"This is… my main camp?!"
Uchiha Katsu blurted out in shock.
In his mind still lingered the snowy riverbank, the frozen river, that calm old figure quietly fishing, and the final white light that suppressed everything. It all felt so real it had carved itself deep into his memory.
Katsu clearly remembered fighting that mysterious old man at the edge of the battlefield.
He had detonated his chakra and blown himself up, then used Izanagi to revive and launch a sneak attack.
But in the end he only touched the white light surrounding the old man, and after that there was nothing but crows.
So how did he suddenly return to the tent, even lying on the bed?
"Guards!"
Uchiha Katsu suppressed the storm raging in his heart and barked sharply.
Footsteps hurried outside the tent. One of his trusted Uchiha subordinates quickly entered and bowed respectfully. "Clan Leader, what are your orders?"
Uchiha Katsu suddenly looked up and asked rapidly, "When did I return just now?"
The subordinate froze for a moment, confused, but still answered respectfully. "Clan Leader, you've been sleeping in the tent the whole time. You never left the camp."
"Sleeping the whole time? Never left?"
Uchiha Katsu's body stiffened. The shock in his eyes instantly turned fierce, and his fingers clenched until the knuckles turned pale.
'Impossible. Absolutely impossible.'
He clearly remembered leaving the camp alone because he felt restless. He had walked to the frozen river and encountered that strange old man.
Every scene, every sensation from their clashes felt unbelievably real. How could it be that he never left the camp?
'Could it be… everything that just happened was only a dream?'
'Genjutsu! It has to be genjutsu!'
"Release! Release! Release!"
The whites of Uchiha Katsu's eyes suddenly turned red. The intricate and eerie Mangekyo Sharingan burst open in his eyes, and the crimson pupil power spun wildly as he tried to see through the illusion and break the genjutsu.
But in the next second, a chilling cold shot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.
There was no trace of any genjutsu disturbance. Everything around him was real.
The aura inside the tent, the heartbeat of his subordinate, the temperature of the desk. All of it was solid reality.
At this moment, he was truly inside his own main camp.
The subordinate nearby trembled when the clan leader suddenly activated the Mangekyo. Terrified, he lowered his head, completely unable to understand why the clan leader had suddenly lost his composure.
Uchiha Katsu took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. His voice was cold as ice. "Are you certain I've been sleeping in the camp the entire time? No outsiders came during this period?"
"Absolutely certain! This subordinate has not taken a single step away from guarding outside the tent. I would never dare deceive the Clan Leader!"
"…You may leave."
The tent returned to silence.
Uchiha Katsu's face was as heavy as iron as he repeatedly replayed the previous scenes in his mind.
Was it really just a dream?
Or was it a warning from fate, trying to make him stop the war?
Uchiha Katsu slowly walked to the weapon rack, his gaze landing on the flaming fan.
The fan hung quietly on the rack, spotless, without the slightest sign of being used.
"Could it really… just be a dream?"
Uchiha Katsu murmured to himself, yet a massive stone still seemed to hang in his heart.
The next day, Uchiha Katsu led his troops forward, and their route happened to pass the frozen river battlefield.
The moment his gaze fell on the ground ahead, Uchiha Katsu's face suddenly changed drastically.
The frozen river surface had shattered apart. In the middle of the snowy ground was a huge charred crater, the marks still fresh. It was exactly the trace left behind by his chakra self-detonation that day.
In the air still lingered a faint aura that belonged only to him, the chakra of the Uchiha clan. It was clearly recognizable.
In an instant, all his self-deception completely collapsed.
Uchiha Katsu stood frozen in place. A fear that seeped deep into his bones slowly crawled up the back of his spine to the back of his head.
It wasn't a dream.
It wasn't genjutsu.
Everything that happened that day was real.
And the power of that mysterious old man was already terrifying to the point that he could casually manipulate Katsu's life and death, alter his perception, and make him completely unaware of how he had been defeated or how he had returned.
When that thought crossed his mind, Uchiha Katsu felt a deep chill as he thought about it carefully.
'Is that… a god?'
Standing before the blackened explosion mark, Uchiha Katsu's heart pounded wildly. A cold wave rushed from the bottom of his heart to the top of his head.
To casually erase the process of a battle, alter someone's perception of reality, and make him completely unaware of how he lost or how he returned to camp…
Perhaps only the legendary Sage of Six Paths could do something like that.
Katsu suddenly remembered a piece of secret history within the Uchiha clan that had almost been forgotten.
It was about the past of Uchiha Izumiichi.
The clan's records were vague. They only mentioned that Clan Leader Izumiichi had once fought a mysterious old man of unknown identity in his early years.
But the details of that battle, the outcome, the result, everything was unclear, as if someone had deliberately erased it.
After that, Uchiha Izumiichi completely changed.
He became strange and muttered to himself, often staying inside the clan's Six Paths Temple.
He frequently stared at the sky and mumbled to himself. At one clan meeting, he even said something everyone treated as insane nonsense, "This world… has an invisible pair of hands manipulating everything from behind."
"Everything is the will of heaven…"
At the time, everyone simply assumed the clan leader had fought in too many battles and his mind had been worn down.
But now, it was happening to him…
Uchiha Katsu suddenly shook his head, trying to throw that terrifying guess out of his mind.
If that old man really existed and had lived from Clan Leader Izumiichi's era until now, just how many years had he lived?
How could anyone in this world possibly live forever?
"Could it be… the ancestor of the Sarutobi clan, the third leader of the Ninja Sect... Sarutobi?"
A thought surfaced, causing Uchiha Katsu's expression to darken again.
The Uchiha clan had preserved some records about the history of the Ninja Sect, though their stance had always been biased.
By logic, the Uchiha did not acknowledge the Ninja Sect.
The Uchiha only worshiped the Sage of Six Paths and the Uchiha ancestor.
But if that legendary Sarutobi were still alive, then with the methods left behind by the Ninja Sect…
Doing something like this would not be impossible.
After all, the Senju were practically the beloved sons of the Ninja Sect.
"If the methods from the previous era still exist, then…"
Uchiha Katsu stared at the chakra traces on the ground that belonged to him, his eyes flickering with uncertainty.
No matter who that old man was...
Sarutobi, a remnant of the Ninja Sect, or an immortal monster…
There was one thing he could be certain of.
That man wanted him to stop the war.
And that man's power was already strong enough to toy with him like a plaything in the palm of his hand.
However, the other party must be wary of something, which was why he did not dare to kill him.
Thinking of this, Uchiha Katsu clenched his fists, his gaze firm.
"My heart is already decided!"
"Is there a Six Paths Temple nearby?"
Katsu suddenly asked the people around him.
A subordinate stepped forward and said, "Yes!"
Uchiha Katsu took a deep breath. "Let's go! We'll pay our respects first!"
———
[Mount Myoboku]
Arisu rubbed his forehead slightly.
There was no way he could persuade Katsu about this matter anymore.
The Uchiha clan was always like this.
Trying to reason with this kind of typical Uchiha mindset was pointless.
Speechless. A classic Uchiha way of thinking.
Indra had been personally taught by him, so he was a bit better. But Indra's descendants were truly difficult to deal with.
"Forget it. I'll leave the rest to Ashura."
Arisu picked up the administrative documents and prepared to deal with them.
Arisu had lived for so long.
He had three hobbies.
Compiling history, reviewing government affairs, and observing the human world.
"Toadmaru says there aren't enough hands? They want more manpower and workers?"
Arisu frowned slightly as he looked at this administrative report.
Mount Myoboku currently had a problem, which was that there were a bit too few toads.
These toads were not like humans. Reproduction was not their main goal.
"Should I move those people from the moon over here?"
Then Arisu shook his head.
Those people on the moon could not be moved.
Just then, Black Zetsu walked over carrying a bundle of bamboo scrolls.