Chapter 539: Two Ghosts at the Gate (Patreon)

Konohagakure — Former Uchiha District

The walls of Konoha emerged beyond the trees as dawn began thinning the darkness.

Izuna slowed beside Madara without needing to be told where they were.

Even without eyes, the change in the world around him was impossible to miss. Hundreds upon hundreds of chakra signatures overlapped beyond the walls, forming a living density unlike anything he remembered from the Warring States Period, when clans had occupied fortified compounds separated by stretches of territory rather than sharing a single settlement.

Children moved among those signatures, and civilians did as well.

Shinobi chakra threaded through everything in disciplined currents, some faint enough to belong to Academy students while others carried the controlled density of veteran killers who had learned how to walk through crowded streets without announcing what they were.

Izuna tilted his head as they continued moving.

"So this is Konoha."

Madara looked toward the village he had helped create.

Much of the skyline would have been unrecognizable to the man who had once stood beside Hashirama and imagined the settlement that might end the age of children dying beneath clan banners. Towers had risen where forests once stood, streets had been rebuilt repeatedly, and the Hokage Monument now carried faces belonging to generations Madara had never intended to see.

Yet the mountain remained.

Hashirama's stone face looked over the village.

Tobirama's rested beside it.

Madara's gaze lingered there long enough for Izuna to notice the silence.

"What are you looking at?"

"The Hokage Monument."

"Oh," Izuna's mouth tightened. "Is Tobirama on it?"

"Yes."

Izuna exhaled slowly through his nose.

"I already dislike this monument."

A faint chuckle escaped Madara before he continued forward.

They did not approach the main gate.

Neither brother required permission from guards who would likely react poorly to discovering that Madara Uchiha had returned from the dead again, especially when the blind man beside him possessed a chakra signature that belonged in historical records rather than the modern world.

Madara led Izuna through the outer forest, using stretches of terrain that had once bordered the Uchiha lands.

The closer they came, the quieter Madara became.

Buildings appeared through the trees, then roads, then the boundaries of what had once been their clan's district.

Izuna felt his brother's pace change.

"What?"

Madara looked across the land.

The Uchiha compound he remembered from later generations was gone.

Alaric's estate had claimed much of the former district without erasing every trace of what had preceded it. Old stone foundations remained incorporated into newer structures, while several surviving clan walls stood farther away like pieces of a history that had been deliberately allowed to remain visible.

The Kenway Compound itself was immense.

Walls surrounded a collection of residences, training grounds, gardens, workshops, and secluded courtyards, all organized with the deliberate spaciousness of someone who had acquired land first and worried about what to build upon it afterward.

Izuna could not see any of that, though… he could sense something else that made his head lift. "Nii-san…"

"I know."

The barrier was enormous.

Madara's Rinnegan recognized it only after he deliberately searched.

Fūinjutsu covered the compound without displaying itself upon any visible wall. Different layers occupied different spatial depths, creating an overlapping defensive architecture that monitored physical intrusion, chakra, intent, space-time distortion, underground movement, aerial entry, and several categories Madara needed more time to identify.

He stopped outside its outermost edge.

Izuna's brow furrowed.

"There's something in front of us."

"A barrier."

"How strong?"

Madara examined another sequence as it shifted beneath his Rinnegan.

"Annoyingly strong."

Izuna almost smiled.

"That sounds personal."

"It has Alaric's habits."

"That does not answer me."

Madara stepped closer.

The barrier reacted.

For an instant, hundreds of hidden seals awakened throughout the compound.

Madara's Rinnegan narrowed… then they went still as a narrow passage opened.

Madara remained where he was.

Izuna turned toward him. "What happened?"

"It recognized us."

"How?"

"That… I do not know."

Madara studied the opening, remembering that Alaric had told them to come here.

Apparently, somewhere between lying uselessly in the snow and disappearing to whatever place required his attention for the next two days, the irritating man had remembered to instruct his barrier not to vaporize his newest employee.

Madara stepped through.

Nothing attacked.

Izuna followed with one hand lightly touching Madara's arm.

The barrier closed behind them.

Several hundred meters away, a bird continued singing as though two men who had been dead for generations had not just entered one of Konoha's most heavily protected private compounds.

Madara's attention moved outward, then he stopped.

Izuna sensed the same thing a moment later.

They were not alone.

Several substantial chakra signatures occupied the compound.

The first was unmistakably Uchiha.

Madara recognized it immediately.

"Itachi."

Izuna's face turned toward him.

"He is here?"

"Yes."

Madara sensed another chakra signature nearby that also carried the Uchiha quality, although it felt younger, sharper, and fundamentally different in its spiritual composition.

Madara did not know the name attached to the chakra, yet he could tell that another powerful Uchiha lived here.

Izuna could feel both.

His fingers tightened faintly around Madara's sleeve.

"There are two."

"Yes."

"One of them is Itachi."

"Yes."

"Which?"

"If I have to say," Madara angled his head toward one of the distant buildings. "The calmer one."

Izuna was silent for several seconds. "That… somehow tells me nothing."

Madara almost answered before another group of chakra signatures caught his attention.

Three of them possessed obvious familial similarities.

One burned with immense Uzumaki vitality, dense and vibrant despite being tightly controlled.

Another was unusually refined, its structure carrying the unmistakable precision of a shinobi whose control bordered upon instinct.

The third combined pieces of both while surrounding something deeper that Madara could not immediately identify from this distance.

Madara's eyes narrowed.

Izuna felt his attention shift.

"More people."

"Yes."

"Do you know them?"

"No."

That surprised Izuna.

Madara rarely sounded so casually ignorant about anything.

Another chakra signature rested farther away… it was cold.

Not literally in temperature, yet its nature possessed a crystalline stillness that reminded Madara of deep winter beneath a clear sky. The amount of chakra compressed inside that person was far greater than the apparent calm suggested.

Madara's gaze moved in that direction.

Whoever it belonged to was dangerous too.

Izuna inhaled slowly.

"There are a lot of powerful people living in this man's home."

Madara's mouth tightened. "Alaric neglected to mention that."

"You agreed to work for him without knowing where he lived."

"That is not relevant."

"It feels relevant."

They moved farther into the compound as the barrier continued allowing them passage.

Madara could sense that each step was being recorded, yet none of the defensive layers activated.

That bothered him more than an inactive barrier should have.

Someone had granted them access intentionally, meaning Alaric had expected them.

Madara looked toward the main residence. "He really did arrange this."

Izuna tilted his head. "You sound surprised."

"I have learned that Alaric alternates between preparing for absurdly specific possibilities and forgetting obvious details because something else caught his attention."

"You work for a strange man."

"Yes."

"You agreed to that."

Madara ignored him.

They reached one of the compound's quieter rooftops after Madara decided that walking blind Izuna through the central courtyard before understanding who lived here was unnecessarily conspicuous.

Izuna landed carefully beside him.

His balance had improved dramatically since leaving the Land of Frost.

Madara steadied him anyway.

Neither brother realized that the Uchiha signature Madara had recognized had already begun moving.

Kenway Compound — Eastern Residence

Itachi had been doing almost nothing.

That was increasingly rare.

The compound provided many places where someone could disappear without actually leaving, and Itachi had gradually learned which sections remained quiet during the early morning.

Naruto rarely came to the eastern courtyard unless he was searching for someone. Kushina preferred the central gardens. Minato tended to move between the library and training grounds, while Sasuke had developed the habit of locating Itachi regardless of where he tried to sit alone.

Haku was different.

Haku could appear anywhere.

Itachi had accepted that as a fact of life.

This morning, however, the eastern veranda had remained peaceful.

Itachi sat beneath the overhanging roof with one knee raised, a cup of tea resting loosely between his fingers while cool air moved through the nearby trees.

His eyes were half closed… then they opened.

The cup stopped halfway toward his lips as he could feel it… or them.

Chakra… Uchiha chakra to be exact.

Two signatures.

One struck him immediately.

Itachi lowered the tea as his Sharingan appeared. "Madara."

The name came quietly.

There was no reasonable explanation for Madara Uchiha entering the Kenway Compound.

The last information Itachi possessed placed Madara somewhere beyond Konoha, entangled in whatever confrontation Alaric had deliberately kept away from the village. Hiruzen had refused to speculate. Minato had been concerned. Haku had said only that Alaric knew what he was doing, which had not meaningfully reassured anyone.

Now Madara was inside the compound.

Not outside the barrier.

Inside.

Itachi rose before is attention shifted toward the second chakra signature.

'Another Uchiha…?'

That alone narrowed the possibilities to an uncomfortable degree.

It was not Sasuke.

It was older in character, though not necessarily in physical age. The chakra possessed the weight of someone developed during a far more violent period, with instincts shaped before the modern shinobi system had standardized how warriors trained and concealed themselves.

Itachi had never sensed it before.

He placed the cup down.

The barrier had not sounded an alarm.

That was nearly as concerning as Madara's presence.

Haku had explained the compound's defenses to him months earlier after Sasuke had asked why no enemy ever attempted to breach the property directly. Only people Alaric or Haku permitted could pass the major defensive layers without triggering an immediate response.

Even Minato's Hiraishin access had been deliberately accounted for.

Nobody wandered inside by accident.

If Madara had entered, then one of two things had happened.

He had somehow defeated Alaric's barrier.

Or Alaric had allowed him through.

Itachi disliked both possibilities for different reasons.

He vanished from the veranda.

FWOOSH!

His sandals landed upon a higher roof several buildings away.

The Sharingan immediately found two figures.

The first figure was Madara, who stood near the ridge.

His long dark hair moved slightly in the morning breeze, while the concentric rings of the Rinnegan remained unmistakable even at distance.

Alive.

No Edo Tensei cracks like before.

Itachi's gaze sharpened.

Then he looked at the man beside him.

The stranger appeared younger than Madara.

His dark hair fell around a face Itachi did not recognize immediately, although the resemblance between the two men was impossible to overlook. His posture belonged to a shinobi despite the way one hand remained near Madara's arm for orientation.

Then Itachi noticed the eyes.

Or rather, the absence of them.

The stranger's eyelids rested over empty sockets.

Itachi's expression changed.

Blind Uchiha.

Old chakra.

A physical resemblance to Madara strong enough to suggest immediate blood relation.

His mind searched through clan history.

No conclusion arrived that he trusted enough to accept.

Madara turned toward him, and their eyes met.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Izuna heard the change in Madara's breathing. "He came to us."

"Yes."

"Which one?"

"This one's Itachi."

Izuna's fingers slowly loosened from Madara's sleeve.

Itachi heard his name, and that disturbed him.

The blind stranger knew who he was.

Itachi shifted his weight as his Sharingan rotated. "You entered the compound without triggering the barrier."

Madara glanced around as though the observation were obvious. "So it appears."

Itachi's expression hardened.

"Only Alaric and Haku can grant access."

Madara's mouth curved faintly. "Then perhaps you should consider what that means."

That answer did not reassure him.

Itachi examined the unknown Uchiha again.

The stranger turned toward his voice. "You are Itachi Uchiha, correct?"

There was something strange about hearing his full name spoken by a man whose chakra felt older than the village itself.

Itachi did not answer immediately.

"…"

"…"

Izuna could hear the caution in his silence.

Madara had already told him what Itachi had done.

He had expected anger when this moment came.

Instead, standing blind before the thirteen-year-old murderer who had somehow survived into adulthood, Izuna felt something much more complicated.

The chakra was calm, controlled, and heavy with experience.

There was grief buried inside it deeply enough that Izuna could sense its shape without understanding the years that had formed it.

This did not feel like the chakra of someone proud of what he had done.

Izuna's mouth tightened.

Itachi noticed.

Before either man could say more, the atmosphere changed.

A cold pressure appeared beside Itachi.

No warning preceded it, no footsteps crossed the roof, and no obvious Body Flicker trail formed.

One moment Itachi stood alone.

The next, Haku was beside him.

Madara's Rinnegan shifted immediately.

'That speed…' He thought as he took a good look at Haku. 'Isn't he Alaric's student?'

He had sensed the cold chakra elsewhere in the compound, but he had not sensed it move.

Haku stood with one hand resting near a weapon, posture relaxed only in the superficial sense. His dark eyes moved toward Madara.

For perhaps half a second, he simply stared.

And when recognition followed, his expression tightened. "Ah, Fuck."

The curse escaped under his breath.

Itachi glanced toward him.

Haku rarely swore.

That alone told him more than a warning would have.

Madara examined the newcomer.

So this was the owner of the chakra he had noticed earlier.

Haku's body did not carry the visible arrogance common among shinobi powerful enough to intimidate entire battlefields. His center of gravity remained low, his breathing unchanged, and his chakra compressed so tightly that the surrounding air barely responded.

Yet Madara recognized someone prepared to kill.

Izuna did too.

His blind gaze shifted toward Haku.

"This one is stronger."

Madara's mouth curved.

"Yes."

Haku heard both of them.

His eyes moved briefly toward Izuna before returning to Madara.

The resemblance registered.

So did the empty sockets.

Questions could come later.

Haku's chakra sharpened.

Frost formed along the nearest roof tile.

Itachi adjusted beside him.

Neither attacked immediately because the compound barrier still had not reacted.

That fact mattered.

It simply did not matter enough for either man to lower his guard.

Madara watched them.

Itachi's Sharingan had already begun measuring angles.

Haku stood slightly ahead of him now, positioning himself between the intruders and the deeper compound almost without conscious thought.

Farther away, other chakra signatures had begun reacting.

Minato had noticed.

Kushina had too.

Naruto's chakra shifted violently as he woke to the tension, while the second Uchiha signature… Sasuke… began moving.

Madara sensed all of it, and because of that, his expression became mildly annoyed.

Alaric had sent him into a house full of people who apparently possessed enough collective trauma to treat his presence as an invasion.

Izuna turned toward him.

"Nii-san."

"I know."

Haku's fingers shifted, and Ice formed silently between them.

Itachi's Mangekyō threatened beneath the three tomoe without fully emerging.

Madara sighed and thought about how he had fought enough tonight.

More importantly, Izuna had been alive for barely several hours, remained blind, and did not need his first morning in the modern world to involve Madara dismantling Alaric's household because nobody had been informed that two dead Uchiha would be arriving.

Madara lifted one hand.

Haku's chakra immediately surged and Itachi's stance lowered.

Izuna immediately felt both reactions.

Madara spoke before either man could attack.

"We're not here to fight," Madara said, his voice settling across the rooftop while his raised hand remained deliberately empty. "Alaric told me to come here."