What happened to that clumsy ninja from Konoha?
Of course, he was unharmed.
Not because Nayou decided to let him go, but just because she didn't feel like dealing with all that mess right now.
Their top priority right now was finding the missing Shen.
That's right. The two of them arrived with a large group at the battlefield where Team One had fought earlier that day.
But there, aside from the ruined land and Rock-nin corpses scattered in various states of death, nothing else was unusual.
Even Hagoromo's Ship, which had been unable to start, had mysteriously vanished.
"There aren't any signs or traces left behind. Could it be Iwagakure took him?"
"Impossible. If this guy had been captured, Iwagakure wouldn't have left the battlefield like this."
Rope Tree, suddenly acting unusually sharp, quickly refuted Tsunade's assumption.
Although this possibility couldn't be ignored, Iwagakure might also be intentionally leaving things messy as a distraction.
However, nobody present voiced this speculation.
Especially Nayou, who wore an icy expression across her face.
She could swear on her life—if this person dared appear before her again, she'd totally ignore him for a whole year.
At that moment, everyone was certain—the little troublemaker had definitely come up with an escape plan.
Inside a thoroughly cleaned-out underground chamber,
White Zetsu stared intently and curiously at Shen, who lay on the bed like a sleeping beauty.
"Lord Madara, what exactly is that pale bone-covered guy?"
"...?"
"Lord Madara, how did his Mangekyō power alter reality itself?"
"Lord Madara, why hasn't he woken up yet?"
"Shut up!" A thoroughly annoyed Madara turned his head away, refusing to respond further.
Madara mused—maybe watching him for so long had started giving White Zetsu some weird attachment.
"Hmm..." On the bed, Shen's long eyelashes fluttered slightly.
In an instant, White Zetsu shot forward, turned off the lights, and vanished back into the underground hideout.
According to plan, the first character the main protagonist should see upon waking must be his creator.
Though unconscious for five or six hours, Shen had actually woken up in his mind quite a while ago.
The reason he maintained this comatose state was that he couldn't yet determine Black Zetsu's intentions.
"I guess I'll follow Plan A for now," Shen mumbled to himself, then opened his eyes with a deliberately confused expression.
"You're awake?" Madara, scythe in hand, suddenly appeared before him.
Struggling to keep his facial muscles under control, Shen recognized immediately the exact same intimidation tactics depicted in the original story—an urge to spill everything welled up inside him.
"Firstly, I'm not some good kid who helps out an elderly flying savior," he ignored the oppressive aura radiating from the other.
He kept talking as if lost in his own world: "Secondly, don't even try pretending to be a Shinigami from the Uchiha clan and scare me, elderly flying savior."
"???"
Madara, expression unchanged, seemed to sprout multiple question marks above his head.
An elderly flying savior? Scare him by impersonating an Uchiha Shinigami? Was this really necessary for Madara Uchiha?
"Finally, I know exactly who you are," said Shen, whose sharp vision revealed the truth.
His mind finally settled as he calmly stated: "Madara Uchiha."
"Kid, what exactly are you talking about?"
Madara, deeply shocked inside but revealing nothing on his face, asked calmly.
Shen, secretly amused, confirmed his suspicions.
Though the scene initially bore a resemblance to his meeting with Obito, he now understood—Madara currently had no intention of treating him as a mere tool.
More likely, Madara probably even believed they were allies working toward the same goal—the Moon's Eye Plan.
"There isn't a single elder from the Warring States era I, Shen Uchiha, don't know."
Shen paused briefly. Seeing Madara still unmoved, he continued, "There's only one exception I've never met. Am I right, Madara Uchiha?"
Madara stared at him with growing interest.
After a long silence, he finally spoke again: "No wonder you're the one who unraveled the Stone Tablet's secrets. Your observation skills are indeed impressive."
Then he lowered his head, locking eyes directly with Shen's left eye—a Three-tomoe Sharingan identical to his own. "Your ocular power recovered rather quickly. Seems like even the Senju's strength, second only to Hashirama's, isn't so pathetic after all."
"???" Now it was Shen's turn to be completely baffled.
He clearly remembered—he hadn't transplanted any cells or injected even a drop of serum.
The reason he could use pseudo-Sage's Body came purely from his 'battery'—a supernatural advantage.
"Unless..." Putting it together in an instant, Shen discarded all the scenarios he had planned earlier.
The information gap was his golden opportunity to pull off a stunning act.
"Madara? May I call you that?"
Seeing the other nod, Shen brought out his full acting skills. "Aren't you curious about my eyes' abilities?"
"No." Madara shook his head.
Even if the Mangekyō's ability was extraordinary, would it really surpass the Rinnegan?
Madara was someone bold enough to implant a Rinnegan into another person's body. A lesser ability like the Mangekyō wasn't enough to capture his interest.
"The ability in my left eye can foresee every possible outcome in the future." Lying back on the bed, Shen closed his eyes.
Then he sat upright and opened them again.
Two Mangekyō Sharingan with nine-pointed star patterns gazed upward toward Madara's Sharingan.
"For example, right now, you believe the Mangekyō's power is far inferior to the Rinnegan's," Shen struck the decisive blow.
Slightly shaken but still calm on the surface, Madara said, "So you really do know this secret."
Shen immediately activated Tianjin'nu's ability but failed to get a reliable prediction.
So he factored in Madara's personality traits from the original story and reactivated the ability.
"When opposite forces clash, all manner of cosmic phenomena come into being." Standing slowly on the bed, Shen faced Madara's left eye levelly.
"After all, both the Uchiha and Senju powers originate from love." Another blow landed.
After obtaining Tianjin'nu's result, he straightened his spine. Finally, he had the upper hand—and he made sure Madara knew it.
"Also, for whatever you do, don't let go— that scythe'll drop."
"Clang!" The sickle originally held tightly in hand dropped onto the ground upon those words.
Madara, utterly defeated and stripped bare, began losing composure as his psychological defenses gradually crumbled.
"You've been deceived." Shen reached for the pendant and pulled out the Stone Tablet he had stored away years ago. "This has been tampered with."
Madara bent down and, channeling Yin-Yang Release through his right hand, slowly traced each character carved into the tablet.
Once confident, he had believed that following the sequence of Sharingan, Mangekyō, and Rinnegan would surely unlock the mysteries of the Sage of Six Paths.
But only now did he suddenly realize—the source of power deeply rooted within the Uchiha was not negative emotion like hatred.
Without love, how could there be hate?
Having completed his plan, Shen grew wary within this space.
If Black Zetsu were here, he'd be nothing more than an instrument sent to stop Shen and expose the truth behind the Stone Tablet.
Now possessing both 'Tianjin'nu' and 'Magatsuhi' abilities, Shen was certain that when it came to escaping, he was unmatched across the entire shinobi world.
While feigning unconsciousness earlier, he had even merged the powers of two different Mangekyō to develop a movement technique surpassing even the Flying Thunder God.
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