Whether as a missing-nin or a criminal, he had long since stopped caring, but there was one thing he absolutely could not tolerate: someone using the name of the Sage of Six Paths to spread a so-called original intention that he himself had never acknowledged.
This was a dispute of ideology! A dispute over orthodoxy!
Who had the right to define the Sage of Six Paths?
Who had the right to interpret the ancestor's true intent?
Who was the true heir of Ninja Creed?
He, Madara Uchiha, had spent his entire life pursuing the answer to this question, even going so far as to destroy everything he had built with his own hands.
And now, a mere boy who did not even possess the Rinnegan, a boy he had never even met, what gave him the right?
So he had to go!
Even if it cost him his lifespan, even if this body had already reached its limit, he had to see with his own eyes that boy named Shinichi Higashino, who dared to spread belief in the Shinobi World in the name of the Sage of Six Paths, and find out exactly what kind of person he was.
And just what kind of bullshit was that so-called true intent of the Sage of Six Paths that he kept talking about!?
Besides, this trip to Konoha might also be a chance to take a look and see whether the current Uchiha Clan still has a child suitable to watch over the Eye of the Moon Plan on his behalf after his death.
After all, he did not have much time left, and it was time to make some arrangements for what would come after him.
A moment later, a middle-aged man whose skin was so pale it was almost bloodless stood at the entrance of the lava cave.
He wore a simple, old-fashioned monk's robe, his entire appearance that of a monk, and in his hand he held an old string of prayer beads of unknown origin.
Standing there as he was, he somehow fit this attire perfectly, without the slightest sense of incongruity.
This was Madara Uchiha after covering himself with White Zetsu and Black Zetsu's outer shell.
There was naturally a deeper meaning to this appearance. Hadn't that kid Shinichi Higashino claimed that the Sage of Six Paths had once been a monk who traveled the world in search of a way to save it?
Hadn't he said that he had glimpsed the ancestor's original intention only after reading Buddhist scriptures and comprehending Buddhist principles?
Then he would go in the guise of a monk and personally see what sort of thing that little kid who dared claim he had understood the Sage of the Six Path's original intention really was.
"Well then, kid! Let me get a good look at just how capable you really are, to dare claim that you understand the true intent of the Sage of the Six Paths."
Madara Uchiha, now dressed as a monk, narrowed his eyes, then stepped forward and began walking toward Konoha in the Land of Fire.
And so, Madara Uchiha, a man who had hidden in that lightless underground lava cave for decades, almost completely cut off from the world, made the decision to leave this place for the sake of nothing more than an eleven-year-old boy and a society that had yet to be established!
He was going to Konoha in person, to that founding assembly in person, to listen in person, and even debate in person!
Although Shinichi had long prepared himself to debate others at any time from the day he raised the banner of the Sage of Six Paths, even he could never have imagined that the very first person who might come to debate scripture with him would be someone of this caliber!
...
At the same time, in the Land of Tea.
On a winding mountain road, a monk walked at an unhurried pace. He still wore that peculiar itinerant-monk outfit, with a thick, long braid hanging down behind his shoulder, and the black diamond-shaped mark on his chin stood out especially clearly beneath the afternoon sun.
In his hand was a newspaper he had casually taken from a roadside paper stall. His gaze lingered for a moment on the reports about Shinichi Higashino and the Ninja Way Origins Research Society, after which he casually tossed the paper aside.
The instant it left his hand, it turned into countless gray-white fragments and silently disintegrated in the mountain wind, not even a speck of dust remaining.
"A boring trick."
He gave that faint evaluation and continued walking along the mountain road, yet after only a few more steps, he stopped again.
"Oh well... I'll go take a look."
In any case, he would not be able to find Shibai's whereabouts anytime soon, and rather than continue wandering this land aimlessly, he might as well go see what sort of commotion that boy, who had stirred up such a fuss ever since this mortal war began, was capable of causing.
He would treat it as nothing more than a trivial bit of seasoning in his long journey.
Konoha was the head of the Five Great Ninja Villages, gathering the finest ninjas in the current Shinobi World and the most tightly woven intelligence network.
But to the monk, none of that meant anything, and in the end, they were merely mortals.
His injuries were indeed severe, so severe that for the past thousand years, he could do nothing but parasitize this frail shell and cling to life, without even the right to choose a proper vessel, but even so, if he wished it, everyone in the current Shinobi World combined would still be no match for him.
It was just that after fighting such a battle, he himself would also die, and precisely because of that, in the thousand years he had walked this world, he had never once fought anyone.
Besides, Kaguya's two sons were ultimately still a hidden danger.
As for what had become of those descendants who inherited Kaguya's bloodline, it was truly impossible to say.
For all he knew, they might still be silently watching everything from some dimension within this Shinobi World even now.
Especially Konoha, that village was tied by countless threads to Kaguya's direct bloodline, and no matter how one looked at it, it was a place full of trouble.
Still, the monk was not worried about that. He had absolute confidence in his concealment techniques.
Back then, when Kaguya used the Infinite Tsukuyomi to seize control of the entire planet and searched every inch of this world, she still failed to find any trace of him.
If Kaguya could not do it, then her two sons certainly could not.
Thinking of this, the monk raised a hand and gave a light wave, and his appearance changed soundlessly.
The thick, long braid quietly vanished, leaving a cleanly shaven head, and the monk's robe changed as well, from that slightly peculiar itinerant style to the most ordinary monk's garb imaginable.
His features had always been plain and restrained. Now, with this outfit added to them, he looked exactly like a wandering monk lodging in some rural temple, the sort of person no one would spare a second glance for on the road.