Madara, favored by Heaven's Will

When the father and son returned to Konoha, Obito and Madara were still facing off.

At Obito's declaration, Madara had indeed wavered at first. He thought he had spent all that time plotting, only to miss the fact that Obito was in love with Kakashi. One wrong move had cost him the entire game.

But Madara quickly came to his senses. He hadn't gathered intelligence and analyzed Obito's feelings for Rin himself. "Heaven's Will" had told him!

Madara Uchiha in the Real Shinobi World might have seemed domineering and dictatorial, but he had actually believed every word on the Stone Tablet left behind by the "Sage of Six Paths," without questioning any of it.

If the Sage of Six Paths had known that this generation's reincarnation of Indra would be such an obedient little darling, he could simply have added a parenthetical note to "the union of Senju and Uchiha produces omnipotent power": "This means the Senju Clan Head and the Uchiha Clan Head getting married on the spot." Wouldn't that have solved everything?

In the real Madara Uchiha's eyes, the ancient Sage of Six Paths was essentially no different from Heaven's Will.

In the Engraved Tsukuyomi World, however, an embodied Heaven's Will really did exist.

Naturally, Madara Uchiha placed even greater faith in Heaven's Will there.

Decades earlier, after Madara parted ways with Hashirama and left Konoha, he received guidance from Heaven's Will.

First, yearning for the past, he returned to the Naka River, where he and Hashirama had roughhoused as boys. He recalled those happy times when he had peed into the river, after which the two of them had tussled, fallen in, and drunk their fill.

To relive those days, Madara peed into the river again, then jumped in for a swim.

Then something unexpected happened.

With