Seeing the memorial tablets of his parents topple over, even crashing onto the ground under the pressure of Madara Uchiha's suddenly surging chakra, young Sasuke's Mangekyō Sharingan snapped open as he glared hard.
"This is the Uchiha shrine! What right do you have to lose your temper here, you criminal who got used by others and caused every disaster that came after?!"
In his entire life, aside from his father, Tajima Uchiha, no one had ever dared speak to Madara like that. He froze for a heartbeat.
How was he supposed to know that, even if he was an Uchiha progenitor, in Sasuke's eyes the two of them were both Indra's reincarnations? Who was supposed to be "greater" than who?
And besides…
Indra himself was right here, and he wasn't any more willing to put up with Madara Uchiha.
A mere reincarnation, one of his own descendants, throwing his weight around in front of the ancestor? How the hell was that acceptable? If Indra could tolerate that, he wouldn't have kept reincarnating, locked in an endless, deathless tangle with Ashura for lifetime after lifetime.
A bright purple Susanoo arm formed beside Indra's shoulder, pressing down on Madara Uchiha's dark blue Susanoo.
Luckily, neither of them had brought out a Complete Body Susanoo, or the Uchiha shrine wouldn't just fail to withstand it. If they really fought, even Konoha wouldn't be big enough to serve as their battlefield.
This turn of events blindsided everyone.
None of them had expected that one of the tasks tied to an SSS-rank mission would be reviving this legendary shinobi.
And taking Madara to the missing-nin lodging was out of the question. Even Kakashi's old family home, plus the newly built houses, wouldn't survive the damage.
"What if we go to my Kamui space?"
Young Obito spoke up. "It's pretty similar to here. Even if it gets wrecked, it'll restore itself quickly the way I want."
"Huh?! It can do that?!" adult Obito blurted out.
He'd been to young Obito Uchiha's Kamui space a few times. It was Konoha from his memories, the Konoha from before the Nine-Tails incident.
But thinking about it, it made sense. Once Kakashi realized how useful Kamui space was, that bastard started shoving anything and everything into it. Sometimes it was even explosive tags that were already going off.
It was just that his own Kamui space was nothing but emptiness, so he'd never cared whether anything "restored" or not.
Of course, Pain and Madara Uchiha weren't about to enter Obito Uchiha's Kamui space. Once they were in there, if they didn't have Obito Uchiha's eye, getting back out would be impossible.
In the end, after weighing their options, it was the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze and Tobirama Senju who used the Flying Thunder God Technique to bring everyone to a remote, uninhabited region in the Land of Fire.
The moment they arrived, the Uchiha stopped holding back.
Madara Uchiha's dark blue Complete Body Susanoo!
Indra's purple Complete Body Susanoo!
And Obito Uchiha and Kakashi's first attempt at opening a two-man Susanoo mode hit perfectly on the first try. Their pale blue Complete Body Susanoo didn't lose to Madara Uchiha or Indra's at all. Even just in color, it resembled Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki's Susanoo, the Sage of the Six Paths, more than a little.
Ōtsutsuki Obito stayed a spectator the entire time, never using his own Susanoo or shifting into an Ōtsutsuki form.
A three-way standoff.
Three Susanoo stood proudly, towering like they could look down on the entire Konoha shinobi village.
This really was heading toward a straight-up brawl…
Young Obito Uchiha and young Sasuke Uchiha watched with blood boiling, but unfortunately, neither of them could use Susanoo yet. They were simply too young, their chakra reserves too limited. At the very least, they'd need another three or four years.
They couldn't, but Hashirama Senju wasn't about to be outdone either. He went straight for the big move.
Wood Release: Wood Human Technique came forth, and its form stood beside the three Susanoo, carrying everyone with it.
"Madara! Listen to me! The Eye of the Moon Plan isn't as wonderful as you think! It was Black Zetsu's way of using you!"
"Black Zetsu is my will. Your methods are too slow, Hashirama. I'll show you the path I've chosen."
Hashirama Senju scratched his head. Madara was his closest friend, but this wasn't like when they were kids. He'd changed, and Hashirama no longer knew how to talk to the Madara in front of him.
After speaking to Hashirama Senju, Madara Uchiha stopped paying him any attention and turned his gaze to Pain instead.
After thinking for a moment, Madara had already pieced together what had happened.
"You're a puppet controlled by Nagato through the Rinnegan," he said with absolute certainty. "Were you the one who revived me?"
Pain, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke. "No."
With just those two words, disgust flooded Madara Uchiha's expression.
"The voice of this puppet is truly unpleasant."
Tobirama Senju: "..."
After Madara Uchiha and Tobirama Senju finished repulsing each other, Minato Namikaze stepped in, breaking into a cold sweat as he patiently explained things to the legendary shinobi.
"I believe the current situation goes beyond what you might imagine. What revived you wasn't the Rinnegan, but something called a 'mission scroll' that suddenly appeared in our parallel world."
"Mission scroll? Parallel world?"
The idea of a mission scroll was still manageable.
But the concept of a parallel world left a ninja born in the Warring States era at a complete loss.
"Hmph, you probably can't make sense of any of this anyway." Tobirama Senju finally seized the chance to mock Madara Uchiha. "Unlike the relationship between the living world and the Pure Land, parallel worlds differ in that the same people exist, but because of differences in thought, personality, and the choices they make when facing destiny, they ultimately arrive at different outcomes or paths of development. Two such worlds are called parallel worlds."
"Tobirama!" Hashirama scolded his younger brother unhappily. "Didn't I tell you to be a little more tactful when you speak? Besides, I don't think Madara would understand this stuff anyway!"
"Big brother! I'm just stating the facts. And you're seriously underestimating Madara Uchiha. He's not as stupid as you think. He should be able to understand!"
"But if Madara were really that smart, he wouldn't have been tricked by Black Zetsu!" The God of Shinobi, who firmly believed Madara was gentle, kind, and innocent to the point of being naïve, said this without the slightest doubt.
The Second Hokage nearly wanted to kneel.
"He was deceived because he's an Uchiha! As long as they have the Sharingan, when their emotions take a hit, which one of them doesn't become extreme? But that doesn't mean they're too stupid to understand something like parallel worlds!"
Minato Namikaze felt like grabbing both Hokage by the shoulders and forcing them to stop.
Just look at the expressions on the Uchiha around them.
And then there was the Second Hokage, who claimed to hate Madara Uchiha the most. Yet, in a certain sense, compared to the First Hokage, who kept unintentionally stabbing Madara in the back over and over again, the Second Hokage-sama was…
Well, it was hard to describe.
Not smart enough. Easily deceived. Unable to handle setbacks.
With one heavy label after another being dumped onto him by the Senju brothers, Madara Uchiha finally snapped.
"Hashirama! Senju!! Are you looking for death?!"
"Ah! Sorry! I didn't mean to make you angry…"
That dejected look made it hard for everyone present to keep watching.
"A-anyway," Minato Namikaze quickly stepped between the 'God of Shinobi' and the 'Legendary Shinobi.' "I think it's best if we start by introducing everyone."
Madara Uchiha wasn't completely unfamiliar with this blond young man. After all, when he turned around earlier, he had already seen those bold red characters emblazoned across his back.
—Fourth Hokage.
Minato turned around and pointed at the Hokage robe draped over his shoulders.
"I am Minato Namikaze, currently serving as the Fourth Hokage."
So it really was the Yellow Flash of the Third Shinobi World War.
If it was this man, then taking over from Hiruzen Sarutobi as Fourth Hokage after the war ended was only natural.
Minato proceeded to introduce everyone present to Madara Uchiha one by one.
"This is Obito, someone you know. He was my student. I am truly grateful that you saved him back then, but because of you, he suffered greatly. And because of that, my son and I were separated for twelve long years."
In contrast to adult Obito's subdued demeanor, Madara Uchiha's expression remained as arrogant and overbearing as ever, an infuriating sight.
"And this Obito," Minato continued, turning to young Obito, "is the Obito who crossed into our parallel world through the Mission Scroll. He came here together with another version of me, Kakashi, and Rin from another world, after being pulled out of the Kannabi mission."
Madara Uchiha narrowed his eyes slightly. He understood what a parallel world meant.
That kind of power was something even his Rinnegan could not accomplish.
Just what was the origin of that scroll, to be able to do something like this?
Next, the Fourth Hokage introduced the masked, white-haired ANBU member.
"He is Obito Uchiha from an even more unusual parallel world. Because he obtained a power of ancestral reversion, he, like you, possesses his own Rinnegan and can move freely between parallel worlds."
Obito Uchiha?!
This revelation genuinely surprised Madara Uchiha.
From the moment that ANBU had been standing there, Madara could tell that the power within him was unfathomable. Unlike himself or Hashirama, this man was wrapped in mystery.
"Take off your mask," he ordered.
He needed to see with his own eyes that this person truly was Obito Uchiha.
Ōtsutsuki Obito didn't mind at all. He removed the mask and deliberately displayed his Rinnegan for Madara Uchiha to see.
Those pale lavender eyes were indeed not his own.
"I already know about Nagato," Madara Uchiha said, shifting his gaze toward Sasuke Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha. His eyes lingered on Sasuke for a brief moment, while Itachi's hairstyle stirred a trace of old memories. "These two are descendants of the Uchiha. I can tell. Skip them."
What puzzled Madara Uchiha the most was the brown-haired man standing off to the side. For some reason, Madara felt an instinctive sense of dislike toward him.
"Who is he?"
Faced with Madara Uchiha's attitude, Indra felt even more displeased.
Just a mere descendant. What gave him the right to be so arrogant?