From the moment Naruto was pierced by the blade, the battle entered garbage time.
Madara suppressed his killing intent toward Shin and watched coldly.
Naruto's injury caused Kurama's Chakra Mode to dissipate! The fox head protecting Sarada scattered apart, and Shin launched a follow-up attack with a sinister grin.
"Sarada!!!"
Desperate to protect his daughter, Sasuke stepped forward as a human shield, and his back was solidly pierced by a Shuriken!
Grimacing in pain, he exclaimed in shock, "This... my mobility has been!!"
Light gleamed from Shin's right eye as he mocked, "Peace prevents humanity from evolving further. You embody that perfectly!"
"And stopping evolution will inevitably lead to destruction..."
"Boom!" Sakura Haruno, who had chased them from Konoha, descended from above and slammed a heavy punch into Shin's chest. "Look what you've done to someone's husband and beloved daughter!! You bastard!"
"Arghhh...!!" Shin screamed as he flew backward. That punch had ruptured his internal organs!
Chen said, "Sakura Haruno—you should have seen her too. She is Sasuke's wife now."
Madara's gaze did not stir in the slightest. A supporting character's moment of glory could not make up for the protagonist's incompetence. Besides... that kind of conventional attack did not count as much of a highlight in Madara's eyes.
Sakura's forceful entrance directly turned the tide of the battle.
Naruto pulled the blade from his abdomen and summoned Kurama's Chakra. As he repaired the puncture wound, two Golden Chakra Arms emerged and firmly seized Shin and his Clone!
Sasuke also pulled the Kunai from his back and began exchanging the long-overdue nagging of a married couple with Sakura.
The ease in his manner showed that he had already thoroughly grasped Shin's eye technique.
Everything was rebounding from rock bottom and heading in a better direction.
But it was already too late. No matter how many valid reasons they had to excuse their earlier blunder, no matter how they tried to reclaim their moments of glory in the coming battle—
Nothing could make up for the fatal, elementary mistake they had made, nor restore their standing in Madara's eyes.
They could still be alive after making such a low-level mistake only because their opponent was too pathetic!
If it had been Madara, they would have died ten times over!
Madara said with disappointment, "Those two's battle instincts have deteriorated to an unbearable degree. Thirty should be the beginning of a ninja's prime, yet they left their prime in their youth and slid all the way to the bottom."
"That Shin may be trash, but one thing he said made sense... peace hinders human evolution."
"And stopping evolution will inevitably lead to destruction."
A White One-Eyed Monster suddenly descended beside Shin. Its eye released a black vortex, sucking in Shin, his Clone children, and Sakura Haruno all at once!
Naruto and Sasuke cried out, "Space-Time Ninjutsu!!?"
Chen turned to ask Madara's opinion. "Do you still want to keep watching?"
Next, the following events would unfold like falling dominoes.
In Shin's main base, surrounded by a group of Clones, Sakura would use Medical Ninjutsu to treat Shin's injuries.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sarada would then head to Orochimaru's base to ask about Shin, because Shin had once been one of Orochimaru's test subjects.
Afterward, Sasuke's Rinnegan would recover the ocular power depleted by exploring the Different Dimension. He would activate the Complete Body Susanoo and charge into Shin's lair.
Shin would ultimately be betrayed by his own Clone children and meet a bleak end.
Madara said, "No need. I've already eaten that rotten leaf once. I have no desire to chew it again."
Chen said, "It seems you now believe that what I showed you was an unquestionable future without my interference."
Madara glanced sideways at him, studying Chen's profile. "I have a question. Have you never tried telling Naruto and Sasuke about the 'future'? You said you wanted to find like-minded companions. As heroes who ended the Ninja World War, those two would be ideal candidates, wouldn't they?"
Chen shook his head, revealing a helpless smile.
Watching Naruto walk away with Sasuke and Sarada, he said, "How many times do you think I've tried to communicate with them over the years? I've already lowered my stance as much as possible, but in the end, I couldn't even meet Lord Hokage openly and properly."
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Madara said, "But you could have used tougher methods, couldn't you?"
"Perhaps."
Chen recalled Shikamaru's so-called "test" of him in Konoha's reception room three years ago.
"Your words and actions are far too suspicious. From the standpoint of a Konoha Hokage Advisor, I simply cannot believe what you say."
"If you wish to prove yourself, then follow Konoha's procedures. First seal your Chakra, then spend some time in Konoha's Detention Room. After that, the Yamanaka Clan will verify whether what you said is true!"
Shikamaru Nara, I can probably guess why you said that... but unfortunately, I, Uchiha Chen, am not so low as to kneel and grovel before Konoha!
Any healthy mutual assistance between people must be founded on respect.
I can lower my stance and show my sincerity, but that does not mean you can push your luck.
That was how Chen answered Madara.
"Prejudice in people's hearts is like a mountain. What experience teaches is always more profound than what people teach. Naruto and Sasuke need reality to teach them a brutal lesson before they can fundamentally reflect on why the ninja world has regressed."
"It is by no means caused by peace alone. At its root, it is a problem with the 'system.'"
After a long silence.
Madara finally asked the question that concerned him most.
"Then why did you choose me? You should know that I once sought to drag the ninja world into the abyss, shouldn't you?"
"Wait a moment."
Chen lowered his head and checked his watch.
7:49 p.m.
"I reckon the time is about right. I need to retrieve that... thing first."
"Whoosh!" The black vortex spun, and Chen and Madara arrived in the shattered nest.
Large amounts of blood, Shuriken, and traces of battle remained here.
Naruto and Sasuke's battle with Shin had already come to an end, and they had just left.
Beneath the broken rocks, Chen found the remains of the white creature.
It was the vessel carrying Uchiha Shin's Space-Time Ninjutsu eye.
Because of its unusual appearance, this white creature had been nicknamed "Uchiha Boss" by Hokage fans.
During the latter half of the battle that broke out in this lair, Uchiha Boss had been smashed apart by Sarada's punch, along with the eye capable of Space-Time movement.
Madara immediately understood what Chen intended to retrieve.
"You want to use Time Reversal to restore this thing to before it was destroyed?"
He recalled the scene where Chen had used Omodaru on him before. It reversed time throughout a designated area, restoring the state of objects that had once existed within that area as well.
"But if you do that, won't the girl who destroyed that eye at close range be reversed along with it? Sasuke can use his Rinnegan, and Naruto will immediately find their way here. Are you planning to fight them here?"
Chen smiled casually. "Fighting here would be fine, but my appearance fee is very expensive. I wonder whether they can afford it~."
Oh? Madara was secretly surprised. Naruto and Sasuke were not very seasoned at the moment, but that was also because they had been out of battle for too long. If they regained their rhythm, their combat strength would still be formidable. Their state when fighting Otsutsuki Momoshiki in the illusion was a vivid example.
And Chen clearly had the confidence not to fear those two. He had hidden himself deeply indeed.
Getting back to the point, Chen said, "Omodaru's Time Reversal cannot only target spatial regions. It can also target a designated 'object' alone. It just requires one extra step: placing your hand on the target and individually rewinding its state!"
He crouched down and pressed his hand against Uchiha Boss's corpse.
"Like this!"
Before Madara's shocked eyes, crimson light trembled from Chen's right eye!
—Omodaru!
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