Uchiha Katsu stood in front of Mu, his Mangekyo Sharingan slowly turning as he completely imprinted the last trace of his spiritual mark deep into the other's consciousness.
Mu's eyes gradually became empty, then returned to their surface clarity.
But beneath that clarity, there was no longer any will of his own.
"From now on, every decision you make will be made by me.", Katsu spoke in a low voice.
Mu slowly nodded.
"Yes."
Uchiha Katsu said nothing more.
He turned and left the laboratory, his figure once again disappearing into the night.
From this moment on, the Second Tsuchikage of Iwagakure would continue to walk through this world "normally" under his manipulation from behind the scenes.
Everything appeared fine on the surface.
———
[Konoha]
In a secret room late at night, candlelight flickered.
Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara sat facing each other, but the air was filled with a suppressed sense of hostility.
"Madara, what the village needs is unity, not you having the final say in everything!"
"We agreed on this. We would build Konoha together and make sure the children no longer died on the battlefield. But look at you now. You treat all the other ninja clans as potential enemies, and you use your pressure to force people around whenever you feel like it. Today it's the envoy from Iwagakure. What about tomorrow? Who will it be?"
Hashirama's voice carried restrained anger. Both hands were braced against the table, his knuckles slightly white.
Madara leaned against the back of his chair, arms folded across his chest, his Sharingan shining with a cold light in the dim room.
"Unity?"
He let out a cold laugh, his tone full of disdain.
"Hashirama, you're too naive. Once those people from other villages discover that Konoha can be taken advantage of, they'll immediately rush over and take a bite."
"The peace I believe in can only exist if the entire shinobi world is unified, so there will be no other outside enemies."
"I'm not targeting any particular person. I'm protecting this village, while you only know how to use that weak 'peace' of yours to push Konoha into a pit of fire."
Uchiha Madara calmly stated his understanding.
In his eyes, they had only unified the territory within the Land of Fire. They had not unified the shinobi world.
"Weak? You treat everyone as someone who must be suppressed. You're the real danger!"
"The village was established to end war, not to let you continue ruling through the methods of war!"
"Madara, you've changed.", Senju Hashirama said.
Madara also slowly stood up, and the distance between them instantly closed.
Madara suddenly gave a faint smile.
The laugh was very soft, yet it made the already tense atmosphere in the secret room pause for a moment.
"Forget it."
"I've already found a new path to peace."
Uchiha Madara straightened, his tone carrying an almost relieved calm.
"What?"
Hashirama was stunned and blurted it out instinctively.
Madara glanced at him. He did not explain immediately, only raising a hand in indication.
"Come with me."
The two walked one after the other through the concealed door behind the secret room and proceeded along a narrow, lengthy underground passage.
Their footsteps echoed between the stone walls, while the air was filled with the stale smell of earth.
No one knew how long they walked before a faint light finally appeared ahead.
They arrived at a hidden stone chamber.
At the center of the chamber stood a huge stone tablet. Its surface was covered in ancient writing and patterns, appearing mysterious under the dim light.
Madara walked up to the stone tablet and gently brushed his hand over its markings, his voice low, "This is the stone tablet passed down through the Uchiha clan."
"It records the... salvation plan left behind by the Sage of Six Paths."
Hashirama walked a few steps closer, his gaze falling on the writing he could not quite understand, his brows slightly furrowed.
Madara continued, "As long as the powers of the Senju and Uchiha are united as one, we can obtain all-encompassing power."
"True peace does not depend on verbal agreements, nor on alliances between a few villages. It means fundamentally changing the way this world operates."
"If the world remains in this state, it will only repeat itself over and over. War will continue."
As Hashirama listened, the confusion on his face deepened.
He vaguely remembered that Madara seemed to have said something similar before.
Only back then, he had understood "the powers of the Senju and Uchiha becoming one" as the two clans joining forces to protect the village together, thereby bringing about lasting peace.
But from Madara's tone now, that clearly was not what he meant.
"Madara..." Hashirama tried to speak. "What exactly do you mean by 'becoming one'?"
Madara did not answer directly. He simply turned around and looked at him.
The two stared each other down in front of the stone tablet for a moment.
In the end, Hashirama slowly shook his head.
"I don't understand what you're talking about. But no matter what, I won't agree to any 'peace' that comes at the cost of innocent lives."
Madara's eyes gradually turned cold.
"...As expected."
He withdrew his gaze, his voice no longer carrying the slightest warmth.
"There is no need for us to talk anymore."
Hashirama still wanted to say something, but Madara had already turned and left the stone chamber.
The hidden passage was once again left with only Hashirama and the silent stone tablet.
———
[A Few Days Later]
[At The Entrance Of Konoha]
The morning light was faint, and the thin mist had yet to completely disperse.
Uchiha Madara stood there alone, a simple pack of belongings behind him.
The wind passed through his robes, making them rustle softly.
He did not look back at the village.
He simply stood there quietly, as if waiting for something, or as if he had already made some kind of decision.
Madara stood at the village entrance, the morning wind blowing through his robes.
He let out a faint sigh, his voice so light that it was almost scattered by the wind. "That day... not a single clan member was willing to follow me."
After saying that, he lifted his foot, preparing to leave this village he had personally helped establish for good.
Just then...
A clear yet slightly childish voice belonging to a young boy suddenly came from behind him.
"Lord Madara, may I follow you?"
Madara's footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
He slowly turned around.
In the morning light, a boy of about eleven or twelve stood some distance away.
The boy wore ordinary Uchiha clan clothing, with black hair and black eyes. His face still carried the youthful innocence appropriate to his age, yet he looked at him with a determined gaze.
Uchiha Akira.
Madara was slightly stunned.
He truly had not expected that someone would step forward at this time.
All this time, he had believed that the Uchiha clan had already been completely assimilated into Konoha, their resolve softened by Hashirama's talk of "peace."
The clan members had silently watched him leave. No one stopped him, and no one followed him. He had thought that he had been completely abandoned.
Yet the boy before him had broken that expectation.
Madara quickly concealed the slight stir in his eyes and once again put on his usual indifferent expression.
"Why?"
His voice was not loud, carrying clear scrutiny and rejection.
"Are you pitying me?"
"If you're pitying me, there's no need."
Though his words were cold, he did not take another step forward.
He simply stood where he was, his gaze resting on Uchiha Akira, as if waiting for an answer.
The wind continued to blow.
The boy's clothes fluttered slightly, while Madara's figure remained in the morning light at the village entrance.