Deep beneath the earth, where sunlight had never reached, silence ruled the vast cavern.
Ancient roots spread across the stone walls like the veins of a sleeping giant, feeding an enormous life-support system that kept a single old man alive.
Seated upon a crude stone throne, his frail body sustained by countless black chakra receivers and the power of the Demonic Statue, Uchiha Madara remained motionless with his eyes closed.
To the outside world, he was already dead.
Only a handful of beings knew the truth.
He was still here.
Still waiting.
Still planning.
Still moving the pieces of a game that had begun decades ago.
The only sound in the cave was the cheerful voice of someone who seemed completely out of place.
"Madara-sama!"
A white figure skipped across the cavern, hopping from rock to rock with exaggerated enthusiasm before landing directly in front of the ancient Uchiha.
It was White Zetsu Tobi.
"Madara-sama! Big news! Huge news!"
Madara slowly opened his eyes.
The moment he saw the grinning White Zetsu bouncing around like an excited child, a faint look of irritation crossed his aged face.
No matter how many years passed...
He simply couldn't get used to these things.
White Zetsu were living beings born from Hashirama's cells and molded through mysterious means.
Technically...
They were his creations.
Yet every time he looked at them, he felt an overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction.
Their intelligence was questionable.
Their personalities were unbearable.
Everything about them offended his standards.
Even so...
They were useful.
That alone justified their existence.
At least after countless warnings, they had finally stopped barging into his chamber every day asking ridiculous questions like...
"Madara-sama, what does it feel like to poop?"
Thinking about it still made his eyelid twitch.
If not for their usefulness, he would have destroyed half of them long ago.
Suppressing his annoyance, Madara spoke calmly.
"What is it?"
Tobi instantly became even more animated.
"It's Obito!"
"The Uchiha kid you've been watching!"
"He awakened his Sharingan!"
Madara's eyes sharpened immediately.
For the first time since Tobi entered the cave...
He showed genuine interest.
"Oh?"
His voice remained calm, but the atmosphere subtly changed.
"What happened?"
Tobi threw his arms into the air, acting out the battle as dramatically as possible.
"It happened during the fight against the Sand Ninja!"
"Obito was almost killed!"
"A Sand shinobi nearly stabbed him straight through the heart!"
"And then—boom!"
"He awakened the Sharingan!"
"And not just one tomoe!"
Tobi proudly held up two fingers inches from Madara's face.
"Two tomoe!"
"Straight to two tomoe!"
"Wahahaha! Just as expected of someone Madara-sama personally chose!"
"His talent is incredible!"
Without waiting for permission, Tobi continued rambling.
"Oh, and his teammates were there too."
"That white-haired kid... what was his name again?"
"...Ren?"
"Yeah! Ren!"
"He was surprisingly strong."
"But that doesn't matter!"
"The important thing is Obito awakened his eyes!"
"This is huge!"
Madara listened silently.
Tobi's storytelling was—as always—chaotic.
Still...
The important information was there.
Madara slowly extended one hand.
"Come here."
"I'll see it myself."
Tobi immediately stopped talking.
"Yes, Madara-sama!"
He obediently stepped closer until he stood within arm's reach.
Madara placed two fingers against Tobi's forehead.
The moment chakra flowed between them...
The recorded memories began playing before his eyes.
Like watching events unfold firsthand.
He witnessed Obito and Rin joining forces against the Sand shinobi.
He watched their desperate struggle.
He saw Obito pushed into a corner.
He witnessed the instant death approached.
Then...
The Sharingan awakened.
Twin tomoe spun within crimson eyes.
Power erupted.
Hope returned.
Madara continued watching.
Then another figure entered the battlefield.
Ren.
The white-haired boy arrived with astonishing speed.
His intervention completely changed the flow of battle.
Only after the memories ended did Madara slowly withdraw his hand.
The cave became silent once more.
"...Two tomoe."
His aged voice echoed softly.
"The Sharingan awakens when overwhelming emotions collide..."
"Love."
"Despair."
"The instinct to protect."
"Such has always been the fate of the Uchiha."
He closed his eyes briefly.
"To awaken directly with two tomoe..."
"His aptitude exceeds my expectations."
A faint smile appeared.
"It seems I chose well."
"Obito truly possesses remarkable potential."
Yet...
That smile disappeared almost immediately.
Because tremendous talent was not always an advantage.
In fact...
It complicated everything.
Long before choosing Obito, Madara had observed countless young members of the Uchiha Clan.
Many had shown promise.
Several had possessed exceptional talent.
But Obito...
Obito had something none of the others possessed.
He was kind.
Optimistic.
Stubborn.
The type who rushed headfirst toward impossible dreams while smiling.
Ironically...
Those were precisely the people most likely to fall into absolute darkness.
Madara had witnessed it countless times.
Those who lived in despair from birth adapted to suffering.
But those who experienced genuine happiness...
When they lost it...
They shattered completely.
They didn't simply become darker.
They plunged from heaven into hell.
And once they embraced hatred...
Nothing could ever pull them back.
That was exactly the kind of person Madara needed.
A man capable of carrying the Eye of the Moon Plan to its conclusion.
However...
Madara had hoped Obito would awaken his Sharingan much later.
Now that his talent had been revealed, Konoha would inevitably begin paying closer attention to him.
A Genin who awakened the Sharingan at such a young age was no ordinary child.
Teachers would value him.
The village would nurture him.
His comrades would admire him.
The stronger he became...
The deeper his bonds would grow.
The deeper those bonds became...
The harder it would be to break him.
Which meant...
Turning him into the perfect pawn would require even greater despair.
Still...
Madara's expression remained calm.
Difficult...
Did not mean impossible.
If someone climbed higher...
Then the fall simply became more devastating.
A person who lost everything after experiencing genuine happiness generated hatred far greater than someone who had never known hope at all.
In the end...
The result might even surpass his original expectations.
After several moments of thought, Madara finally spoke again.
"That girl..."
"Her name is Rin Nohara."
Tobi nodded enthusiastically.
"That's right!"
"I remember seeing reports about her before!"
Madara's gaze narrowed.
"And the white-haired boy?"
"Do we know anything more?"
Tobi scratched the back of his head.
"Not really."
"We only know he's a civilian."
"His name's Ren."
"He's saved Obito a couple of times before."
He tilted his head.
"Madara-sama..."
"Is he really that important?"
"He just seems like a kid who's good at fighting."
Madara let out a quiet snort.
"You underestimate him."
His crimson eyes became cold.
"His reactions."
"His movement."
"His combat awareness."
"His taijutsu foundation."
"None of those belong to an ordinary Genin."
"And..."
Madara paused briefly.
"...the Body Flicker he used."
"There were traces of another man's technique hidden within it."
Tobi blinked.
"Huh?"
"Who?"
Madara's expression darkened.
"...Tobirama."
He spoke the name as though it tasted bitter.
Even after all these years...
His hatred for Tobirama Senju had never faded.
Madara despised almost everything associated with the Second Hokage.
Especially his techniques.
Yet...
He wasn't arrogant enough to deny reality.
"The Flying Thunder God Technique..."
"...is an extraordinary creation."
"The current generation's Minato Namikaze has pushed it even further."
"His mastery has already surpassed Tobirama's."
Madara remembered reports of Minato's battlefield exploits.
The young Yellow Flash had transformed an already fearsome technique into something even more terrifying.
A shinobi capable of appearing anywhere in an instant...
A nightmare for every enemy.
His gaze returned to Ren.
"This boy..."
"He has begun walking a similar path."
Perhaps not the Flying Thunder God itself.
But his Body Flicker...
Already carried faint traces of that philosophy.
Speed.
Precision.
Perfect timing.
That alone was enough to warrant attention.
After a brief silence, Madara continued.
"Rin is the embodiment of Obito's love."
"The key to awakening his hatred."
"She remains the most important piece."
He paused.
"But..."
"This white-haired boy may occupy another important place in Obito's heart."
"He is a variable."
"A piece that does not belong on my board."
"And variables..."
"...must be observed."
Tobi immediately straightened.
"So what should I do?"
Madara's voice grew colder.
"From this moment onward..."
"Raise surveillance on Uchiha Obito to the highest level."
"I want every movement recorded."
"Every mission."
"Every conversation."
"Every interaction with Rin."
"Every interaction with Ren."
"And every significant contact inside Konoha."
"I want to know all of it."
Tobi pounded his chest proudly.
"Leave it to me!"
"I'll have every clone watching him!"
Madara slowly shook his head.
"Not every clone."
"The Uchiha Clan inside Konoha still requires observation."
"So do Amegakure..."
"...and Kirigakure."
"Withdraw part of our network from the Land of Earth."
"We have greater priorities now."
"Yes!"
Tobi nodded repeatedly.
"I understand!"
Madara wasn't finished.
"I also want a complete investigation into Ren."
"His combat ability."
"His ninjutsu."
"His background."
"His standing inside Konoha."
"And..."
He paused.
"...his exact relationship with Minato Namikaze."
"With Obito."
"And with Rin."
"No detail is insignificant."
Tobi saluted dramatically.
"Mission accepted!"
Without another word, he disappeared into the darkness, his cheerful laughter gradually fading into the endless tunnels beneath the earth.
Silence returned.
Madara remained alone.
His fingers rhythmically tapped against the armrest of his stone throne.
Each tap resembled another move in an invisible game of shogi stretching across the entire shinobi world.
Kings.
Generals.
Pawns.
Heroes.
Villains.
To him...
They were all merely pieces.
Even he himself.
Everything existed to fulfill a single purpose.
A single dream.
A world without endless war.
A world without meaningless suffering.
A world where no child would ever lose someone precious again.
Slowly...
Madara lifted his head toward the darkness overhead.
There was nothing there.
Only endless stone.
Yet his gaze seemed to pierce the earth itself, reaching someone who had been gone for decades.
A quiet smile appeared on his weathered face.
"Hashirama..."
His voice echoed softly through the cavern.
"Just wait."
"I will prove that my dream was always the correct one."
"The world you believed in will disappear..."
"...and the world I envisioned will finally become reality."
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