Uchiha Izuna's funeral was held in an empty, secluded area of the Uchiha clan grounds, and it was extremely simple.
At this time, the Uchiha did not yet have Naka Shrine.
There were no unnecessary rituals, no lengthy eulogies.
Madara simply stood in front of the coffin, his eyes heavy as he stared at his younger brother's pale face.
Izuna's eyes were covered with white cloth.
According to Izuna's will, his eyes would be transplanted into Uchiha Madara.
The clan members lowered their heads and silently formed a circle around them.
The only sounds in the air were the wind and occasional restrained sobs.
Madara stood at the very front without saying a word.
"Clan Leader... Clan Leader!!"
Just then, a clan member hurried over from the distance, stumbling as he ran, his face full of anxiety and panic.
"Clan Leader! Clan Leader!"
Madara slowly raised his head, his cold gaze landing on the man.
The clan member almost threw himself in front of him, gasping for breath as he reported, "Lord Izuna's residence before his death... caught fire! The fire was huge."
"By the time we rushed over, it was already burning! Those ninjutsu scrolls in his room... they were all burned! Not a single one was left!"
"What did you say?!"
Madara's pupils suddenly contracted.
The next second, his anger erupted like a volcano.
"What?!"
"What about the people responsible for guarding it?! What about the guards at the residence?! How did you keep watch over something this important?!"
Uchiha Madara suddenly grabbed the man by the collar, his voice low yet filled with suffocating killing intent.
After his younger brother died, Uchiha Madara had forbidden anyone from touching his brother's belongings.
Because Uchiha Madara wanted to leave everything untouched, keeping those things as memories.
He never expected them to be burned now!?
The clan member who was being grabbed turned deathly pale, hurriedly waving both hands as his trembling voice said, "C-Clan Leader! I don't know what happened either..."
"The guards said the fire started all of a sudden. It was like someone deliberately set it! By the time they discovered it, the flames had already shot up, and no matter how they tried to put it out, they couldn't..."
"The scrolls were piled together, and they were all paper and cloth. Once they caught fire, they were gone... I really don't know!"
The red in Madara's eyes grew even stronger, and the pattern of his Mangekyo faintly rotated.
He suddenly released his grip. The man staggered back two steps and almost fell to his knees.
"Useless!"
Madara growled, his figure instantly turning into an afterimage as he sped toward Izuna's residence.
The wind howled beside his ears.
There was only one thought in his mind. Those scrolls were things Izuna had left behind. Even if it was only a single page, it could not simply disappear like this.
By the time he arrived, the fire had already been completely extinguished.
One corner of the residence had been reduced to a charred ruin, and the pungent smell of burning filled the air.
Burned scraps of paper were scattered across the ground. Some fragments of scrolls could still vaguely be made out, but the writing on them had long since become blurred, completely reduced to nothing.
"Damn it..."
Madara stood before the ruins, slowly clenching his hands, his knuckles turning white.
He slowly crouched down and picked up a piece of paper from the ashes, with only its edges still remaining. A few incomplete characters could vaguely be seen on it, but its contents could no longer be made out.
"...Izuna."
Madara's voice was so low that it could barely be heard, carrying anger and pain suppressed to the very limit.
———
In the shadows not far away, a figure dressed in ordinary Uchiha clan clothing stood silently, quietly watching everything through the shadows of the trees.
Uchiha Katsu.
He did not approach, nor did he make any sound.
Looking at Madara's back as he stood before the ruins, a trace of complexity flashed through Katsu's eyes.
"Those things Izuna left behind... are far beyond this era.", Uchiha Katsu muttered inwardly.
Raikiri, Rasengan... those fragments of ninjutsu that should never have appeared in this era. If they were passed down, they would completely disrupt the original course.
'Lord Arisu's request to burn them was indeed not without reason.'
Katsu lowered his head slightly, his gaze calm.
"I'm sorry, Izuna. Your traces must be completely erased."
Uchiha Katsu then silently turned around, his figure blending into the deeper shadows and disappearing without a trace.
———
In the void, Arisu's gaze passed through the barrier and fell upon the Uchiha clan grounds.
The funeral was over, Izuna's residence had been reduced to scorched earth, and those scrolls that surpassed the era had also been completely reduced to ashes.
But it was not enough.
Those people who had been close to Izuna while he was alive, several trusted aides who had trained under him, several disciples whom he had personally instructed, and those few Uchiha clan members who had truly learned Raikiri and Rasengan.
Their existence itself was a hidden danger.
If someone happened to pass down the details, insights, or even fragments of those techniques, the original course could still deviate.
Arisu gently raised his hand.
An invisible force quietly descended from the void and seeped into those people's bodies.
———
[Several Days Later, The Uchiha Clan Grounds]
First, a disciple who had once been the most highly valued by Izuna at the training grounds suddenly developed a high fever that would not go away.
After examining him, the clan doctor could only shake his head. "The chakra circulation is disordered... It's as if something inside his body is slowly eroding him, but we can't find the exact cause."
The disciple lay on the bed, his consciousness sometimes clear and sometimes hazy.
Immediately afterward, a second person collapsed.
It was one of Izuna's most trusted aides while he was alive.
That person had once followed Izuna in organizing cultivation methods, and had also secretly practiced the prototype of the Rasengan.
First he coughed, then he coughed up blood, and finally he could not even stand steadily.
"Clan Leader... I feel... like there's something burning inside my body..."
By the time he was carried before Madara, he had become extremely thin, but there was still a trace of clarity in his eyes.
Madara stood beside the bed, his brows tightly furrowed, his Sharingan slowly rotating as he tried to see the flow of chakra inside the other man's body.
But he found nothing.
There was only chaos, as if life itself were being slowly drained away by an invisible force.
"Hang in there."
"The best medical ninja in the clan will come.", Madara's voice was low.
But the trusted aide gave a weak smile, his voice almost inaudible. "Lord Izuna... is gone... Those of us who followed him... probably... have reached the end too..."
As his voice fell, his hand dropped limply.
His breathing stopped.
Madara's fist clenched tightly, his knuckles turning white.
He was preparing to have a decisive battle with Hashirama, yet he never expected something like this to suddenly happen.
———
Over the next half a month, similar situations continued to occur.
The few clan members who had learned Raikiri fell ill one after another.
Some first experienced numbness in their hands and feet, unable to properly gather chakra. Others developed inexplicable high fevers and internal injuries, as if their bodies were collapsing from within.
The clan doctors were helpless.
They went through every scroll and exhausted every treatment method they could think of, yet they still could not determine the cause of the illness.
Some people privately speculated that after Lord Izuna's death, those who had been close to him had been haunted by "resentment."
Others quietly wondered whether the Senju had secretly used some vicious forbidden technique.
But no matter how they investigated, they could not find any evidence.
Madara personally looked into the matter several times, but could only watch as those people fell one after another.
Every time someone died, the killing intent in his eyes grew deeper.
"...What exactly is going on?"
Three years ago, Izuna had still been here personally instructing the clan members.
Now, those people with the greatest potential were disappearing one after another.