News that Uchiha Madara had driven back the Kinkaku Force with overwhelming might spread swiftly throughout the entire Konoha border defenses, and even across the Ninja World, as if it had grown wings. The fearsome name "Asura of the Ninja World" once again sent shivers through people, greatly boosting Konoha's morale while briefly stalling the Cloud Village's offensive and making it more cautious.
Yet beneath this apparent victory, the undercurrents grew ever more turbulent.
Uchiha Sou grew even quieter in the battles that followed. Having witnessed Madara's almost godlike power and the terrifying energy on Kinkaku and Ginkaku that seemed to be Tailed Beast Chakra, he had developed an almost dismissive attitude toward the conflicts between ordinary ninja. His use of Weaving Logic had grown increasingly polished, but also more focused on specific aims—he used it more to protect himself amid the chaos, to observe, and... to seek the "catalyst" that could spur him to awaken his Mangekyou. The cold calculations he made regarding the Senju had not changed after Madara intervened. If anything, seeing a clash of power on a higher level had made him even more impatient with the struggles of those at the bottom.
The brutality of the war showed no signs of easing. Konoha had withstood Kumogakure's initial assault, but suffered heavy losses and was stretched thin. Reinforcements began arriving at the front from the rear, among them many young faces who had yet to fully experience the horrors of war.
During a brief lull, Sou's unit withdrew to a larger camp in the rear to resupply and rotate out. There, he met someone he hadn't expected—Kagami Uchiha.
Kagami looked much more mature than he had back in the village. Some of the boyishness had left his face, replaced by the marks of hardship and resolve.