Chapter 368: The Thief Uchiha Madara
In truth, quite a few surveillance devices had been installed throughout the small grove.
The moment Madara stepped out of the room, Senju Tobirama noticed him.
Watching the direction Madara was heading, Tobirama quickly understood what he intended to do.
Well, well… bold move.
Naruto had been immobilized by Sasuke's genjutsu, unable to move at all, like an unconscious girl left completely defenseless for the taking.
And just so happened, Sasuke had stepped out to the Amegakure Village to buy daily supplies.
Madara cautiously stepped into the area that belonged to Naruto and Sasuke's shared home.
He was confident. As an Impure World Reincarnation body, with extremely weak chakra, he could easily evade most forms of detection. As long as he made no sound, he wouldn't be discovered.
Tobirama trying to restrain him like this? Wishful thinking.
Soon, Madara struggled his way through the window and entered the house.
The first thing he saw was several bottles of milk placed on the table.
The milk, stored in glass bottles, looked exceptionally white and smooth under the sunlight.
Madara recalled the information he had tricked out of Hashirama: in this era, the reincarnations of Indra's chakra and Asura's chakra were here, attempting to awaken the Rinnegan.
And they were using such a disgraceful, indecent method!
But… he had to admit, this kind of "clever approach" was far more convenient, reasonable, and stable than what he and Hashirama had done at the Valley of the End, fighting for days, exhausting themselves, and finally having to sacrifice a Sharingan to activate Izanagi just to bite off a piece of flesh.
Back then, he had overlooked something.
He had assumed Tobirama would definitely preserve his corpse for research, which was why he could rely on delayed Izanagi.
But after everything that had happened since being revived through Impure World Reincarnation, Madara realized that Tobirama was far more sinister than he had imagined.
He should be grateful that Tobirama hadn't had certain… ideas back then.
Otherwise, the moment Tobirama pried open his mouth, he would have discovered the piece of Hashirama's flesh hidden inside, and undoubtedly taken it away.
If that had happened, all of his painstaking efforts would have been for nothing.
In that case, it would have been better to use a Transformation Technique to disguise himself as Mito and steal some reusable Hashirama cells.
"…Sigh."
Madara let out a long sigh.
Once, he had been the Asura of the shinobi world, wielding the Perfect Susanoo, commanding the Nine-Tails as a mere summon.
And now?
He was reduced to sneaking around stealing milk because of Tobirama.
But if he wanted to recover his chakra, he had no choice.
Only by restoring his chakra could he hope to activate the Rinnegan again, absorb more chakra, and find a way to escape this place.
Madara picked up the bottles of milk from the table, placed them by the windowsill, then struggled back out through the window. Gathering the bottles into his arms, he quietly carried them away.
He didn't attempt to find the current reincarnation of Asura's chakra.
Because he had no idea that Naruto was currently under genjutsu, nor could he sense the abnormal turbulence in Naruto's chakra.
So, to be safe, he settled for the next best option, taking the milk from the table.
Back in the cabin's bathroom, Madara took out one bottle and hid the rest inside the toilet tank.
Then, he began pouring the milk into his Impure World Reincarnation body.
He hoped that these "Asura reincarnation cells" would have the same effect as Hashirama cells, raising his chakra levels and increasing the limits of his Impure World Reincarnation body.
Meanwhile, Sasuke returned after buying supplies.
The first thing he noticed was that the milk on the table was gone.
He immediately checked the bedroom and saw that Naruto was still there, completely unharmed. He let out a small sigh of relief.
Then, placing one hand where the milk had been and covering one eye with the other, Sasuke activated his Mangekyō ability.
Detective Sasuke instantly found the culprit.
It was Impure World Reincarnation Uchiha Madara!
Sasuke watched as Madara picked up a bottle of milk and inserted it into his body like a syringe.
…What was he doing?
Wait.
Sasuke suddenly realized something.
When he consumed "Naruto-brand milk", it was always… fresh.
The milk on the table, however, was actual milk, high-calcium milk meant to supplement Naruto's nutrition and condition his body.
Did Madara actually think this milk belonged to Naruto?
Was he trying to use Naruto's "cells" to achieve something?
In an instant, Sasuke had figured out most of it.
"An Impure World Reincarnation body has no sense of smell or taste. It can only rely on sight to distinguish things. No wonder he couldn't tell the difference."
"On top of that, Madara has always been single, he's never seen what it actually looks like."
"And right now, he can't even activate his Sharingan. With the Second Hokage's modifications, his eyesight is already poor."
Sasuke quickly deduced why Madara had failed to notice the difference.
He hadn't expected Madara to infiltrate his territory and attempt to steal Naruto's cells.
Sure, this time he had made a mistake and stolen actual milk, but what about next time?
Who knew how far Madara would go to regain his strength?
Sasuke made up his mind. Next time he went out, he would keep one eye constantly activated with his Mangekyō ability, watching over Naruto to prevent anything from happening.
Meanwhile, Tobirama, watching everything through surveillance, couldn't help but laugh.
Setting aside the fact that Madara had stolen the wrong thing, even if he had stolen the right one, it wouldn't have mattered.
Naruto's cells didn't have any special effects.
Their only function was to combine with Indra's chakra to draw out the power of the Sage of Six Paths and awaken the Rinnegan.
But Madara had already awakened the Rinnegan once. Asura's chakra no longer had any effect on him.
"My brother's Hashirama cells are one of a kind in the shinobi world."
Tobirama shook his head with a smile.
The only thing capable of increasing chakra and raising the limits of an Impure World Reincarnation body was Hashirama's cells.
Not some so-called "cells of Asura's reincarnation."
----
"Madara, I'm back! Look what I brought you. These are all the latest books from the shinobi world. If you get bored, you can read them and learn about how peaceful and wonderful the world is now."
Hashirama carried in a stack of books and placed them on the sofa.
"…Mm."
Madara walked out of the bathroom expressionlessly.
Though honestly, he still didn't understand why a room for two dead people even needed a bathroom.
He walked over to the pile of books and casually picked one up.
Madara never rejected knowledge. He genuinely needed to understand what the current shinobi world was like in order to plan his next steps.
"Madara, you, you, what happened to you?!"
Hashirama suddenly pointed at him, his face filled with shock, disbelief, and distress.
From beneath Madara's armor, streams of milk were slowly seeping out.
It looked as though he had just gone through something utterly indescribable.
What on earth had happened?!
Hashirama didn't dare imagine it.
But one thing he was certain of, with Madara's current frail condition, even an average genin could probably pin him down with ease.
(End of this chapter)