#blue hc

people say Uchiha Izuna is a two-faced liar with a deceptive smile. That he will stab you in the back while smiling in your face. That you should never trust what you see in front of you when it concerns him. While that may be true, the notion that you cannot tell what he is thinking because he's always smiling is patently false. To prove my argument, i present exhibit A

Exhibit A: Smiling in a diplomatic meeting (left), Smiling while laughing at boyfriend (right)

a keen eyed observer will have no problem discerning which of these instances is genuine.

bit of meta bit of headcanon anyway lets get into it

I don't think Madara's descent into madness was caused directly by Izuna's death, but more like it was the pivotal moment of no return. Bad End Route locked sort of thing.

I think what happened after Izuna's death was that Madara completely shut his heart to others, he shut down and withdrew inwards and his actions became more like lashing out than leadership. At that point, Madara was essentially incapable of forming any new bonds.

Soon after, his bonds with his clan could no longer withstand the strain, followed by his final loss to Hashirama where he just.... gave up basically..

Hashirama tells him that (old friendship and sentiment aside) if he kills the head of the Uchiha they will seek vengeance to which Madara responds that no one will avenge him.

whether he is stating fact or projecting onto his clansmen doesn't really matter at this point, because reality is that at that point Madara was hurting, defeated, and in a most absolute sense, alone.

Madara gives up because there are no longer any bonds tying him to this world. For one who has lived his entire life as a weapon, warrior, and protector of the Uchiha, he is now quite literally without purpose.

and then Hashirama brings up the village again, in complete seriousness. he was so serious in fact that he was 100% totally willing to kill himself over it when Madara asks (which he did rhetorically, kinda like "yeah maybe when pigs fly", but hashi in his earnestness was like omg that's totally doable and fair i'm gonna do it! to everyone's absolute horror)

suddenly in the absolute tarpit of rock bottom he was in, Madara finds that there was still one bond going strong underneath the years of war and battle, and so, once more, he gets up, and tries again. he drags himself back up, enters an unfavorable alliance, and Konoha is formed. for the first couple of years he is kind of recovering again, very slowly putting himself back together.

but then his bond with Hashirama is put under strain and - in Madara's eyes - is unable to withstand it. Hashirama's choices felt like rejection to him. His acquiescing to Tobirama felt like betrayal.

because Hashirama saw the village as above all, and Madara saw Hashirama as his final salvation, and these two perceptions proved fundamentally at odds with each other because Madara became incapable of forming new bonds after Izuna's death. He was incapable of seeing the village as his, he was incapable of putting it above all and integrating into it like Hashirama wished he would.

add in a nice sprinkle of the fear invoking reputation and Madara's generally abrasive/intimidating demeanor, it meant that no one was willing to try. Hashirama was the only one, and yet he-

Madara sees his final bond fray, and becomes completely disillusioned. his obsession with the tablet was a desperate search for answers, an explanation, anything that would tell him why he was fated to a life of strife and suffering. why everyone was fated to repeat the same senseless losses over and over and over.

if we did this earlier Izuna would be alive and he wouldn't have had to die and maybe my other brothers would be too and maybe Hashirama would have his brothers and maybe all the funeral pyres would have never had to be lit and what did any of this ever achieve? what did we win? why did Izuna have to die? is this mess of a village what he died for? i can see it fall apart like it will happen tomorrow why are we doomed to repeat the same mistakes? why did Izuna have to die? what did i spend my entire life fighting for? what did i spill all this blood for?

why did Izuna have to die?

he finds a new purpose, one that can only be fulfilled by someone like him, who is free of worldly bonds, who is powerful enough and tenacious enough and angry enough to rewrite the world.

but a louder part of me wants Butsuma to die by Madara and Izuna's hands as vengeance for killing Tajima.

I want Butsuma to have killed Tajima in such a way that there was nothing left of him to burn.

and by care for him I mean beat the shit out of him so he fucking stays in bed and Oh My God Aniki will you just REST.

has me thinking about all the "itachi thought like a hokage and was fully cognizant and understanding of his choices"

ltachi was stunted way before 13. intentionally or otherwise, everyone around him did nothing but reinforce the childlike binary thinking bc they didnt care about itachi as a person, they only cared about him as a tool for their own means. they constantly maintained the state of pressure, pulling him this way and that to ensure he's on "their" side.

he is inadvertently one of the show's best case studies on how fucked up being a child soldier makes you well into adulthood, and how you don't always escape or outgrow the damage.

funnily enough many of the Uchiha we know were rebellious with a strong moral code or willing to question the system at that age. because they were given room to develop said moral compass, and undergo the evolution from binary to nuanced thinking.

Sasuke:

best and closest example to Itachi. Sasuke on multiple occasions makes choices against his own "dream", and against what he's been told is "right". hell in the first few episodes he directly disobeys Kakashi’s orders and feeds Naruto bc regardless of instructions and Naruto actually breaking the rules (being in the wrong), Sasuke thinks it is not right or fair. even while fully aware that the consequence is him failing and returning to the academy.

there are many examples of Sasuke behaving on his own morals as a kid: protecting Naruto from Haku (barely knows him, still thinks he should protect even on a subconscious level), fighting Orochimaru in the forest of death, being able to resist the cursed seal with sheer willpower, his refusal to kill anyone when training under orochimaru. (when he kills Danzo who 1billion% deserved it, it's still a heavy moment of Sasuke breaking his own morals and going off the deep end)

Obito:

his refusal to follow orders and even willingness to outright break them to do what he believes is right is the cornerstone of Kakashi and subsequently Naruto’s philosophy of "those who leave behind their friends are worse than scum". He decided the White Fang was his hero despite public opinion of him being so hostile it drove the man to suicide. he awakened his sharingan protecting Kakashi and they werent even properly friends yet (in fact, he found him aggravating and was jealous of him). He did not regret these choices for a second even during his final dying moments while crushed.

Madara:

sneaking off during active wartime to make friends and dream of peace. the dream follows him his whole life. When Hashirama is revealed to be a Senju, his father forces him into joining the ambush and he disobeys and warns Hashirama. his final choice to end their friendship is less because he thinks its wrong and more because he values his own word and promise to protect his brother and clan, even at his own detriment. Tajima trusts his judgement when he says they'll lose, and you can’t trust the judgement of someone who is only capable of following orders and values you gave them.

Sasuke was mostly left to his own devices, same with Obito most likely. No one had interfered or tried to shape them into anything at that point. Madara is closest to Itachi in terms of responsibilities and expectations, but the pressure on him was only from his family. Tajima and Fugaku were raising the next clanhead after all.

Tajima orchestrated scenarios that would force Madara to make the choices by himself. He was clear what he thought should happen but left room for Madara to disobey. It was a test of worth and readiness; if Madara arrives at these conclusions himself, Tajima does not have to worry about keeping him on a tight leash. Forcing him to make difficult choices since childhood to raise him into a fierce and unwavering leader. If Madara cannot pass these trials by himself then he is not a fit heir yet.