After Uchiha Madara walked some distance, he suddenly realized something seemed off.
Although he and Shichimi had only discovered each other after passing a corner, he hadn't sensed her presence at all beforehand.
Moreover, thinking back carefully, Madara felt that even at the moment he saw Shichimi, she still seemed to lack any perceptible presence in terms of chakra sensing.
If he hadn't actually seen Shichimi with his own eyes, then in Madara's perception, the place where she stood should have been completely empty... as if that Shichimi was merely a phantom shell.
However, that feeling lasted only an instant, so Madara couldn't be certain whether he had experienced an illusion.
The commotion from the battle grew increasingly intense, but after a few minutes, everything returned to silence.
Uchiha Madara arrived at the center of the battlefield, where several Uchiha ninja were gathered. Drawing closer, he discovered one of them was clutching his abdomen with one hand, blood staining half his body.
"Madara."
Someone noticed Uchiha Madara's arrival.
Madara nodded and said to the wounded man:
"Go treat your wounds first."
"Yes."
The air was filled with a burnt smell. By moonlight and the surrounding torches, Uchiha Madara observed the corpse lying on the ground... Well, no need to observe—Madara could tell at a glance they'd be hard-pressed to extract any valuable clues from the body.
"What happened here? Did our people use Fire Release?"
Not only was the corpse severely burned over most of its body, but its neck bore only a gruesome wound—the head above had completely vanished.
More precisely, it hadn't vanished but was smeared all over the ground.
"Yes and no. This person, seeing escape was hopeless, directly gave up resistance and used his body to tank our Fire Release, while simultaneously swallowing an explosive tag in his mouth. The result... as you can see, Madara."
A ruthless end, but Madara felt nothing special about it—in this era, such deaths among ninja were commonplace.
Whether from subjective intent or objective side effects, this infiltrator managed one final insult to the Uchiha, creating significant trouble for the cleanup crew.
Madara glanced once and lost interest. In such circumstances, theoretically only the Shinigami could extract intelligence about the deceased's identity, origins, infiltration purpose, or accomplices.
"Wait for the elders from the interrogation department. Hand the corpse over to them."
After leaving these words, Uchiha Madara turned and left, but he didn't return to his residence.
Walking through the village alleys, Madara suddenly looked up in a certain direction and once again spotted the seemingly furtive Uchiha Shichimi.
Since Madara was hiding in the shadows, Shichimi didn't notice him.
Watching Shichimi's figure depart, Madara silently nodded—he had been overthinking earlier. Shichimi was indeed fine.
After winding through the village to ensure no one was following, Uchiha Madara slipped into an inconspicuous building.
Through the windows, the house appeared pitch black and quiet, looking deserted and unvisited.
After entering, Madara walked to the innermost room, lifted the floorboards, and entered a narrow underground passage.
At the passage's end was a brightly lit basement.
Over a dozen ninja were already seated in this underground space. Though they varied in height and build, all were exceptionally young ninja.
Uchiha Madara's arrival as their backbone sparked rising discussion.
"Madara, what's the situation above?"
"Was the infiltrator the same person we discovered last time?"
Uchiha Madara gestured for calm. After sitting against a wall, he spoke:
"The infiltrator is dead. Before dying, he cleaned up his corpse very thoroughly—on the surface, it'll definitely be difficult to investigate any effective clues... But as expected, he was the infiltrator we discovered previously."
"So it was him. Then this person's identity and purpose might match our earlier speculation?" said a ninja sitting to Madara's right.
Madara nodded, giving a more precise answer:
"He deliberately concealed his identity, never even used signature ninjutsu, but if I'm not mistaken, he should be from the Hagoromo Clan..."
"Clan intelligence has leaked. The Hagoromo ninja's purpose was those Sharingan—they didn't hesitate to sacrifice elite ninja lives for this."
Hearing the infiltrator came from a supposedly friendly force, some present couldn't contain their curses: "Damn it, hasn't the Hagoromo Clan always stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us? Why would they harbor ill intentions toward the clan?"
Others immediately corrected this view: "The Hagoromo Clan will still stand with us, which is why they deliberately concealed their identity during infiltration and immediately gave us a 'dead men tell no tales' when they couldn't escape."
"Right, they don't want to damage relations with us, but simultaneously can't tolerate certain potential threats... Some of the Uchiha's power has plunged our friends into deep fear."
This statement carried a hint of pride in its tone.
"The Sharingan's power exceeded the Hagoromo's imagination, causing them anxiety."
Young people's thinking tends to be scattered, and as they chatted, they began drifting off-topic.
Uchiha Madara interrupted them at the right moment:
"These aren't the key points. The reason we allowed that infiltrator to operate in the village for a while was to use external forces to expose certain things..."
After thinking, he decided to speak plainly.
"We wanted to use such outsiders to directly tear open some of the festering wounds within the Uchiha Clan."
"Nameless, Nameless—who knows how many Nameless have been controlled by those higher-ups? The Hagoromo fearing Uchiha power is understandable. But what's unimaginable is that some within the Uchiha actually fear the Sharingan's power."
"If things continue developing this way, more people might lose their freedom for possessing special eyes, even becoming lowly puppets... Think of yourselves or your relatives—could you accept such things?"
Young people often think highly of themselves. Hearing Uchiha Madara speak this way, they easily placed themselves in the role of being feared and controlled by higher-ups for being too powerful.
The ninja here had already gathered due to dissatisfaction with the higher-ups' internal and external policies. Some were even confused—regardless of reasons, as long as someone cursed the higher-ups, they'd applaud.
Fortunately, Uchiha Madara's strength was unquestionable and they submitted to his leadership. Otherwise, the meeting's effectiveness wouldn't be much better than a QQ group chat.
They despised and rebelled against old authority while admiring and worshipping new authority.
"Madara, tell us what we should do."
"The Hagoromo Clan won't give up easily. If we discover their infiltrators again, still don't act—just monitor... The Hagoromo are concerned about bilateral relations and can only make small moves that won't greatly harm the Uchiha. We can secretly utilize them."
"Use the Hagoromo's power to expose those people's actions to all clan members. Afterward, they'll lose all authority and can no longer lord over the clanspeople from on high."
Among the young ninja present, someone with a sharper mind said:
"But Madara, similar rumors about experimenting on clanspeople have always existed in the village, and everyone hasn't had any particular reaction. Even if we expose the facts, will it really have the expected effect?"
"Rumors differ from facts, silence differs from approval, and more crucially... I'll step forward when the time comes."
Most Uchiha clan members definitely wouldn't be brain-dead enough to lose all sense of right and wrong. If only the facts about higher-ups secretly experimenting on clanspeople were presented, many people's reactions would likely stop at silent response. However, if someone stepped forward to clearly condemn the higher-ups...
As long as this person had strength and influence, most silent people would instantly become his supporters.
This had nothing to do with good triumphing over evil—when their actions had legitimacy and they could see hope of victory, they would naturally act.
Uchiha Madara's active motivation related to dissatisfaction with the clan's higher-ups' behavior, but another important point was that he saw Shichimi's shadow in certain ninja's terrible circumstances.
If Uchiha Shichimi weren't the current clan leader's sister, then with her Sharingan's special nature, she might also receive lifelong imprisonment treatment.
In a sense, if Shichimi's birth had been more unfortunate, she would be Nameless; if Nameless's birth had been more fortunate, she would be Shichimi.
Shichimi's rapid return to the Uchiha might be because in her heart, this mission wasn't simply saving people—it was equivalent to saving herself.
"Madara, let's do as you say."
"Good... Have you found that place?" Uchiha Madara asked again.
"Found it, but the defenses are too tight—we have no way to approach closer for confirmation."
His companions' troublemaking abilities were quite strong—they'd found the key location.
Someone handed Madara a map with detailed markings of visible and hidden sentries and barrier ranges around a certain village location.
Uchiha Madara nodded and took the map.
After unifying everyone's thinking, he continued: "In the coming days, stay alert and closely monitor for new invaders... Alright, let's disperse for tonight."
After speaking, Madara was first to leave.
Normally, to avoid attracting attention, his companions would leave in batches afterward.
Therefore, after Uchiha Madara left, others had time and space for continued discussion.
"Following Madara's thinking... if it's just this, isn't it too easy on those old fossils?"
"Right. I don't like the Hagoromo Clan for daring to invade the Uchiha village, but I like those high-and-mighty old pests in the clan even less."
"Our thinking aligns."
"In that case, is there a way to make two annoying things come together?"
"Facing external enemy invasion, shouldn't the elders who habitually point fingers and give orders make contributions to the Uchiha Clan? They can't just talk without acting, right?"
"Indeed. Only moving mouths without hands, one face in front and another behind—that's no way to maintain authority as elders."
"Heh heh."
These Uchiha youngsters let out sinister laughter in unison.
If young people aren't spirited, can they still be called young people? Uchiha Clan youth are truly exceptional—they're a bit more than spirited...
Well, they're lawless.
...
Yūshin didn't know that in current events, Uchiha Madara actually played a positive role—he simply didn't want to encounter Madara again.
In principle, Yūshin didn't want too much contact with people he couldn't defeat.
Uchiha internal undercurrents were surging, roughly divisible into the following factions:
Shichimi and Yūshin, Hagoromo invaders, Uchiha higher-ups, young Uchiha clan members led by Uchiha Madara, and the behind-the-scenes directors Black Zetsu and White Zetsu who had lost detailed control.
Shichimi's purpose was rescue, Yūshin's purpose was helping Shichimi while collecting scratch cards, Uchiha Madara's purpose was solving toxic elements among the higher-ups, and the Hagoromo invaders' purpose was seizing Sharingan.
Shichimi and Hagoromo's purposes conflicted, so they'd definitely clash.
As for why there were so many White Zetsu here yet they'd lost detailed control over the situation—as always, Yūshin was collecting scratch cards.
It felt like an elephant making plans without realizing it was being secretly gnawed by mice.
Yūshin's first lottery results weren't ideal, but no matter—there would be more opportunities ahead.
The next morning.
Due to last night's infiltration, the Uchiha Clan village's atmosphere became extremely tense. Ninja performed their duties, intensifying village searches and surveillance.
Chaos amid busyness was inevitable, but fortunately everyone's quality was good—no major disasters occurred.
Of course, even at such times, the village inevitably had some idle people—like Uchiha Shikane.
At this moment, he secretly slipped into Uchiha Madara's room... Well, not secretly at all—he swaggered in as if he owned the place.
The respectable big brother naturally wasn't home—with great ability comes great responsibility. Uchiha Shikane was young with average strength, hence idle; Madara's outstanding strength meant he had to participate in village duties.
Shikane casually searched the living room and immediately found the map Madara had obtained last night.
Obviously, Madara had deliberately left it there. He might not see through others' hearts, but couldn't he see through his own brother?
If not for being too obvious, he'd have wanted to paste this map directly on his third brother's forehead.
Uchiha Shikane didn't care about any of this—being able to obtain this map proved his outstanding ability, didn't it?
Regardless of how much effort Uchiha Madara's companions had invested, with the map in Shikane's hands, it became his achievement.
He tucked the map into his clothes and prepared to find Shichimi.
Time to claim credit—he had to claim it thoroughly.
🔥 Want to read the next 50+ chapters RIGHT NOW?
💎 Patreon members get instant access!
⚡ Limited-time offer currently running...
👉 [Join on - patreon.com/GoldenLong]