A note from the author flickered somewhere in the void, but Tobika ignored it. Morning had barely begun.
Not long after Tobika left his room, a pale-white figure with moss-green hair, jagged scars, and thorn-like protrusions along its shoulders quietly rose out of the floorboards. A White Zetsu.
Madara had cultivated these things from Hashirama's cells using the Demonic Statue as a medium, and ever since, they'd slithered all over the continent gathering intelligence. Decades of infiltration and not a single shinobi had successfully mapped them out.The few that were exposed? Written off as transformation jutsu or bizarre summons.
This one's yellow-ringed eyes swept the empty room, then locked onto the envelope on Tobika's desk.
"Madara-sama said… do not gather information about Uchiha Tobika.""But he also said… any intel involving him must be reported immediately."
The contradiction made the creature freeze mid-step.
What did you do when your master issued two mutually exclusive orders?
For a White Zetsu, the answer was apparently:stand still and let your brain crash.
A puff of white smoke erupted from its skull. A tiny sprout popped out of the top of its head.
After rebooting, it muttered, "…Don't mention Tobika's name. Just report this as a letter found in Uchiha territory."
Satisfied by its own loophole, it tossed the letter onto the ground, picked it up again—just to maintain the lie—and sank back into the earth, shooting toward the Land of Grass.
Madara
"Madara-sama! Madara-sama!"
In a dim cavern, Madara's consciousness crawled back into his withered body like an irritated old ghost.
So he wasn't dead after all. Shame.
He opened his eyes. The torches cast uneven light across the chamber. A White Zetsu stood a few paces away, fidgeting like an obedient pet that knew it had done something stupid.
"What is it?" Madara rasped.
"Madara-sama… I found a letter. It has Izuna-sama's name on it."
Madara's eyes sharpened immediately.
Izuna.
He accepted the envelope, unfolded the letter, and read silently. Memories surged—youth, blood, victories, the slow decay of vision, the silence before a battlefield death.
The old man leaned back, his face shifting faintly—amusement, sorrow, anger, resignation—each emotion flickering too quickly for a human expression. Even Zetsu paused, mesmerized.
So this was what A-Fēi meant by "the face you make when you're trying not to poop."
After a long time, Madara exhaled.
"…Izuna's handwriting."
His gaze drifted through the cave wall, as if it could pierce the earth itself and reach the Uchiha compound.
"Perhaps… if I die beside you, little brother… I'll see you again."
He didn't speak again.
Back in Konoha
Outside the Hatake residence, Tobika leaned heavily against the front gate like an elderly landlord waiting for overdue rent.
Kakashi had been gone for two days.No sign of him.Dust was piling under the doorframe.
No wonder Might Guy practically vibrated with joy whenever he spotted Kakashi in public. The man was rarer than a tailed beast on discount.
"Lord Tobika!"
A young Uchiha jogged toward him.
Green eyes. Serious expression. A slightly short nose.
Shisui.
A good kid. Too good.
"Clan Head requests your presence," Shisui said with formal politeness.
Tobika narrowed his eyes.
"Shisui… why do I get the feeling Fugaku uses you like a household messenger boy? Don't you ever train?"
Shisui twitched but did not answer.He did spend half his free time at Fugaku's house visiting Itachi.This was… partially his own fault.
Tobika sighed dramatically.
"I have an Eight Gates training scroll. Wanna learn?"
Shisui blinked. "I'm… already studying it."
Ah. Of course he was.
Tobika slung an arm around his shoulders.
"Then keep going. Eight Gates is terrifyingly strong, you know.Open the Fifth Gate—you can beat One-Tail like a redheaded stepchild.Open the Seventh—boom, you're basically a bijū without a tail.Open the Eighth—just say the word and the elders go flying.Our clan problems? Gone."
All of that was technically true.
Shisui didn't take the bait. His eyes stayed calm, almost too calm for someone Tobika knew was destined for tragedy.
After a moment's hesitation, he asked:
"Tobika-dono… the rumors in the clan… are they true?"
"What rumors?"
"That you single-handedly used ninjutsu to sway the elders… disrupted the clan head's marriage… made Mikoto-sama cry every night… and robbed Itachi of a stable family—"
"Stop." Tobika raised a hand."That's defamation. Mikoto-sama smiled at me just the other day."
A smile containing murderous intent, but still a smile.
Shisui bit his lip.
"Tobika-dono… aren't your ideas a little… extreme?"
Extreme?
Tobika stared at him.
This kid wanted to brainwash the entire clan into loyal puppets.He planned to rewrite their wills, crush their free thought, turn them into mental hostages, and call it "peace."
Itachi's solution?Genocide.
But Tobika wanting Fugaku to divorce Mikoto for political leverage?
Apparently that was "extreme."
Tobika snorted.
"I'm proposing a peaceful solution. A few people get emotional bruises, maybe a broken heart or two, and in return the clan survives.When you become a jonin in a couple years, attend a clan meeting.If your ideas can outmatch mine in terms of impact, I'll sit behind you with a desk and cheer you on."
Shisui tried one more time:
"…Isn't there truly a better way?"
"No."Tobika waved dismissively."Uchiha don't listen. It's our special trait.Even Uchiha Madara couldn't change an Uchiha's mind—not even with a fist."
He turned and walked toward the clan compound.
If Tobika ever wrote a book titled Konoha: The Uchiha Are Actually Very Reasonable, he'd probably get banished for lying to minors.