?!
Underneath the Mountain Graveyard, Uchiha Madara was awakened by the explosion and violent tremors, looking towards the direction of the blast. His left eye was an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, while his right eye was grayish-white.
"What was that explosion just now?"
Uchiha Madara's hair had not completely turned white, and his once handsome face was now covered in many wrinkles, with slightly sagging eye bags. On a nearby wall hung several pieces of clothing, a katana, a kusarigama, and the gunbai that only the leader of the Uchiha Clan was allowed to use, with a long-handled scythe attached to its end.
On a nearby table lay a mask and a wallet.
It was not difficult to see that although Uchiha Madara was hiding here, he was not always confined to this spot; he would still go out and move around.
"What exactly happened?"
Uchiha Madara saw the huge, lingering void on the sea surface and recalled that a group of people had built a structure on the island over there not long ago. He had observed it; it seemed to be a Laboratory Base for some kind of experiment.
"Was the recent explosion an experiment conducted by that base?"
Although he wanted to see what was going on, Uchiha Madara did not rashly leave his hiding place. Many years had passed since his "death," but there were still quite a few people in the Ninja World who recognized him alive.
If his true identity were to be discovered, everything he had planned would be ruined.
He had to prove to Hashirama that peace in the Ninja World could only be achieved through the Infinite Tsukuyomi!
He had to prove that his ideas were correct, and Hashirama's were wrong!
Uchiha Madara firmly believed that he could bring true peace to this world, but so many years had passed, and everything he had done was according to what was written on the stone tablet.
"Why hasn't the power of All Creation yet appeared?"
Uchiha Madara felt no change in his eyes, and his blind right eye had not recovered. He couldn't help but ask himself again, as if he were questioning the Six Paths Sage who left the stone tablet guiding the Uchiha Clan, and also as if he were questioning his own long-held conviction.
As he aged, his physical functions continuously declined. Uchiha Madara knew very well that he was no longer the Uchiha Madara who once dominated battlefields.
Now that he had lost one Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, how much of his proud strength remained?
Uchiha Madara could not die yet; he still had a dream to achieve: true peace in the Ninja World, information recorded on the stone tablet left by the Six Paths Sage… two opposing forces interacting, resulting in All Creation.
Uchiha Madara's hand rested on his chest; Senju Hashirama's flesh was sewn onto the wound on his chest, growing together with his own flesh.
Uchiha Madara didn't understand why, after so many years, the power of All Creation still hadn't appeared, or was it that the flesh he obtained from Hashirama wasn't enough?
Uchiha Madara had never doubted the information on the stone tablet; it had been passed down through generations of the Uchiha Clan. He might doubt himself, but he could never doubt the information on the stone tablet.
Over the next few days, the Laboratory Base on the island almost daily, at the same time, detonated explosives in the sea for explosion experiments.
Once or twice was fine, but doing this every day was truly becoming unbearable for Uchiha Madara, an elderly man. If he were still young, he would have simply activated his Susanoo and flattened that Laboratory Base.
Black Zetsu, who had been constantly monitoring Uchiha Madara's physical condition, was also in despair.
"Why hasn't Uchiha Madara's Rinnegan awakened yet?"
"The powers of Indra and Ashura are supposed to draw out Hagoromo's power!"
"So many years have passed, why is there no reaction at all?"
"Could it be that the memories I inherited from my mother are wrong?"
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
Black Zetsu watched the increasingly irritable Uchiha Madara, very worried that this old man, in his sixties and nearing seventy, would die of anger before his Rinnegan even awakened. Wouldn't that mean all his efforts would be in vain again?
For a thousand years, it had instigated countless wars between the reincarnations of Indra and Ashura, but the first step of its plan to revive its mother had never been able to begin as desired.
It was finally about to begin the most important first step of the plan; Uchiha Madara absolutely could not die!
"Even if he dies, he must hold on until he awakens the Rinnegan, summons the Gedo Statue from the moon, and then die!"
Black Zetsu prayed silently in his heart. If Uchiha Madara died, it would only be able to wait for the next generation of Indra and Ashura's reincarnations!
Boom—!
Everything around them was shaking violently. A rustling sound arose as gravel mixed with sand and soil fell down.
"So noisy!"
Uchiha Madara gasped for breath, his aged face covered in sweat. He truly couldn't take it anymore and struggled to get out of bed. How could an old man get any rest with this every single day?
Uchiha Madara changed into his clothes, put on a black robe, donned a mask and hood. As his hand reached for his gunbai, he changed direction and picked up a katana, slinging it across his back.
Uchiha Madara walked out of the Mountain Graveyard, jumped onto the rock wall, and gazed at the Laboratory Base on the island over there. His hand rested on the hilt of his sword, and a chilling killing intent emanated from him.
Uchiha Madara ran across the sea, stepping on the water. He was going to kill everyone in this building so that no one would disturb his rest.
A mass of black mud-like substance emerged from the ground. A pair of round eyes watched Uchiha Madara heading towards the island, as if looking at a child venturing out.
"There won't be any problems, will there?"
Black Zetsu was very worried that the old and frail Uchiha Madara might stumble and fall in a ditch. What if he died on the island?
"Is that Uchiha Madara?"
Orochimaru's Shadow Clone noticed Uchiha Madara's approach.
"It seems he's been bothered beyond his limits all this time!"
"Killing Uchiha Madara here… with my current strength, it seems… very difficult to accomplish. Even Uchiha Madara, who has lost one Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, is not someone I can deal with."
"So, I should still go meet him… However, appearing rashly before a powerful individual with an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan is not a wise move. Fortunately, I am currently a Shadow Clone, so genjutsu won't be very effective on me. My main body will detect it and simply dispel the Shadow Clone Technique."
Orochimaru used the Transformation Jutsu, transforming into a young woman, and quickly walked outside the base. He looked at Uchiha Madara approaching and shooed him away, "Who are you? This is not a place for you! Leave quickly!"
Uchiha Madara looked at the young woman in front of him, suppressing the anger in his heart, and asked, "Little girl, what is this building for?"
If possible, Uchiha Madara didn't want to cause trouble, much less have his true identity discovered because of this incident.
If the news of him being alive spread, it would likely cause a huge stir in the Ninja World, and his eyes would also be targeted.
"This is a hot weapon Laboratory Base."
The woman placed one hand on her hip, looking at Uchiha Madara with an expression as if he were a bumpkin, seemingly mistaking him for a wandering samurai who had drifted over from somewhere.
"Hot weapons?"
Uchiha Madara didn't pay attention to the woman's gaze; he was more interested in the experiments being conducted here.
The woman said in surprise, "It's the stuff that was detonated in the sea earlier, didn't you see it?"
"That kind of thing, isn't it just detonating a lot of exploding tags all at once?"
Uchiha Madara had observed the things detonated in the sea earlier. He saw Chakra and mistakenly thought it was some new type of exploding tag.
"That's not exploding tags, but explosives."
After the woman finished speaking, she covered her mouth, as if she had said something she shouldn't have.
"Explosives?"
This was the first time Uchiha Madara had heard of such a thing as "explosives."
"Explosives are different from exploding tags. exploding tags are Fire Release sealed in special paper, while explosives have no relation to Fire Release. If you have to say, explosives can be called the prototype of hot weapons, an explosive made by mixing various materials."
Orochimaru didn't mind explaining what explosives were to this old bumpkin, Uchiha Madara.
Explosives… Is the Ninja World already developing such things now?
A sense of unease arose in Uchiha Madara's heart. If the power of All Creation still hadn't appeared, could his dream still be realized in a rapidly changing world?
Thinking of this, a sense of urgency arose in his heart, yet he was powerless. What else could he do now besides wait?
"This is the power of ordinary explosives."
Orochimaru threw out an explosive and pressed the detonator in his hand. With a boom, the explosive detonated, creating a small pit in the ground. Its power was even less than that of an exploding tag.
"And this is the explosive that the Laboratory Base is currently researching."
Orochimaru held an explosive in his hand and injected Chakra into it.
Uchiha Madara tugged at his hood, observing with his Sharingan. He saw the Chakra merge into the explosive, and then saw the woman forcefully throw the explosive out.
Boom—!
The violent impact forced Uchiha Madara to press his robe with one hand and tug at his hood with the other, looking at the explosive, whose power had increased several times over, with a look of horror.
"And this is Chakra explosives, an explosive with greater power and lethality than exploding tags."
Orochimaru turned around, spread his hands, and said, "For the same amount of explosives, Chakra explosives are obviously more powerful, but ordinary explosives can also be used by ordinary people who are not Ninja."
"Is the purpose of your research into explosives for war?"
Uchiha Madara stared at the woman named "Mi," "And this is merely the 'prototype' of 'hot weapons' as you called it."
"Old man, your thinking is too outdated!"
Orochimaru looked at Uchiha Madara with disdain, saying that ultimately, he was nothing more than an old relic who couldn't keep up with the times.
"Old man? Outdated?"
Madara Uchiha was slightly stunned, and that look of disdain deeply stimulated him.
"The purpose of weapons is not only for war, but also to prevent war from happening."
"Are you joking?"
Madara Uchiha didn't believe that weapons could prevent war. The wars he had experienced were far beyond what this junior could comprehend.
"Your vision limits your thinking, and your thinking limits your vision."
Orochimaru almost pointed at Madara Uchiha and said that he had a problem with his brain, otherwise he wouldn't believe that Infinite Tsukuyomi could bring true peace.
"Are you insulting me?"
Madara Uchiha felt that she was scolding him.
"How could that be? Am I that bored?"
Orochimaru held up a finger and asked, "Suppose, and I mean suppose, you want to attack a country, and that country possesses a weapon you can't deal with. What would you do?"
"Find a way to make that weapon disappear."
Madara Uchiha thought for a moment and said, and after giving his answer, he himself was stunned.
"Before you can disarm that country, you wouldn't dare to attack rashly, and that is the purpose of weapons. Before you find a way to make that weapon disappear, I will develop new weapons using Chakra Explosives. As long as you can't deal with my weapons, you won't dare to attack my country, and my country will be at peace."
Orochimaru paused here, then continued, "When weapons were first created, they had no inherent meaning. It is the people who use them that give them different meanings."
"That's just peace between nations; the weapons you develop are useless for true world peace."
Madara Uchiha desired world peace, and the only means to achieve it was Infinite Tsukuyomi; he firmly believed in this.
"Then what contribution have you made to world peace?"
Orochimaru couldn't hold back when she heard Madara Uchiha's outrageous statement, daring to belittle her research achievements like that!
Even if you are Madara Uchiha, it's unacceptable!
"Hmph!"
Madara Uchiha disdained to argue with a woman, and his figure vanished from the spot.
"In the end, you're just a garrulous old man! An immortal old geezer!"
Orochimaru didn't expect Madara Uchiha to leave directly, and angrily flipped him off in the direction he had left.
If she ever gets the chance in the future, she'll definitely give him a hard time!
Stop scolding, stop scolding, I beg you, please stop scolding!
What if he turns around and comes back?
Black Zetsu's mental state was about to collapse. He was really worried that Madara Uchiha would return and fight with this woman named Orochimaru. What if he suddenly died?
To resurrect his mother, he was truly heartbroken.
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