Uchiha Madara walked a distance before suddenly realizing that something felt off about the situation.
Although he and Nanami had only noticed each other after passing a corner, he hadn't sensed even the slightest presence beforehand.
Recalling carefully, the moment he saw Nanami, it seemed she still lacked any perceptible existence in terms of sensing.
If he hadn't truly seen her with his own eyes, in Madara's perception, the spot where she stood should have been completely empty... as if that Nanami were merely an illusory shell.
Yet that feeling lasted only an instant, so Madara couldn't be sure if it was just his imagination.
The commotion from the battle grew increasingly intense, but a few minutes later, everything returned to calm.
Uchiha Madara arrived at the center of the battlefield. Several Uchiha shinobi were gathered together. As he approached, he saw one of them clutching his abdomen with one hand, blood staining half his body.
"Madara."
Someone noticed Uchiha Madara's arrival.
Madara nodded and said to the injured man, "Go treat your wound first."
"Yes."
The air was thick with a charred smell. Under the moonlight and the surrounding flickering fires, Uchiha Madara examined the corpse lying on the ground... Well, there was no need to examine it. At a glance, Madara could tell they'd get no valuable clues from the body.
"What happened? Was this our Fire Release?"
The corpse wasn't just extensively burned over its body; there was only a gruesome wound on the neck, and the head above it had vanished entirely.
More precisely, it hadn't vanished—it was smeared all over the ground.
"Yes and no. Seeing escape was hopeless, he gave up resisting and took our Fire Release head-on with his body while swallowing an explosive tag. The result... as you see, Madara."
It was a gruesome death, but Madara felt nothing special about it. In this era, shinobi dying this way were commonplace.
Whether out of subjective intent or objective side effect, this intruder had managed to disgust the Uchiha one last time, creating a huge hassle for street cleanup.
Madara glanced once and lost interest. Under these circumstances, only the Shinigami could extract information from the dead man's mouth—his identity, origins, infiltration purpose, or whether he had accomplices or insiders.
"Wait for the interrogation department elders to come. Hand the body over to them."
Leaving those words, Uchiha Madara turned and left the scene, but he didn't return to his residence.
As he walked through the village's alleys, Madara suddenly looked up in a certain direction and once again spotted the suspiciously skulking Uchiha Nanami.
Since Madara was hidden in the shadows, Nanami didn't notice him.
Watching Nanami's figure depart, Madara silently nodded to himself. He'd overthought it earlier—Nanami really was fine.
After twisting and turning through the village until no one could possibly notice him, Uchiha Madara slipped into an unremarkable building.
Through the window, the house appeared pitch-black, quiet and untouched.
After entering, Madara went to the innermost room, lifted the floorboard, and descended into a narrow underground passage.
At the end of the passage was a basement, brightly lit.
More than a dozen shinobi were already seated in this underground space. Though they varied in height and build, without exception, they were all very young shinobi.
The arrival of Uchiha Madara, their backbone, stirred their discussions.
"Madara, how's the situation up top?"
"Was the intruder the same one we discovered last time?"
Uchiha Madara gestured for everyone to calm down. He leaned against a wall and sat before speaking: "The intruder is dead. Before dying, he handled his corpse very cleanly. On the surface, it'll be hard to investigate any useful clues... but as expected, it's the same infiltrator we found before."
"As expected. So his identity and goal are probably what we guessed?" said a shinobi sitting to Madara's right.
Madara nodded and gave a more precise answer: "He deliberately concealed his identity and never used any signature ninjutsu, but as expected, he should be from the Hagoromo clan..."
"Intelligence within the clan has leaked. The Hagoromo shinobi's goal is that pair of Sharingan. They're willing to sacrifice elite shinobi lives for it."
Hearing the intruder came from a nominally allied force, some in the room couldn't hold back and cursed: "Damn it, hasn't the Hagoromo clan always stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us? Why would they have ill intentions toward the clan?"
Someone immediately corrected that view: "The Hagoromo clan will still stand with us, which is why they deliberately hide their identity when infiltrating. If they can't escape, they immediately ensure there's no evidence left."
"Right. They don't want to damage our relationship, but at the same time, they can't tolerate certain potential threats... Some of the Uchiha's power has made our friends deeply fearful."
Why did that statement carry a hint of pride?
"The Sharingan's power exceeds the Hagoromo's imagination, so they've grown wary."
Young people's thoughts jump around, and soon the conversation veered off track.
Uchiha Madara timely interrupted them: "That's not the point. The reason we let that infiltrator operate in the village for a while was to use external forces to..."
After thinking, he decided to be direct.
"We're using these outsiders to directly expose some of the rotten sores within the Uchiha clan."
"Nameless, nameless—how many nameless has this been under those elders' control? The Hagoromo fear the Uchiha's power; that's understandable. But what's unimaginable is that within the Uchiha, some fear the Sharingan's power."
"If we let this develop, in the future, more people might lose their freedom just for having special eyes, even becoming lowly puppets... Think of yourselves or your kin—can you accept that?"
Young people often see themselves highly. Hearing Uchiha Madara say this, they easily imagined themselves as those too powerful to be feared and controlled by the elders.
The shinobi here had gathered precisely because they were dissatisfied with the elders' internal and external policies. Some were muddleheaded; as long as they could curse the elders, they'd cheer.
Fortunately, Uchiha Madara's strength was unquestionable, and they followed his lead. Otherwise, this meeting wouldn't be much better than a QQ group chat.
While despising and rebelling against old authority, they admired and worshiped the new authority.
"Madara, what should we do?"
"The Hagoromo clan won't let this go. If we spot their infiltrators again, don't act—just monitor... The Hagoromo care about our relationship, so they'll only make small moves, nothing major against the Uchiha. We can secretly use them."
"Use the Hagoromo's power to expose those people's actions to all clan members. Then they'll lose all authority and can no longer lord over the clan with commands."
Among the young shinobi present, some were sharp-minded. One said: "But Madara, rumors about experimenting on clan members have circulated in the village forever, and everyone's reaction is lukewarm. Even if we reveal the truth, will it really have the effect we expect?"
"Rumors aren't facts, silence isn't acceptance, and most importantly... I'll step forward when the time comes."
Most of the Uchiha clan wouldn't be foolish enough to ignore right and wrong. If you just present the fact that the elders are secretly experimenting on clan members, many would likely stay silent. But if someone steps up with clear banners to denounce the elders...
As long as that person has strength and influence, most of the silent ones will instantly become his supporters.
It has nothing to do with good triumphing over evil. When their actions are justified and they see hope of victory, of course they'll act.
Uchiha Madara's drive to act stemmed from dissatisfaction with the elders' ways, but another key point was that in some shinobi's dire situations, he saw Nanami's shadow.
If Uchiha Nanami weren't the current clan leader's sister, with her Sharingan's uniqueness, she might have ended up under lifelong imprisonment.
In a way, if Nanami's background were less fortunate, she'd be nameless; if nameless had better luck, she'd be Nanami.
Nanami had returned to the Uchiha so quickly perhaps because in her heart, this mission wasn't just saving someone—it was equivalent to saving herself.
"Madara, we'll do as you say." "Good... Have you found that place?" Uchiha Madara asked again.
"We found it, but the defenses are too tight. We couldn't get closer to confirm."
His little partners were quite capable at causing trouble—they'd located the key spot.
Someone handed Madara a map, detailed with marked sentry posts, hidden guards, and barrier ranges around a certain village location.
Uchiha Madara nodded and took the map.
After unifying everyone's thoughts, he continued: "For the next few days, stay alert and closely watch for new intruders... Alright, let's disband for tonight."
With that, Madara left first.
Normally, to avoid attention, his companions would leave in batches afterward.
So after Uchiha Madara departed, the others still had time and space to continue discussing.
"Following Madara's plan... if it's just this, isn't it letting those old fogeys off too easy?"
"Yeah, I don't like the Hagoromo clan daring to infiltrate Uchiha village, but I hate those high-and-mighty old pests in the clan even more."
"Our thoughts align."
"In that case, is there a way to make the two things we hate crash into each other?"
"When facing external enemies, those elders who love pointing fingers—shouldn't they contribute to the Uchiha clan? They can't just talk without acting, right?"
"Exactly. Talking without doing, one face in public and another behind—how can that maintain elder authority?"
"Heh heh."
These Uchiha brats let out sinister laughs in unison.
If young people aren't hot-blooded, are they still young? The Uchiha clan's youth were a cut above—they were just a bit more than hot-blooded...
Well, they were lawless.
Genma didn't know that in the current events, Uchiha Madara was actually playing the positive role. He just didn't want to run into Madara again.
In principle, Genma avoided too much contact with people he couldn't beat.
Undercurrents surged within the Uchiha. Currently, they could be roughly divided into these forces:
Nanami and Genma, Hagoromo infiltrators, Uchiha elders, the young Uchiha led by Madara, and the behind-the-scenes master directors Black Zetsu and White Zetsu, who had already lost detailed control.
Nanami's goal was to rescue someone, Genma's was to help Nanami while collecting scratch-off tickets, Madara's was to purge the tumors among the elders, and the Hagoromo infiltrators' was to seize Sharingan.
Nanami and the Hagoromo's goals conflicted, so they'd inevitably clash.
As for why there were so many White Zetsu here—they'd still lost detailed control of the situation. Again, Genma was collecting scratch-off tickets.
It felt like an elephant laying out a grand plan, unaware it was being nibbled by mice.
Genma's first draw wasn't ideal, but no matter—there were more chances ahead.
Early the next morning.
Due to last night's infiltration, the atmosphere in the Uchiha clan village grew extremely tense. Shinobi performed their duties, intensifying searches and surveillance within the village.
Chaos from busyness was inevitable, but fortunately, everyone was competent, and no major incidents occurred.
Of course, even at a time like this, the village still had its share of idlers, like Uchiha Tajima.
At that moment, he quietly slipped into Uchiha Madara's room... Well, not quietly at all. He swaggered in as if he owned the place.
The respectable big brother was naturally absent—greater power, greater responsibility. Uchiha Tajima was young and average in strength, so he idled; Madara was outstanding, so he had to participate in village tasks.
Tajima rummaged casually in the living room and immediately found the map Madara had obtained last night.
Clearly, Madara had left it there on purpose. He couldn't read others' hearts, but surely he could read his own little brother's?
If not for fear of being too obvious, he'd have plastered the map right on his third brother's forehead.
How could Uchiha Tajima care about that? Getting the map just proved his skill, right?
No matter how much effort Madara's companions had put in, once the map was in Tajima's hands, it was his achievement.
He stuffed the map into his shirt and prepared to go find Nanami.
Claim credit—he had to claim it hard.
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