Uchiha orphan, so what if I'm ruthless?

Uzumaki Naruto pointed at himself, his eyes wide.

“Ah, me?”

His voice was loud, carrying an obvious tone of surprise.

“The Child of Destiny?”

Uchiha Madara sat on the stone chair, watching him without answering. He just stared quietly, his Sharingan slowly spinning in their crimson irises, fixed on Naruto’s face.

Uzumaki Naruto scratched his head, his fingers running through his blonde hair a few times, making his already messy hair even messier.

“Both you and that old grandpa say such weird things. Why do you all say I’m the Child of Destiny?”

Uchiha Madara frowned, noticing the peculiar detail in Uzumaki Naruto’s words.

*That old grandpa?*

He spoke, his voice deep.

“Who?”

Naruto looked at him, thought for a moment, and began to describe.

“An old grandpa in white clothes. Very, very old, with a face full of wrinkles.”

He raised his hand and gestured above his head.

“He has horns on his head. Here, two horns, curved.”

His hands drew two arcs above his head.

“He holds a black staff in his hand and can fly, floating in mid-air.”

He paused, then added another sentence.

“His eyes are in circles, very strange, like a target.”

He finished speaking and looked at Uchiha Madara, waiting for his reaction.

Uchiha Madara’s frown deepened. His mind searched, rummaging through his memories, trying to figure out who this person could be.

*Wearing white clothes, horns on his head, holding a black staff, floating in mid-air, and eyes with concentric circles.*

*The Rinnegan?*

He had a vague suspicion in his heart, but he couldn’t quite figure out who Uzumaki Naruto was talking about.

In the entire ninja world, he had only seen one person with the Rinnegan.

Nagato.

But Nagato wasn’t an old man, he didn’t wear white clothes, and he certainly didn’t have horns on his head.

Moreover, Nagato couldn’t float in mid-air.

*Who was it?*

He couldn’t figure it out.

In the end, he could only let out a cold snort, the heavy sound echoing through the cave.

“Brat, no matter who you’re talking about.”

His voice was deep.

“Turmoil will inevitably arise in the ninja world.”

He paused, looking into Naruto’s eyes.

“As the Child of Destiny, you need to contribute your strength to the peace of the ninja world.”

By this point in the conversation, Uchiha Madara had unconsciously revealed a bit of his domineering nature.

His voice was deep and heavy, sounding more like he was issuing an order rather than discussing something.

Uzumaki Naruto, slow on the uptake, finally realized that the middle-aged man in front of him was a bit strange.

He tilted his head, carefully sizing up Uchiha Madara from top to bottom, then bottom to top.

Then, his eyes suddenly lit up.

“Ah, I remember now! You’re a bad guy!”

After saying this, he crossed his hands in front of him and formed a hand sign.

With a *poof*, white smoke burst outward.

As the smoke cleared, several identical clones appeared beside him. Each one looked exactly like him, wearing the same orange clothes and bearing the same whisker marks on their faces.

The clones raised their right hands simultaneously, chakra gathering in their palms.

Blue light shone from their palms, growing brighter and denser, expanding from a single point into a swirling mass, and then into a sphere.

Rasengan.

Naruto’s original body also raised his right hand, the same blue light glowing in his palm.

He glared at Uchiha Madara, his voice loud.

“Damn it, I actually fell for your trick!”

His tone was filled with anger.

The corner of Uchiha Madara’s eye twitched.

He looked at the multiple Uzumaki Narutos forming those spheres, watching the blue light spinning in their palms, and took several deep breaths.

Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.

He repeated this a few times before suppressing the irritation in his heart.

He looked at Naruto and spoke.

“Brat, are you making fun of me?”

His voice was deep, carrying an uncontrollable frustration.

Uzumaki Naruto snorted, his chin raised slightly.

“Hmph, no matter what you say now, I won’t believe you anymore.”

His voice was loud, his tone firm.

The sphere in his hand had already taken shape. The blue light spun rapidly in his palm, emitting a buzzing sound.

He held the sphere up, pointing it in Uchiha Madara’s direction.

He looked entirely ready to smash the sphere into Madara’s face if he spoke any more nonsense.

Uchiha Madara looked at the sphere, then at Naruto’s serious face, and his eyelid twitched.

His anger kept surging upward.

He had lived for so many years, seen so many people, and encountered so many things, but he had never met someone like this.

If you called him stupid, he wasn’t exactly stupid. If you called him smart, he wasn’t smart either. If you called him naive, he certainly was. If you called him vigilant, well, he was being vigilant right now.

But his vigilance came at the completely wrong time.

He had followed him for over a hundred miles, eaten his food, drank his water, and only *now* realized something was wrong.

What kind of nonsense was this?

Uchiha Madara took a deep breath. Only at this moment did he truly realize how mentally exhausting it was to converse with this brat.

Just as the atmosphere was gradually becoming heavy…

No, more accurately, as it was gradually becoming bizarre…

When things were heading in an uncontrollable direction, a sigh echoed through the cave.

“Sigh…”

The sound was long, very soft, and ethereal, as if it had traveled from a faraway place.

It appeared abruptly in the cave, without any warning, without any source.

It just rang out out of thin air.

Uchiha Madara’s expression changed drastically.

He suddenly stood up from the stone chair. His movements were so fast that the stone chair wobbled, letting out a muffled thud.

His eyes locked onto the direction of the sound, his pupils shrinking as the three tomoe spun rapidly within his eye sockets.

“Who is it!”

His voice was loud and heavy, carrying an uncontrollable wariness.

His body leaned forward slightly, his right hand raised, fingers spread wide as blue chakra gathered in his palm.

The skeletal frame of the Susanoo materialized around his body. First the ribs, then the arms. The blue chakra condensed outside his body, ready to erupt at any moment.

On the contrary, Uzumaki Naruto’s face lit up with pleasant surprise when he heard the voice.

The sphere in his hand vanished, the blue light dissipating from his palm. He turned around, looking toward the source of the sound, his eyes shining brightly.

“Weird old grandpa?”

His voice was loud, carrying an uncontrollable joy.

At the source of the sound, a figure gradually emerged.

First, it was a blurry outline, then the outline became clear, shifting from transparent to translucent, and finally into a solid entity.

It was an old man. Very old, very thin, wearing a long white robe and leaning on a black staff.

His hair was long, draped over his shoulders, and the wrinkles on his face were deep, as if carved by a knife.

Two curved horns grew from his head, protruding from his hair.

His eyes were composed of concentric circles, like ripples in water, spreading outward from the pupils.

The Rinnegan.

He sat cross-legged in mid-air, his feet off the ground, his white robe hanging down like a Buddha statue.

The Sage of Six Paths, Otsutsuki Hagoromo.

He looked at Uchiha Madara with a complex expression.

There was something indescribable in those Rinnegan eyes—something like compassion, something like helplessness, and something like the tranquility of having seen through everything.

When Uchiha Madara saw the person who had appeared, his pupils shrank violently.

His eyes widened, the tomoe in his eye sockets spinning at extreme speeds, looking like three black rings rotating against a crimson background.

He spoke, his voice tight.

“The Sage of Six Paths!?”

His tone carried an uncontrollable shock.

Otsutsuki Hagoromo looked at him and gave a slight nod.

“Child, it is me.”

His voice was soft and calm, as if greeting a junior he hadn’t seen in a long time.

Uchiha Madara’s face looked terrible.

His lips were pressed into a thin line, his brows furrowed into a tight knot. The chakra in his hand was still gathering, and the skeletal frame of the Susanoo still hovered around his body.

He stared at Otsutsuki Hagoromo and spoke in a deep voice.

“To think you are actually still alive.”

His voice was heavy, carrying an indescribable tone.

Otsutsuki Hagoromo shook his head.

He didn’t explain, nor did he refute it. He merely shook his head.

The sphere in Uzumaki Naruto’s hand had completely vanished, the blue light entirely gone from his palm.

He hurried over, standing beside Otsutsuki Hagoromo, looking up at him.

“Weird old grandpa, why are you here?”

His voice was loud, filled with curiosity.

Otsutsuki Hagoromo looked down at Naruto and nodded.

Then, he raised his head and looked at Uchiha Madara once more.

“Child, you are the Child of Destiny.”

He paused.

“The peace of the ninja world needs you.”

At this moment, Uchiha Madara only felt a sense of absurdity. These words sounded so familiar—it was exactly what he had just said to this brat, Uzumaki Naruto.

And now, the Sage of Six Paths was saying almost the exact same thing to him.

But only he knew the truth behind those words.

The words he had spoken to Uzumaki Naruto were a lie.

They were just something he used to fool the brat.

It was his goal, his method, his scheme.

But now, hearing these words come from the mouth of the Sage of Six Paths, directed at him, Uchiha Madara felt a bit uncertain.

His brows furrowed tightly.

*Wait. Could the words I used to fool Uzumaki Naruto actually be true?*

At this moment, countless thoughts surged through Uchiha Madara’s mind.

He thought of his schemes over the years, his Eye of the Moon Plan, his Infinite Tsukuyomi.

He thought of many, many things.

But his face remained expressionless. He just stood there, looking at Otsutsuki Hagoromo, staring in silence for a long time.

The cave fell quiet.

Uchiha Madara’s hand was still raised, the chakra in his palm still gathering, and the skeletal frame of the Susanoo still hovering around his body.

But he didn’t move.

He just looked at Otsutsuki Hagoromo, at those Rinnegan eyes, at that aged face.

Then, he spoke.

“What did you say?”