Chapter 546: The Men Alaric Brought Back (Patreon)

Kenway Compound — Konohagakure

"This is going to be a long wait."

Madara's muttered complaint did little to ease the atmosphere surrounding him.

If anything, Naruto seemed even less convinced that the legendary Uchiha understood what counted as reassuring.

Eventually, however, remaining on the rooftop became ridiculous.

Haku was the first to lower his posture from something prepared for immediate combat into something merely cautious. The frost that had formed beneath his sandals retreated into water before evaporating beneath the morning warmth, while Itachi allowed the three tomoe in his Sharingan to slow without dismissing them entirely.

Minato also stepped away from the angle he had taken behind Madara.

Nobody relaxed completely.

That would have required forgetting who stood among them.

Madara Uchiha had once become the name shinobi used when discussing the upper boundary of what an Uchiha could become. Hashirama Senju had required everything he possessed to oppose him, and even generations after Madara's supposed death, wars, secrets, and entire organizations had continued bending around choices he made from the shadows.

Now he was standing on the roof of Alaric's home with his hands lowered and an expression suggesting everyone else was making the situation unnecessarily inconvenient.

The pressure rolling from him did not help.

Madara was no longer the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki. The primordial ocean of chakra that had once distorted the world around him was gone, while the horn, Truth-Seeking Orbs, and Six Paths mantle had disappeared with it.

Even so, the man underneath had never been ordinary.

His chakra remained vast, ancient, and dense enough that he did not need to flare it deliberately. His passive presence pressed across the rooftop like an approaching storm, creating the instinctive sensation that something standing nearby existed several levels higher on the food chain than everyone else.

Naruto kept glancing at him, while Sasuke was considerably less subtle.

Kushina's expression remained friendly only because she was making a deliberate effort to keep it that way, while Minato watched Madara with the calm attentiveness of someone already mapping every marked location within Hiraishin range.

Only Haku and Itachi had personally stood before Madara before today.

They had seen his Edo Tensei form when he and Obito crashed the Kage Summit, which meant they possessed memories the others could only build from history, intelligence reports, and warnings.

Haku knew exactly how unpleasant it felt when Madara merely existed in the same room.

He also knew the man currently standing before him felt different.

Alive... warmer.

Somehow more physically grounded than the reanimated monster from the summit, even though his chakra remained oppressive enough to make every instinct Haku possessed refuse to dismiss him as anything less than catastrophic.

Izuna quietly endured the tension beside his brother.

After several seconds, he tilted his head.

"Are we going to continue standing on the roof?"

Naruto blinked.

Izuna continued, "Because if this is a custom of the village, Madara failed to mention it."

"It isn't," Minato answered, allowing a faint smile to soften his face.

"Good."

Kushina released a breath through her nose before gesturing toward the residence below. "Then we can all go inside and drink something before somebody decides staring counts as an attack."

Naruto glanced toward Sasuke.

Sasuke was absolutely still staring.

Kushina noticed, "Sasuke."

His eyes moved toward her.

"Inside."

Sasuke gave Madara one final look before dropping from the roof.

Naruto followed.

Itachi remained long enough to watch Izuna step toward the edge.

For a man without eyes, Izuna moved with surprisingly little hesitation.

His sandal found the roof's slope precisely. His head angled toward the courtyard below, and after listening for only a moment, he stepped off.

He landed cleanly, enough that Itachi's Sharingan narrowed.

There was no cane, no guiding hand, and no visible sensory technique Itachi could identify.

Madara followed immediately, although his position remained close enough to his brother that he could intervene if necessary.

Haku noticed Itachi watching.

"So did I," he murmured.

Itachi glanced toward him.

Haku dropped from the roof.

Itachi followed.

Kenway Compound — Main Residence

The sitting room had never been designed to host two resurrected Uchiha from the Warring States Period.

Kushina decided tea would make the attempt marginally less absurd.

She disappeared into the adjoining kitchen with Minato, and the familiar domestic sounds that followed created a strange contrast with the atmosphere in the room.

Porcelain shifted against wood, water poured, and a cupboard opened while one of the most dangerous men in shinobi history sat several meters away beneath a painting Alaric had apparently purchased simply because he liked the frame.

Madara occupied one end of a long seating area while Izuna sat beside him.

Haku chose a chair with a clear view of both.

Itachi settled nearby, while Sasuke took the opposite side with enough distance to leave room for reaction.

Naruto sat between none of them because Kushina had specifically told him not to.

He chose the chair closest to the tea table instead.

Nobody spoke for the first minute.

Madara looked around.

The house itself revealed Alaric in ways the man never bothered explaining.

There were seals worked into the walls, some defensive and others purely convenient. Books occupied shelves in several languages. Weapons appeared in places that suggested either deliberate readiness or a complete disregard for ordinary decoration. The furniture was expensive without being ostentatious, while family objects sat comfortably beside artifacts that Madara suspected belonged in guarded national collections.

His Rinnegan moved toward Haku, then Itachi, then Sasuke.

The room remained tense.

Madara finally sighed, "You are all still doing it."

Naruto frowned. "Doing what?"

"Watching me as though I will suddenly decide to destroy the house."

Sasuke's expression remained flat. "Would that be out of character?"

Izuna lowered his head.

Madara looked at Sasuke.

For half a second, the pressure in the room seemed to deepen.

Naruto straightened.

Haku's fingers moved slightly.

Then Madara's mouth curved. "Fair."

Sasuke visibly had not expected that answer.

Before the silence could become awkward again, Kushina returned carrying a tray while Minato followed with another.

The smell of freshly brewed tea spread through the room.

Kushina placed the first tray down with deliberate normality. "If anyone starts a historical clan feud before I finish serving this, I am throwing all of you outside."

Madara's gaze settled on Kushina. Kushina met it without hesitation.

Izuna leaned faintly toward his brother.

"I like her."

Madara ignored him.

Minato began distributing cups, starting with Izuna.

Because Izuna could not see the placement, Minato lightly touched the edge of the cup against the back of his fingers first.

"Tea, directly in front of you."

Izuna's hand adjusted immediately. "Thank you."

Itachi watched again.

Izuna found the cup without fumbling.

His sensory awareness was unusual.

The blind Uchiha seemed to construct the room through sound, chakra, airflow, vibrations beneath the floor, and spatial memory with enough accuracy that his lack of eyes impaired him without making him helpless.

Kushina placed a cup before Madara.

He looked at it, then at her, and asked, "You poisoned it?"

Naruto nearly choked before even taking a drink.

Kushina's brow twitched. "If I were trying to poison you, I would not waste good tea doing it."

Madara considered that.

"Reasonable."

Kushina turned away before she decided resurrecting Izuna had been enough miracles for one morning.

Minato sat beside her.

For several minutes, everyone drank.

The simple act helped, though not much.

Madara's passive aura remained suffocating enough that ordinary conversation felt strangely deliberate, yet the fact that he was holding a teacup instead of a war fan gave the room something mundane to anchor itself around.

Izuna took another sip.

"This is better than tea from my time."

Naruto looked toward him. "You remember tea after being dead that long?"

Izuna's expression became dry. "I died. I did not become stupid."

"Oh."

Sasuke looked away, hiding the faintest twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Madara, meanwhile, had stopped paying attention to the conversation.

His Rinnegan rested on Minato, then Kushina.

He had already inspected them on the roof, but the contradiction still bothered him.

Minato Namikaze was supposed to be dead.

So was Kushina Uzumaki.

He knew the history intimately because their deaths were attached directly to Obito's attack on Konoha.

The Fourth Hokage and his wife died sealing the Nine-Tails, leaving their infant son as the sole survivor.

Yet both sat across from Madara now, drinking tea in Alaric's house while their adult son complained that Izuna insulted him too quickly.

Madara lowered his cup.

"Explain something."

Conversation stopped.

Minato met his gaze. "What?"

"You and your wife."

Kushina raised an eyebrow.

Madara continued, "You both died during the Nine-Tails attack."

The room changed and even Naruto's humor faded.

Minato's expression remained calm.

"Yes."

Madara's Rinnegan narrowed slightly. "Yet neither of you is an Edo Tensei."

"No."

"You have natural bodies."

"Yes."

"Natural heartbeats."

Minato nodded again.

Madara looked toward Kushina.

"Original souls."

Kushina crossed one leg over the other. "As far as I'm aware, yes."

Izuna's head turned sharply toward them.

He had already heard that Minato was another resurrected person, but the details had never been explained.

Madara's gaze returned to Minato.

"Alaric."

It was not phrased as a question.

Minato smiled faintly. "Alaric."

Madara leaned back.

"The same technique?"

This time, Izuna became completely still.

Minato glanced toward the blind Uchiha before answering. "Shinsei Tensei."

Madara's fingers tightened slightly around the teacup.

There it was... the same name, the technique Alaric claimed to have created.

The technique that had reached through death, located Izuna's soul, and returned him to a genuine living body without a sacrifice.

Madara's gaze sharpened.

"When?"

Kushina studied him. "Before you're thinking."

Madara looked toward her.

She continued, "Alaric didn't invent Shinsei Tensei last night because you asked him to bring your brother back."

Madara became silent.

That possibility had never genuinely occurred to him, yet hearing it stated so plainly changed something.

He had known Alaric possessed resurrection knowledge.

He had known the man spoke with absurd confidence about surpassing Rinne Tensei.

He had watched Izuna breathe again.

Some part of Madara had still treated the technique as though it were a rare answer Alaric had developed and then demonstrated at the end of their confrontation.

Instead, the man had already used it.

Successfully.

On two people.

Long before Madara ever became his problem.

Naruto leaned forward. "He brought them both back."

Madara looked toward him.

Naruto gestured between his parents. "Fully alive. Not Edo Tensei or anything."

Kushina smiled at her son's wording.

Minato added, "The circumstances were different from Izuna's, but the result was essentially what you saw."

Madara's gaze lowered.

Original souls, living flesh... no sacrifice, no caster death... a resurrection method beyond the Outer Path.

Alaric had not been selling him a theory.

He had been offering something tested.

For how long?

Madara thought back.

His memory moved past the fire dimension, past the Ten-Tails, past the battle in the Land of Frost, until it reached the underground base he had shared with Obito.

Alaric had appeared there before everything escalated.

Madara remembered the absurdity of the moment clearly because it had irritated him.

Alaric had arrived carrying something wrapped in cloth.

Dinner.

At the time, Madara had assumed the man was simply performing another one of his bizarre acts of casual disrespect.

Then Alaric had mentioned Kushina.

'Kushina insisted.'

Madara's expression shifted.

Naruto noticed first. "What?"

Madara stared at Kushina.

Kushina slowly lowered her cup. "What?"

A quiet sound escaped Madara before he chuckled.

Haku's eyes narrowed in confusion.

Itachi watched more carefully.

Madara brought one hand toward his face as the memory reassembled itself with new meaning. "When Alaric came to our base…"

Minato's brow rose.

Madara continued, the amusement becoming harder to suppress. "He unfolded a cloth and told us he was carrying dinner."

Naruto immediately looked toward Kushina.

Her expression changed.

Madara's smile widened. "He mentioned that Kushina had insisted."

Kushina closed her eyes.

Naruto grinned.

Minato's mouth twitched.

Madara actually laughed, not loudly nor with the manic force that had once accompanied battle, but quieter and considerably more genuine.

"I thought he was bringing up an old memory," Madara admitted as he shook his head. "Some dead woman from the Fourth Hokage's past whose cooking he happened to know about."

Kushina opened her eyes.

Madara gestured toward her with the cup.

"But no." His laughter returned. "You were actually alive."

Naruto broke first, starting to laugh.

Minato followed more quietly.

Even Haku's expression softened because he knew exactly how plausible it was that Alaric had walked into an enemy base carrying food Kushina forced upon him before doing something world-altering.

Kushina looked increasingly unimpressed.

"I told him to eat."

Madara's shoulders shifted with another chuckle.

And he brought dinner into our base before fighting me.

"Yes."

"He was carrying food packed by a woman who had been dead for years."

Kushina's eyes narrowed. "I am sitting right here."

That made Madara laugh again.

Izuna listened beside him with visible disbelief.

"Nii-san."

Madara calmed enough to glance toward him.

"I have been alive for a few hours," Izuna said, "and the man who resurrected me is somehow becoming stranger every time someone explains him."

Haku took a sip of tea. "That does not stop."

Madara looked toward him.

There was enough certainty in Haku's answer to suggest long experience.

Madara filed that away.

Then his attention returned to Minato and Kushina.

Something more serious settled beneath his amusement.

Alaric had possessed Shinsei Tensei long enough for two people once recorded among Konoha's dead to build an ordinary life after resurrection.

They had not become monsters, had not fallen apart, their souls had not degraded, nor were they dependent upon constant chakra supply; they had simply returned.

Madara looked toward Izuna.

His younger brother was holding a cup of tea with both hands, listening to strangers discuss death with the casual familiarity of people for whom the impossible had already happened.

For the first time since Izuna opened his eyes, Madara considered what resurrection meant beyond the initial miracle.

Izuna might remain.

Not for hours, not for days, but for years, decades... a life.

The thought was still more frightening than Madara wanted to admit.

Izuna tilted his head toward him.

"You're staring."

Madara's expression flattened. "You cannot see me."

"I can feel you being annoying."

Naruto snorted into his tea, and Madara looked toward him.

Naruto immediately pretended to become fascinated by his cup.

The room relaxed by another degree.

Not enough for anyone to forget the danger, but enough that hands stopped remaining quite so close to weapons.

Izuna eventually placed his cup down.

His fingers lingered against the porcelain for several seconds.

Then his head turned. "Itachi."

Every trace of casual conversation disappeared.

Itachi set his own cup down.

"Yes."

Izuna's expression remained unreadable.

"Would you speak with me outside?"

Sasuke's eyes shifted toward his brother.

Haku looked from Izuna to Madara.

Minato remained quiet.

Kushina's hand stopped near the teapot.

Everyone in the room knew exactly what subject waited between those two men.

Madara had already told Izuna what happened to the Uchiha, but Itachi had not.

The silence stretched before Itachi finally nodded. "Of course."

Izuna stood, prompting Madara to start rising instinctively, but his brother turned toward him.

"Alone."

Madara stopped, and Izuna's expression softened only slightly.

"You already told me your version."

Madara understood and sat back. "Fine."

Itachi rose as well.

Sasuke watched him.

The brothers exchanged a glance containing considerably more history than anyone else in the room could interpret completely.

Then Itachi stepped toward Izuna. "The garden is this way."

Izuna angled his head toward the open hall. "I can follow."

Itachi paused, then nodded, and the two left together.

Kenway Compound — Eastern Garden

Neither spoke during the walk.

Itachi deliberately kept his pace moderate, although he quickly realized Izuna did not require the accommodation as much as he expected.

The blind Uchiha followed turns with remarkable accuracy.

When the hallway opened toward the garden, Izuna adjusted before Itachi explained the change in terrain. His sandals found the stone path cleanly, and when a branch hung slightly lower over one section, he shifted his head enough to pass beneath it without contact.

Itachi's curiosity grew.

No eyes, no cane, no one guiding him.

Yet Izuna navigated as though the world still presented itself through something more subtle than vision.

Itachi activated his Sharingan briefly.

Izuna's chakra was moving.

Not through one specialized sensory organ, but through an unusually refined network extending awareness into his surroundings. Minute chakra pulses traveled into the soles of his feet and through the nearby stone, while his hearing continuously adjusted to wind, leaves, Itachi's footsteps, and the distant sounds of the compound.

Crude compared with sight.

Extremely sophisticated compared with blindness.

Izuna turned his head slightly. "You activated your Sharingan."

Itachi's eyebrows rose. "You can tell?"

"I am blind, not unaware."

Itachi dismissed it, "Forgive me."

"For what?"

"Studying you."

Izuna smiled faintly. "You are Uchiha."

Itachi understood the answer.

Curiosity had always been difficult for their clan to suppress when confronted by an unfamiliar technique.

They reached the quieter section of the garden.

A small pond rested beyond trimmed stone, while several trees cast broken shade over a sitting area. Itachi moved toward one of the chairs.

"I'll bring this closer."

Izuna stopped.

"No need."

His hands moved, forming three hand signs.

Itachi recognized Earth Release chakra immediately.

The ground shifted.

Stone rose behind Izuna smoothly, bending upward before shaping itself into a broad-backed chair with enough precision that its surface looked carved rather than forced from the earth.

Itachi raised one eyebrow.

Izuna lowered himself onto it. "You appear surprised."

"I was expecting you to need assistance."

Izuna rested one arm against the stone. "I spent most of my life on battlefields. Losing my eyes is inconvenient, but being helpless would be embarrassing."

Itachi pulled the ordinary chair closer and sat opposite him.

For several moments, neither spoke.

The garden moved around them as leaves whispered overhead and water disturbed gently whenever fish moved near the pond's surface.

Farther inside the compound, Naruto's voice became briefly audible before Kushina told him something Itachi could not make out.

Izuna faced him.

His empty eyelids remained closed now.

Itachi found that easier to look at than the brief glimpse of empty sockets he had seen after Izuna's resurrection.

This was one of the most important Uchiha in recorded history.

Madara's younger brother.

A man who had fought Senju during the era before villages.

A man whose eyes had enabled Madara to awaken the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.

A man who had died generations before Itachi's birth.

Now Izuna sat across from him because Alaric had decided death was a solvable problem.

Itachi had faced enemies with less intimidating circumstances.

Izuna remained silent for long enough that Itachi wondered whether he was waiting for something.

Then the older Uchiha leaned back slightly against the stone chair.

His voice was calm when he finally spoke.

"Itachi Uchiha…"

Itachi met the blind gaze.

Izuna's expression gave nothing away.

"Tell me your story."