The Cost of 2%
The scent of pine and fresh soil replaced the metallic stench of blood, but the panic in Madara Uchiha's chest was colder, sharper. Izuna was alive, leaning heavily on a tree, nursing a cut that was superficial compared to the fatal wound of the previous timeline.
49% Emotion Stability.
Madara's mind, which housed the strategies of a man who had faced the First Hokage dozens of times, felt like a ship taking on water. That two percent loss was catastrophic. It was the difference between cold calculation and reckless obsession. It meant his decisions would be driven closer to the emotional extremism that had defined his first life.
The System didn't just fail; it penalized me for success.
"We need to move, Madara!" Izuna hissed, struggling to stand. "That Senju was fast. We let him escape."
Madara ignored him, his Sharingan locked onto the flickering obsidian screen in his vision.
[SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: New Threat Detected.]
[The Senju soldier who wounded Izuna has escaped this timeline. His fate has been severed. He is now an unknown variable. He must be neutralized before he creates a major divergence.]
"Izuna, describe the soldier," Madara demanded, his voice flat, devoid of the ten-year-old confusion he should have exhibited.
Izuna frowned, startled by the cold command. "What? Just a scout, maybe fifteen years old. Fast, not particularly strong, but his chakra was—wait, why are you asking me this? You saw him."
Madara analyzed the information. The original timeline correction had used Izuna's death to prevent Madara's own (as a consequence of severe injuries and grief). By resetting the clock, the System had created a paradox: Izuna lived, but the agent of the original fate (the nameless Senju) was now untethered, a butterfly effect loose in the Warring States Era.
"He is no mere scout," Madara stated, reaching a hand to his brother's injured arm. His touch was clinical, checking the depth of the cut. "He is an error. A loose thread. If he returns to the Senju with reports of our location, the retaliatory strike will come not in days, but hours."
Izuna, though younger, recognized the seriousness in Madara's eyes. "Then we run back to the compound and raise the alarm!"
"No," Madara said, his gaze fixed on the dense treeline. "We track him. And we eliminate him."
The 48-Hour Ultimatum
Madara had to hide the fact that he was moving with the battle IQ of a septuagenarian. He used the System to justify his actions.
He checked the Status Window again. The looming warning was still present: [WARNING: HOST DEATH IMMINENT IN CANON TIMELINE (48 HOURS).]
He had successfully diverted the immediate fate of Izuna, but not his own. He was still slated to die in his initial, forgotten skirmish, likely from shock or blood loss while unconscious, before the System intervened and reset the clock. The System was screaming that the core timeline still had a lock on him.
[HOST PROTOCOL INITIATED: MANUAL INTERROGATION.]
Madara projected the thought: "System. Explain the 48-hour death warning. The danger is averted."
The screen flickered violently, its text turning partially red, indicating high corruption.
[ANALYSIS: HOST LACKS FUNDAMENTAL COMBAT ABILITY AT CURRENT AGE. DIVERGENCE REQUIRES INCREASED HOST SURVIVABILITY.]
[HOST MUST EXPLOIT TIMELINE CORRUPTION TO ACQUIRE NECESSARY SKILL SET.]
A new Mission Log entry flashed:
| SYSTEM MISSION 002: SURVIVAL
| OBJECTIVE: Acquire the basic tracking skill necessary for immediate survival and threat neutralization.
| Conditions: Host must fully understand the "War God Instinct" Passive Skill.
| Failure Consequence (48 Hours): Host Death + Timeline Re-Correction (Death of Izuna).
Madara realized the System was not just a taskmaster; it was a desperate, corrupted tutor. It was forcing him to "cheat" his way into survival.
"The time-reversal was a temporary fix," Madara muttered, understanding the horror. "If I fail to solidify the change in 48 hours, the timeline attempts the correction again. And Izuna dies again."
His urgency intensified. He couldn't afford to walk, and he certainly couldn't waste time convincing the Uchiha elders.
"Izuna," Madara commanded, his voice sharp and compelling. "I need to understand how that Senju moved. I was momentarily blinded. Show me the tracks he left."
Izuna, though suspicious, pointed to a faint scrape mark in the mud. "He bolted that way, heading northeast. Toward the river."
Exploiting the Corruption
Madara knelt, deliberately focusing his Sharingan on the faint marks. He used his adult mind to quickly calculate weight, momentum, stride length, and foot placement—the basics of tracking a ninja.
[HOST MANUALLY INITIATING SKILL ACQUISITION.]
[PASSIVE SKILL: WAR GOD INSTINCT (LV 1) IS ACTIVE.]
The System flooded his senses with raw data—not memories, but pure kinetic information. He saw not just a footprint, but the pressure points, the slight twist of the ankle, the exact depth of the toe-off. His child's brain, boosted by the System, absorbed the complex data like a thirsty sponge.
[SKILL ACQUIRED: BASIC TRACKING (LV 1)]
The moment the skill activated, a small, painful sliver of his childhood memory—a comforting song his mother used to sing—vanished. The System didn't take stability this time, but something equally precious.
[MEMORY ARCHIVE: MOTHER'S LULLABY: LOCKED. (Used for Divergence Fuel).]
Madara felt a cold emptiness where the memory should have been. The War God System was literally consuming his past self to build his new, corrupted future.
"This way," Madara said, standing up, his eyes now sweeping the forest floor with predatory efficiency. "He is moving too fast for a cautious retreat. He is panicked, which means he is heading for a predetermined emergency rendezvous point."
Izuna stared at him, bewildered. "Madara, how did you—"
"I saw the way the leaves were displaced," Madara lied smoothly, using his mental age to mimic instant deduction. "It was sloppy. Come. We must maintain silence."
They moved, Madara forcing the pace. Every few hundred yards, the System offered a tactical update:
[ANALYSIS MODE AVAILABLE (0/30 sec cooldown). USE TO PREDICT ENEMY PATH.]
Madara used the Analysis Mode, instantly gaining a five-second burst of adult-level speed to close the distance. He was gambling his own life force, fueled by the rage of his lost memory.
The First Lie
After nearly thirty minutes of brutal, silent running, they approached the riverbank. Madara's child-body was on the verge of collapse, but his adult will kept him moving.
He found the Senju—the "Unknown Variable"—crouched in a dense thicket, frantically trying to stop the bleeding from his own arm while waiting for backup.
Madara slammed a tiny, moss-covered stone into the back of the Senju's skull.
The Senju dropped instantly, unconscious.
"You took him out with a stone?" Izuna whispered, awe in his voice. "He didn't even hear us."
"We are Uchiha," Madara responded, the arrogance of his older self bleeding into his tone. "We see what others miss."
[DIVERGENCE THREAT NEUTRALIZED. SECONDARY OBJECTIVE COMPLETE.]
The System flashed a green checkmark. Madara felt a small, cold ripple of relief. He wouldn't die in 48 hours.
[EMOTION STABILITY CHECK: RISING.]
[HOST STABILITY: 49% → 50% (DANGEROUS). Small correction detected.]
The System gave him back one percent. It was a calculated reward, a twisted positive reinforcement.
"We tie him up and drag him back to Father," Madara said, immediately stripping the Senju of his pouch. He found a crudely drawn map showing a high-value Senju supply route—a weakness the Uchiha should not have discovered for years.
The timeline had corrected itself, not by killing Izuna, but by presenting Madara with a massive advantage instead. He had forced the world's hand.
Madara grabbed Izuna's arm. "We return now. This prisoner and this map will be enough to elevate my status with the clan elders. We need political cover."
They began the brutal, slow journey back. But as they crested the final hill overlooking the Uchiha compound, the System flashed a new, overwhelming Main Mission.
| MAIN MISSION 003: THE IMPOSSIBLE ALLIANCE
| OBJECTIVE: Arrange a legitimate, non-violent summit between the Uchiha Clan Council and the Senju Clan Council within 7 days.
| Conditions: No blood must be spilled by the Uchiha during this period.
| Failure Consequence: Host Emotion Stability -20% + Isolation/Execution by Uchiha Clan Elders.
Madara stopped, staggering under the weight of the demand. Arrange peace? Within seven days? The clan elders would kill him for suggesting it. The Senju would laugh.
This wasn't a mission to save Izuna; this was a mission to save the world. And if he failed, he would not only plummet into madness (-20\%), but his own clan would execute him.
Madara looked at the massive gates of the Uchiha compound, no longer seeing a sanctuary, but a cage.
They want peace? Fine. I will force it upon them.
He felt the cold, familiar flicker of megalomania take hold. The War God System had given him the world, but only if he became its ruthless master.
[CHAPTER END]