Madara Uchiha carefully studied the man in front of him.
After looking him over several times, he finally recognized him.
"Fugaku Uchiha?"
Back when he had chosen Obito Uchiha as his successor, he had also done a basic investigation into the Uchiha Clan of that time. Back then, the man standing before him, Fugaku Uchiha, was the Clan Head of the Uchiha Clan and captain of the Konoha Police Force.
Because Obito, just like Madara himself back then, had controlled the Nine-Tails and attacked Konoha, killing the Fourth Hokage, life had become increasingly difficult for the Uchiha Clan within Konoha. In the end, it had led to that night of the massacre.
After being revived, Madara Uchiha had already heard about all of this from Hashirama Senju.
Fugaku Uchiha was a little stunned.
He had never seen this man before, yet the aura around him made it clear he was no ordinary person.
Could he be some elder from the clan during Fugaku's youth?
Wait!!
An elder...
Madara...
Could it be?!!
"Uchiha..."
"Madara...?"
Fugaku Uchiha was completely dumbfounded.
The person standing in front of him was that legendary ninja. The man who could control the Nine-Tails with his Sharingan.
Madara Uchiha?!!
Fugaku Uchiha instinctively activated his Mangekyō Sharingan to confirm whether what he was seeing was an illusion created by Genjutsu.
It was precisely because of the previous Nine-Tails incident that Konoha's higher-ups had grown so wary of the Uchiha Clan.
There were even absurd rumors circulating among some ninjas that Madara Uchiha had been revived, or that Madara Uchiha had reincarnated.
Seeing Fugaku Uchiha reveal his Mangekyō Sharingan, Madara Uchiha returned the favor without hesitation and revealed his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Hmph. What? You don't believe me?" Madara Uchiha snorted coldly.
The moment Fugaku Uchiha saw the Sharingan before him, he knew his own Ocular Power was far inferior. And the pattern in those eyes was indeed the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan of Madara Uchiha recorded in the clan genealogy.
Then...
He turned his gaze to the straight, long-haired man holding Madara Uchiha's wallet, the man who was preparing to happily bet another round worth a fortune.
He seemed to realize where he had seen that face before.
Although the carvings on the Hokage Rock were rather abstract, could this person be...
"Hey! Want to join in for a round, Madara's clansman?"
"The First Hokage! Hashirama Senju-sama, known as the God of Shinobi?!!"
Even Fugaku Uchiha, a man who was always composed and carried himself with a proud air, widened his eyes in shock as he stared at the First Hokage before him.
His voice was loud enough that the surrounding gamblers all turned to look.
Fugaku Uchiha said, "This is truly unbelievable. To see both of you the moment I arrive in the Pure Land."
"Pure Land?"
The corner of Madara Uchiha's mouth twitched. Izuna had been like this, and now Fugaku Uchiha too. Why did every revived person assume this place was the Pure Land?
"Ah, Madara, explain things to your clansman yourself. I'll go take care of my business first."
Hashirama Senju pointed at the gambling table, then turned to the dealer and tossed out the money pouch. "Ten rounds! Everything on high! I refuse to believe I'm that unlucky!!"
Fugaku Uchiha: "..."
Something seemed to be shattering.
Madara Uchiha sighed and stopped paying attention to the idiot beside him.
He turned to Fugaku Uchiha. "Let's find somewhere quiet to talk."
The two of them left the noisy gambling den and the pleasure district, then came to a relatively quiet place.
"You can listen to Minato Namikaze explain the details later. In short, because of certain special circumstances, we're all still alive, but this world isn't the world we came from. They call it a parallel world."
Fugaku Uchiha did not understand, but he reluctantly nodded anyway.
Everyone was still alive, but it was not their previous world. Wasn't that just the Pure Land? Why insist on calling it a parallel world?
Madara Uchiha was not good at explaining things. If he had been, he would not have ended up with that kind of conclusion.
Seeing that Madara Uchiha stopped talking after that, Fugaku Uchiha had no choice but to ask the question he cared about most.
"Madara-sama, I want to know whether the person who controlled the Nine-Tails and attacked Konohagakure was really you."
"Which time are you asking about?" Madara raised an eyebrow. "The first time was indeed me."
In other words, the Nine-Tails incident Fugaku Uchiha knew about, the one that killed the Fourth Hokage, had not been Madara Uchiha's doing!
"Then who else could possibly control the Nine-Tails with the Sharingan? For example, your reincarnation?"
Since it was not Madara Uchiha, and it was not Madara Uchiha revived, the only possibility he could think of was another major guess from Konoha at the time.
That Madara Uchiha had reincarnated as a member of the Uchiha Clan.
And continued his evil chakra.
Madara Uchiha snorted coldly. "I do have a reincarnation, but that kid had only just been born at the time. Do you think it could have been him?"
Fugaku Uchiha breathed a sigh of relief, paying no attention to the explosive piece of information Madara Uchiha had just dropped. That kid had only just been born.
If Fugaku Uchiha had thought about it carefully, he would have noticed that there had not been many newborns in the Uchiha Clan at that time! And one of them was his dear son, Sasuke Uchiha!
Just as he was about to ask whether the Nine-Tails incident that had killed the Fourth Hokage had been a natural disaster or man-made, one of the gambling den's attendants ran over to inform them that their friend had urgent business with them.
Madara's anger began rising at a visible speed. What could Hashirama Senju possibly need from him at a time like this? There was only one answer!
Sure enough, when Madara Uchiha and Fugaku Uchiha returned to the gambling den, they had just reached the entrance when they heard someone inside shouting, "Madara, Madara, save me!!" The veins on Madara Uchiha's forehead throbbed hard.
"Hashirama Senju!! Did you lose all my money?!!!"
Fugaku Uchiha: "..."
Forced to return to the casino, Fugaku Uchiha discovered that the legendary First Hokage had not only lost all of his own money and Madara Uchiha's money, he had even racked up an enormous gambling debt.
Being able to lose that much money in such a short time was a kind of reverse money power, wasn't it?
Was he some kind of money-eating beast?!
Cold sweat trickled down Fugaku Uchiha's forehead.
Madara Uchiha grabbed Hashirama Senju and tried to take him away, but the gambling den was not about to let them go so easily. The amount was horrifying. The First Hokage had actually managed to rack up that much debt in such a short period of time.
"I don't believe there's anyone who can stop me, Madara Uchiha!!"
Madara was about to lose his temper.
"Madara! We can't leave trouble behind for our clan in this world!" Hashirama hurriedly stopped him and played the sympathy card. "If there's really no other way, I can sell some Hashirama's cells. They should still be worth something."
Fugaku Uchiha did not know what Hashirama's cells were, but Madara Uchiha had studied Hashirama's cells in that dark tunnel for decades. If that stuff was sold to ordinary people, could ordinary people even use it?!!
After once seeing Sasuke Uchiha poke Naruto Uzumaki's forehead, Madara Uchiha now looked at Hashirama's pitiful expression and his bright, exposed forehead, and his fingers suddenly itched terribly.
"Sell Hashirama's cells?! Are you going to cut off pieces of your own flesh and sell them by the pound?!!"
"But..."
Hashirama looked pitifully wronged. They could not just leave like this.
"I'll go back and figure something out. You wait here."
Honestly...
Izuna had never made him worry this much!
"Wait! Young man, you can't just leave like that."
The gambling den owner grabbed Madara Uchiha.
"Who knows whether you'll leave him here and run off yourself? One hostage isn't enough for the gambling debt he owes."
One hostage was not enough.
Not enough...
Madara Uchiha: "..."
Hashirama Senju: "..."
Their gazes turned together toward the innocent, newly revived, utterly bewildered Fugaku Uchiha.
Fugaku Uchiha went numb. He already knew what he was about to face next.
As the Clan Head of the Uchiha Clan, why did he have to go through this...?
Was this retribution?
He was not happy.
"Madara, you won't really leave us here, right?"
Before leaving, Madara Uchiha looked at that stupid face, exactly the same as when they were children. He not only wanted to laugh, he was so angry he wanted to bite him to death.
The pitiful God of Shinobi and a certain Uchiha Clan Head were actually left standing as hostages in a casino in the Warring States Period. If word got out, where would Konoha's dignity go?!!
The only thing worth being glad about was that this was not their parallel world. Even if they embarrassed themselves, the ones who would pay for it would be teenage Hashirama and teenage Madara more than a decade later.
Madara Uchiha had never felt so humiliated in his life.
The ninja clans of this era were not particularly wealthy, and he could not go to the Senju Clan or the Uchiha Clan to mobilize funds.
"What?! The First Hokage was pawned at a casino?!"
Minato Namikaze instinctively asked, "Madara-san, didn't you stop him?"
"How was I supposed to stop him?! I was gone for only a short while, and he already owed that much money! He even lost all of my money too!!!"
Probably only Hashirama Senju could make this legendary ninja lose his composure on the spot.
"Who told you to hand over your own money?" Sasuke snorted coldly and shot back without hesitation.
"It's rare for me to agree with an Uchiha brat." The look Tobirama Senju gave Madara Uchiha seemed to say, are you an idiot?
Naruto said, "So the First Old Man doesn't just love gambling like Grandma Tsunade, his gambling luck is just as terrible as hers too, dattebayo!"
"That's called inheriting the family tradition. Read more books," Young Kakashi sighed, blaming his future self for not properly teaching Naruto his general education.
Adult Kakashi gave him a dead-fish stare, then flicked his younger self squarely on the forehead.
Tobirama Senju sighed. He had long since gotten used to it. This was all minor stuff.
"How much does my big brother owe this time?"
This time.
Again.
Judging from the Second Hokage's tone, the First Hokage really was a repeat offender.
"Hey, Second Hokage," Naruto said, "does the First Old Man lose money like this all the time? You sound pretty used to it."
Tobirama Senju held his forehead and sighed. "At least this time, I only have to ransom him back alone. Before, I had to ransom him and little Tsuna back together."
He had taken his granddaughter, who was only a few years old, in and out of casinos, and had even gotten detained because he lost money. If Tobirama had not gone to ransom them quickly, Sister Mito might have used the Adamantine Sealing Chains to perform the annual public bondage show right there in the casino.
Seeing the looks Madara Uchiha and Izuna Uchiha shot at him, looks that could probably be described as "we feel sorry for you, bastard," Tobirama Senju's inner turmoil was beyond words.
"Strictly speaking, this time we still have to ransom two people back..."
Madara Uchiha remembered his revived clansman.
"Huh? Who else?!"
Probably because he was burning with rage, Tobirama Senju's vermilion eyes looked even redder than an Uchiha's Sharingan. Paired with his white hair, they made Izuna Uchiha think of a certain creature.
A rabbit.
He was just about to laugh when he heard his brother say:
"It's a member of the Uchiha clan."
Izuna Uchiha said, "A member of the Uchiha clan?!" Had he been sold out by Hashirama Senju, that white-cut-black bastard?!
Madara Uchiha looked at Sasuke Uchiha. "You might know him, kid."
"Who?"
"Fugaku Uchiha."
"~@#￥%.!!!!"
Holy shit!!
Ancestor, you're screwing over my dad!!