Uchiha Madara sat upon his throne, quietly resting with his eyes closed.
He used this method to reduce his activity, reduce the chakra and vitality he drew from the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, and lessen the burden on Nagato.
Sitting motionless was an even more painful punishment than imprisonment, but Uchiha Madara could only endure it bitterly.
Everything was for the Infinite Tsukuyomi Plan.
He had to hold on until the executor was born.
"Madara-sama."
Black Zetsu carefully awakened Uchiha Madara and handed over a sheet of white paper.
Madara's eyes opened slightly. The crimson glow of the Sharingan was as sharp as a blade.
All the negative emotions born from sitting motionless turned into a knife-like gaze that stabbed viciously into Black Zetsu's eyes.
Black Zetsu instantly fell into unbearable pain. His entire body turned into a sheet of darkness, collapsing onto the ground as it twisted and struggled.
Only the hand holding the paper retained its original shape.
But judging from the way it trembled violently, it was clearly barely holding on.
After venting a little emotion, Uchiha Madara regained his reason.
Expressionless, he reached out, took the paper, and read it carefully word by word.
A long time passed.
Black Zetsu finally escaped the spiritual pain and returned to human form. He stood obediently behind Uchiha Madara, quietly waiting for him to finish reading.
At last, Madara finished.
He exhaled and said, "You suggest adding another candidate—Uchiha Yoru."
"Yes, Madara-sama."
"I remember you mentioning this name before. I also remember that he does not meet the conditions to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan, so I removed him from the list."
"You say his strength has exceeded the normal limits of a three-tomoe Sharingan, so you want to add him back?"
"Y-yes, Madara-sama."
"Black Zetsu, have you grown a brain? You are now confident enough to overturn my decision?"
"I will immediately stop monitoring Uchiha Yoru and—"
Uchiha Madara suddenly raised his hand, stopping Black Zetsu.
He smiled and said, "Having independent judgment is good. And you are right. The three-tomoe Sharingan is both a powerful aid and a powerful limitation. It is not so easy to break through."
"Do as you think. Monitor Uchiha Yoru."
"Yes, Madara-sama."
"But remember who the priority is."
"It is Uchiha Obito. I remember very clearly, Madara-sama."
"Good. That will be all."
Uchiha Madara closed his eyes again and returned to his motionless state, slowly losing awareness of the outside world.
Black Zetsu did not dare show the slightest negligence. He bowed respectfully before quietly withdrawing.
After he left, Uchiha Madara suddenly opened his eyes.
Within the blood-red Sharingan, there was only clarity, without a trace of negative emotion.
He muttered, "It seems Black Zetsu truly is a reliable thing. Perhaps I can trust it a little more."
After silently thinking for a long time, Uchiha Madara finally decided:
"I cannot relax. Although it is a product of my soul, unless I die, I can only trust myself."
"After all, even Hashirama was unreliable. How much more so a part of myself?"
"Hashirama… the new shinobi era you created is getting worse and worse. More and more people are dying. Everything is heading in the worst possible direction."
"Heh. Now even I have changed my dream. I no longer think of unifying the shinobi world to completely eliminate war."
"I will destroy this rotten world and create a brand-new one."
"Hashirama, if you were still alive, you would still stand opposite me and try to stop me, wouldn't you…"
Uchiha Madara's voice gradually lowered.
This time, his consciousness truly sank into silence.
Black Zetsu left the underground cave and continued for dozens of miles before finally raising his head and roaring.
"Awooo—!"
"Damn Uchiha Madara! Damn him!"
"He no longer has the Rinnegan, so how can he still cause me so much pain?"
"Bastard! He is merely a mortal ninja, yet he truly treats me like a dog. I will kill him. I will definitely kill him!"
"Yes! As long as the plan goes smoothly, he will definitely become the sacrifice for Mother's release. When that time comes, I will make him understand what despair is and what true higher-level power is!"
"Uchiha Madara will definitely die in unbearable pain. Definitely!"
Like a stray wild dog, Black Zetsu used roars to vent his pain and helplessness.
He used the promise of future revenge to encourage himself, then busied himself and headed toward Konoha.
He had to follow the plan Uchiha Madara had approved and arrange surveillance on Uchiha Yoru.
Until the final moment, before turning Uchiha Madara into a sacrifice, Black Zetsu would faithfully carry out every command.
Everything was for Mother.
…
Konoha Year 44, June 9.
The fifth day after Root's destruction.
Uchiha Fugaku held a banquet at home. The reason was to celebrate his eldest son, Uchiha Itachi, turning one year old.
He invited all prominent figures within the clan, naturally including every jonin.
Compared to attending Uchiha Itachi's full-month banquet in July last year, Uchiha Yoru's position could be said to have changed drastically.
Back then, he had been a nobody in the Uchiha clan. He could only sit in a corner of the courtyard.
Fortunately, his interpersonal connections were solid. Through his little brother Uchiha Shigenobu, he enjoyed the clan head family's delicacies.
That time, he had eaten to his heart's content.
But today, Uchiha Yoru's status was completely different.
He was a jonin.
He was the founder and commander of the Tiger Unit.
He was a monster who had wiped out three thousand Kirigakure ninja in one battle.
Even if Uchiha Fugaku was extremely wary of him, the necessary etiquette and treatment could not be discounted in the slightest.
Uchiha Yoru sat steadily in the main hall.
No one knew what Uchiha Fugaku was thinking. He actually arranged Yoru's seat as the first person below the six elders, placing him in the most conspicuous position, making him the focus of the entire clan.
Perhaps Fugaku wanted to use the aristocratic rules of upper-class families to make Yoru feel ashamed of his inferiority, so that he would no longer dare compete with him.
Uchiha Yoru did not care about Fugaku's thoughts at all.
Although he was still wary of the Mangekyō Sharingan Fugaku might possess, he had already completely seen through Fugaku's extremely contradictory personality.
He was absolutely certain that as long as he did not cross Fugaku's bottom line, Fugaku would be unable to make any substantial decision.
Perhaps it was the influence of the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Uchiha Fugaku's indecisiveness could be said to be terminal, beyond saving.
Since taking the seat of Uchiha clan head, every decision Fugaku made had been pushed by others.
The Third Hokage, Uchiha Setsuna, Uchiha Shihō—each had once pushed Fugaku into making decisions beneficial to them.
Of course, Uchiha Yoru had done something similar through Uchiha Nobutada.
The Ninjutsu and Tactics Study Group, which currently had the greatest influence within the Uchiha clan, had been forcibly promoted by Uchiha Nobutada first and reported afterward.
And within Konoha, the person who influenced Uchiha Fugaku the most was the one Fugaku hated most—Shimura Danzo.
Countless times, Danzo had acted forcefully first, then borrowed the Third Hokage's name to pressure Uchiha Fugaku into accepting and acknowledging it.
Now that Shimura Danzo was dead, the happiest person was Uchiha Fugaku.
At the banquet, he repeatedly raised his cup and toasted everyone. He drank heartily and joyfully.
The Uchiha clan members were also very happy.
The clan higher-ups drank freely. Even Uchiha Setsuna, who always wore a cold face, was beaming with joy as he drank heavily.
In this cheerful atmosphere, Uchiha Yoru was the only one who did not drink.
Each time, he followed along and raised his cup, but after putting it down, he did not drink a single sip.
It was not that Yoru did not drink alcohol. He simply disliked the taste of sake.
On top of that, the banquet atmosphere was the Japanese-style hysteria he hated most, so he naturally could not raise even the slightest drinking mood. He simply did not touch a drop.
What Yoru hated most about banquets was that he could not even eat properly.
Every dish was just a tiny plate, cleared in two or three bites.
The serving maids could only repeatedly bring dishes again and again. They were annoyed, and Yoru was even more annoyed.
After Uchiha Mikoto left with Uchiha Itachi, the elders and jonin of the Uchiha clan let loose completely.
Soon, they were drunk. One by one, they held wine cups and began waving their arms and dancing.
Uchiha Yoru became even more irritated.
If leaving on the spot had not been one of Uchiha Fugaku's bottom lines, he would have slipped away long ago.
Strangely enough, Uchiha Fugaku's bottom lines were complicated and changeable.
Clan ninja being killed was not his bottom line.
But leaving his banquet without saying goodbye was his bottom line!
Yoru found it hard to understand, but that did not stop him from probing and grasping Fugaku's bottom lines.
There were only two.
Fugaku's family.
And the clan's hierarchy of seniority and status.
Unexpectedly, Uchiha Fugaku was actually an admirer of the Hyūga clan system.
Now was not the time for direct conflict.
For the sake of the younger brothers in the Study Group, and for the two elders supporting him, Uchiha Yoru could only patiently endure the noise, hunger, and irritation.
Slowly, Yoru found that he seemed to detach from the real world.
The shameless drunken dancing, the noisy singing of old men, the busy servants coming and going—everything slowly lost weight.
This feeling was wonderful, but it was not any kind of blur.
Yoru could see every detail inside the main hall and hear every syllable from the dozens of people babbling nonsense, yet everything was like a clear wind blowing over a mountain ridge. It could not affect him at all.
He felt like the moon in the night sky, calmly observing every change in the shinobi world, then casually casting it all behind him.
This should still be the state of Moonlit Night Sky, only deeper and more refined, to the point that he could maintain it even in such a noisy environment.
In the Moonlit Night Sky state, Uchiha Yoru's bodily changes accelerated.
The Five-Spirit natural energy and the Five-Release chakra circulated faster, undergoing changes he could not yet perceive for the time being.
Yoru finally sensed the next stage of the immortal path.
This new stage was brewing. It was even on the verge of emerging.
But something inside his body had a problem and was blocking the entire process of change.
Because the new stage could not tolerate the slightest flaw, his body was continuously changing to solve the problem.
Once the problem was resolved, he would naturally step into the new stage.
At last, there's a clue. I wonder whether the next stage is Golden Core, or something else.
"Uchiha Yoru! You mood-killing bastard!"
Suddenly, Uchiha Setsuna came before him and shouted, breaking Yoru's Moonlit Night Sky state and dragging him back into the noisy mortal world.
The unavoidable noise and stench of alcohol made Yoru frown.
He looked at the drunken Uchiha Setsuna and softly said one word:
"Scram."
Yoru's voice was very quiet. Even the maid beside him did not hear it.
But the sound wave was perfectly controlled by him, accurately erupting beside Uchiha Setsuna's ear bones, forming an explosive blast in both ears.
Uchiha Setsuna seemed to have taken a twin-palm strike to the ears. His eyes rolled upward, and he lost consciousness and balance, falling stiffly backward.
The Uchiha clan was worthy of being a ninja clan.
Even though Yoru had acted so discreetly, someone still noticed Setsuna's abnormality and confirmed that he had not gotten drunk, but that something had happened.
At least three Uchiha ninja reached out to support Uchiha Setsuna.
From the direction of his fall, they judged that this matter was related to Uchiha Yoru.
The three ninja glared angrily at Yoru.
One of them even shouted furiously, "What do you think you are, daring to attack Elder Setsuna?"
Uchiha Yoru's status was lower than Uchiha Setsuna's, so when he acted, he had to conceal it.
But the Uchiha ninja who opened his mouth to scold him was only a chunin.
Even if he was a chunin from a main family, his identity and status were far beneath Yoru's.
So under everyone's eyes, a huge slap landed on the chunin's face, sending him flying high before he crashed heavily into the center of the main hall.
The wild atmosphere was cut off.
The old men singing, dancing, and forcing drinks all stopped.
Yoru immediately felt much better.
For some reason, his desire to drink suddenly came.
He picked up his cup and drained it in one gulp.
Then he gave a disgusted evaluation:
"Tch. Sake really does taste bad."
Those words seemed like a signal.
The atmosphere in the main hall instantly became tense.
Everyone obediently returned to their seats, but their gazes shifted from Uchiha Yoru to Uchiha Fugaku, waiting to see what he would say.
Only Uchiha Ryūnosuke and Uchiha Yūichirō looked at Yoru with confused gazes, as if asking:
Clearly, you were the one who said to keep a low profile and bide our time. Why did you suddenly clash with Uchiha Setsuna?
Yoru could only use his gaze to calm the elders under him, telling them not to step forward and to just watch quietly.
He naturally did not want to stand out so early.
But drinking causes trouble.
Even if it was his enemy drinking, it could still ruin things.
Uchiha Setsuna lost control while drunk. In front of the entire clan, he directly attacked Uchiha Yoru verbally. This forced both men into a position with no room to retreat.
Uchiha Setsuna might not have thought it through, but Uchiha Yoru understood it in an instant.
He absolutely could not back down.
His goal was to overthrow Uchiha Fugaku and become the next clan head of the Uchiha clan.
The first step to achieving that goal was to establish a new faction within the Uchiha clan.
Yoru understood very clearly that if he wanted his faction to stand firm, there were certain occasions where he absolutely could not show weakness.
For example, when Uchiha Setsuna personally stepped forward in front of the clan's ninja and came directly before Yoru.
This was a moment where he absolutely could not back down.
Even if it offended Uchiha Fugaku, he had to slap Setsuna back hard.
Why was Uchiha Fugaku's authority and prestige so poor?
Wasn't it because he was too cowardly in front of outsiders, causing the Uchiha clan's ninja to generally refuse to accept him?
Uchiha Fugaku sat in his seat and looked at the scene.
Out of habit, he chose the softer target and pointed his spear at Uchiha Yoru.
He questioned, "Yoru, you are too unruly. You are a junior ninja. How could you attack Elder Setsuna?"
"Do you still understand hierarchy and respect?"
Uchiha Yoru smiled faintly and retorted without hesitation, "Clan head, if you want to talk about hierarchy, then do you also want to talk about reason?"
"In your rules of hierarchy, if Elder Setsuna drunkenly bullies me to my face, am I supposed to simply endure it?"
Uchiha Fugaku felt somewhat embarrassed and developed a bit of dissatisfaction toward Uchiha Setsuna.
But he was even more dissatisfied that Uchiha Yoru dared publicly refute him.
So Fugaku said unhappily, "Elder Setsuna is indeed drunk. That means you should have yielded to him even more. Once he sobered up, he would naturally apologize to you. How could you attack directly?"
Uchiha Yoru sneered and shot back, "Clan head, you actually lie so casually. No wonder you cannot be a good Uchiha clan head."
Uchiha Fugaku was furious.
He slammed the table and stood up, angrily rebuking, "What nonsense are you saying?"
"Nonsense? Clan head, do you not know what kind of person Elder Setsuna is? He would apologize? He would only push further after getting an inch!"
Uchiha Yoru pointed at Uchiha Fugaku and said loudly, "Clan head, no matter what happens, you only ever think about smoothing things over on the surface. If you cannot smooth it over, you stand with the strong and pressure the weak into lowering their heads."
"Outside the clan, you follow Danzo and the Third Hokage to pressure your clansmen. Inside the clan, you lead the elders in bullying us younger people, helping the main families bully the branch families."
"You have never been fair, and you do not reason at all. I have disliked you for a long time!"
Uchiha Fugaku was so enraged his face twisted.
But he found that he could not refute Yoru's words at all. Furious, he slammed the table again and roared:
"You bastard!"
Uchiha Yoru did not retreat at all. He also slapped the table and roared back:
"You muddle-headed fool! What can you do to me?"
Fugaku was furious. He stood up, pointed at Uchiha Yoru, opened his mouth, and shouted:
"I will…"
He suddenly froze.
That was right.
What could he do to Uchiha Yoru?
Send Uchiha Yoru to the battlefield?
Impossible. Uchiha Fugaku and the Third Hokage had agreed to shelve Uchiha Yoru. He could not violate the Hokage's order.
Cut off Uchiha Yoru's clan benefits?
Forget it. Yoru was from a branch line. After becoming a ninja, he had no benefits left to cut.
Send Uchiha Yoru to prison?
Imprisoning him just for contradicting the clan head would be opposed by every clansman with any say.
Even if Uchiha Setsuna woke up, he would oppose it.
After all, the person who contradicted the clan head most often was Uchiha Setsuna.
Dismiss him?
Uchiha Yoru only had the title of jonin. He held no position that could be dismissed.
Confine him at home for reflection?
Although it sounded painless and meaningless, this was the only option.
Uchiha Yoru accepted the punishment.
Laughing loudly, he walked out of the main hall.
After leaving behind the words "nothing more than this," he strode away proudly.
Inside the main hall, Uchiha Fugaku was so angry he jumped and thundered.
But all he could do was rage helplessly.
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