Senju Naoki’s figure had long since disappeared, yet the underground secret chamber remained deathly silent.
The flame of the oil lamp flickered in the stagnant air, casting a shifting light over pale, soul-shaken faces.
Everything that had just happened felt like an absurd nightmare.
An eight-year-old Senju brat had broken into their most sacred sanctuary.
Facing the killing intent of dozens of Uchiha elites, he not only remained unscathed but also adopted a sovereign posture, trampling their dignity and pride underfoot and crushing them to dust.
Finally, he had left behind the words “What a bunch of boring guys” before sauntering away.
And they, this group of Uchiha elites, actually hadn’t dared to move a muscle from beginning to end.
“He…
is he gone?” a young clansman asked, his voice trembling as he broke the silence.
“He’s gone…” another person’s voice was equally dry.
“We…
we just let him leave like that?”
This question was like a slap, stinging everyone’s faces.
Yes, they had just let him leave like that.
Why?
Why didn’t they dare to act?
Was it because of that pressure that made their very souls shudder?
Or was it because of those eyes that seemed to see through everything and disregard everything?
Or perhaps, it was because of that final evaluation that had completely shattered their mental defenses?
No one could answer.
They only knew that from today onward, a shadow named “Senju Naoki” would forever loom over their hearts.
Uchiha Setsuna stood before the stone tablet, motionless, like a petrified statue.
His brain was still racing, replaying every detail of what just happened over and over again.
The child’s aura, that arrogance that viewed all things as mere ants, that utter disregard for the contents of the stone tablet…
Everything pointed toward a possibility that made him both terrified and fanatical.
Just then, a series of hurried footsteps came from the entrance of the passage.
“What’s going on!
I received a report saying you were holding an unauthorized gathering here!”
Uchiha Kagami arrived in haste, accompanied by several confidants from the Police Force.
When he saw the scene inside the secret chamber, he couldn’t help but be stunned.
The scene of indignant passion and plotting rebellion he had expected did not appear.
Instead, the room was filled with walking corpses who looked as if their souls had been sucked out.
Every person’s face was deathly pale, their eyes vacant, as if they had just experienced a tragic, large-scale battle.
“Setsuna!
What on earth is going on?
You all…”
Uchiha Kagami’s words were abruptly cut off by Uchiha Setsuna.
Setsuna seemed to have gone mad; he rushed to Kagami in a few steps and grabbed his shoulders, his strength so great it caused Kagami pain.
“Kagami!” Setsuna’s eyes were bloodshot as he stared fixedly at Uchiha Kagami, his voice hoarse and trembling, “You…
you are that fellow Tobirama’s disciple!
You’ve always been by his side!
You must know!”
Uchiha Kagami was startled by his appearance and frowned, “Know what?
Setsuna, calm down!
What nonsense are you talking about?”
“I’m asking you!” Uchiha Setsuna’s breathing became incredibly heavy.
He leaned into Kagami’s ear and asked in a voice like a devil’s whisper that only the two of them could hear, “Tell me the truth!
Back then at the Valley of the End, after the final battle between the Elder Brother and Madara-sama…
did that bastard Senju Tobirama…
did he secretly take away some of Madara-sama’s body tissues?!”
“Did he…
This question exploded in Uchiha Kagami’s mind like a bolt from the blue.
He was completely stunned.
“You…
are you crazy?!
Setsuna!
What kind of nonsense are you spouting!” Uchiha Kagami forcefully shook off his hands, his face full of disbelief.
“Stealing Madara-sama’s cells?
How could that be possible!
Why would Tobirama-sensei do such a thing?!”
To a moderate like Uchiha Kagami, whose thinking had been completely ‘Konoha-fied’, such an idea was simply a fantasy and a slander against the Hokage-sama!
“Why?!” Uchiha Setsuna let out a shrill, miserable laugh.
He pointed at the empty passage entrance, his voice full of frenzy, “Because he came!
He was just here!”
“Who came?” An ominous premonition rose in Uchiha Kagami’s heart.
“Senju Naoki!
Senju Tobirama’s own grandson!” Setsuna roared, “He infiltrated this place alone!
Just now!”
Uchiha Kagami’s pupils shrank suddenly: “What?!
Naoki…
why would he be here?”
“How should I know why he was here!” Setsuna’s emotions were completely out of control, “I only know that the Chakra in him, that look in his eyes, that aura…
it’s exactly the same as the young Madara-sama recorded on the stone tablet!”
“He took one look at the stone tablet and let out a sneer!
He said the capacity we grasped was too boring!
Kagami!
You tell me!
Besides Madara-sama himself, besides the one who possesses those eyes, who else could do that?!”
Setsuna’s words caused the surrounding clansmen, who were originally soul-shaken, to snap out of it one after another.
They chimed in with various comments:
“That’s right!
That pressure was too terrifying!
My Sharingan couldn’t even function normally!”
“His eyes…
I only made eye contact with him for a moment and I felt like I was going to suffocate!”
“He didn’t even put us in his eyes!
Dozens of us Jonin and Chunin were like a bunch of clowns in front of him!”
Uchiha Kagami listened to these incoherent, fear-filled descriptions, his mind in a state of chaos.
Naoki?
That brat who used ‘Physics-based Fire Style’ at the entrance ceremony?
He’s that scary?
Impossible!
He’s just an eight-year-old child!
“Did you all…
did you all see wrong?
Or were you caught in a Genjutsu?” Uchiha Kagami tried to explain with logic.
“Genjutsu?!” Setsuna acted as if he had heard the world’s biggest joke, “We have dozens of pairs of Sharingan here!
Whose Genjutsu could deceive so many of us at once?!
Kagami, how long are you going to keep deceiving yourself!”
A crazy, but at this moment incredibly ‘reasonable’, conspiracy theory rapidly took shape in Uchiha Setsuna’s mind.
“I understand…
I understand everything now!” Setsuna muttered to himself, his eyes growing brighter and brighter.
He must have stolen the most precious bloodline factors from Madara-sama’s body back then!”
“He wanted to replicate Madara-sama’s power!
He wanted to create an ultimate weapon belonging to the Senju that possesses Uchiha power!”
“And that weapon is his own grandson, Senju Naoki!”
“Hahahaha…
So that’s how it is!
So that’s how it is!
The so-called ‘Physics Ninjutsu’ is all a lie!
It was to cover up the truth of him stealing Uchiha power!”
This extremely far-fetched conspiracy theory, like a virus, quickly infected every radical member present.
They were unwilling to believe they had been scared witless by an eight-year-old brat.
But what if that brat’s body flowed with Uchiha Madara’s blood and carried that man’s power?
Then everything made sense!
They hadn’t lost to a Senju brat; they were defeated by the legendary god of the Uchiha Clan!
This wasn’t a disgrace; instead, it was…
glory!
“The Holy Son…
he is our Uchiha Holy Son!”
“He’s being imprisoned by the Senju!
We must rescue him!”
“That’s right!
Let him return to his roots!
Lead our Uchiha to regain our glory!”
Fanatical emotions were ignited once again.
Except this time, their goal had changed from “overthrowing the Senju” to “bringing back the Holy Son”.
And within the walls deep beneath the Naka Shrine, a black, sludge-like existence was slowly writhing.
Black Zetsu’s consciousness had also fallen into unprecedented confusion.
“Indra’s Chakra…
appearing in a Senju…
and so pure, so overbearing…
but this isn’t a reincarnation…
what on earth is going on?”
“Senju Tobirama…
cells…
could it be…
a move left behind by that man?”
“No…
that’s not right…
this aura, though it resembles Madara, is also somewhat different…
more…
ancient…
more…
pure…”
“The plan…
my plan seems to have encountered an unpredictable variable…”
Uchiha Kagami stood blankly in place, watching this group of clansmen who had fallen into fanaticism once again.
He felt his worldview collapsing inch by inch.
He opened his mouth, wanting to refute them, but found that any of his words seemed so pale and powerless in the face of their perfect logical loop.
He knew it was over.
The Uchiha Clan, because of an eight-year-old child named Senju Naoki, had completely headed toward an unknown, mad abyss.