With his Mangekyō Sharingan already active, Uchiha Soren caught the faint chakra trail Nara Luming left behind. His body flickered through the rugged terrain in two-kilometer intervals — short-range Flying Thunder God micro-jumps — racing toward the battlefield where the Ino–Shika–Chō trio struggled to survive.
He arrived in a breath.
Collapsed cliffs.
Cratered earth.
The unmistakable stench of a battle against overwhelming force.
Soren did not reveal himself.
Masked chakra.
Silent footing.
Eyes sharp behind shattered stone.
The clearing was too open. Teleporting in with Flying Thunder God was dangerous — a misstep would expose him, and letting Madara know another shinobi possessed time–space ninjutsu was unacceptable. Against ordinary enemies, such slips were nothing. Against Uchiha Madara, even the smallest leak of information could be fatal.
Wait for an opening.
If none appears — extract them instantly.
He refused to be the fool waving a sword at a fully armored Susanoo.
The Battlefield
Madara had already deployed a second-stage Susanoo — a massive blue upper-body giant with four arms and four blades. Under his control, its slashes carved ravines, flattened cliffs, and nearly erased the Ino–Shika–Chō trio.
—until Akimichi Chuya, having swallowed his clan's secret tonic, swelled into a living mountain and rammed the Susanoo, staggering it briefly.
Dust engulfed everything.
But the Susanoo reformed — now with a spectral lower half — and unleashed blade arcs that sheared off chunks of Chuya's flesh. With two more strikes, his giant frame collapsed. He shrank back to normal size, bleeding heavily.
Nara Luming barely caught him before they both crashed down a slope, rolling helplessly across the shattered valley floor.
Above them, on the head of his now third-stage Susanoo, stood Madara Uchiha.
Yamanaka Bamboo lay motionless — his consciousness shattered when his attempt to puppet Madara was violently reflected back on him.
Only Luming remained conscious.
Madara's voice rang out, cold and absolute:
"All resistance before me is meaningless.
Everything you rely on is worthless."
"Now — it is time for you to go."
He raised the Gunbai—
Two kunai flew upward in pre-calculation.
Then Madara paused.
His eyes slid toward a ledge on a nearby cliff.
There stood a young Hokage in a billowing white robe over a black battle suit, high ponytail whipping in the gale — Uchiha Soren.
At his feet lay the three dying captains he had just teleported to safety seconds earlier.
Madara folded his arms.
"Flying Thunder God. The modern Hokage. Good eyes."
He studied Soren like an elder observing a promising heir.
"I never expected my clan to produce such talent after I left."
Then his tone dropped into something colder.
"Do you wish to dance?"
Soren Counters with Words Sharper Than Blades
Soren crouched to assess Chuya and Luming — both on the precipice of death — then looked Madara dead in the eye.
"No, Madara. My fight with you will not be here."
He lifted a kunai; the three officers vanished in a flash, teleported far from the battlefield.
Then Soren spoke again — this time aiming directly at Madara's pride, his plans, and his fragile convictions.
"Madara, I have also seen the stone stele beneath the Nakano Shrine — the one left by the Sage of Six Paths."
Madara stiffened.
Soren continued, voice like a blade:
"The Sharingan. The Mangekyō. The Rinnegan.
The Infinite Tsukuyomi you believe will create a perfect world."
His words dripped with calculated contempt.
"If such a paradise can exist, why didn't the Sage create it himself?"
"Why leave the stele incomplete? Why wait for someone else to activate it?
Unless… it cannot be done at all."
Madara's expression darkened — deeply.
The psychic blow landed.
His chakra flared like a typhoon.
The Susanoo convulsed—
Then evolved.
FOURTH-STAGE SUSANOO
A colossal tengu-armored titan rose behind him, blue flames erupting across the sky.
The air shuddered under the weight of its fury.
Madara's voice thundered:
"You speak boldly, boy.
But only the Rinnegan can end this world's suffering."
He stomped the ground.
The tengu's arms blurred—
Four titanic blade strikes cleaved mountains into dust.
Valleys collapsed like sand.
Shockwaves consumed the battlefield.
Soren vanished.
Reappeared.
Watched silently from another ridge.
Madara scanned for him, suspicious.
And Soren spoke again — this time delivering the killing hook.
"Madara—
Konoha possesses the First's body.
And the strongest research on ocular evolution."**
His tone was cold, mocking, dangerous.
"Our study of the Rinnegan will surpass yours."
"So I'll wait for you — at the Valley of the End."
Soren raised a hand and carved a crescent arc across a nearby peak with a single sword slash.
The entire mountaintop collapsed.
His final declaration echoed through the ravine:
"Winner takes everything.
Loser loses all.
You are the Shura of this world —
do not disappoint me."
Madara stared.
The Susanoo flickered.
Then its form dissipated as Madara turned away — gaze fixed toward Konoha.
He made his decision.
He would return.
He would reclaim Konoha.
And he would deal personally with this insolent upstart Hokage.
Soren watched him go, eyes narrowing into a predator's smile.
He had bled just enough truth — the Rinnegan — to lure the tiger from its den.
Madara was unpredictable.
Madara was catastrophic.
And Soren refused to let history repeat under the Uchiha name.
"So, Cloud Village… you will be the killing ground."
But before that—
There was one small nuisance nearby.
A peeping presence he had sensed from the moment he arrived.
Soren turned his head.
A faint smirk played at his lips.
"Peeking is a bad habit."
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