Kannabi Bridge was one of the Land of Earth's most important transportation routes, with a constant flow of travelers crossing it every day.
Not far from the bridge lay a desolate canyon.
Unlike the busy bridge, the canyon was almost completely abandoned. Few trees grew there, and the surrounding mountains were little more than bare rock.
Deep within the canyon rested the massive fossilized skeleton of a dinosaur, half buried beneath the earth and half exposed to the open air.
The presence of such ancient remains only emphasized how remote and untouched the place was.
Yet despite its primitive appearance, the canyon possessed none of the beauty of an unspoiled wilderness.
Instead, it carried an unsettling silence.
The atmosphere resembled that of a forgotten graveyard.
That impression was not entirely wrong.
Strictly speaking, the canyon itself was a tomb.
Buried deep beneath it rested...
Uchiha Madara.
At some point, a small white snake slithered into the canyon. It quietly made its way beneath the dinosaur skeleton before burrowing into the soil.
The snake continued tunneling through the earth until it reached a solid layer of bedrock.
That very layer was the reason nothing flourished here. The rocky ground prevented vegetation from taking root and made human settlement impossible.
To the little snake, however, the obstacle meant nothing.
Long ago, an underground passage had existed within the rock, only to be deliberately sealed shut afterward.
The snake quickly found the concealed entrance and slipped through the tiny cracks between the stones.
After traveling for some time, the gravel ahead suddenly disappeared.
A man-sized tunnel stretched downward before it.
Bluestone steps descended into the darkness.
Judging by the broken section near the entrance, the staircase had once extended all the way to the surface before being intentionally destroyed.
Finding such a carefully constructed passage so deep underground was almost unbelievable.
Yet it had remained hidden for years.
The underground chamber lay far beneath the surface, beyond the reach of even skilled sensor shinobi.
After entering the tunnel, the white snake opened its mouth and spat out a specially prepared Flying Thunder God Kunai.
An instant later, Hayashi appeared beside it.
He had quietly departed from the Five Kage Summit for this very reason.
Madara's body was here.
To Hayashi's perception, Indra's lingering chakra stood out like a lone candle burning in complete darkness.
Even he had not expected to locate it so smoothly.
His original plan had been entirely different.
He intended to use Hiruko, having him pretend to possess knowledge of the Impure World Reincarnation, in order to attract Black Zetsu's attention.
In the original timeline, Black Zetsu had deliberately guided Kabuto to Madara's corpse before using it as the vessel for the Impure World Reincarnation.
Because of that, Hayashi believed the plan had a very high chance of success.
Naturally, he had prepared a backup.
If that failed, he would simply retrieve the pair of Rinnegan implanted in Nagato and temporarily use them himself.
That was also why he had not hunted down Nagato earlier.
The drawback was obvious.
Those eyes were not truly his.
Even if transplanted, they would never allow him to unleash their full potential.
Still, if he failed to find Indra's chakra, he would have had no other choice.
Fortunately, neither contingency became necessary.
The Sage of Six Paths had granted him a unique sensory ability.
Rolling the white snake around his neck, Hayashi's eyes turned crimson as his Sharingan emerged.
Without hesitation, he continued deeper into the tunnel.
To his surprise, the underground hideout contained very few defenses.
He had expected countless traps.
After giving it some thought, however, the reason became obvious.
Madara had died many years ago.
White Zetsu had remained here for a period before eventually leaving to gather intelligence elsewhere.
There was simply nothing worth guarding.
What Hayashi did not know was that had he arrived only half a year earlier, he might have encountered Black Zetsu himself.
After witnessing the strange changes on the moon, Black Zetsu had remained here without leaving for nearly eight months.
Only after confirming that Kaguya had not been revived did he finally depart.
Hayashi continued descending the staircase.
By the time he counted fifty-eight steps, the tunnel opened into a spacious cavern.
Large chunks of broken stone lay scattered near the entrance.
Judging from the fractures, someone had smashed through them with tremendous physical force.
The most likely culprit...
Was Uchiha Fugaku.
Recalling Obito's experience in the original timeline, Hayashi easily pieced together what must have happened here.
As he entered the cavern, his eyes swept across the walls.
Sure enough, he spotted the iconic Uchiha Gunbai resting alongside several large war scythes.
Fugaku had apparently left them behind because they were of no immediate use.
That only worked in Hayashi's favor.
Without the slightest hesitation, he produced a sealing scroll and stored every one of the weapons inside.
These had once belonged to Madara himself.
They had even been wielded during his legendary battle against the First Hokage.
Their craftsmanship was exceptional, and their historical value was immeasurable.
With Hayashi's habit of never leaving empty-handed, there was no chance he would ignore treasures like these.
Even if he never used them, they were priceless artifacts.
He could always display them in a museum someday.
Charging admission would not be a bad idea either.
More importantly...
There was the Uchiha Gunbai.
It was the true symbol of the Uchiha Clan Head.
The one preserved inside the clan shrine was merely a replica.
If Hayashi failed to return the genuine Gunbai to the clan, it would almost feel like a disservice to Madara himself.
Still, taking someone else's belongings without leaving anything behind felt a little impolite.
So Hayashi opened another sealing scroll.
He removed several nearly identical replacement weapons and carefully placed them back where the originals had been.
A grin spread across his face.
He could already imagine the expression on Madara's face if he ever attempted to use Uchiha Reflection...
Only for the counterfeit Gunbai to shatter on impact.
After collecting the weapons, Hayashi continued toward the deepest part of the cavern.
Ahead stood an enormous stone throne.
Seated upon it was an elderly man with gray hair.
His hands rested peacefully across his abdomen.
The empty, hollow sockets where his eyes had once been stared silently into the distance.
Madara had clearly been dead for many years.
Yet his body had shown almost no signs of decay.
Hayashi did not know exactly how it had been preserved.
Most likely, Black Zetsu had used some special method to maintain the corpse.
His gaze shifted behind the throne.
There stood an enormous tree.
Its massive roots twisted across the ground, while thick protrusions extended from its trunk.
The entire tree had completely withered.
After thinking for a moment, Hayashi remembered what it had been.
This was the tree once used to cultivate White Zetsu.
Like fruit growing from a single vine, countless White Zetsu had once emerged from it.
Its source of nourishment had been the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
After Nagato summoned the statue away, the tree gradually lost its life and dried up.
Hayashi slowly turned his attention elsewhere.
Then his eyes landed on the wall behind the throne.
The instant he saw it clearly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.
The entire wall...
Was covered with one name.
Hashirama.
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