The Hiraishin mark was more than a beacon; it was a needle stitching Dan's consciousness to the fabric of a distant, cold reality. In the Mirror Space, the System worked tirelessly, filtering the static of the dimensional bleed that Obito left behind.
[System Notification: Spatial Anchor Stable.]
[Coordinates Located: Land of Mountains. Depth: 200 meters subterranean.]
[Warning: High-Density Demonic Chakra detected at the destination. Proceed with absolute stealth.]
"Anko, Shisui—you stay. If I'm not back in six hours, initiate 'Protocol Black'. Erase the logs and move the clan to the emergency bunkers," Dan commanded.
"Dan-kun, you're going into a hole in the ground to face a god," Anko hissed, her hand gripping his sleeve. "At least take a sealing squad."
"Numbers are a liability where I'm going," Dan said. He looked at his hands. They were steady, but his chakra was humming with a frantic, predatory rhythm.
Zip.
The transition was violent. He didn't appear in a room; he appeared in a graveyard of stone. The air was heavy, smelling of ozone, rot, and something ancient—the scent of dry parchment and stagnant water.
Dan stood in a massive cavern. Ahead of him, the light of a thousand flickering candles revealed a sight that would have frozen the blood of any other shinobi.
A colossal wooden statue—the Gedo Mazo—loomed out of the darkness, its multiple eyes closed, its mouth gagged. And at its feet, connected to the statue by a series of white, pulsating tubes, sat an old man.
His hair was long, white, and matted, falling over a face that was little more than skin stretched over a skull. But even in his decrepitude, the man radiated a pressure that made the cavern walls groan.
Madara Uchiha.
Beside him, the masked man—Obito—was kneeling, his white-Zetsu arm being tended to by a swirling mass of plant-like clones.
"You followed me," Obito rasped, his head snapping toward Dan. "Impossible. No one can track the Kamui."
"I told you," Dan said, his 3-Tomoe Sharingan spinning. "I changed the locks."
"Silence, Obito," the old man croaked. His voice was a dry rattle, yet it commanded the very air in the room. Madara opened his eyes. One was clouded with cataracts; the other was a rippling violet pattern that Dan recognized instantly.
The Rinnegan.
"So," Madara said, his gaze pinning Dan to the spot. "The 'Anomaly' finally enters the lion's den. I have lived for over a century, boy. I have seen the rise and fall of nations. But I have never seen a soul that feels... recycled."
Dan felt a chill. Madara's intuition was as sharp as his legendary blade. "I'm just an Uchiha who refuses to follow a script written by a dying man, Madara."
"Dying?" Madara let out a short, hacking laugh. "I am the world. I am the dreamer. You... you are a glitch. A child who has stolen the Shodai's power and combined it with the Second's speed. You are an amalgamation of everything I sought to surpass."
"I didn't steal it," Dan said, stepping forward. He didn't draw his sword. Against Madara, even a dying one, a sword was a toy. "I calculated it. I built it. And now, I'm here to offer a deal."
Obito stood up, his hand glowing with wood-warping chakra. "A deal? You're a trespasser! You die here!"
"Let him speak," Madara commanded.
"The Infinite Tsukuyomi," Dan said, the words causing the Zetsus in the shadows to hiss. "It's a lie, Madara. You think you're creating a world of peace, but you're just preparing a harvest for something you don't understand."
Madara's eye narrowed. The pressure in the room doubled. Dan's knees buckled, but he forced himself to stand.
"The stone tablet..." Madara began.
"Was edited," Dan interrupted. "By the very shadow that is currently hiding in your Zetsu clones. You aren't the savior, Madara. You're the battery."
[System Notification: High-Level Psychotic Spike detected in Target 'Madara Uchiha'.]
[Warning: Suspending all training! All processing power diverted to 'Mental Fortification'!]
"You dare... tell me... my life's work is a deception?" Madara's voice was no longer a rattle; it was a thunderclap.
The Gedo Mazo roared. A shockwave of pure, purple chakra blasted outward. Dan didn't dodge. He slammed his hands together.
"Mokuton: Wood Locking Wall!"
The gnarled wood erupted from the cavern floor, forming a dome around Dan. But Madara's chakra didn't just hit the wall; it dissolved it. The wood withered and turned to dust in seconds.
Zip.
Dan appeared on a ledge high above the statue. "I'm not here to fight you, Madara! You're too far gone for that. I'm here to show you the truth!"
Dan activated his Mangekyō.
[Ame-no-Uzume: Reality Overlay — MEMORY SYNC.]
Dan didn't show Madara a vision of the future. He showed him the System's calculations. He projected the architectural flaws in the Gedo Mazo's chakra flow—the "leaks" that were being diverted not to a dream world, but to a celestial vacuum. He showed him the hidden frequency within the Rinnegan that didn't belong to a human.
For ten seconds, the cavern was silent.
Madara stared at the violet projection in the air. His breathing was heavy, the tubes connecting him to the statue pulsing frantically. He was a man of logic and war; he knew when a pattern didn't fit.
"Fascinating," Madara whispered. He looked at the shadows behind him, where Black Zetsu was hidden. "So... the shadow has teeth."
"Madara-sama, don't listen to him!" Black Zetsu's voice emerged from the ground, sounding oily and panicked. "He is an agent of the Leaf! A trickster!"
"I am an Uchiha," Dan said, dropping back down to the floor. "And I am the Architect. I have the power to keep you alive, Madara. Not as a battery, but as a man. Without that statue. Without the Zetsu."
Madara looked at Dan. A strange, twisted smile touched the old man's lips. "You offer me life... when I have already accepted death. You are arrogant, boy. Just like I was."
Suddenly, Madara's hand moved. A black rod of chakra shot out with the speed of a railgun.
Dan didn't have time to blink.
Zip.
He appeared behind Madara, his hand reaching for the tubes. "If you won't listen, I'll force you to see!"
But before Dan could touch the tubes, a swirling vortex opened in front of him. Obito had intercepted him.
"You're not touching him!" Obito roared.
The two collided in a flurry of Taijutsu and spatial shifts. Dan used his Purple Electricity to parry Obito's wood-style spikes, while Obito used Kamui to try and drag Dan into his dimension.
Clang!
The cavern began to collapse.
"Enough!" Madara's voice shook the earth.
He raised a single hand, and both Dan and Obito were blown back by an invisible force—the Shinra Tensei.
"Go, boy," Madara said, his eyes closing. "You have planted a seed of doubt. But I am committed to this path. If you want to stop me, then build your 'Architecture' until it can withstand the weight of the moon. Because when I return... I will not be a dying man."
"Madara-sama!" Obito cried.
"Leave us!" Madara roared.
[System Notification: Forced Spatial Ejection detected!]
The Gedo Mazo emitted a blinding light. Dan felt the world dissolving. The Hiraishin mark he had placed on Obito flared one last time before being burned away by Madara's sheer will.
Dan appeared back in the Naka Shrine, his clothes shredded and his skin covered in fine, crystalline dust. He fell to his hands and knees, gasping for air.
"Dan-kun!" Anko and Shisui rushed to him.
"Is it done?" Shisui asked, his eyes wide. "Did you find him?"
"I found him," Dan said, looking at his trembling hands. "And I found out that the war we've been fighting... it's just a skirmish. The real enemy isn't the Stone or the Cloud. It's the very history of our clan."
He looked at the two of them. "We need to accelerate. We need the Sage Mode. We need the Nine-Tails. And we need them now."
[System Notification: New Title Unlocked: 'Truth-Seeker'.]
[Bonus: 'Natural Energy' Absorption speed increased by 200%.]
"The Architecture is no longer just for the Leaf," Dan whispered. "It's for the world."