Thank you for saving my brothers?!
Those words struck like thunder, ringing in the ears of the young Madara Uchiha, the adult Uchiha ninjas like Hikaku Uchiha, and the three Uchiha boys Naruto and the others had rescued.
"My brothers?"
Myoko, Togakushi, and Kurohi mechanically repeated the tall male ninja's words.
When they compared them...
They realized that Madara-nii-san's face seemed to overlap perfectly with the man standing before them, fitting together without the slightest mismatch.
"What do you mean, your brothers?!" the young Madara Uchiha snapped. "Listen carefully! They're my brothers! And while we're at it, who exactly are you people?!"
Standing behind the young Madara Uchiha, Myoko Uchiha and the other two, having heard Naruto and the others talk about the ninja villages of the future, suddenly thought of a possibility and stared at Madara Uchiha in disbelief.
"Brother?!"
Once he said that, Togakushi and Kurohi also tried asking.
"Brother?! Is that you?"
"Is that really Madara-nii-san all grown up?!"
Hearing his three younger brothers call him "brother" again, Madara Uchiha's long-sealed Uchiha emotions broke through his defenses without warning.
"Myoko..."
"Togakushi..."
"Kurohi..."
He had to pause for several seconds after saying each name before he could barely suppress the emotions surging inside him.
Meanwhile, the young Madara Uchiha tilted his head, several huge question marks practically appearing above it.
What Myoko and the others meant was...
This man in front of them, who was so strong it was suffocating but did not look particularly likable, was him?
Naruto explained, "He's Madara Uchiha from the future, just like us. In other words, he's the future you, dattebayo."
"The future?!" The young Madara Uchiha's eyes widened in shock. "You're saying you're from the future?!"
"Huh? We didn't say that?"
"You didn't!!"
"Well, you could've guessed, right? After all, Konoha was founded by you and the First Old Man together."
"Konoha?"
Seeing the young Madara Uchiha and the other clan members looking completely confused, Kurohi and Togakushi eagerly told their brother about all the good things Naruto and Obito had said about Konoha Village along the way.
The Konoha Ninja Academy.
The Konoha Hospital.
The Hokage, the Intelligence Division, the Medical Division, and the ANBU.
Genin, Chūnin, and Jōnin.
D-rank, C-rank, B-rank, A-rank, and S-rank missions.
Children did not have to go straight to the battlefield. At the very least, they had to finish the Ninja Academy curriculum first, and then an experienced Jōnin would lead a three-person team starting from D-rank missions.
Accompanying wealthy ladies on shopping trips in the village, helping elderly people pull weeds in their yards, and the most common job of all, helping catch small animals...
To children of the Warring States Period, those missions sounded like games. Yet they protected children as much as possible while also training their ability to work as a team.
The children who entered the Ninja Academy came from every ninja family in Konoha Village. They did not have to hide their family names or fear becoming friends with one another just because of the grudges between their clans and elders.
The young Madara Uchiha, the Uchiha of the Warring States Period, and Tajima Uchiha, who had only recently been revived, all stared wide-eyed. Even if they tried to make something up, they could never invent a story like that.
Tajima Uchiha already knew about Black Zetsu's conspiracy and the general truth of the ninja world. But Minato Namikaze had not had time to tell them much about the village of Konoha.
Madara Uchiha, who had once taken the Nine-Tails and tried to destroy Konoha, saw the longing for Konoha Village in his younger brothers' eyes.
When they heard that such a wonderful village had actually been founded by their brother, the unconcealed admiration in their eyes left Madara Uchiha with a storm of mixed feelings.
In the end, Hashirama had been right.
The eternal peace he had pursued had turned out to be nothing more than the moon's reflection in water, a flower in a mirror, a false dream.
If only he had held on to the purest version of his dream back then...
Aside from Izuna Uchiha behind him, probably no one knew what Madara Uchiha was feeling at that moment, while the other Uchiha ninjas were still too astonished to close their mouths.
The three boys, mainly Togakushi and Kurohi, kept talking back and forth, sighing that if they ever had the chance, they really wanted to see the village their brother had founded.
Izuna Uchiha looked at the brother beside him, and sure enough, he saw a flash of pain pass through his eyes.
More than half of those ninja village systems had been established by Tobirama.
Hashirama Senju had Tobirama Senju, but his brother had not had Izuna there to help him.
The young Madara Uchiha looked at the Madara Uchiha in front of him and still could not believe this man was his future self.
Until...
Izuna Uchiha took half a step back and stood behind his brother, struggling not to laugh.
"Izuna..." Madara's voice was helpless, but also indulgent. "I told you, don't stand behind me. My back is very sensitive."
"It really is Madara-nii-san!! Hahahaha." Kurohi went around the young Madara and came up to Madara Uchiha and Izuna Uchiha. "And Izuna-nii-san too! Even after growing up, Izuna-nii-san still pouts!"
Izuna Uchiha: "Tsk." Do I not have any dignity?!
Seeing their long-lost brothers again, it felt as though a huge part of the pain in their hearts had been soothed.
The rotten emptiness in their chests even began to scab over and heal again.
Although this was not their own world, simply seeing their younger brothers alive and well was already enough for Madara Uchiha, Izuna Uchiha, and their father, Tajima Uchiha. It felt as though the waters of the Naka River had washed away the grief that war had carved into them.
"Pouting, huh? You really do."
Madara Uchiha was amused, and the gloom on his face disappeared.
Once that distance faded, the Uchiha clan members from the Warring States Period came forward and began asking him, Tajima Uchiha, and Izuna Uchiha questions.
"Is it true?! Are you really the future young Clan Head?!"
Izuna Uchiha smiled and answered, "He's already the Clan Head, Hikaku-nii-san."
"Hahaha, that makes sense. At his age, he really should have inherited the position of Clan Head by now."
The young man beside Hikaku laughed.
In the Warring States Period, where the average lifespan was only around thirty, Madara Uchiha, who was twenty-seven or twenty-eight, would naturally have already succeeded his father, Tajima Uchiha, as the new leader of the Uchiha Clan.
As for the former Clan Head, Tajima Uchiha, even if he had not died on the battlefield, he would probably have become an elder and remained behind the scenes as an adviser.
None of them asked about their own futures.
As ninjas, they did not need to know when they would die. Instead, they hoped even more that Madara and his younger brothers had lived safely until the village was founded, so they would no longer have to create hatred with other clans over missions and mission payments.
The young Madara Uchiha was shocked. "You really are my future self?" And not some wild man who had stolen his father's wife?
"Believe it or not, that's up to you." Madara Uchiha was not gentle even with himself. He wanted to spend more time looking at the younger brothers who, in his original past, had died when they were children.
Whether the young Madara Uchiha believed it or not, everyone else there did.
They looked at the future Madara and began asking one after another what that blue chakra had been.
"Susanoo, one of the abilities that comes with the Mangekyō Sharingan."
"So Madara-sama's eyes really are the Mangekyō Sharingan!"
"That's such a relief. With power like that, Madara-sama will surely lead our Uchiha Clan to a point where no one can stand against us!"
"As expected of Madara-sama. Only someone with that kind of strength could found a village like Konoha, right?"
"Though Konoha and Hokage are strange names. Who came up with them?"
Those who supported an alliance spoke with joy, but among the clan, there were naturally even more hawks who opposed it.
Then the tone shifted...
"An alliance with the Senju? I can't even imagine it!"
"I don't understand how anyone could ally with our enemies!"
"Are we just supposed to forget our hatred for the Senju?!! My younger brother died at the hands of a Senju clansman!"
"And my parents!"
A crimson light flickered in the eyes of the Uchiha youth who had suffered so much.
"If we ally with the Senju, wouldn't that mean our loved ones died for nothing?!"
Izuna looked at his brother, who remained expressionless in the face of his clan members' questions.
It was easy to imagine just how much pressure his brother must have endured back then to decide on an alliance all by himself.
Carrying Izuna's eyes and the trust he had left behind, he fought Hashirama Senju. As the defeated side, how were the Uchiha supposed to establish themselves in Konoha? Those were not things his brother was good at, yet Izuna had pushed all of it onto him alone.
Thinking of that, Izuna could not help feeling regret.
If he had been just a little more cautious back then. If he had not learned that his brother's eyes had already lost most of their light and too easily believed the Stone Monument inside the Uchiha Shrine...
As Clan Head, Tajima Uchiha naturally viewed the matter from a higher level. He did not blame Madara for forming the alliance. He only lamented their tragic fate.
At that moment...
Naruto suddenly spoke. "If you think that way, won't you all die in the war too?"
That casual rebuttal immediately made the Uchiha clansmen who opposed the alliance turn their hostility toward him.
"You coward of the Uzumaki Clan! We Uchiha have never feared war or death!!"
"That's right! Born into this cursed ninja world, whether we die early or late, won't we all meet in hell in the end?!"
"What's so frightening about dying for the honor of the Uchiha?!"
Sasuke was displeased by their words, but since he was not good at preaching, he could only activate his Sharingan and glare at them in warning.
Naruto, who was usually quick-tempered, was not agitated at all this time. He waited for the two young Uchiha to finish, then asked them a question.
"So you don't care at all?"
"What?"
"I'm asking if you really don't care at all about how your relatives, brothers, and friends will feel when they suffer so much over your deaths that they awaken the Sharingan?"
That single sentence silenced the Uchiha youths present.
It also made Tajima Uchiha look at the blond kid in a new light.
Izuna Uchiha was instantly filled with guilt. Back then, it was exactly because he had thought that way that he had stopped his brother, even though his brother had also wanted to form an alliance with Hashirama Senju. It had been like a selfish, self-satisfied sacrifice, and all it did was leave his brother to bear even deeper pain afterward.
As if Naruto had spoken straight to his heart, Madara Uchiha, who had suffered from the deaths of one brother after another back then, discovered that this little Uzumaki brat in front of him somehow carried traces of his past self and Hashirama.
With just one sentence, Naruto left the hawkish young members of the Uchiha Clan speechless.
Sasuke gave a quiet snort of amusement in his heart, thinking that the idiot really was something. He always said he was bad with words, but in truth, he had eyes that could see through people's hearts and fate better than the Sharingan or the Byakugan.
After a long silence, the young Madara Uchiha neither agreed with the alliance nor opposed it. Instead, he turned to the man he had previously mistaken for some wild man who had stolen his father's wife and said, "Future me, let me ask you..."
"Ask."
"Did you protect our younger brothers properly?"
At the very least, Izuna seemed to be doing well, so perhaps the other younger brothers had also awakened the Sharingan and were living well in Konoha. He had always been thinking about how to let people face one another openly and honestly. He had never imagined his future self had actually done it. It was impossible for him not to feel even a little excited.
But Madara Uchiha did not give him the decisive answer he expected.
Because everyone from the future knew that even Izuna Uchiha had only just been revived.
In the end, even the Uchiha Clan had abandoned him. In pain and despair, Madara Uchiha awakened the Rinnegan and forced himself to survive alone in Limbo, a place accepted by neither hell nor heaven, until the moment Obito Uchiha appeared before him again.
The atmosphere suddenly grew heavy, and the young Madara Uchiha understood what that meant.