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In a secluded city of the Land of Wind, hidden from the world, lay Loulan.
For the past few days, Loulan had been anything but peaceful. The source of the unrest? Frequent small earthquakes that caused the ground to tremble intermittently.
At first, panic gripped the citizens of Loulan. However, as the tremors continued without causing significant harm, the people grew accustomed to them.
On the streets, when the ground began its familiar buzzing and rumbling, no one panicked. People simply moved to open spaces, avoiding areas where flowerpots or other objects might fall from windows. After a minute or two, once the shaking subsided, life resumed as usual.
The common folk were carefree. As long as the tremors didn't affect their daily lives, they saw no reason to worry.
But among Loulan's upper echelons, the mood was far from calm.
In the grand hall of the queen's palace, the ruler of Loulan sat on her throne, cradling her three-year-old daughter, Sara. Her brows were furrowed with an unshakable sorrow, mirrored by the grim expressions of the ministers standing below.
As another tremor rippled through the palace, the group let out a collective sigh of resignation.
Finally, the queen broke the silence, her voice tinged with frustration.
"How many times has this happened now?"
One of the ministers stepped forward and bowed deeply.
"Your Majesty, since you sealed Uchiha Madara beneath the city, this is the forty-ninth time."
Another minister followed, his tone heavy with concern.
"Your Majesty, while these tremors may not directly affect Loulan now, we cannot continue to ignore them!"
A more knowledgeable minister also stepped forward, his expression grave.
"Your Majesty, judging by the scope and intensity of these tremors, it's clear this isn't simply Madara attempting to break through the underground stone walls. The only explanation is that he's tampering with the dragon veins beneath Loulan. If the dragon veins were to destabilize, the entire city would be destroyed. Your Majesty, we cannot afford to sit idly by!"
Cradling her daughter closer, the queen sighed deeply.
"Do you think I don't understand the gravity of the situation? But at the time, to ensure Madara could never escape, I sealed the stone gates shut. Now, there's no way for us to enter and assess the situation.
Even if we could get in, what could we possibly do against Madara? Any attempt to confront him might only result in his release, creating an even greater crisis.
For now, all we can do is pray that the seals on the dragon veins hold…"
The queen sighed again, her heart filled with resentment toward Madara. What exactly was he doing down there?
What was Uchiha Madara's situation like within the dragon veins?
Well, things were going quite well for him.
Deep within the dragon veins, Madara absorbed natural chakra at an almost frenzied pace. Under the relentless flow of natural energy, he stored vast amounts of it within his body, using the power of the Rinnegan to suppress and stabilize it, allowing him to utilize natural chakra freely.
However, the current state of his abilities was far from the Sage Mode he had envisioned.
Though Madara could use natural chakra, it was fundamentally different from the Sage Mode achieved by harmonizing external natural chakra with one's internal chakra circulation.
Madara had experimented with activating natural chakra, but his body showed no signs of transformation—nothing resembling Sage Mode.
Additionally, while using natural chakra did enhance the power of his jutsu, they were still ordinary techniques, not the sage arts unique to true Sage Mode.
To put it in perspective, if natural chakra was gasoline, then Sage Mode was the engine.
Right now, Madara had plenty of gasoline, but he lacked the ability to build an engine.
To make matters worse, after absorbing enough natural chakra initially, Madara discovered that it conflicted with the chakra he naturally produced. Without the Rinnegan to mediate and suppress the conflict, the two types of chakra would have clashed violently within his body.
Frustration gnawed at Madara. He had yet to achieve his goal.
Sage Mode was something he absolutely needed to master. Otherwise, possessing such immense reserves of natural chakra without being able to harness its full potential felt like a waste.
As he continued absorbing the remaining natural chakra from the dragon veins, Madara pondered his next move.
The Uchiha clan's Sharingan was a legacy of the Sage of Six Paths' Sage Eye, while the Senju clan's Wood Release stemmed from the Sage's Sage Body. To awaken the Rinnegan, Madara had fused the Sage Eye and Sage Body together.
The Rinnegan itself was no issue—it had evolved naturally from his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. However, the Sage Body he now possessed wasn't something his own body had evolved into. It was essentially an upgraded version of Hashirama Senju's body, thanks to the cells he had integrated years ago.
As he mulled over the problem, Madara suddenly realized the likely reason he couldn't achieve Sage Mode despite absorbing natural chakra: his body.
His body had already undergone significant changes after fusing with Hashirama's cells, granting him the ability to use Wood Release. In essence, his body was no longer his original self—it was an upgraded version based on Hashirama's physiology.
If that was the case, who would be most familiar with this "Hashirama-version" body? Who else but Hashirama himself? And who could teach Madara the method to achieve Sage Mode using this body?
In short, what Madara needed now was Hashirama's approach to mastering Sage Mode.
Never had Madara felt so grateful to Tobirama Senju for inventing the Edo Tensei technique. Thanks to it, Madara would have the chance to meet Hashirama once more—and "consult" with him.
A grand plan began to take shape in Madara's mind.
With his resolve set, Madara accelerated his absorption of the remaining natural chakra from the dragon veins…