RUMBLE—!!
In the heart of Konoha, an earth-shaking explosion erupted.
In the wake of the blast, Matatabi — the Two-Tails—that vicious blue chakra blazing like wildfire—appeared above Konoha's prison complex.
The village prison, meant for felons, collapsed instantly into rubble.
Inmates poured out screaming.
Plenty of them had fantasized about a jailbreak—but not like this.
The prison was gone, and more than half the prisoners were crushed to death.
The ones who escaped… many were simply erased by a sudden Tailed Beast Bomb blast from Matatabi.
The entire prison district became a dead zone.
Even ANBU held the perimeter and didn't dare push inside—one wrong step and they'd be vaporized.
A fully unsealed tailed beast wasn't something you rushed without a Kage-level response.
"ROAR—!"
Matatabi howled again.
Hiruzen's face was grim as his figure blurred forward, racing straight toward the Two-Tails.
"Damn it… Homura's seal doesn't just break on its own. Someone did this on purpose. Who—"
His jaw tightened.
"Was it the Uchiha…?!"
Behind him came Tsunade, Uzumaki Mito, and a wave of ANBU and elite jōnin and chūnin.
At the edge of the scene, Uchiha police arrived as well—forming up around the disaster zone, watching Matatabi from afar, not daring to charge in.
And the moment Hiruzen saw the Uchiha, a cold premonition crawled up his spine.
He remembered the warning from his teacher—Tobirama Senju—and snapped his head back.
"Tsunade! Tell the Uchiha to return to their district and stand by!"
Tsunade blinked, then immediately understood what he was doing—preventing rumors, preventing friction, preventing a spark.
"Yes, Sensei!"
She flashed toward the Uchiha with dust trailing behind her.
The Uchiha, hearing "return to your territory," instantly bristled.
Confusion turned into anger.
Even now… they don't trust us?
Fugaku Uchiha, one of their rising talents, felt his chest tighten.
He couldn't understand it.
At a moment like this, why was Konoha leadership guarding against the Uchiha?
Why—exactly?
A crack formed in Fugaku's loyalty.
He'd been determined to protect Konoha.
But what did Konoha's leadership think of him?
Sometimes, evil didn't begin with hatred.
It began with mistrust.
In the end, under Tsunade's repeated insistence, the Uchiha returned to their district—furious but restrained.
Back in their territory, they weren't allowed to move freely.
They could only watch the village's chaos from a distance.
And because Danzo had died before he could relocate the Uchiha district to the outskirts, their territory was still within the village—close enough to hear the panic, close enough to feel the blame forming.
Dissatisfaction grew anyway.
...
At the battlefield around Matatabi, the fight was closing in on its end.
Uzumaki Mito—wrapped in the Nine-Tails' chakra—used the Adamantine Sealing Chains to lock Matatabi down completely.
No matter how Matatabi roared, it couldn't move.
"Hiruzen!" Mito barked. "Seal it—now!"
Hiruzen's face tightened. "And who is the jinchūriki going to be?"
Matatabi was out in the open, fully unsealed, and Homura was likely already dead.
Even if Hiruzen was called the Professor and could use nearly any jutsu, his sealing ability wasn't on Uzumaki-level.
Compared to an Uzumaki like Ashina, Hiruzen's sealing skill was—at best—serviceable.
If he tried to force a seal without the right vessel, it would fail.
Or worse.
"The original host is still alive," someone shouted. "The Kumogakure girl—she didn't die! Hurry!"
"Yes!"
"Hurry!" Mito snapped, teeth clenched. "I can't hold this forever!"
Hiruzen spun. "Where is she?!"
Soon, the Kumogakure girl was brought forward under escort.
She trembled as she stared at the raging Two-Tails.
…She was going to be forced back into becoming a jinchūriki?
She'd barely escaped being a weapon.
Now she was being shoved back into it.
Hiruzen's face tightened—then he heard movement behind Mito.
A presence.
Cold enough to make his bones itch.
A figure appeared.
Mito's eyes widened.
"Who—?!"
Hiruzen's first instinct screamed danger.
"Mito-sama—behind you!"
Mito turned—
and saw an old man with bangs covering his left eye. His right eye was a Mangekyō Sharingan.
Something about the face was familiar.
But—
Forty years had passed.
The world believed this man was dead.
"Uchiha…?" Mito whispered.
Then everything snapped into place.
Hiruzen's hands flew through seals.
"Summoning: Adamantine Staff!"
A massive golden staff slammed down from above—
—but the old man moved first.
His Mangekyō turned.
Mito's pupils widened.
Her mind was dragged into a nightmare.
She was back at the Valley of the End.
Back to that man's overwhelming presence.
Back to the Nine-Tails wearing Susanoo armor.
Back to the moment, the battlefield itself felt like it was going to crack.
Mito's breath caught.
In that illusion, she saw the Sharingan again—
and the name rose from memory like a corpse surfacing from deep water.
Madara…
Mito's spirit jolted.
Her face went pale with real terror.
"This is—Uchiha Madara?!" she gasped.
How?
He didn't die?
Pain ripped through her stomach, yanking her out of the illusion and into reality.
She looked down—
Five fingers were driven deep into the seal.
"Five Elements Unseal."
BANG—!!
Hiruzen's staff missed by a hair.
Madara slipped aside—
and the Nine-Tails' seal destabilized.
"AHH—!" Mito screamed.
A tidal surge of vicious Nine-Tails chakra flooded out like a broken dam.
"Mito-sama!" Hiruzen rushed—
—and instantly had to stop.
A wall of flame rose.
"Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!"
Hiruzen froze for a fraction of a second, eyes widening.
"That's… Great Fire Annihilation?!"
He snapped into hand seals.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
A massive wave crashed forward—
but Hiruzen's water was not enough.
Against this level of Fire Release, it got swallowed and evaporated.
ANBU rushed in behind him, launching Water Release together.
"No—back!" Hiruzen shouted, voice cracking.
Too late.
The flames rolled over the line.
The spot Hiruzen had stood turned into an ocean of fire.
The ANBU behind him were reduced to charred silhouettes.
Hiruzen's right hand didn't escape in time—skin blistered, blackened.
He landed, breathing hard, face grim.
When did a monster like this appear?
With Kazuki rising, it felt like the shinobi world itself had tilted.
Tsunade landed beside him immediately and slapped her hands onto his burn.
"Sensei—hold still!"
Mystical Palm glowed.
The damage healed at a visible pace.
Hiruzen's body still trembled, though—not from pain.
From the sheer pressure radiating from the man ahead.
He stared up.
"Who are you?!" he demanded.
The old man stood above them like an executioner on a scaffold.
Under the sun, his shadow stretched long and sharp.
His left bangs shifted—
and revealed what made the blood in every vein run cold.
A Rinnegan.
"I am…"
He smiled.
"Uchiha Madara."
Behind him stood two tailed beasts—Matatabi and Kurama.
And then—
their eyes opened.
Both tailed beasts' eyes were Sharingan.
Everyone present felt ice crawl over their skin.
Even seasoned jōnin couldn't stop their bodies from trembling.
Hiruzen's voice came out strained.
"…You… you're Madara?"
Madara's smile didn't move.
Then his figure blurred.
He avoided a sneaking ANBU strike like it was nothing.
With one hand, he caught the attacker by the throat and lifted him off the ground.
Madara tilted his head slightly, amused.
"You want to dance too?"