A strange sound suddenly echoed through the silent underground cavern. The old man, who had been pretending to sleep, slowly opened his eyes and scanned the area. His Three-Tomoe eyes detected nothing out of the ordinary.
Yet, for some reason, he felt the air had grown several degrees hotter.
It was the heat of flames, the smoke of battle.
He hadn't felt anything like this in a long time, not with his withered body. Even his aged frame was suddenly filled with a little excitement.
But this was underground! Hundreds of meters below the surface! Not aboveground! Why had the heat reached all the way down here?
"A-Fei, what happened?"
"There's another battle going on above us. It's terrifying! That Uchiha seems even stronger than you, Lord Madara. He wiped out all the Iwagakure shinobi with a single Fire Release!" Tobi twisted his body and trembled theatrically with fear.
"That earthen fortress was completely destroyed, too."
The old man, with tubes plugged into his back as if he were piloting Unit-01, curled his lips into a faint smile. A glimmer of interest entered his Three-Tomoe eyes.
"Looks like another genius has appeared among those people."
"He might be more than just a genius!" Tobi spread his arms wide, drawing a huge circle in the air. "An entire fortress was swallowed up by a single Majestic Destroyer Flame!"
"It scared me so much I nearly pooped myself!"
"Though I'm not sure how to poop~~"
Uchiha Madara was rather helpless about the bizarre creature he'd created. He had no desire to discuss poop with this fellow!
But bizarre as he was, his combat strength was not to be underestimated.
"To expand the range and power of a technique to the scale of a fortress... The Uchiha Clan doesn't produce Jinchuriki, so this fellow's Mangekyo ability must be like mine, enhancing the power of ninjutsu."
As people grew old, they liked to reminisce. Back then, it was precisely this sort of ocular technique that had allowed him to begin conquering far and wide.
It was a powerful ability, but its strength came at the cost of steadily diminishing eyesight.
Even with this power, without Hashirama's cells, this descendant would sooner or later be consumed by the [curse] and descend into darkness.
Just a brief moment of glory.
"Have you found the successor I asked you to look for?"
Tobi immediately stood at attention, stiff as a board. "I've found him! He's got the innocent, kindhearted personality you wanted, Lord Madara. The only problem is, he's an idiot. He doesn't look very bright, anyway."
If even an idiot like you called someone an idiot, just how stupid did that make him?
Still, an idiot would do. People like that were the easiest to fool.
Uchiha Madara maintained his dignity and kept his inner thoughts to himself. After spending so much time with this peculiar White Zetsu, he felt less and less like his old self.
"Good. Find a way to bring him here, by any means necessary." Uchiha Madara, below them, finished speaking and slowly closed his eyes.
He wanted to fall asleep as usual, but... why was it getting hotter and hotter?
Hatake Sakumo's team on the surface continued along their planned route.
"Our information hasn't leaked, but our position has been exposed."
"That technique was so powerful, and made so much noise, that its effects could be seen with the naked eye from over ten kilometers away. The entire area has probably been put on alert, and there's a good chance our intel was wrong."
Hatake Sakumo glanced at the unruffled Uchiha Yuji. He felt that the Shinobi World he knew was becoming unfamiliar.
Hatake Sakumo himself wasn't known for having large chakra reserves. He had always specialized in precise, lethal combat techniques.
Even though his chakra wasn't especially abundant, the White Fang was powerful. He could even fight the Third Kazekage. The Third Kazekage had a slight advantage against him, but Sakumo could still hold him off.
He had seen his fair share of enemies on the level of a Kage, and had witnessed plenty of combination and composite techniques on the battlefield. But he had never seen anything as outrageous or terrifying as that Fire Release. That single technique had completely overturned his understanding.
Was that really ninjutsu? Or was it some kind of Tailed Beast Bomb?
Why were you acting so nonchalant after unleashing such a terrifying technique, as if nothing had happened?
And this Genin—was he really a Genin? What Genin could kick a Chunin like a ball?
Before they set out, he had planned to quietly eliminate any outposts they couldn't avoid, then make a scene in Iwagakure and leave without a fuss.
Now that he'd seen just how ferocious his team was, Hatake Sakumo decided to revise their plan.
"Yuji, can your Susanoo stay active indefinitely?"
The loyal Uchiha immediately grew anxious. "Using the Mangekyo's power continuously will make you go blind! White Fang, you—"
"There's no problem."
Uchiha Yuji's firm voice drowned out the Uchiha. He clenched his right hand into a fist. "Those Iwagakure shinobi just now weren't even enough to warm me up."
"Then let's move out. I'll leave the front line to you." Hatake Sakumo's dark eyes shimmered with a blood-red glow. "We'll keep to the same route, but every enemy we encounter along the way gets wiped out."
Since you've discovered our lightning-fast surprise attack, we'll go with a lightning-fast assault instead.
"Understood. I'll fight with everything I've got." Uchiha Yuji flashed away from Hatake Sakumo's team.
Zetton-chan continued quietly supplying him with vast quantities of Chatonra.
Vast amounts of Yin Release chakra poured out, rapidly gathering and condensing. The ink-black Susanoo seemed almost solid, and, fueled by its immense chakra, its black arms were soon covered in thick armor.
In the very next moment, the terrifying giant that had been before their eyes had already appeared in the distance, visibly shrinking at an astonishing pace.
In just a few breaths, the Susanoo, which had been forced to a height of fifty meters, had shrunk to the size of a soybean—and had already reached the next target.
The two thirty-meter-long blades swung freely. Waves of energy swept across the area, effortlessly carving through the camp and killing countless Iwagakure shinobi.
Earth Style: Earth Wall? Useless!
Earth Release: Earth Shore Return? Useless!
Ultra-Weight Rock Technique? Useless!
Useless, useless, useless, useless, useless!
The black Susanoo was like a demon from hell, reaping lives without mercy, snuffing out countless sparks of life and bringing death in its wake.
By the time Hatake Sakumo arrived, all that remained was a scene of utter devastation. The battle was already over.
No, perhaps it couldn't be called a battle. It was a massacre.
From beginning to end, the Iwagakure shinobi hadn't managed a single effective counterattack.
The savage slashes hadn't killed every last Iwagakure shinobi. Those few stragglers who remained put up a futile resistance against the elite team before their souls departed for the afterlife.
Before you continue