An elderly-looking man stood in the doorway, staring at the people gathered outside his house.
"Dad!" the little boy shouted when he saw the man emerge.
The man's body suddenly trembled, and he looked at the boy with an indescribable expression.
The little boy ran over, but it was nothing like the father-son reunion Uchiha Madara had imagined. The man's expression was complicated, even carrying a trace of fear.
Still, when the boy reached him, the man pulled him into an embrace.
"A father and son reunited." Belaque smiled at Uchiha Madara. "Scenes like this are the most touching, aren't they?"
"Now isn't the time to be moved. We need to figure out what's going on. Didn't you see the look on that man's face? That wasn't the excitement of a father reuniting with his son. There was something else in that expression—something he couldn't put into words," Uchiha Madara said.
The father and son embraced for a long time. The man's eyes reddened as he said, "You're back. You finally came back. We've been waiting for you at home for so long."
"Nothing seems wrong to me," Belaque said to Uchiha Madara. "It looks like a perfectly normal father-son reunion. Don't you find it touching?"
"Being touched is secondary. I think I may be about to find another Magic Stone. I'm extremely excited right now," Uchiha Madara said with a smile.
"The way you're acting, it's like the Magic Stone is your son. You two are the real father and son," Belaque said helplessly.
"Come on, let's go over and take a look. Perhaps this father knows where the Magic Stone is," Uchiha Madara said to Belaque.
As they spoke, the two of them walked forward.
Seeing the two approach, the little boy's father said, "Welcome, travelers from afar."