Main World.
Autumn, Year 24 of Konoha.
A hidden underground cavern somewhere.
The life-support apparatus connected to the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path by tubes gave off a low hum, its dark red light flickering through the cavern. Madara Uchiha reclined in a stone chair, his withered body entwined with countless fine tubes. Like parasitic vines, they fed the statue's vitality into his failing shell, drop by drop. His eyes were closed, his eye sockets sunken, but the wrinkles on his face had deepened since a few years ago. He was already in his fifties, and his body deteriorated by the day. But he was still alive. He could not die yet.
A White Zetsu emerged from the ground like a growing plant, without a sound. He knelt before Madara, his voice hollow and respectful. "Lord Madara, there is news from the Toyotomi Clan."
Madara did not open his eyes.
"Speak."
"Toyotomi Jinsyokuin awakened Wood Release at two years old."
Madara's eyes snapped open. His blind left eye remained gray-white, but his right-the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan-spun wildly in its socket, its scarlet light illuminating the dim cavern.
"What! He awakened Wood Release at two!"
White Zetsu lowered his head. "Yes. Senju Tsubaki's son. Senju Tsubaki belongs to a branch family of the Senju Clan. The child has Senju blood."
Madara fell silent. His right eye stopped spinning, but the light in his pupil remained sharp. The figure of Hashirama Senju surfaced in his mind-the man who had founded Konoha with him, brought peace to a war-torn world with him, and shared the title of "God of Shinobi" with him. How old had Hashirama been when he awakened Wood Release? In his teens? He could no longer remember. But certainly not two.
"That's even earlier than Hashirama Senju." Madara's voice