My Heart Is Like Fire (Please Keep Reading!!)

Graveyard of Mountains was where Uchiha Madara had built his ultimate plan to end all disputes in the Ninja World.

In fact, Uchiha Madara had quite a few similar locations, including some in neutral countries. He simply happened to be staying in Graveyard of Mountains at the moment.

Through those Wood Release puppets constantly bringing back news and materials from the outside world, Uchiha Madara's understanding of the outside world might have even surpassed Kagami Uchiha's, despite Kagami constantly honing himself within the Unseen Court.

Uchiha Madara, who had always been determined to find an heir and replacement, kept no less watch over Konoha than any other village. Naturally, he knew very well about Sosuke Aizen, who had risen to prominence so suddenly. He even knew about the series of papers Aizen had published.

After only a brief exchange, Kagami Uchiha was already filled with reverence for the senior before him, the old man who looked frail and coughed without end.

Though he had indeed betrayed the village and attacked Konoha, he had also undeniably been a powerful Ninja.

More importantly, he was Kagami's ancestor.

Although Uchiha Madara had already become both a legend and a taboo within the clan by the time Kagami was born, no one could deny his strength and splendor.

After all, he had established the name Konoha and decided everything about its earliest days. No matter what, he was one of the village's founders. That was an achievement no one could erase.

"So, Uchiha brat, you came here on Sosuke Aizen's orders, didn't you?"

Sitting cross-legged beneath the roots in a mountain cave, Uchiha Madara leaned against a massive wooden chair, panting heavily as he looked somewhat disheveledly at the hesitant Kagami Uchiha before him.

Although the aged Ninja's voice remained booming and his attitude as wild as ever, his trembling appearance made it clear that he was merely a frail old man in his twilight years. At his age, it should have been time for fallen leaves to return to their roots.

Looking at the elderly Madara coughing before him, Kagami Uchiha finally suppressed his original intentions and said quietly,

"Elder Madara, please return to Konoha and surrender."

"Surrender? Why should I?"

The white-haired old man coughed, then snapped his fingers, making Kagami Uchiha's brow twitch slightly.

But soon, the old man's arrogant, prideful voice pulled his attention back to their conversation.

"Was I wrong? Look at the Ninja World today. Look at Konoha today. Was Hashirama wrong, or was I wrong? Is the Uchiha Clan's current state Tobirama's fault, or mine? You may be Tobirama's personal guard, brat, but surely you aren't blind?"

"No, that's not it. Lord Tobirama never truly intended to target the Uchiha Clan. He merely hoped to use that attitude to encourage the Uchiha to integrate—"

"But he was wrong! Because even children know that we Uchiha don't respond to that!"

As though enraged, Uchiha Madara coughed violently, repeatedly striking the ground with his cane. Even the ground itself seemed to ripple with his anger.

Kagami Uchiha instinctively sensed that something was wrong, as if something were interfering with his judgment.

But in the next instant, Uchiha Madara's words utterly infuriated him.

"Did Tobirama not know that his words and actions would influence those beneath him?! He called the Uchiha an evil bloodline, then branded us as rebels, and now you dare say he did it for our sake?"

"We have always been excluded! From the very beginning until now! The Uchiha clan has always ranked first on Konoha's casualty lists, yet what did Tobirama say? He said it was only right! What exactly did we do to Konoha to deserve such an assessment?!"

"As Hokage, his policies may have been compromises, but his words and deeds were bound to influence every Successor! And he looked down on the Uchiha! Senju Tobirama never intended for the Uchiha to live well. He killed my brother, intensified the conflict, and now you say his intentions were good?!"

"Even if you are Uchiha Madara, I will not allow you to speak of the Second Hokage like that!"

Watching the enraged old man, Kagami Uchiha shouted in a low voice,

"I know exactly what kind of man the Second Hokage was! Though his words were unpleasant, his intentions were good. He sincerely wanted to help us integrate into Konoha!"

"But the most important thing for a leader is that his words cannot be unpleasant! His will represented the will of the Hokage. He may have thought nothing of the things he casually said as Hokage, but his disciples and comrades could not treat them as nothing! That was the root of the Uchiha Clan's tragedy! Why can't you understand?!"

"As long as everyone understood the Second Hokage's painstaking intentions, and the Uchiha Clan showed a little more tolerance, everything could have become better!"

"...Is that so? I understand now. Blaming the victim instead of confronting the source—so that is Kagami Uchiha's answer as a Ninja of Konoha."

Hearing Kagami Uchiha's answer, Madara suddenly calmed down and sneered at him.

In the next instant, space rippled.

Boom!

With a sudden thunderous blast, a translucent arm abruptly appeared out of thin air and, in the blink of an eye, smashed the unprepared Kagami Uchiha into pulp.

That ghostlike shadow came and went quickly. It seemed using it required tremendous expenditure as well. Uchiha Madara coughed in place for a long time, continuously pounding the floor with his cane. Only after trembling for quite a while did he finally recover.

Casually flinging the blood he had coughed onto the wall, Uchiha Madara took a deep breath. After gradually calming down, he looked disdainfully at the unrecognizable lump of mangled flesh on the ground.

"I had originally intended to tell you the true meaning of world peace, but it seems there is no need now."

The aged Madara coughed, leaned on his cane, and stepped forward to inspect the ruined body.

"Still, this body has Research Value. I wonder what modifications that brat Sosuke Aizen performed to let a dead man walk the world again in this state."

The elderly man tottered over, curiously examining the patch of ground covered in blood and flesh.

As a Ninja born in the era of war, the gory sight did not disgust him. Instead, he began using his cane to poke through fragments of clothing scattered across it.

But after prodding it once, Uchiha Madara suddenly caught sight of a cold gleam.

"This is—"

"This is... the necessary sacrifice... made for Konoha's great cause..."

A pale hand suddenly extended from the flesh, wielding a blade that pierced straight through Uchiha Madara's brain.

The movement was swift and decisive. After piercing his skull, the hand quickly twisted and pulled free, causing everything inside his brain to gush out through the shattered shell.

A legendary Ninja of his generation did not even manage a final word before his head was pierced in an instant and he collapsed dead. Kagami Uchiha's body slowly crawled out from the bloodstains. Looking at his own body, then at the heap of flesh on the ground, an indescribable expression appeared on his face.

He was alive, and he was dead.

This perfectly proved that Aizen's research was correct.

The soul could exist independently in this world, while the Physical Body could be discarded entirely, allowing the will to exist on its own.

Aizen had already seen through the mystery of life and death.

It was not something as imperfect as Impure World Reincarnation, nor was it life energy bringing someone back to life.

It was surviving after transforming from a human into another form of life. An unfamiliar energy, utterly different from Chakra, began flowing through Kagami Uchiha's body, bringing him a sudden realization.

Bankai, Shikai, Soul Reapers, Spiritual Pressure, and all manner of Kido—he understood them all.

Those things had long since been embedded deep within his soul through the modification surgery.

Thus, he also understood that he had to kill Sosuke Aizen.

Toying with life and death, mocking the gods—even if he had died, he should have died by Aizen's hand while striking against false righteousness, not here.

"You may once have been an extraordinarily powerful Ninja, but now, we exist on different planes. For Konoha's future, you must die here. You can only die here."

"And next will be Aizen."

For Konoha.

And for the Uchiha.

Looking at the old man lying on the ground, bleeding and silent forevermore, Kagami Uchiha shook his head, transformed into a streak of light, and flew back toward Konoha.

Kagami Uchiha did not notice that after he left, Graveyard of Mountains seemed unchanged, yet also seemed completely changed. As though a thin veil had been lifted, it returned to the real world.

And in this now-real world, Uchiha Madara's aged body gradually transformed into an ash-gray puppet, while the true, elderly Uchiha Madara sat steadily in the massive wooden chair, countless tubes plugged into his back. With great interest, he watched the puppet gradually dissolve, then looked up at the lingering radiance left behind by Kagami Uchiha's departure.

That same expression of arrogance and mockery remained on his aged face.

Even having aged to this extent, he was not someone a few random nobodies could simply manipulate.

"Heh... Uchiha brat, even after being revived, you're still just as foolish. Believing the naïve words of Tobirama and Hashirama—what an ignorant fool."

"From beginning to end, you never saw through the illusion, much less saw what reality truly looked like."

"But you, Sosuke Aizen. What exactly did you see?"

The elderly Uchiha Madara sneered as he watched Kagami Uchiha leave, then lowered his head to look at the paper data in his hands.

Written neatly on the paper was a line: "A Detailed Explanation of the Theory of Real Illusions Created Through Hand Gestures, Environment, Movements, Suggestion, and Chakra."

And in the author section below, the name Sosuke Aizen was prominently listed as the first author.