"Dammit... that hurts..."
Uchiha Yōwan opened his eyes, feeling like every cell in his body was radiating pain.
"Did I... die?"
He recalled the moment when the explosive tags detonated right in front of him and let out a long breath, assuming he had arrived in the legendary afterlife.
Look, right in front of him stood a reaper holding a scythe—and that reaper even had a Sharingan.
Wait... Sharingan?
Suddenly widening his eyes, Uchiha Yōwan finally saw the scene in front of him clearly.
"Welcome to the space between the afterlife and the living world, child of the Uchiha..."
Seeing that Yōwan had woken up, Uchiha Madara remained expressionless, simply gazing at him silently.
Behind him stood a masked man. Through the eyehole in his mask, one could see that he also possessed a Sharingan.
"So, even the afterlife is divided by clans? The Uchiha stay with the Uchiha, and the Hyūga stick with the Hyūga."
Yōwan calmly accepted his fate, though he felt a bit of regret—he didn't know whether Hyūga Iroha had survived. If she had died, would he also meet a Hyūga reaper holding a scythe like this?
"It hurts..."
The slight curve of his lips tugged at the wounds on his face, and the intense pain forced Yōwan to abandon his fanciful thoughts.
"If you can still feel pain, that means you're still alive. You really are lucky—hit by a barrage of explosive tags, yet you still clung to life. I patched you up a little, but you'd best avoid looking in a mirror for now."
Staring at the boy's horribly disfigured face, Uchiha Madara couldn't help but sigh at his luck.
"So, you were the one who saved me?"
Ignoring the state of his face, Yōwan expressed his thanks while trying to deduce the old man's identity.
He had clearly collapsed on the Kirigakure battlefield, but this place was obviously not any familiar Uchiha territory. And he had never seen this elder in the village before. Which meant... this man was likely an Uchiha who had left Konohagakure.
In plain terms, he was probably a missing-nin.
"You're sharp."
From Yōwan's instinctive reactions, Uchiha Madara could tell that the boy had already figured out who he was.
He made no effort to hide it. With the help of the masked man, Madara slowly returned to his "throne."
"I am the ghost of the Uchiha clan—Uchiha Madara."
Suspecting it was one thing; hearing it confirmed was another.
Receiving the answer straight from Madara's mouth, Yōwan's eyes widened. Ignoring the pain tearing through his wounds, he said in disbelief,
"That's impossible! Uchiha Madara died in his battle with Senju Hashirama—"
"Died, right?" Madara interrupted.
"That was merely a deception I created. But now, without the Gedo Statue behind me supplying chakra, I truly don't have long to live."
He casually pointed behind him.
Following Madara's gesture, Yōwan finally saw the full form of the Gedo Statue.
Gulp. Uchiha Yōwan swallowed nervously out of fear. No matter how tough he pretended to be, he was still only a 15-year-old child.
After a long silence, Yōwan finally recovered from the shock and nervously asked,
"What do you want me to do?"
There's no such thing as a free lunch. He didn't believe the legendary Uchiha Madara had saved him out of pity. Surely, he wanted something from him...
"I want you to sever the chains of fate that bind this world, to reshape this cold and broken reality, and create a new world—a world with only victory, only peace, only love."
"But in your current state, you clearly can't understand this vision yet. Just focus on recovering for now."
Madara wasn't in a hurry to explain his plan. He had waited this long—what's a little more time?
...
Inside the Akatsuki hideout.
A Rain ninja entered the room with a complicated expression on his face. Inside, Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan sat with serious looks, clearly in the middle of an important discussion.
"As expected..."
Yahiko was the first to speak: "For lunch, porridge still seems like the better choice."
"I think fish soup with bread would be more suitable. It's still relatively easy to catch fish in this season," Konan offered a counterpoint.
"What do you think, Nagato?"
Since neither could convince the other, they turned to the usually quiet Nagato for judgment.
"I think... we should hear what Yūjirō has to say first." Nagato gave a wry smile and turned to the Rain ninja at the door.
Yahiko smacked his forehead, then quickly walked up to him apologetically.
"Sorry, Yūjirō! I didn't even notice you come in. What's the matter?"
Yūjirō, long accustomed to their eccentric behavior, wasn't surprised. Still wearing that conflicted expression, he hesitated for a long moment before finally speaking with difficulty:
"A few ninja approached our perimeter. We spotted them, and then..."
"Ninja?" Yahiko's face turned serious immediately. Aware of the recent tensions, he had specifically ordered everyone in the organization to keep a low profile. He hadn't expected enemies to still find them.
"Are they strong?"
Konan and Nagato also stepped forward, ready to fight.
After recalling the encounter, Yūjirō nodded.
"Yes, very strong. But... they claimed they came in peace. They said they were here just to meet the three of you."
"To meet us?"
The three of them were caught off guard. They were all war orphans from the Land of Rain. Their families were long gone—who would be coming to meet them?
The only person who might have a reason...
"Was one of them a white-haired ninja?"
Yahiko asked Yūjirō eagerly.
"Yes, there was one like that."
Hearing Yahiko describe one of them so accurately, Yūjirō finally relaxed. It seemed the visitors were telling the truth—they weren't enemies.
"Who would've thought... Jiraiya-sensei actually came to find us."
Konan's expression lit up with joy. It had been years since they parted ways with Jiraiya, and she still believed that the time they spent with him was the warmest and most peaceful part of their lives since becoming war orphans.
Even Nagato, usually reserved, smiled faintly.
"In that case, I'll go let your uncle in right away."
Seeing all three so happy, Yūjirō was delighted as well and turned to go invite the ninja inside.
"Wait—uncle?"
The word coming out of Yūjirō's mouth felt both familiar and strange. Yahiko quickly stopped him.
"Yes, the guy leading the group said... he's your uncle."