"Lord Madara went to capture the Nine-Tails…"
In the original work, the process of Madara controlling the Nine-Tails was almost glossed over, leaving only the understated description, "He used the Sharingan to control the Nine-Tails."
But now, watching Madara personally walk alone toward that mountain range shrouded in thick fog, he felt a complicated emotion that was hard to put into words.
Excitement, worry, and a little bit of… unwillingness.
"My strength is too weak."
Uchiha Akira lowered his head and looked at his hands.
His body was only eleven or twelve years old. His chakra was barely at the level of a Chunin, and his Sharingan had only awakened into a single-tomoe Sharingan not long ago.
Forget helping. Even if he just stood to the side, he would probably become a burden.
"Madara-sama was right. All I can do right now is hold him back."
"Think of a way to develop a few ninjutsu…"
Uchiha Akira gritted his teeth, turned around, and walked toward a higher slope nearby.
After settling down, Uchiha Akira took some dry rations out of his pack and chewed mechanically, finding them as tasteless as wax.
"What will happen next?"
The memories of his previous life told him that Madara would successfully control the Nine-Tails and then use it to launch a surprise attack on Konoha, forcing Hashirama to fight with Wood Release.
In the end, Madara would "die in battle," while Hashirama would pay the price to seal the Nine-Tails, and Konoha would usher in a brief period of peace.
But things were different now.
He had crossed into this world.
He had chosen to follow Madara.
The story had already deviated.
After reading the manga in his previous life, he had been angry countless times. Angry that Madara had been misunderstood and isolated, angry that everyone only saw Madara's "madness" but failed to see the desire for peace buried deep inside him.
Even though that desire eventually went to an extreme.
"This time… I'll rewrite the ending."
But how exactly would he change it?
He did not know.
His strength was too weak, and his right to speak was almost nonexistent.
The only thing he could do now was stay alive, get as close to Madara as possible, and wait until the day he could truly be of help.
"Stay alive first. Then become stronger."
"Once I've truly established a bond with Madara, I'll reveal some of it to him. At the very least, Uchiha Madara won't have to be deceived by Black Zetsu over and over again."
Uchiha Akira closed his eyes and began circulating the small amount of chakra in his body, silently training.
———
[Deep In The Mountains]
Violent chakra swept through the area like a tsunami.
The Nine-Tails was curled up in a valley that it had torn into a complete mess itself.
Even while resting, its enormous body gave off a suffocating pressure.
Its nine tails occasionally swished lazily, and the gusts they stirred up could easily uproot the trees around them.
The Nine-Tails had been living an ordinary life these years. Having lived for so long, there were many things it could no longer remember clearly.
But there was one thing the Nine-Tails remembered very clearly.
Back then, some inexplicable person had taken away its human friend, and that person was extremely powerful, knocking it down with a single slap and leaving it unable to stand.
Suddenly, its ears twitched.
An unpleasant presence was approaching.
"Uchiha clan… descendants of Indra…"
Kurama slowly opened its eyes, and a trace of ferocity flashed through its blood-red vertical pupils.
"It's you disgusting-eyed bastards again."
Before its voice had even faded, a black figure had already flashed out from the forest.
Uchiha Madara stood on a huge rock at the edge of the valley, his black hair flying in the strong wind.
His left eye was already in the form of the Mangekyo Sharingan. Three black tomoe slowly rotated within the blood-red pupil before finally transforming into a three-bladed pinwheel pattern intertwined with one another.
"Nine-Tails."
"Be a good boy and listen. It'll save me the trouble."
Madara's voice was not loud, but it clearly pierced through the howling wind.
"Uchiha brat, you dare come alone? Your ancestors weren't this arrogant back then."
Kurama let out a low laugh, thick with mockery.
"The current me is stronger than them."
Madara replied calmly.
The next second, his figure disappeared.
Almost at the same instant, Kurama's tail swept across violently.
The enormous force tore through the air, and the shockwave blasted the rocks on both sides of the valley to pieces.
However...
Madara had already appeared above Kurama's enormous head.
The Mangekyo Sharingan stared directly into those blood-red vertical pupils.
"Control."
One word.
An invisible mental force surged into Kurama's consciousness like a tide.
Kurama's pupils suddenly contracted.
"This guy… the power of his Sharingan… is even stronger than those Uchihas from before?"
It immediately gathered all of its will to resist.
As the strongest Tailed Beast, its mental strength far surpassed that of ordinary shinobi.
But Madara's Mangekyo Sharingan was like a precise surgical knife, cutting little by little into the deepest part of its consciousness.
"Get out!"
Kurama roared angrily, all nine tails rising at once and furiously lashing toward where Madara was.
Madara did not take them head-on.
His figure flickered through the air like a ghost, precisely avoiding the attacks of the tails each time.
At the same time, the power of the Sharingan continued to press down.
"Your resistance… is meaningless."
Madara's voice echoed through Kurama's mind.
"From the era of the Sage of Six Paths onward, you Tailed Beasts were destined to be used by humans. Instead of continuing this pointless struggle, why not… become my power?"
"Shut up!"
Kurama's anger reached its peak. It suddenly opened its enormous mouth and condensed a dark purple Tailed Beast Bomb.
Terrifying energy compressed and spun inside its mouth, distorting even the air around it.
Madara's eyes narrowed slightly.
He did not dodge again.
The Mangekyo Sharingan in his left eye suddenly accelerated its rotation, the three-bladed pinwheel pattern almost becoming a blur.
"Don't move."
His mental power surged in an instant.
Just as Kurama was about to fire the Tailed Beast Bomb, its movement suddenly froze.
The Tailed Beast Bomb, already condensed to its limit, simply hovered in its mouth, unable to be released.
"You…!"
Kurama's consciousness began to tremble violently.
It could clearly feel its body gradually slipping out of its control.
Madara slowly descended and stood on its enormous nose.
"It's over."
Uchiha Madara extended his right hand and gently pressed it against Kurama's forehead.
The power of the Sharingan erupted completely.
Kurama let out a shrill roar, shaking the entire valley.
But within that roar, its original fury and defiance were being suppressed, eroded, and covered up little by little.
Finally...
The roar abruptly stopped.
Kurama's enormous body slowly lowered its head, and its blood-red vertical pupils reflected the form of Madara's Mangekyo Sharingan.
Its eyes became empty and obedient.
"Roar… yes."
A low voice came from its mouth, without the slightest trace of resistance.
Uchiha Madara stood on the Nine-Tails' forehead, his black hair slightly disheveled by the strong wind.
"The Nine-Tails… is mine."
He muttered under his breath, his tone calm to the point of indifference.
But beneath that calmness was ambition and obsession that had been suppressed for a long time.
"Hashirama… you protect Konoha in your own way. Then I'll use my own way to put an end to the wars in this world."
He raised his head and looked toward Konoha. "Let's go."
He gave Kurama the order in a flat tone.
Kurama's enormous body slowly rose, its nine tails swaying silently.
It had been completely controlled by the Sharingan, becoming Madara's sharpest blade.
Madara leaped onto the top of the Nine-Tails' head, his whole body like a black statue standing in the strong wind.
"Let's go back to Akira first."
He thought for a moment before adding.
Although that boy was not of much use right now, since he had already brought him along, he should not leave him alone for too long.
And besides…
Madara slightly furrowed his brows.
At this moment, Uchiha Madara suddenly noticed someone spying on him from the shadows.
Uchiha Madara disappeared instantly, and the next second he appeared beside several Anbu.
"So it's Senju Tobirama's private troops.", Uchiha Madara said coldly.
The Konoha Anbu had not yet been formally established, but Senju Tobirama had already finished organizing the Anbu. As soon as Senju Tobirama took office, the Anbu would immediately become an official part of Konoha's forces.
"Uchiha Madara!!"
Several Anbu cried out in alarm and were just about to leave.
The next second, Uchiha Madara swung his sickle and instantly took care of them.
Uchiha Madara frowned deeply. "How did my whereabouts get exposed…"
Uchiha Madara thought for a moment, then decided that he should go back first.
———
[Outside The Cave]
An extremely faint chakra fluctuation, almost impossible to detect, lightly swept past from the direction of the cave entrance.
Uchiha Akira's body instantly tensed.
"Who?"
He immediately entered a state of alert, quietly activating his Sharingan. The single tomoe slowly rotated within his eye.
But there was no one outside the cave.
Only the rustling of leaves as the wind passed through them.
"…An illusion?"
Uchiha Akira frowned. He carefully sensed the area, but found nothing unusual.
What he did not know was...
During that short period when he had just closed his eyes to traine, Black Zetsu had already completed the second step of his plan without making a sound.