Although rage burned in his heart, he still did not interrupt White Zetsu and quietly listened until it finished recounting the entire latter half.
When it was over, Madara Uchiha's anger had not subsided, yet his feelings had become increasingly complicated.
Overall, the notice had taken a clear stance, defining him as a traitorous missing-nin, but in evaluating his life, it had consistently adhered to one principle.
Merits and faults were to be separated, and facts were to be sought from truth.
Achievements were acknowledged; crimes were not avoided.
His early contributions were not erased because of his later corruption, nor were his later sins forgiven because of his earlier contributions.
After hearing it all, Madara Uchiha, whose feelings had become somewhat complicated, spoke. "Go on then and tell me, what exactly is this society of Shinichi Higashino's supposed to be?"
With these words, White Zetsu immediately perked up.
Gesturing animatedly, it poured out in one breath everything it had learned in Konoha over this period about the Ninja Way Origins Research Society: from the society's purpose and the preparations for its founding assembly, to the heated discussions among Konoha's villagers, and even the lively spectacle of various countries and ninja villages from surrounding nations sending people to attend the ceremony.
It even vividly recounted, in its uniquely exaggerated tone, some hearsay rumor that had spread from who knew which tavern, namely, that Shinichi Higashino might be the reincarnation of the Sage of Six Paths.
Although White Zetsu's words were as unreliable as ever, mixed with a large amount of embellishment and exaggeration of its own, Madara Uchiha still gradually pieced together the rough outline of the society from that chaotic narration.
Return to the Ancestors' original intent and reclaim the Sage of Six Paths' original heart.
Madara Uchiha silently chewed over those two phrases in his heart and once more fell into silence.
This time, he remained silent for a very, very long time, so long that White Zetsu began to think he had fallen asleep and hesitated over whether it should quietly sink into the rock wall and slip away.
Yet at a certain moment, a low, hoarse laugh quietly rang out within the desolate cavern.
"Heh heh heh heh heh..."
At first, the laughter was low and restrained, as though it had been suppressed in the depths of his throat for too long and had finally found an outlet; then it grew louder and more unrestrained.
"Hahahahahahahaha!"
The wild laughter echoed ceaselessly through the empty cavern, shaking loose dust and gravel from the rock walls.
At this moment, Madara Uchiha's aged, withered body, like decaying wood, somehow, amid that utterly unrestrained laughter, once again revealed the bearing of the hero who had once dominated the Shinobi World, looked down upon all under heaven, and shook an entire era with his own strength.
No one knew how long the laughter lasted before it finally came to an abrupt halt.
Madara Uchiha lifted his eyes, looked at the bewildered White Zetsu beside him, and said calmly, "Go and bring Black Zetsu here."
"Black Zetsu?"
White Zetsu froze for a moment, then abruptly widened its eyes in disbelief. "Madara-sama, you... You intend to go out personally?!"
Good heavens, Madara-sama was actually planning to leave this cavern?
Since the day it had been born, it had never once seen Madara-sama leave this place by even half a step.
Even back then, when the Rinnegan had been transplanted into that red-haired kid from the Village Hidden in the Rain, it and its companions had carried out the task according to Madara's orders.
And now, all because of Shinichi Higashino and that society of his?
"Mm." Madara Uchiha nodded, his tone calm, with no intention of explaining any further.
"But, Madara-sama, your body..."
White Zetsu looked hesitantly at Madara Uchiha's deeply lined face and at the tubes behind him that were connected to the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, still trembling faintly at this very moment.
Anyone could see that this body had already reached the edge of utter exhaustion, and that each extra day of life was only being forcibly sustained by the life force pumped into him by the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
Once he left this place and lost the statue's continuous supply, even if it were only for a few days, even if Obito could serve as a substitute, the damage to this crippled body would still be irreversible.
"I won't die yet." Madara Uchiha cut it off flatly.
In truth, he knew better than anyone that going out this time and leaving the direct supply of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path would inevitably worsen his already barely sustained body, and might even shorten the little life he had left, but he had to go!
Because he was the true inheritor of the Sage of Six Paths!
He had seen the stone tablet passed down through generations of the Uchiha Clan, and upon it were engraved the secrets personally left behind by the Sage of Six Paths.
He knew the true meaning of the Rinnegan, understood the ultimate purpose of the Eye of the Moon Plan, and comprehended that Infinite Tsukuyomi was the only salvation for this world.
He had betrayed Konoha, Hashirama, and everyone who had once stood by his side, but all of this was precisely because he, more than anyone else, had remained loyal to the Sage of Six Paths' true intention.
The stone tablet had made it very clear: only Infinite Tsukuyomi could end the endless strife upon this land, only it could completely free all ninja from the fate of slaughter.
This was the final answer the Sage of Six Paths had left to later generations of students of Ninja Creed.
This was the true meaning of connecting hearts; this was the ultimate mission the progenitor had bestowed upon the ninja.
Hashirama did not understand him. The world reviled him. History had nailed him to the pillar of shame as a traitor, but that did not matter because the path he walked was the correct one.
Because only he, Madara Uchiha, had truly inherited the ancestor's original heart.
He had walked alone in this abyss for decades and had never expected anyone to understand him.
But now, an eleven-year-old boy had stepped forward, and that boy was not a descendant of the Uchiha, not a descendant of the Senju, not even a child of any great noble clan, but merely a kid of civilian birth, an ordinary mortal with no blood relation whatsoever to the Sage of Six Paths.
Relying on a bit of talent and a bit of luck, he actually dared to invoke the name of the Sage of Six Paths, stand upon the land of Konoha that Madara himself had once helped establish, claim that he had comprehended the Sage of Six Paths' original heart, style himself the spokesman of the progenitor's will, and call upon all the ninja of the Shinobi World to follow him in returning to the original mission the Sage of Six Paths had bestowed upon ninja?
Madara Uchiha could choose not to care how Konoha defined him.