The reefs along the coast of the Land of Water stood like a row of tombstones in the night.
The sea wind swept in from the northeast, carrying salty mist and shattered sea foam. It crashed against the jagged rock walls, producing an unceasing roar.
No one came here. This reef shore was too desolate—so desolate that even Kirigakure's patrols could not be bothered to include it in their regular routes.
Deep within the reefs was a fissure carved out by seawater, so narrow that only one person could squeeze through sideways.
The fissure stretched downward, growing deeper and darker. Seawater flowed back into it, leaving a slick layer of salt frost on the rock walls.
At the end of the fissure, beyond three hidden doors reinforced with Earth Release, lay an underground cave that existed on no map.
The cave was not large, but it was spacious enough.
Its four walls were rough granite, never deliberately polished, retaining the primal form they had taken after being crushed, twisted, and torn apart by the earth.
At the back of the cave stood a flat stone platform, covered with a dark red cushion.
Behind the platform was a seat carved from the same rock. Its back was high, with two slightly curved extensions spreading out from its top.
Uchiha Madara sat in that chair.
His white hair had grown to his waist, almost the only bright color in the dim cave.
The way he sat in that stone chair was no different from how he had sat in the council hall of the Uchiha Compound decades ago.
The only difference was that dozens of tubes of varying thickness were connected to his back, extending behind the chair and disappearing into an unseen corner deeper in the cave.
The points where the