Meanwhile, hundreds of meters beneath Konoha, at the Root base.
Shimura Danzō sat in a dim room. Wisps of sandalwood smoke rose from the incense burner before him, curling around the half of his face covered in bandages.
The room was silent, so silent he could hear his own breathing and heartbeat.
Then, a burst of hurried footsteps shattered the dead silence.
A Root ninja wearing a white mask knelt on one knee at the doorway, his voice urgent yet restrained. "Lord Danzō, an urgent report has just arrived from the Daimyo Palace."
"Read it."
Danzō kept his eyes closed, his tone indifferent.
The Root ninja opened the scroll in his hands and read clearly, "Yesterday, an intruder attacked the Land of Fire Daimyo Palace, causing severe casualties. Of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, nine were killed and three were seriously injured."
The cross-shaped scar on Danzō's chin twitched slightly.
He said nothing.
The Root ninja continued, "The intruder used Wind Release ninjutsu and was suspected of possessing an immortal body. He repeatedly revived on the spot after being killed."
"During the battle, the intruder repeatedly used Reverse Four-Symbols Sealing, yet suffered no effects himself."
"The intruder ultimately looted the Daimyo Palace treasury, causing preliminary estimated economic losses exceeding ten billion ryō. He escaped unharmed and was not intercepted."
After reading the final word, the Root ninja closed the scroll and lowered his head, waiting for Danzō's response.
The room remained quiet for about three seconds.
Then Danzō abruptly opened his eyes.
His uncovered left eye glimmered beneath the dim light with an indescribable expression—confusion intertwined with delight.
This was good news.
"There's actually something this good?"
"I was just worried that the Daimyo's Guardian Ninja would interfere with Konoha's business. Who would have thought an intruder would show up? Mm, what a little lucky star."
Shimura Danzō's voice was hoarse and low, yet anyone could hear the delight in it.
"Did that intruder have any other distinguishing features? With the Daimyo under attack, Konoha naturally bears responsibility! Let me pursue this brazen criminal and quell the Daimyo's fury!"
The Root ninja's body trembled slightly, but he still forced himself to repeat, "The intruder was Lord Danzō. You attacked the Daimyo Palace and killed nine of the Twelve Guardian Ninja—"
"What?!"
Danzō cut him off, his voice icy.
Was this something to joke about?
Attacking the Daimyo Palace guarded by Namikaze Minato, who had mastered the Flying Thunder God, nearly wiping out twelve Jonin and Elite Jonin-level Guardian Ninja, then leaving calmly afterward.
Mastering some unknown resurrection ninjutsu, able to use the mutually destructive Reverse Four-Symbols Sealing as casually as a basic attack.
Damn it, since when did I become this damn powerful?
If I were really that amazing, would Shimura Danzō still be hiding in this damn hole as "Root"?!
"The intruder used your signature ninjutsu, Wind Style: Vacuum Great Sphere."
"Vacuum Great Sphere is an advanced form of Vacuum Sphere. Perhaps the intruder simply had enough chakra to make Vacuum Sphere produce the effect of Vacuum Great Sphere."
"He also used Wind Style: Vacuum Serial Waves."
"Wind Style: Vacuum Wave works on the same principle!"
Damn it, could some evil Uchiha have copied my ninjutsu with the Sharingan and impersonated me?!
That was it. Resurrection ninjutsu... damn it, the more he heard, the more it sounded like the Uchiha forbidden technique Izanagi from the manuscripts Teacher Tobirama had left behind?!
It had to be some evil Uchiha!!
"He also used Wind Style: Vacuum Blade..."
Hearing this, Danzō fell silent for a long time.
The first two techniques could still be explained by copying them with the Sharingan. But while the hand signs for Wind Style: Vacuum Blade could also be copied, using it placed extremely high demands on the caster's wind-nature chakra transformation and shape transformation.
Only someone with Kage Level mastery of Wind Release could possibly learn and use it!
Simply copying it with the Sharingan would never be enough to successfully perform it!
Danzō reached out, took the scroll from the Root ninja's hands, unfolded it, and read it word by word.
The black ink on white paper stated it with absolute clarity: the attacker's appearance and ninjutsu all pointed to one name—Shimura Danzō.
Every detail matched the characteristics of his ninjutsu: Wind Style: Vacuum Great Sphere, Wind Style: Vacuum Serial Waves, Wind Style: Vacuum Blade—these were all his signature techniques. Outsiders could never imitate them so convincingly."
"Even if someone could copy a few Wind Release techniques with the Sharingan, they could never steal a high-difficulty technique like Vacuum Blade. Other than not using Summoning Jutsu to summon Baku, he was basically no different from me, the 'Darkness of Konoha.'"
"Oh, right. And there was that mad-dog style of fighting. That definitely wasn't me!"
But the problem was—
He had remained at the Root base the entire time, never taking a single step outside.
Danzō's brows furrowed tighter and tighter. The fingers gripping the edge of the scroll grew stronger, his knuckles turning faintly white.
Izanagi? An immortal body? Reviving on the spot?
Since when was I this good at fighting?
How did I not know?
Shimura Danzō looked at the Root ninja kneeling at the doorway. There was a trace of urgency in his voice that even he failed to notice. "That impostor... what happened to him afterward?"
"Do we know where he went?!"
The Root ninja lowered his head and answered, "According to Namikaze Minato's report, the intruder successfully withdrew after looting the treasury. His movements were not intercepted. He has now fled the scene, and his whereabouts are unknown."
"...Whereabouts unknown."
Danzō repeated those words, his voice carrying an indescribably complicated emotion—rage at having his "identity" stolen, along with a faint envy he did not wish to admit even to himself.
If that combat report was true—if he could revive on the spot again and again, escape unharmed from the encirclement of Kage Level ninja Namikaze Minato and the Ino-Shika-Cho team, and loot more than ten billion ryō right under the Land of Fire Daimyo's nose...
That level of combat power.
Damn it, if only it were really me.
Danzō remained silent for a long time. He placed the scroll beside the incense burner and lightly tapped its cover twice with his fingers.
Then he raised his head and looked at the Root ninja. "What did the Hokage say?"
"Lord Hokage has sent word through the Anbu, asking you to come to the Hokage's office for a discussion."
Danzō was silent again for a moment.
Then he braced himself against the armrest and slowly rose to his feet, the hem of his robe dragging softly across the floor.
"Pass orders to every division—"
Danzō's voice returned to its usual cold steadiness, though a faint glint flashed in his eyes.
"Investigate which ninja have left Konoha in recent days, especially members of the Uchiha Clan. Regardless of status, report the results to me immediately."
"—Yes!"
The Root ninja acknowledged the order and withdrew.
"—Interesting."
Danzō muttered to himself, pushed open the base doors, and headed toward the long stairway leading to the surface. His footsteps echoed through the empty passage, each one clear and heavy.
Meanwhile, deep underground at the border of the Land of Rivers.
Inside a massive naturally formed cavern, several secret chambers had been carved out by human hands.
Several natural fluorescent ores the size of bowls were embedded in the cave walls, casting a cold, ghostly blue light that shrouded the entire space in a sinister and lonely atmosphere.
At the center of the cavern stood a crude stone chair.
A decrepit old man sat upon it. His long white hair hung dryly behind him, his face was covered in wrinkles as deep as ravines, and his skin had taken on a nearly sickly gray-white hue—the sign of extreme old age. The life force within him was as weak as a candle flame in the wind, as though it might go out at any moment.
Yet although his eyes were half-closed, whenever they occasionally opened, the scarlet Sharingan within still shone with a light powerful enough to make the entire Shinobi World tremble.
Madara Uchiha.
The Asura of the Shinobi World.
The ghost believed to have died many years ago after the Battle of the Valley of the End now sat in the shadows beneath the Land of Rivers, sustaining his life through the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and watching every movement in the outside world through countless White Zetsu.
"Lord Madara, there is new intelligence."
A white figure emerged from the rock wall, silently sliding out and stopping beside the stone chair.
White Zetsu's body was still covered in a layer of damp soil, clearly having just returned from outside using the Mayfly Technique.
Madara did not open his eyes. He merely lifted his chin slightly. "Speak."
"Over in Konoha, the Land of Fire Daimyo Palace was just attacked."
White Zetsu's voice carried his characteristic liveliness, as if he were telling an interesting story.
"Someone impersonated that Konoha fellow named Shimura Danzō, charged into the Daimyo Palace, caused a huge mess, killed nine Guardian Ninja, and even looted the treasury. The rough estimate puts the losses at no less than ten billion ryō!"
Madara Uchiha's breathing paused, but he remained outwardly unmoved. His tone was as calm as though he were hearing some trivial matter. "What does that have to do with the Uchiha?"
White Zetsu tilted his head, and a hint of a smile appeared on the other half of his face. "Nothing much, really. But there's another Uchiha brat who awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. He seems to be only fourteen!"
"He has far more potential than Obito!"
Madara Uchiha fell silent again.
This time, the silence lasted twice as long as before.
The cavern remained quiet for a long while before Madara Uchiha slowly spoke. His voice was hoarse, yet carried unquestionable authority. "Are you certain it was the Mangekyō?"
"Certain."
White Zetsu nodded. "Although his aura is still very 'young,' and the fluctuations in his ocular power are still in the early stages, the characteristics of the Mangekyō are unmistakable—and he used Susanoo. With one strike, he crippled Kakuzu, the rogue ninja from Takigakure. Kakuzu has now submitted to him and become his subordinate."
Madara Uchiha slowly opened his eyes. The scarlet Sharingan within them flickered with a frigid light beneath the ghostly blue glow.
He stretched out a hand, accepted a chakra-infused sensory record scroll from White Zetsu, opened it, and swiftly scanned the written descriptions and chakra marks across it.
The record was extremely detailed—the location of the battle, the characteristics of both sides, traces of ninjutsu, lingering fluctuations of ocular power—even the broad outline of Uchiha Jun's life experience had been recorded.
Only because Uchiha Jun had always kept such a low profile.
The scroll merely described Uchiha Jun's almost "nonexistent" social connections, as well as his experience of being verbally bullied by Konoha's common rabble at the Ninja Academy before eventually becoming a "hot-blooded high school" and farming the Konoha rabble for abundance.
No other intelligence had been recorded.
After all, the strength and talent Uchiha Jun had displayed were utterly ordinary. Even with the Uchiha name, he was no different from a stray dog by the roadside in Madara Uchiha's eyes.
Madara Uchiha finished reading the entire record, then closed the scroll and placed it on his knee.
The room was briefly silent.
When Madara Uchiha finally spoke, there was neither anger nor excitement in his voice.
There was only the calmness and coldness tempered by the passage of countless years. "A Mangekyō wielder barely over ten years old, capable of using Susanoo and winning people over from a battlefield in a short period."
"This insight, this decisiveness, this ability to execute—he truly can no longer be described by the simple word 'genius.'"
White Zetsu stood beside him and listened quietly. Then he scratched the top of his Venus flytrap-like head, curiosity tentatively coloring his voice. "Then... Lord Madara, should we adjust the plan? Replace Obito with this 'Uchiha Jun' as the one to carry it out? He's far stronger than that brat Obito—"
"No."
Madara Uchiha's voice was cold. "Uchiha Jun is unsuitable."
"Unsuitable?"
White Zetsu froze, tilting his head even farther. "But he clearly—"
"He is too smart."
Madara Uchiha cut him off, his voice carrying an unshakable decisiveness.
"A normal Uchiha with such talent would have become arrogant enough to reach the heavens, desperate to make a name throughout the Shinobi World. But he did not. If not for Kakuzu, you would not even know he possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan!"
"This level of patience is anything but simple!"
"Obito Uchiha's talent may be mediocre, but precisely because of that, he is easy to guide and control. His weakness is clear. As long as we guide him in that direction, Obito Uchiha can also awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan."
"And afterward, Obito Uchiha's attitude toward this Shinobi World will be even more beneficial to the plan."
"But Uchiha Jun is different."
"The reason he awakened his eyes is unknown. We have no way of knowing how he views this Shinobi World now. If his attitude differs greatly from the plan, he will be far less useful than Obito Uchiha!"
"At such an age, he already knows how to disguise himself, conceal himself, and bide his time. He does not rely on emotional bonds with anyone outside himself, makes independent decisions like a true ninja, and can maintain a composed façade before others—tell me, where do you think his weakness lies?"
White Zetsu fell silent for a few seconds, then shook his head.
"I don't know either. Perhaps we'll see him someday."
Madara Uchiha closed his eyes again, his voice calm enough to reveal no emotion.
"If even his enemies cannot find his weakness, then he is not someone who can be controlled. A person like that can only exist as a 'collaborator' or an 'opponent,' never as a 'piece.'"
"After I die, you alone will be completely unable to keep someone like him under control."
"Then—"
White Zetsu asked, "Should we intervene? For example, leak the news that he possesses the Mangekyō Sharingan to Konoha's higher-ups or the higher-ups of other ninja villages? See if we can make him go blind and prevent him from interfering with Obito?"
"No."
Madara Uchiha's voice remained calm. "For now, he has not created any substantive obstacle to my plan. But increase the level of surveillance. Have Zetsu send a clone to keep close watch on his movements and report to me at all times—if he touches the bottom line, use Impure World Reincarnation. I will deal with him personally."
Two extremely exaggerated arcs appeared across White Zetsu's "cheeks"—his sewn-together giant mouth forming a strange smile.
"—Understood."
White Zetsu's body slowly sank into the rock wall and vanished.
Only Madara Uchiha remained in the cavern.
He slowly opened his eyes. The scarlet Sharingan flickered several times in the fluorescent light before slowly closing again.
"Susanoo, Hero Water, disguise... interesting."
"What is your purpose?"
Madara Uchiha's voice echoed through the cavern, carrying a faint trace of appreciation.
Then everything returned to dead silence.