Uchiha Madara Invades the Root Base

Although Minagawa Uchiha had decided to intervene in this incident and save the Uchiha Clan, the current situation was not something that could be easily turned around. He had to take things one step at a time. The first step was to muddy the waters and make the parties that had once been united begin suspecting one another.

There were currently three parties that wanted to destroy the Uchiha. The first were the Konoha High Command led by Sarutobi Hiruzen, and Obito Uchiha. There was no room for reconciliation with either side; they were dead set on wiping out the Uchiha Clan. The best approach was to divide them and make them tear at each other's throats.

The final party was Uchiha Itachi. He was a walking contradiction. You could say he loved Konoha, yet until his death, he had never provided Konoha with any information about the Akatsuki Organization.

You could say he loved the Uchiha, then? Yet he had been ruthless enough to slaughter the entire Uchiha Clan.

Did he love Uchiha Sasuke most, then? Not necessarily. Uchiha Sasuke had stayed with Orochimaru for three years, and Uchiha Itachi had simply let him remain there without concern. In the end, to keep Uchiha Sasuke from seeking revenge against Konoha, he had even planned to use Kotoamatsukami to control Sasuke on his deathbed.

Did he love himself, then? That was even less likely. He had held back enormously in his battle against Sasuke, abandoned treatment even when he was sick, and calmly accepted death. That described him perfectly.

In Minagawa Uchiha's eyes, what Uchiha Itachi loved was the ideal he had arrived at on his own.

He believed that the Uchiha could not defeat Konoha, that they would bear the name of traitors, and that they would draw the covetous gaze of other Ninja Villages toward Konoha. So why launch a military coup d'état? It would only hurt others without benefiting themselves. Better to wipe them out entirely. As long as the Uchiha Clan was destroyed, Konoha would suffer no losses, the Uchiha would not bear a bad name, and other Ninja Villages would have no opportunity to send troops against Konoha. What was that? It was the perfect answer that avoided all three disadvantages!

Thus, Uchiha Itachi had decided to personally draw the curtain on the Uchiha. What a genius!

So, to deal with Uchiha Itachi, Minagawa Uchiha could either kill him outright or change his way of thinking and turn him into an ally.

As long as he made Itachi realize that the other two sides were paper tigers, that the combined strength of all Konoha still could not match the Uchiha's three pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan, and gave someone as proud as him a way to back down, he would inevitably return to the Uchiha camp.

After analyzing the relationships between the various factions and making a corresponding plan, Minagawa Uchiha looked up toward the Hokage Building. A mocking smile curled across his lips, and then his figure vanished from the window in an instant.

When Minagawa Uchiha appeared again, he had changed into a Black Cloak with Red Clouds and wore an Orange One-Eyed Spiral Mask. There was no mistaking this outfit—it was the guise Obito Uchiha used while pretending to be Uchiha Madara. Minagawa Uchiha intended to use Obito Uchiha's identity to infiltrate the Root Base.

After waiting for a short while, it became time for the Root Ninja to change shifts. Minagawa Uchiha immediately phased himself and followed close behind the Root Ninja. Before long, the Root member led him to a secluded entrance to the Root Base.

The Root Ninja formed several hand seals, and the disguised entrance appeared before them. Once Minagawa Uchiha confirmed that this was indeed the Root Base, he did not linger. He passed directly through the Guide's body and entered the Root Base.

"This place really is dark and oppressive. It really lives up to the name Root. No wonder that old dog Shimura Danzō has such a dark and extreme personality. Staying in an environment like this for too long would gradually turn even a normal person dark and extreme."

As he walked through the dim underground passageway, barely wide enough for two people to walk abreast, Minagawa Uchiha surveyed his surroundings and inwardly mocked them. Yet with his current outfit, he seemed rather pleased with himself.

Minagawa Uchiha was exceptionally suited to impersonating Obito Uchiha. He possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan, and the pattern of his Mangekyō Sharingan was extremely similar to Obito Uchiha's. In such a dim environment, as long as no one examined him carefully from close range, there was a high chance he could fool them.

As for Obito Uchiha's signature phasing ability, Minagawa Uchiha could perfectly replicate it through Materialization to Void. With such a flawless disguise, anything Minagawa Uchiha did in Root could be pinned on Uchiha Madara's identity.

Thus, Minagawa Uchiha activated the phased state of Materialization to Void. Like Obito Uchiha, he ignored every trap, Fuinjutsu seal, and barrier, strolling through the Root Base as though he were wandering through his own backyard.

It had to be said that, despite being built underground, the Root Base was incredibly vast. Minagawa Uchiha walked down the passageway for around five minutes before reaching a broad area resembling a great hall. Bridges leading in different directions crisscrossed the hall, all connected at a central point. It looked like the central hub of the entire Root Base.

The ceiling above the hall was extremely high, so there had to be more than one exit besides the entrance he had come through. Below was pitch-black, like a bottomless abyss. Such a massive construction showed just how much power Shimura Danzō wielded in Konoha.

Faced with the maze-like passages extending in every direction, Minagawa Uchiha did not panic. He headed straight into the passage opposite him. Now that he had fused with White Zetsu cells, both his Chakra reserves and his Chakra recovery speed were enough to sustain his phasing ability for a long time.

Moreover, Minagawa Uchiha had not chosen this passage at random. In the Original Work, when Shimura Danzō summoned Sai, he had emerged from this direction. Danzō likely kept important things closer to himself. That was precisely the destination Minagawa Uchiha sought during this infiltration of the Root Base.

"Tut, tut, tut. As expected of that old dog Danzō. He kept talking about doing everything for Konoha, yet secretly conducted these human experiments that harmed others for his own benefit. Look at these test subjects. Heh, it seems Danzō was still unwilling to accept that the Wood Style ninja 'Hashirama' who belonged to him had been taken away by the Third Hokage."

"There don't seem to be any well-preserved Hashirama Cells here. This should be a place where Root observed its test subjects. But if the test subjects are here, then the Hashirama Cells should be nearby as well."

Minagawa Uchiha began carefully searching each room along the passage. Before long, he discovered an iron door covered in Fuinjutsu formulas. He immediately grew excited. Without hesitation, he ignored the seals on the door and passed straight through the iron door into the room.

But to his disappointment, the room contained neatly arranged shelves piled with scrolls of all sizes. There were no Hashirama Cells that Minagawa Uchiha had hoped to find.