Of Course, Madara Too

The Land of Iron, a permanently neutral nation, lay in the north of the continent. It was a coastal peninsular country.

To the due west, across the sea, lay the Land of Earth; to the southwest was the Land of the Waterfall. To the due east, across the sea, lay the Land of Lightning; to the southeast was the Land of Rice Fields. In The Original Timeline, Orochimaru would establish Sound Village in this country.

In this era where ninja flourished, this land of samurai still upheld its ancient traditions and rarely took part in the conflicts of the ninja world.

But that did not mean the country was truly cut off from the world. A man capable of influencing the history of the ninja world was currently living in seclusion at Mountain Graveyard in the northern region of the Land of Iron.

Uchiha Madara.

Now, in the fortieth year of Konohagakure, this man who had once shaken the ninja world was already nearing seventy, his age Fully Displayed.

Yet he was still in fairly good spirits, sitting alone amid a cluster of dilapidated gravestones that had long been abandoned, leaning on his scythe.

Do not misunderstand. None of his relatives or friends were buried here. He had simply come up here out of boredom to get some fresh air and enjoy however much time this body had left.

Yes, Madara had already devised his future plans during this period. All that remained was finding a suitable successor to inherit his will.

Unfortunately, he had never found one. Not a single Uchiha Clan Member who appeared on the battlefield had caught his eye.

Suddenly, Madara, who looked half-asleep, twitched his eyelids and slowly raised his head, staring at the ground ahead.

"Madara-sama, I found something interesting."

"Shut up, White Zetsu. What you find interesting is completely different from what normal humans consider interesting. But I cannot blame you. After all, you are just Hashirama's inferior copy. It is only natural that there is something wrong with your brain..."

Hashirama's brain had plenty wrong with it already. White Zetsu's problem was even worse—it had no brain at all. In that sense, it was an unconventional inheritance.

White Zetsu grinned. "The White Zetsus in the Land of Rain discovered an intruder. Their secret technique is very interesting."

"Who?" Madara asked in a low voice.

"Kaedeji of Konohagakure. He can control many corpses and make them serve him, and those corpses can even use the ninjutsu they had in life! They are looking for something—perhaps they are looking for Nagato." White Zetsu was delighted to stir up trouble.

Madara was used to White Zetsu's mindlessness and did not get angry. He merely revealed an indifferent expression.

"Controlling corpses? What kind of third-rate ninjutsu is that? I have never even heard of it. Since it is a technique for manipulating corpses, its user is probably nothing worth mentioning. Otherwise, there would be no need to use corpses to assist him."

Madara thought of Impure World Reincarnation. It appeared somewhat similar to Tobirama's Impure World Reincarnation, both being highly distinctive forbidden techniques.

But compared to that, Tobirama annoyed him Even More.

"Madara-sama, are you not worried? You look like you could die at any moment. What if that Kaedeji picks up your corpse? That would be quite the spectacle. The people of Konohagakure would probably be overjoyed."

White Zetsu exaggerated, "What kind of scene would it be if Kaedeji used your body and employed many of your powerful ninjutsu? That is truly terrifying."

"If you say another foolish word, I will kill you. In any case, I can create things like you whenever I wish."

Madara finally became A Bit interested, though only a bit.

Among all the resurrection techniques in the ninja world, none were worth mentioning except his Rinnegan ocular technique, Outer Path - Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique.

Whether Impure World Reincarnation or this corpse-controlling technique, they likely merely made use of the dead. That was entirely different from resurrecting the dead.

"Tobirama's Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu is not worth mentioning. It has too many flaws. The Reanimated Ninja it summons back to this world are laughably weak, unable to display even one-tenth of their strength in life."

Madara believed Kaedeji's technique was probably the same. Someone who toyed with corpses clearly lacked ability himself and had no choice but to rely on external forces.

"Not really. At Least, they can display most of the strength they had in life. It is related to how fresh the corpses are."

"Hmph. Then it is still equally worthless. You call it most, but I Fear the stronger the corpse was in life, the lower the proportion of its strength he can bring out after obtaining it."

A red gleam flashed through Madara's lone eye as three tomoe slowly rotated. "Then, White Zetsu, I leave that person To You. Do not let the puppets under his control approach Nagato. Nagato must be given a good environment to grow up in."

Jiraiya was, at least, a passable ninja. He was a decent passerby on Nagato's natural path of growth, so Madara would not interfere too much in that regard.

White Zetsu chuckled as its body slowly merged into the ground. It swiftly headed south into the Land of Rain, gathering the White Zetsus scattered throughout the country and preparing to intercept Kaedeji.

"No, perhaps it should be called extermination? So complicated. Whatever, just kill them all."

White Zetsu locked onto Kaedeji's location.

Kaedeji found an abandoned house and stood beneath its eaves, quietly listening to the crackling roar of the heavy rain, enjoying the rare tranquility.

Behind him, three Root ninja were taking the opportunity to rest and recover, while remaining vigilant of their surroundings.

"Relax. In this environment, unless an enemy sneaks right up to you, it will be difficult for you to notice anything since you are not Sensor Ninja," Kaedeji said.

"But you are a Sensor Ninja. We must ensure that when you give an order, we can act immediately." Komatsu Fuji still did not relax, cautiously scanning the surroundings.

As far as the eye could see, the world seemed to have turned into a flooded marshland. Dense raindrops obstructed their vision and muffled all sounds.

Honestly, when Kaedeji heard Komatsu Fuji call him a Sensor Ninja, he had felt a brief urge to laugh.

Any ninja capable of determining an enemy's location was considered a Sensor Ninja. Inuzuka Clan Members, with their keen noses and canine partners, were all Sensor Ninja as well.

There was even less need to mention the Hyūga Clan.

"The Hyūga Clan is truly blessed by nature when it comes to sensing in this kind of environment. The Byakugan has long-range vision." Kaedeji sincerely felt that those eyes were incredibly useful.

No Wonder every ninja village coveted the Byakugan, while they were not nearly as enthusiastic about the Sharingan.

Still, there were occasionally cases of the Sharingan evolving into the Mangekyō Sharingan, and there was currently one case of the Eternal Mangekyō evolving into the Rinnegan. Yet cases of the Byakugan evolving into the Tenseigan were exceedingly rare; At Least, there were none in the ninja world.

The group of four spoke no more and waited patiently.

Until Kaedeji spoke again.

"I have roughly determined Jiraiya-sama's location."

The three Root ninja rose to their feet, preparing to move out with Kaedeji.

"Roughly?"

"Yes. It is not that my servants cannot do it, but that they have been stopped by several strange things." An interested expression appeared on Kaedeji's face.

So it was indeed like this. The key to this mission of finding someone was not finding Jiraiya, but how to get close to Jiraiya—getting close to Jiraiya meant getting close to the still-weak Nagato.

White Zetsu had moved. That meant Uchiha Madara had turned his gaze here. No, it should be said that Uchiha Madara had always been closely monitoring Nagato.

Are they afraid that someone like me, who toys with corpses, will approach Nagato... afraid I will Take The Opportunity to kill Nagato and take his corpse?