Collecting Tailed-Beast Energy

"Third Brother, today is rare indeed. You actually came over of your own accord."

Madara was not training, but rather staring blankly at Izuna washing under the waterfall, and felt somewhat surprised when Uchiha Yuan walked over.

"What is it?"

"Older Brother, when will it end?"

Upon hearing this, Madara understood in his heart. Naturally, he knew what Uchiha Yuan was asking about, but he did not answer immediately. Instead, he turned his head to look at the flowing water of the waterfall and asked,

"Yuan, do you believe that person's words?"

"Naturally, I don't."

"Then... will you stop it?"

"Why stop it?" Uchiha Yuan looked at Madara with some strangeness. "If it goes smoothly, then it will surely usher in a new era, and at the same time welcome a brief peace."

Uchiha Yuan pointed at himself again: "And I am an egoist. For instance, with the current Uchiha, because Older Brother and Second Brother, the two of you, are here, I will put in the effort to make them stronger and stronger."

"If one day Second Brother and you are both gone, then I will also leave this place and no longer carry the name of Uchiha."

Hearing this, Madara furrowed his brows. These words were truly rather rebellious. How did this sound like he was about to betray the clan?

"Hearing you speak, you seem to have grievances. Is someone in the clan making a fuss?"

"No. Nowadays, my decrees can be carried out without obstruction because I give the clansmen tangible benefits that they can see. But Older Brother, you know it: a family cannot remain in a growth period forever. When we enter a low point, will the clansmen still trust me like they do today?"

"Why wouldn't they? Once prestige is established, it is hard for it to drop again."

"Then what if there is no prestige left?"

"How could there be none!"

"Senju!"

"..."

Uchiha Madara's speech hitched.

"What did you come here for? You aren't training. Don't tell me it was just to come and piss me off?"

"Almost forgot." Uchiha Yuan slapped his forehead and retrieved a letter from his bosom. "This is what I just received, and that person specifically named that it's for you."

Uchiha Madara took the letter. The sealing wax was indeed unopened, and he was likewise somewhat curious about what kind of person would write a letter to him.

"An invitation?"

Hearing the word invitation, Uchiha Yuan immediately crowded over and raised his head to look. But by now Madara's height was already nearly one meter seventy-five, a full head taller than him. Looking up like that made him seem like a child, and no matter how he looked, he couldn't see a thing.

"Read it yourself. I have no interest. You decide whether to go or not."

"Oh? What on earth is it?"

Uchiha Yuan unfolded the letter and slowly began to read. There were not many words in the letter, and he finished it very quickly.

It turned out that the head of the Sarutobi clan had a young son, and invited the Uchiha clan head to attend the banquet.

Now, because the Uchiha Clan was growing increasingly prosperous, the surrounding ninja families had all begun various forms of befriending them, and inviting the Uchiha to attend a banquet was quite normal. However...

"The Sarutobi clan head's son? Hiruzen Sarutobi? Holy shit!"

Uchiha Yuan was startled in his heart. Hiruzen Sarutobi was actually born!

For the moment he even cared not to say goodbye, and instantly used Body Flicker to leave. His heart was in a mess; he hadn't expected that time had already reached this point!

Madara felt strange seeing Uchiha Yuan leave in such a fluster. Wasn't it just a banquet? Did he have to be so hurried?

Yet what Madara did not know was that the reason Uchiha Yuan was panicked was entirely because Uchiha Yuan clearly remembered that the fifth year after Hiruzen Sarutobi's birth was the day Konoha was founded.

Except for making the Uchiha stronger than in the original work, this butterfly of mine has basically done nothing else. That means history will also unfold just like the original work, so I only have a developmental period left that is likely less than five years.

The reason he said there were only five years left was because Uchiha Yuan knew that the upcoming Shinobi World was about to begin waging country-wide wars. The clan would be restricted by the village, and would never again be able to do whatever it wanted without restraint. Furthermore, as the acting clan head of the Uchiha, he would certainly attract more attention.

That is to say, by that time Uchiha Yuan's identity would be placed out on the stage, his every move watched by many people, and he would never again be able to lay low and develop.

Most importantly, in the first year of Konoha, my cheap second brother kicks the bucket. I need to think of a reason to get the corpse into my own hands.

At this moment, Uchiha Izuna, who was practicing his physical strength beneath the waterfall, inexplicably shivered, feeling somewhat creeped out.

After hurrying back to the clan land, Uchiha Yuan found Kuro in Haru's room and had her pass a message to the tool person, telling him to notify him the very first moment the laboratory finished construction.

Following that, he set off again without stopping, stepping out of the clan land with quite the sense of racing against time.

Yet this time when he went out, a supersized scroll was added to his back. This was a special sealing scroll he had made after studying the Uzumaki Sealing Arts; in the future, he planned to pack Izuna's corpse inside it.

Uchiha Yuan hadn't fought with someone of comparable strength in a very long time. His last training session with Madara and Izuna was already last year's business. He roughly estimated his current strength; he should, perhaps, have Kage-level standards.

It's just collecting some tailed-beast chakra, so it shouldn't be much of a problem.

Uchiha Yuan did not have a clear understanding of his own strength. Among the tailed beasts, only the impression of the Nine-Tails was the clearest in his memory, so he also preconceived that the strengths of the tailed beasts were all much of a muchness—after all, it was a tailed beast that could beat the Fourth Hokage to death.

The most important thing was that in the fanfiction novels he had read, the Battle at the Valley of the End was described where Madara had even specially captured a Nine-Tails in order to fight Hashirama. And at that time Madara already possessed the Eternal Eye, so the strength of the Nine-Tails could not be underestimated.

The waters of the Shinobi World are too deep. I still had better be cautious above all.

Running wildly all the way like this, whenever he grew hungry he would enter the forest to plague wild beasts or catch fish. For three consecutive days, he directly crossed out of the borders of the Land of Fire and entered the Land of Wind, a stretch of desert.

"The chakra volume of a tailed beast is extremely massive. It shouldn't be hard to find."

This time Uchiha Yuan intended to collect a little bit of tailed-beast chakra from every single one, taking advantage of the fact that no one cared about these tailed beasts yet to collect a set of them all as spares.

The Land of Wind was situated in a desert region, and every oasis was strictly guarded. The ninja clans living here fought over limited resources, and the viciousness of their struggles was not a whit inferior to the Land of Fire.

Yet this time Uchiha Yuan did not want to deal with the ninjas here, and specifically searched in areas with severe desert droughts.

Fortunately, the tailed beasts lived far too freely, and in the current Shinobi World neither humans nor beasts dared to go provoke them.

Uchiha Yuan was very lucky to see this big raccoon cat on a gravel bar, and at this moment the raccoon cat was fast asleep, its snoring audible from two miles away.

Uchiha Yuan stood in the distance and lamented:

"Is this Shukaku? So huge!"

Shukaku lay flat on the sandy ground, its gigantic physique like a small mountain. Its skin had some black patterns, but overall it was about the color of sand. Its huge tail looked fluffy and seemed very much like it would be great to pet.

Uchiha Yuan quietly approached, yet a tailed beast's perceptual abilities were exceptionally powerful, and it immediately discovered the intruder.

"Little bug! Are you lost? You actually dare to come to Grandpa's territory and disturb my sleep!"