"Am I going to become the second Obito?"
Haru felt a little panicked. Obito's ending was not just ordinarily miserable. He absolutely could not end up like Obito.
He had to calm down.
Haru felt his heartbeat speeding up. At a time like this, he could not panic. Looking at the iced cola on the desk in front of him, Haru drank it all in one breath and chewed the ice cubes in his mouth.
The icy feeling gradually made Haru calm down.
There was not the slightest chance of going head-to-head with Madara. Susanoo-cloaked Buddha could absolutely beat the crap out of him. If it could not beat the crap out of him, that could only mean he had already emptied everything out that day.
The only chance he had to maneuver around Madara was the information gap in his hands.
Madara appeared to be hidden in the dark, but everything he was plotting had already been seen through by Haru. There were no secrets at all.
Wasn't it just the so-called Eye of the Moon Plan? The so-called Infinite Moon Reading?
As long as Madara was willing to quietly find him and use that clumsy persuasion of his to come up with a decent excuse, Haru felt he could directly bow his head and pledge loyalty.
Haru has wandered for half his life and only regrets never meeting a wise lord. If you do not abandon me, Haru is willing to acknowledge you as his foster father.
Lord Madara, you have no son, and I have no father. I want to take care of you in old age. Stop living in that unlucky underground cave. Come to the Leaf.
He would just treat it as playing a murder mystery game with an old man. In any case, Madara still had not awakened the Rinnegan. Haru could slowly waste time with him first. As long as Madara did not use force, it would be fine.
Haru was still young.
He could slowly hide and survive while completing the system's golden missions. As long as a person did not die, there would always be a day when he could rise.
Madara could not possibly activate his giant warrior without saying a word and directly tear down the Leaf, right?
Haru thought it through and felt that Madara had probably taken an interest in him because he wanted to make him a backup for the Eye of the Moon Plan.
Then he only needed to kneel fast enough.
When the time came, what kind of good-looking posture should he use to acknowledge him as foster father?
That was a little troublesome.
He could not just kneel down and shout foster father directly, right?
Now that Madara had already infiltrated the Leaf, he was like a timed explosive that could blow up in front of Haru at any time.
And Haru had no way to find Madara's tracks.
As long as Madara wanted to hide, Haru felt he did not have the ability to find him.
So annoying.
He could only passively wait for Madara to come to him.
But at least his life should be safe.
Haru let out a long breath. After this round of analysis, the worries in his heart had decreased greatly. The only thing that still made him anxious was when Madara would come looking for him.
Then that was how it would be.
After thinking for a long time, Haru still felt that his best way out was to decisively kneel and join the Eye of the Moon Plan, then slowly survive and do what he could while leaving the rest to fate.
As for the conspiracy behind the Eye of the Moon, the tragedy of the Otsutsuki family, and Black Zetsu's ancient plan to save his mother, unless it was the most critical life-or-death moment, Haru did not plan to reveal even a little bit of it.
He was already about to develop post-traumatic stress over the butterfly effect.
As much as possible, he had to let the Naruto plotline continue. Although it had already collapsed into a mess, the general direction still had not changed.
Who knew whether Madara would go insane after learning the truth?
Who knew whether he would still fail to think things through and continue carrying out the Eye of the Moon Plan?
There were far too many unknown variables.
He could not act recklessly.
At the end of the day, the Naruto world was a world where overwhelming power belonged to individuals. Strength was the true hard principle.
For a moment, Haru sighed deeply.
Madara had grasped the greatest truth of this world. Hashirama, who possessed a truth even more correct than Madara's, had already died. Whatever Madara said now was right.
At present, there were not many opportunities left for Haru to rapidly increase his strength.
As for his system's golden rewards, there was no other way except completing system missions. The probability of drawing a golden reward through ordinary draws was infinitely close to zero.
Hashirama cells were close at hand. The Uchiha clan members should all be in place within the next day or two. Tobirama was fully focused on overcoming the Hashirama cell problem. Haru believed the final result would arrive soon.
But it was still not enough.
Haru could not help shaking his head. If he wanted a little more ability to protect himself and avoid being beaten senseless by Madara, he had to strengthen himself as much as possible.
Hashirama cells.
Hashirama's Sage Mode?
As Haru thought about it, he could not help thinking of the source of Hashirama's powerful strength. His vast and bottomless chakra reserves, his extremely fast self-healing ability, and chakra.
Besides those, there was also Hashirama's perfect Sage Mode.
As for Wood Release?
It was a very ordinary bloodline limit. Haru felt its strength was not even as good as Onoki's Dust Release. Dust Release injured if it grazed you, killed if it touched you, and directly broke people down into an atomic state. Dust Release dealt true damage.
What was powerful was Hashirama, not Wood Release.
With Hashirama's inhuman stats supporting it, any bloodline ability would display an invincible posture.
Yamato also had Wood Release, but the strength of his Wood Release was already drained after making a few rows of houses. Compared to Hashirama's overwhelming endless sea of trees that could change the terrain, and the towering wooden giant several hundred meters tall, they were practically two different bloodline limits.
The immortal body and vast, seemingly endless chakra could only depend on Tobirama's efforts. Haru could not rush that.
But Sage Mode was something he could consider.
The enhancement Sage Mode gave a ninja was several times, even more than ten times stronger. Hashirama being able to suppress Madara for a lifetime owed no small part to Sage Mode.
It was just that learning Sage Mode was a little difficult.
Ryuchi Cave, Shikkotsu Forest, and Mount Myoboku.
The three great sacred lands of summoning beasts each mastered different sage arts. The three sacred lands had always been hidden in corners of the ninja world. Unless one signed a summoning contract with them, there was no way to touch the location of the three sacred lands.
As the chosen land of the Naruto world, the Leaf naturally gathered the summoning scrolls of the three great sacred lands later. However, right now, aside from the Senju clan possessing the summoning scroll of Shikkotsu Forest, the summoning scrolls for the other two great sacred lands had not yet appeared in the world.
The Senju clan would absolutely not allow him to touch Shikkotsu Forest's summoning scroll. They knew very clearly how strong Sage Mode was. Hashirama's example was right there in front of them.
Even as Hokage, trying to forcibly seize the Senju clan's summoning scroll would be extremely difficult.
The hope was slim.
The summoning scroll of Shikkotsu Forest could be called a supreme treasure for a ninja clan. There was a chance to learn Sage Mode, and one could also summon a clone of the great slug sage. There was no need to say much about the value of the slug's healing ability. During the Fourth Ninja World War, it directly healed the entire allied ninja force.
It could be passed down in the Senju clan from generation to generation like a family treasure.
And they would pass it to their old enemy, the Uchiha?
And to an Uchiha who had awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan?
Toma would rather die than agree. The Senju clan would not agree either. No amount of money would be useful. This involved the inheritance of a ninja clan, and its importance was comparable to the secret techniques passed down by those secret technique clans.
His relationship with Shikato was already very close, but if he went to request the Nara clan's shadow secret techniques, he would probably be cursed until he was covered in filth.
What a headache.
He would not consider Shikkotsu Forest's summoning scroll for now.
Haru tapped the desk with his fingers, feeling somewhat restless. His mind considered Mount Myoboku and Ryuchi Cave.
As for Ryuchi Cave, Orochimaru had found it himself while exploring the ninja world. The original Naruto story had never explained exactly how Orochimaru found Ryuchi Cave.
Mount Myoboku...
Jiraiya had gotten insanely lucky and was randomly teleported there.
Mm.
It probably was not just insane luck. Those toads of Mount Myoboku were not benevolent creatures. A thousand years ago, they could already predict the future through dreams.
He could try his luck.
The worldline had already been messed up by him into a complete mess. The future had long since deviated. Whether Jiraiya could find Mount Myoboku like in the original story was still uncertain.
Orochimaru was probably unreliable for now. If anyone currently had a chance to come into contact with Sage Mode, it was probably only Jiraiya.
After thinking it over again and again, Haru decided to call Jiraiya over tomorrow and teach him the Summoning Technique to see whether he could get lucky.
Sage Mode.
Hopefully everything would go smoothly.
There was no doubt about Sage Mode's strength, but learning it was very difficult.
Haru sighed slightly.
The Scroll of Seals only had a few brief sentences recording the practice of Sage Mode. Tobirama had not learned it. As far as Haru knew, only Hashirama in the Senju clan had learned it.
As for Hashirama's experience...
Mm.
The Scroll of Seals did contain a little, but it was better not to mention it.
Sense natural energy, absorb and mix it according to the proper ratio, then activate Sage Mode.
It was written extremely simply.
Over the past thousand years, there had been countless poor souls who turned into stone while practicing Sage Mode. The threshold Hashirama had accidentally crossed in his training was a heavenly chasm they could never cross in their lifetimes.
The extremely simplified training notes on the Scroll of Seals were indeed Hashirama's true feelings.
Cheating...
Cough, cough.
Practicing Sage Mode was as simple as breathing. Wasn't breathing just inhaling and exhaling? What technique could there be?
Comparing people truly made one furious.
Haru hated these talent monsters the most. Their talent was so powerful that even a cheater like him felt jealous.
Haru walked to the window and opened it, taking several breaths of fresh air. It was already dusk. It was time to get off work.
There was no use worrying so much. It had even made his temper rise.
Time to leave work!
On a public bench near the ninja academy.
Madara was sitting on a bench, admiring the beautiful sunset. Around him was a large pile of cards.
After an entire afternoon of battle, Madara had successfully spent nearly all his money, but the card he most wanted to draw still had not appeared.
"Is my luck really that bad?"
"This should be close to a hundred cards, right? And I still can't draw my own card?"
Madara felt somewhat unwilling. He still wanted to show off in front of Sosuke.
Cough, cough.
He wanted to help him.
Now this was bad. He had messed up.
He was probably going to be laughed at by that brat.
Madara had dominated the ninja world his whole life. How could he be laughed at by a child?
He would fight again another day!
Madara refused to believe in evil. It was just drawing cards. How could it possibly stump him?
He only hated that his finances were insufficient.
As long as he spent enough money, he would definitely draw the card he wanted.
Make money!
Madara made up his mind. He had to hurry up and make money.
However, he had heard that working in a factory did not earn much. He also could not let bounty missions go.
He had to make money on both fronts!
But that brat was about to get out of school soon. At noon, they had agreed to meet here at night, and Madara had promised to personally hand his own card to him.
He had already boasted too much.
He would soon meet him.
Madara was nervous. His heart thumped loudly.
Should he run?
For the first time, Madara had the thought of fleeing before battle.
Even back when he had been a weak child and had encountered two or three adult Senju ninja alone, Madara had not been afraid. He had fought head-on and held out until clan reinforcements arrived.
It was the same against Hashirama. Although his strength had been suppressed and his recovery had been suppressed, Madara had still charged forward.
He could not run!
Madara felt that he had already broken faith once by failing to draw his own card. If he stood up a child again, that would be breaking faith with a child twice in a row.
He could only grit his teeth and face it.
Madara sat there until the ninja academy ended. Not long after, Sosuke found Madara according to their agreement.
"Grandpa... You... Wow, so many cards?"
Sosuke saw the cards beside Madara at a glance, and his eyes immediately lit up. It was rare for him to see so many cards piled together.
"Mm. They're just cards."
Madara stood up, somewhat stiff, but his mouth was still stubborn.
"Lord Madara's card, Grandpa, did you..."
Sosuke looked at the several stacks of cards. Judging by sight, there were nearly a hundred of them. He was curious whether Madara had drawn the rarest card: Madara.
"Uh... Well, no."
Madara's voice instantly became much smaller. Today, he was going to lose face in front of a child.
Damn it!
"Grandpa... Sigh. Let me look at these cards. Eight-Tails, Six-Tails, Four-Tails. These cards are quite rare. If you sell them, you should be able to recover some of your losses."
Sosuke sighed while flipping through the cards. Every drawn card was money. Although these cards were nice, this really was not a game poor people like them could afford to play. Selling them for money was much more practical and could recover some losses.
If he had known, he would not have taken Grandpa to see it.
At such an old age, why was his temper still so stubborn?
"Grandpa, do you still have money on you?"
"I have money. How could I not have money?"
"Money is nothing but a worldly possession to me!"
Mm.
He was still a grandpa who liked boasting.
Sosuke inwardly complained. If Grandpa really had money, he would definitely have drawn Lord Madara's card. Rich people did not stop halfway when drawing cards.
"I'll help you sell the valuable cards. You can still recover some losses. Some of these cards are quite rare."
"Do as you like. I don't care."
"Grandpa, do you still have money for dinner tonight?"
"Uh... Yes, I..."
Madara felt the few coins left in his pocket. Buying a few roasted sweet potatoes was not a problem.
He was Madara. Was getting food difficult?
He could also rob...
Cough, cough.
Illusion techniques worked too.
In short, there were many methods.
"Sigh! Grandpa, you can't be so impulsive in the future. It isn't easy for poor people like us to make money. My mom has to work more than ten hours in the factory, and sometimes she even has to stay up late working overtime."
"Tonight, come sell roasted sweet potatoes with me. Two sweet potatoes will count as your wage."
Sosuke saw through Madara's stubbornness. Madara had lost so badly, and Sosuke felt he bore a tiny bit of responsibility. But the only thing he could do was give him two or three roasted sweet potatoes. His family was quite poor too.
"Fine. But brat, I was just unlucky this time. I'm telling you, forget one card of my... cough, cough, forget one card of Lord Madara. In the future, I will draw an entire set of cards for you to see!"
Madara felt he had lost face. He had to raise the stakes. He had to recover the face he had lost. One card of his own was no longer enough to recover his face.
It had to be an entire set!
(End of Chapter)
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