Asura of the Ninja World

Everyone's gaze turned toward the entrance to the Cremation Ground.

The Asura of the Ninja World, who had led the Uchiha to victory after victory, stood there.

Long, spiky black hair spilled behind his shoulders. His finely sculpted features, a hallmark of the Uchiha, were sharply defined. His eyes looked down on them with a heavy gaze, and every inch of him radiated arrogance.

Madara Uchiha.

Everyone bowed their heads to him except Setsuna.

Setsuna curled his lip in displeasure, planted his feet apart, straightened his back, and folded his arms. With his chin slightly raised, his face all but said, Who the hell do you think you are?

Toshihi murmured a warning. "Setsuna..."

Setsuna cut Toshihi off and asked, "What are you doing here?"

Toshihi's heart lurched. He immediately dropped to one knee. "Forgive him, Clan Head."

As the Jonin leading Setsuna's team, Toshihi bore full responsibility for any disrespect Setsuna showed the Clan Head in word or deed.

Madara Uchiha's gaze settled on Setsuna.

His face, still rounded with baby fat, was taut, his eyes wide with white showing beneath the irises. He was clearly a tiny child of five and a half, yet he insisted on acting as though he meant to take on the entire world.

As the Uchiha's ruling Clan Head and one of the strongest men in the shinobi world, Madara Uchiha would not seriously quarrel with a child.

Instead, he explained with surprising patience, "Huorong was my cousin. Now that I'm back, it's only right that I come to see him one last time."

Setsuna snorted.

Ignoring Setsuna's sour expression, Madara Uchiha walked past him and stood before the cremation pit. He pressed his palms together, closed his eyes, and observed a moment of silence.

Setsuna turned his head to study the man.

With his eyes gently closed, much of the ferocity that surrounded him faded.

Without that arrogance, people's eyes could finally linger on a face that could almost be called delicate.

The man was not particularly tall by Uchiha standards, standing at only 179 centimeters. The scarcity of resources in this Warring States era had also left him with a small frame, making him look lean and slight.

Usually, his overwhelming presence and power concealed all of that, making people forget that he, too, was human.

When Setsuna thought about it, this man had spent this age of endless war losing people.

His mother, his older brother, his younger brothers, his father.

Now he had lost his cousin-Huorong.

As cousins of the same age, they must have spent days fighting side by side and supporting each other beyond what the original story had shown, just like Setsuna and Kagami.

And in the future... this man would lose Izuna, too.

He would gain the eternal Mangekyō Sharingan and descend, step by step, into obsessive madness.

Madara Uchiha, one of the strongest in the shinobi world, had been unable to hold on to anything. In the end, he would fight Hashirama Senju at the Valley of the End, reject the first half of his own life, and stubbornly pursue a peace that everyone could find only in dreams.

At that thought, Setsuna clenched his fists.

He refused to accept that future.

Not for Madara Uchiha's sake, but solely for Izuna's.

He had met Izuna and spent time with him. However reluctant he was to admit it, he had already come to regard Izuna as a comrade.

Hmph. When it came to protecting Izuna, at least he shared a goal with this irritating man, Madara Uchiha.

Though Izuna would surely find it deeply humiliating to be protected by a loudmouthed brat like him and would never appreciate the gesture.

Setsuna's lips moved. Just as he was about to say something, Madara Uchiha opened his eyes.

His entire bearing changed, and his hands formed the Tiger Seal before his chest.

Fire Release: Great Fireball.

The flames he breathed out instantly ignited the wood in both pits.

Orange-red firelight illuminated every face present, and a wave of scorching air washed over them.

Setsuna's eyes widened. Before he could even react, the Great Fireball had engulfed his parents' bodies.

A piercing scream burst from his throat. "What are you doing?!"

Yet Madara Uchiha replied coldly, as though it were only natural, "Rather than mourn people who cannot return to life, you should look ahead."

Setsuna gritted his teeth.

He really could not get along with this bastard.

Madara Uchiha, however, paid no attention to Setsuna's feelings.

His eyes flicked down toward the stunned Kurama Setsuko. His brow furrowed slightly, but his question was directed at Toshihi.

"Who let her into the clan grounds?"

Toshihi answered with his head lowered. "Lord Izumo gave his approval."

Madara Uchiha snorted, a cold curve tugging at his mouth. "Has Izumo already gone senile at forty?"

Setsuna interjected, his eyes wide and his arms folded, defiance written all over his face. "I'm the one who suffered here, and I haven't said anything. But you have a problem with it?"

Madara Uchiha ignored him. His deep black eyes remained fixed heavily on Toshihi, waiting for an explanation.

Toshihi opened his mouth, but in the end, all he could say was, "Lord Izumo had his reasons. After all, she was Huorong's partner. It isn't unreasonable to let her see him off."

"Huorong's partner?" Madara Uchiha repeated, his gaze returning to Kurama Setsuko.

One sweep of those eyes pinned Kurama Setsuko to the spot. She bit her lower lip, trying not to cry aloud, but her frail shoulders trembled faintly.

Setsuna looked at Setsuko, who seemed on the verge of fainting, then at Madara Uchiha's icy face. His temper flared.

He stepped forward, placing himself in front of Setsuko, and tilted his bald head back to glare at Madara Uchiha.

"What, is the Uchiha Clan Head afraid of a helpless twelve-year-old girl? Or is your mastery of genjutsu not enough to suppress the Kurama Clan?"

Madara Uchiha looked down at the tiny child who barely reached his waist, his cheeks puffed out in anger. He looked just like a kitten with its fur bristling.

One eyebrow rose ever so slightly.

"Um..."

Kurama Setsuko spoke up just then.

Everyone's gaze settled on the timid, shrinking girl.

The flames reflected in her pupils, their orange-red light twisting into terrifying shapes in her eyes.

She bit her lip, drew a deep breath, and mustered the courage to speak.

"I placed a cursed seal... on myself."

With trembling fingers, she lifted the bangs covering her forehead.

There, clearly visible, was a cherry blossom-shaped mark the size of a little fingernail.

Setsuna's pupils contracted.

Of course he knew what a cursed seal was.

In the original story, cursed seals were the means by which the Hyuga Main Family controlled the branch family, and the marks Orochimaru placed on the bodies he coveted. They could grant their hosts power beyond their limits, at the cost of gradually losing themselves and eventually becoming vessels for the caster.

Overall, they were a means of controlling others.

But he had never seen anything like this-someone placing a cursed seal on herself.

Setsuko lowered her bangs, and the cherry blossom vanished behind the loose strands once more.

Her emotions had steadied considerably. She continued, "This cursed seal will immobilize my body if I lose control or someone takes control of me, then kill the soul inside. So..."

She raised her head to look at Madara Uchiha. "So you don't need to worry about me causing any irreversible harm."

The muscles around Madara Uchiha's eyes twitched faintly.

He spoke slowly. "Are you saying... you may have lost control because someone was controlling you?"

Kurama Setsuko began speaking much faster. "Huorong always helped me regulate my mental energy. When it comes to control, I can say that no one in the entire Kurama Clan could wield it as freely as I could."

Her hands clenched into fists, and an urgent need to reveal the truth surfaced in her eyes.

Madara Uchiha looked away, his voice cold. "You're shifting the blame."

Kurama Setsuko shuddered violently and said urgently, "That's not true! If I wanted to shift the blame, I wouldn't be standing here today. I'm willing to pay for my mistake with my life-I truly am."

Madara Uchiha lifted his chin, signaling for her to continue.

Kurama Setsuko swallowed and went on:

"At the very end, I saw it-Huorong killed a stranger inside my mental world. Then I woke up."

Setsuna stepped forward.

"You're saying someone invaded your body directly with mental energy from a distance?"

"Yes." Kurama Setsuko nodded.

She raised her head and met Madara Uchiha's eyes.

Her eyes behind her round glasses were still red and swollen, still timid, but a tiny flame flickered in their depths.

"If we can find out who among the ninja hired by the Lord of Anshan City died away from the battlefield that day," she said, her voice no longer trembling, "we'll know who did it."

Setsuna searched his memory. There did not seem to be an ability like that anywhere in the game.

Although forbidden techniques involving souls and possession did exist in the Naruto World, such as Orochimaru's Reincarnation Technique and the second Senju brother's Impure World Reincarnation, long-distance soul possession was rarely mentioned.

Either the game had not yet reached the relevant storyline and had not implemented it, or such an ability had appeared only during the Warring States era.

Madara Uchiha fell silent for a moment.

No trace of emotion showed in his deep eyes. He simply scrutinized Kurama Setsuko briefly, then nodded and said:

"Understood."

Kurama Setsuko drew a deep breath, dropped to both knees, and struck her forehead hard against the ground.

"Please let me remain with the Uchiha Clan. Please give me a chance... to prove my worth."

Madara Uchiha, however, turned his gaze away from her.

Setsuko's fingers dug into the dirt.

With her head lowered, she could not see Madara Uchiha's expression, but she felt his silence.

Her shoulders began to tremble faintly, but she bit her lip hard, refusing to let a sob escape.

"Toshihi."

Madara Uchiha's voice passed over her head, directed at the man behind her.

"I'll leave this matter to you."

Kurama Setsuko jerked her head up.

Toshihi nodded. "Yes."

Setsuko finally understood. Her eyes reddened at once, and she bowed deeply toward Madara Uchiha, striking her forehead against the ground.

"Thank you, Lord Madara!"