Dog Talisman

"What?!"

Before Uchiha Madara sat a sharply angled stone, carved with the image of a "dog."

"Whoa, whoa! That looks like the Talisman Konoha's been searching for!"

The hedgehog-like White Zetsu lay on the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, whispering to Uchiha Madara from beside him.

"Is that so...? This is the Talisman?"

Uchiha Madara looked disdainful. "Sarutobi Hiruzen really has gone senile. Can you believe the leader of a great village actually thinks a stone has special powers?"

In Uchiha Madara's eyes, the Dog Talisman was no different from an ordinary stone. It had no chakra aura at all—not even as much as Chakra Metal.

"Lord Madara! Hurry and see what this thing can do!"

Zetsu was full of anticipation, but Uchiha Madara scoffed. "Even if I were crushed to death by a rock, swept away by sand, or drained dry by the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, I, Uchiha Madara, would never believe in some trick meant to fool children!"

--Rumble!

But at that very moment, sand and dirt began shaking loose from the ceiling. The pipes connecting the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path to Uchiha Madara and supplying him with life force snapped one after another. "This is bad! That brat Nagato actually summoned the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path?!"

Things never went as expected, and Uchiha Madara had no time to wonder why Nagato had summoned the statue. He was only clinging to life thanks to the life force it supplied! If he died, wouldn't his "Eye of the Moon" be dead before it even got off the ground?!

Sand washed over Uchiha Madara's body. He felt his already dwindling life force rapidly draining away. His legs went limp, unable to hold him upright, and his hand somehow grasped something.

--Whoosh!

Green light enveloped his body. In an instant, Uchiha Madara felt an astonishing burst of life force surge through him. Then he felt as though he'd grown fifty years younger.

His back no longer ached, his legs no longer hurt, and he could even sense the chakra he hadn't used in ages.

"Lord Madara! Lord Madara! Are you all right?!"

As the dust slowly cleared, the White Zetsu frantically searched for Uchiha Madara. They only breathed a sigh of relief after sensing his chakra, but... when had Lord Madara's presence become so powerful?

"I... feel great!"

His powerful voice rang out among the White Zetsu. His mighty chakra blew all the dust away, revealing Uchiha Madara at the center. He still had a head of white hair, but he looked and felt immeasurably better.

"So this is the power of the Talisman...?"

Clutching the Talisman he'd happened to grab when he fell, Uchiha Madara felt as though he'd come back to life. All the strength of his youth had returned! Even the Sharingan temporarily taking the place of his Rinnegan had changed, becoming a Mangekyō Sharingan and restoring him to his peak.

"In that case..."

Looking at the spot behind him where the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path should have been, now completely empty, Uchiha Madara made up his mind. He would be the "savior" himself! He would personally carry out the "Eye of the Moon" Plan!

But... before that, he needed to learn a little more about the Talismans...

Returning to the present, Uchiha Madara was looking up at the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, which had returned, when White Zetsu emerged from a crack once more.

"Lord Madara, the villages in every country have sent out special teams to search for the Talismans!"

"Is that so... Then it's time for us to act, too..."

Normally, given Uchiha Madara's pride, the first thing he would have done after realizing he was young again was head to Amegakure, reclaim his Rinnegan, and immediately begin capturing Tailed Beasts. But the Eye of the Moon Plan concerned "world peace," so he had to be cautious. As for those so-called Talismans... Uchiha Madara planned to seize them all first.

Land of Rivers, Yugakure.

This was a resort known as "the village that forgot war," a place with the highest average life expectancy in the entire Ninja World.

By now, Uncle and Chixing had followed the spell to this "vacation paradise." A Sunagakure team from the Land of Wind had arrived as well.

Why were they here? Ordinarily, aside from Uncle, who could use spells to track the Talismans, searching for them in the Ninja World was like looking for a needle in a haystack—an extremely difficult task.

But that went against Qian Yu's principle of showing the Talismans to as many people as possible. So... he could only have the Talismans find them instead...

As it happened, Qian Yu had spotted the Sunagakure team heading toward Yugakure on the map, so he sent one of the Talismans there.

The moment Uncle stepped into a room at a hot spring inn, the staff eagerly crowded around him, asking if he'd like to try a massage package or relax in their special soothing hot spring.

Uncle had no interest in any of that. He immediately pushed through the crowd and followed the spell's guidance. At last, he saw it—the "pig" displayed in the glass case of a gift shop!

At the same time, darkness followed close behind. The walls of the hot spring inn turned pitch-black, and crimson eyes glimmered ominously. The entire crowd fled in terror—except for the Sunagakure ninja team.

"Those are the Daimyo of the Land of Fire's bodyguards!"

The speaker was a man with short brown hair, dressed in a black ninja outfit with fishnet fabric underneath. He was the future Fourth Kazekage—"Rasa."

"That means... the Talisman must be nearby?!"

The one who replied was Rasa's brother-in-law, a handsome young man with yellow hair and a dust mask on his head—"Yashamaru."

But at the time, one of them wasn't Kazekage yet, and the other wasn't a highly trusted Anbu operative of Sunagakure. Following the Third Kazekage's orders, they had set out to search for the Talismans.

However... they'd only seen what the Talismans looked like on Enshi Shu's lost-item reward notice, and had no idea how to search for them. So they'd started with the Land of Rivers, the closest country to the Land of Wind.

They hadn't expected to get so lucky.

Without another word, the two rushed forward, trying to snatch the Talisman.

As for the Shadowkhan? Sorry, the reward notice said to exchange the Talisman for a bounty. It didn't say they couldn't intercept it, did it? As long as they were the ones claiming the bounty, that was all that mattered!

So they charged ahead without hesitation.

"Wind Release: Wind Blade!"

As Chixing and the Shadowkhan rushed toward the display case holding the Pig Talisman, chakra streamed from Yashamaru's fingertips like a sharp blade. A gust of wind swept between the two groups, followed by countless invisible Wind Blades.

Although Rin no Sho called this move "an inescapable technique," none of those present needed to dodge.

Uncle drew a circle around himself and Chixing using dried geckos, just like the defensive True Magic Daolon Wong had used in Jackie Chan Adventures, blocking every Wind Blade.

As for the Shadowkhan, they didn't care at all about their losses. They smashed the glass display case, grabbed the Pig Talisman, and tried to make a lightning-fast getaway. But how could the others let them? Rasa slapped both hands on the ground and shouted, "Magnet Release: Gold Dust!"

Rasa transformed highly concentrated chakra into magnetism, channeled Magnet Release chakra into the ground through Hand Seals, and sent a vast wave of Gold Dust surging up like an ocean.