the young ninja's face.
"You said injured?! Not..."
"Yeah. My Shadow Clone is taking care of him. Sasuke gave him some medicine Sakura made earlier, and he's already asleep." Naruto patted his shoulder comfortingly.
"That's great! Thank you. Thank you so much!"
The young ninja was truly an Uchiha. Once he knew the people in front of him were his clan members, he immediately unlocked the emotions he had sealed away and thanked them again and again.
"By the way, I don't think I've seen you two in the clan before. Especially you, the one with the golden hair. You're not suited to being a ninja at all! You'd be spotted way too easily!" The young ninja laughed, only for it to pull at his wound and make him bare his teeth in pain.
The four of them headed toward the place where the other child ninja was hidden.
Naruto scrunched up his face. "Say that again and I'll punch you! Who said I'm not suited to being a ninja?! I'm going to become Hokage in the future!"
"Hahaha, sorry, sorry."
He looked at Sasuke. "Honestly, you feel a lot like my older brother, so I unconsciously let my guard down a little."
The child ninja behind him, Kurohi, also kept secretly glancing at Sasuke.
When they reached the hiding place, Sasuke activated his Sharingan again and removed the Genjutsu trap he had set there earlier.
Seeing the original return, Naruto's two Shadow Clones vanished into white smoke with two poofs.
"Togakushi!"
"Togakushi-nii!"
The two rescued Uchiha boys rushed over.
Naruto and Sasuke walked over from behind. "It tastes awful, but Sakura's medicine really works. He doesn't look nearly as critical as he did before."
The child ninja called Togakushi was breathing steadily now, and the pain from the inflammation and suffocation had eased greatly.
"Oh, right." Naruto rummaged through his ninja tool pouch and took out the two pills Sakura had given him. "Sasuke's two were already given to him. I still have two here, so you two take one each."
"Thank you."
The two of them held the small pills in their hands. The child ninja called Kurohi swallowed his, while the young ninja whose name they still did not know handed his own pill to him. "Take mine too."
Kurohi knew what his brother meant, so of course he refused.
Such brotherly love.
Watching them, Naruto and Sasuke could not help feeling moved by the bond between the brothers.
In the end, the younger brother still could not win against the older brother and swallowed the other pill too.
"Once my dad comes to pick us up and take us back to camp, Sakura and Rin will treat you."
Naruto comforted them, and they thanked him again.
"I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Myoko Uchiha. These are my two younger brothers, Kurohi Uchiha and Togakushi Uchiha. I haven't seen you before, so you must be the children of clan members who have been away on long-term missions, right?" the young Uchiha ninja said. "We were only carrying out a simple mission at first. Togakushi and Kurohi are almost old enough to go to the battlefield, so I wanted to take them on a few simple missions to gain experience."
"But I never expected to run into people from the Senju Clan. Someone even recognized me and issued an order to kill me, Kurohi, and Togakushi."
Naruto and Sasuke could tell the boy was still hiding something.
But that did not matter. They did not belong to this era or this parallel world. They had saved them only because they could not stand by and watch children this young die.
"I'm Uzu..."
Naruto had just started speaking when Sasuke cut him off.
"You already know my name. He's Naruto. We have companions nearby, and we've already sent a signal. We're waiting for them to come meet us."
"Okay, I understand. Thank you, Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uchiha."
Na-Naruto Uchiha?!!
Naruto's expression was indescribably strange. He finally experienced what Kakashi-sensei must feel like when people mistook him for Kakashi Uchiha. It was...
Complicated.
"Are you two brothers too?"
"Yeah, pretty much!" Naruto rushed to answer, throwing an arm around Sasuke's neck. "It's just that this idiot little brother is always sulking. He's such a pain."
Sasuke shoved him away, pulled Naruto's hand off his forehead, and jabbed him furiously.
"Who's the older brother and who's the younger one?! Don't forget, you're two months younger than me! And who's sulking?! Who's a pain?!!"
Their antics made Myoko Uchiha laugh softly. "Kurohi and Togakushi are twins, and they're always arguing over who's the older brother and who's the younger one too."
Just now, Togakushi had nearly been killed because he was protecting Kurohi.
Fortunately, he had fallen into the river and been swept downstream, where he was found by these two clan members.
As for Naruto not having black hair and black eyes, Myoko subconsciously assumed that one of his parents was not of pure blood, so it might be difficult for him to awaken the Sharingan in the future.
"Shh..."
Sasuke suddenly raised a finger for silence.
The five Senju ninjas had found them!!
Myoko Uchiha's gaze sharpened again in an instant. His hand tightened around the ninja blade on the ground, ready to fight at any moment.
The voices of the Senju ninjas came from outside.
"They really didn't get far. They're nearby."
"Be careful. That blond kid has a very strange power. A blue chakra ball that can instantly break our swords."
"Yeah. We can't let those Uchiha brats grow up and become our enemies, especially that Myoko Uchiha and that blond kid."
"Right! We'll kill them here!!"
Myoko knew he could not drag his clan members down with him. He said to Naruto and Sasuke, "Thank you for saving me. I'll go out and lure them away. Please protect my two younger brothers."
"Hey!"
Naruto grabbed Myoko Uchiha just as he was about to run out.
Sasuke said, "Don't be reckless. The three of you hide here. Naruto and I will go out."
"Exactly," Naruto said. "You're badly hurt. Even if you go out, they'll catch you before long. I might as well use Shadow Clones to lure them away."
"Shadow Clones?"
After taking the medicine, Kurohi had fallen asleep just like Togakushi Uchiha.
Myoko Uchiha, who was a little older than the other two, still remembered that when they first arrived here, it had been Naruto's two clones taking care of Togakushi.
Naruto formed hand seals with both hands.
"Poof, poof, poof."
Three Shadow Clones transformed into the appearances of Myoko Uchiha, Kurohi Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki.
"Leave luring them away to us."
After Naruto's Shadow Clone said that, it rushed out with the Shadow Clones disguised as Myoko and Kurohi.
Soon, the Senju ninjas' voices came from outside.
"We found them! Chase them!!"
"Those three brats ran off!"
In their hiding place, Myoko lay on the ground and listened until the Senju ninjas' footsteps faded into the distance. He sighed. "Your Clone Technique is amazing!"
Naruto scratched his head and laughed sheepishly. "Actually, Clone Technique used to be the thing I was worst at."
Myoko Uchiha froze. "You call that being bad at it? Then my Clone Technique isn't even worth showing."
He did not ask further, just as he had not told the two people in front of him that he was the son of the Clan Head.
But that did not stop him from seeing that this boy named Naruto's Shadow Clone Technique was completely different from the Clone Technique he had learned. And earlier, he had seen the blue chakra ball in Naruto's hand instantly break a Senju ninja's blade.
Add to that Sasuke, whose talent was even greater than his older brother's, and Myoko felt certain he could not possibly have never heard their names in the clan.
With the Senju ninjas gone, the group finally relaxed.
But at that very moment, a hoarse voice suddenly came from behind Myoko.
"I knew it. You Uchiha brats are crafty as hell!!"
A gleaming blade came down from above.
It slashed viciously toward them!!
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Madara's alternate name origin appears to come from the Five Mountains of Northern Shinshu. Madara corresponds to Mount Madarao, and Izuna corresponds to Mount Iizuna. The remaining three names are used for his OC brothers: Kurohi from Mount Kurohime, Togakushi from Mount Togakushi, and Myoko from Mount Myoko.
The Senju family's names are built around temple or architectural imagery: pillars, doors, roof tiles, and boards. They are probably only missing a Kurama.
The Uchiha family, by contrast, looks to the mountains. This also fits Susanoo's tengu-like form, connecting the Uchiha to mountain-god imagery and the Great Tengu.
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