The dust cleared...
A young man with long black hair stood before them...
His expression was cold, he wore red armor, and his right hand was resting on the red-haired boy's head. He looked coldly at the Kiri-nin in front of him and said in a flat yet angry tone, "Who did you say you wanted to take away?"
"You?!" Zabuza, holding his ninja sword, looked at the black-haired man in shock, cracks appearing on his face, especially upon seeing those tomoe sharingan...
Could he be from the Uchiha clan?
"Who are you?"
He asked in an equally voice, "A mere pair of three tomoe sharingan can't stop us."
A pair of three tomoe sharingan meant, at best, an elite jounin. And they had two elite jounin on their side. He guessed Kisame was just caught off guard and kicked away earlier.
He glanced at Kisame, who had struggled to his feet, face full of rage...
His resolve firmed...
They would be fine. One of them could hold off the suddenly appearing three-tomoe user, while the other quickly took the target away. That should work.
You have to understand...
Once they retrieved the ninja swords, they would become one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.
Their strength was imaginable!
However...
"Stop you?" The long black-haired young man gently rubbed Itachi's little head, a ferocious grin spreading across his face. "Haha, you Kiri-nin are so arrogant!"
He glared...
"I have no interest in stopping you, I only want..."
His tone changed...
"To kill you!!!"
"Mangekyo!!!" Kisame and Zabuza, seeing the young man's eyes, cried out in shock...
Where did a Mangekyo come from in the Land of Whirlpools?
Could he be the legendary Uchiha Shin?
Just as they were about to ask...
"Grandpa Madara?" Itachi looked up, his small face surprised and happy, calling out incredulously, "I've seen photos of you with Dad and Mom. You're Grandpa Madara?"
Then, his tone became somewhat subdued...
"But in the photos, Grandpa Madara wasn't that young, and his hair was all white."
"Haha~" Hearing Itachi's words, the young man's fierce grin softened. He gently rubbed Itachi's head and said, "Kid, you guessed right. I am..."
He stepped forward...
"Uchiha Madara!!!"
He formed a hand seal...
"Watch closely, this is how the Uchiha clan's Fire Release is used!"
He puffed his cheeks...
"Fire Release, Great Fireball Technique!"
Instantly, a massive fireball appeared before them...
Kisame and Zabuza, initially startled by the young man's words, saw the impossibly large fireball rushing towards them and immediately snapped back to reality, hastily dodging!
But...
"And the Uchiha clan's taijutsu is used like this!" Uchiha Madara appeared directly behind Kisame, saying coldly, "Do you want to dance?"
A horizontal kick, a right-hand grab...
Kisame was sent flying again...
And Uchiha Madara, holding the long sword that originally belonged to Kisame in his right hand, looked at Zabuza with the bandage wrapped around his chin...
"Uchiha Style Sword Technique!"
His right hand chopped down vertically towards Zabuza with immense speed. Zabuza, seeing this, immediately raised his ninja sword, intending to block horizontally, when...
"Snap!"
His eyes widened as he watched his ninja sword break cleanly into two pieces!!!
Then...
"Thud!"
He was kicked flying again...
"Who did you say you wanted to take away?" Madara's eyes coldly watched the Kiri-nin kneeling on one knee before him, clutching his chest, as he said icily, "Trash!"
And Itachi...
Just kept staring wide-eyed at the young man who called himself Grandpa Madara...
It was truly unbelievable!
The Uchiha-style ninjutsu, sword techniques, and taijutsu that Obito-nii-san taught him could actually be used like this!!!
Suddenly...
Itachi seemed to remember something...
Although in the family photo he was just a baby, and Grandpa Madara's hair was streaked with white, standing next to a long black-haired young man with a silly grin – whom he had to call uncle but whom his father said was just a foolish kid – but...
There was a statue of a young Grandpa Madara at the academy entrance!!!
It looked exactly the same!
"Are you really Grandpa Madara?" Itachi hesitated, then asked, "The one Mom said always bought me roast chicken and held me?"
"Haha!" Uchiha Madara walked up to Itachi, crouched down, the flat expression on his face seeming to carry a trace of emotion. He looked quietly at Itachi, nodded, and said, "I didn't expect Mikoto to have told you about these things!"
He sighed, a flicker of kindness passing through his eyes as he looked at Itachi, who had grown up and was no longer the babbling toddler from back then...
"Itachi..."
"Long time no see~"
"Grandpa Madara!" Hearing the young man's words and feeling that familiar sense of closeness, Itachi was stunned for a moment, then an involuntary smile appeared on his face. "Long time no see!"
Then...
He nodded his little head, furrowed his small brows, and fell into deep thought...
"Mom also said that Grandpa Madara always had a stinky face, a bad temper, lost his temper often, and mocked others..."
Just as Uchiha Madara's face was growing darker, Itachi's little face broke into a smile, showing his neat teeth, as he looked at the young Grandpa Madara before him...
"But Mom also said Grandpa Madara is a good person and really dotes on me!"
"Haha!" Madara was taken aback, then laughed loudly. "Don't listen to your mother's nonsense."
However...
"Little friend, your mother is right."
A gentle voice with a hint of a silly laugh came through...
"Madara always has a stinky face." A man with long, straight black hair, wearing red armor identical to Uchiha Madara's, walked out with a kind smile on his face. "It's just that now..."
He sighed with emotion...
"He's changed so much!"
He crouched down to look at the little boy, at the three tomoe sharingan and that head of red hair...
"Is this your junior, Madara? Why does he have red hair?"
Are there redheads in the Uchiha clan?
However...
"Hmph!" Uchiha Madara snorted coldly, ignoring the long black-haired man's words. He stood up and said flatly, "Idiot!"
He turned his head to look at the Kiri-nin who were still kneeling on one knee, panting heavily, looking at him in shock...
"I need to deal with these two Kiri-nin first."
Madara's face was cold, the corner of his mouth slightly upturned...
"Later, I'll have to ask Mikoto exactly how she's raising this child!"
Even if he's a genius, letting such a young child stay alone in such a chaotic place? What if something happened?
And...
Uzumaki Jun!!!
Uchiha Madara narrowed his eyes, muttering to himself, "It seems I still need to teach him a lesson!"
Then, he calmly walked towards the Kiri-nin...
"Are you really Uchiha Madara?!" Kisame and Zabuza's faces shifted between fear and shock, looking at the young man before them in terror...
And the long black-haired man standing to the side, with a constant silly smile on his face, felt strangely familiar. A long black-haired man who could speak to Uchiha Madara like that, and wearing a Konoha headband...
Was the Land of Whirlpools tricking the Five Great Shinobi Countries?
Having such combat power hidden away, not using it no matter how dire the situation...
What a familiar tactic!!!
Mizukage-sama, withdraw the troops quickly, otherwise, you might end up like the Third Hokage...
They now strongly suspected...
Was the Daimyo of the Land of Whirlpools also hiding in the shadows, secretly plotting something?
"Kiri-nin..." Uchiha Madara walked up to them, looked at the headbands on their foreheads, sighed, and said expressionlessly, "I don't have time to dance with you."
He raised his long sword, about to bring it down, when...
"Clang!!!"
Suddenly, a spatial fluctuation appeared before him, and then a figure materialized in front of Uchiha Madara, blocking the ninja sword...
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