Naruto: Starting With Creating A Genius Persona

"What is it?"

As concise as ever, Madara Uchiha did not even raise his eyelids.

"It’s about Shinichi Higashino!"

White Zetsu spoke with a grin, its tone carrying an irrepressible excitement.

Madara Uchiha sighed inwardly and thought, as expected.

To be honest, he had never understood why White Zetsu cared so much about this kid named Shinichi Higashino.

Every time it went out to gather intelligence and came back, it always put any news about Shinichi Higashino first, as though it were reporting some earth-shattering matter, but after all these years, Madara Uchiha had grown used to it.

From the annoyance and impatience he had felt at the beginning, to the point where now he did not mind listening.

In any case, in this sunless underground cavern, aside from spacing out and reminiscing about the past, there was nothing else to do.

"Speak."

"Shinichi Higashino is going to establish some kind of society soon, just a few days from now..."

White Zetsu began excitedly, but halfway through, it suddenly stopped, as if it had remembered something even more interesting, and then it deliberately dragged out its tone while revealing a meaningful smile.

"Oh, right, Madara-sama, these past few days, I saw your name written on a lot of notices posted around the streets of Konoha."

’Hm?’

At last, Madara Uchiha raised his eyelids.

’His name had appeared on the streets of Konoha? Written on public notices? How could that be possible?’

From the day he left Konoha, his name had been deliberately downplayed and avoided by Konoha’s authorities, quietly erased from almost all public records.

He was not in the textbooks, not in the memorials, and even the history of founding Konoha alongside Hashirama had long since been blurred into a vague outline by generations of silence and avoidance.

Even the current descendants of the Uchiha Clan spoke of him as if walking on thin ice, much less seeing his name appear on public notices in the streets.

And yet now it was being openly posted for all to see, what was Konoha trying to do?

Did they intend to settle accounts with him completely and nail upon him the label of a sinner who could never be redeemed for all eternity?

Madara Uchiha looked at White Zetsu’s expression, which clearly said, "ask me, ask me quickly," then remained silent for a moment, and in the end still spoke. "What exactly was written on them?"

As he spoke, several possibilities had already flashed rapidly through Madara’s mind.

In the end, they were all more or less the same.

Belittle him, slander him, paint him as the most dangerous traitor in Konoha’s history, nail his departure from the village and his battle with Hashirama to the pillar of shame, and use him as a bloody warning to future generations.

Perhaps the notices would describe him as an ambitious schemer, a betrayer, and the negative example opposing the Will of Fire, using his crimes to highlight Hashirama’s greatness and magnanimity.

As for the achievements he and Hashirama had made together in founding Konoha, those would naturally be glossed over in a few strokes, or perhaps omitted altogether.

His ambition, his betrayal, his threat to the village, those were the useful cautionary examples, stepping on the name Madara Uchiha to emphasize the righteousness of the Will of Fire.

After all these years, had Konoha finally decided to deliver an official verdict on that Chapter of history?

So be it.

He had already waited this long, and he no longer cared, yet White Zetsu’s answer completely exceeded his expectations.

"It’s a promotional notice for Shinichi Higashino’s society. I heard Shinichi Higashino wrote it himself."

White Zetsu continued grinning as it tilted its head. "I couldn’t really understand the exact details, Madara-sama, but basically it said that back then, you and the first Hokage set aside your old grudges and joined hands to build Konoha, that this was in response to the Sage of Six Paths’ original intention of connecting people’s hearts and all that, and that you were one of the founders who stood shoulder to shoulder with the first Hokage in establishing Konoha. Madara-sama made a huuuuge, huuuuge, huuuuge contribution to the founding of Konoha and to pushing the Shinobi World toward ending the chaotic Warring States Period! Hehe."

In truth, the original wording Shinichi had used on the notice was an indelible historical contribution; the phrasing was rigorous and measured, and it acknowledged Madara Uchiha’s positive contributions to the founding of Konoha while also leaving narrative space for an objective evaluation of his later fall.

But in White Zetsu’s retelling, somehow an indelible historical contribution had turned into a huuuuge contribution.

Hearing this, Madara Uchiha was dazed for a moment. He had thought he no longer cared how Konoha viewed him, how the Shinobi World viewed him, how history would judge him, before the eternal dream of Infinite Tsukuyomi and permanent peace; such things did not even count as dust.

He had betrayed everyone, and everyone had betrayed him in turn. Questions of merit and fault should have long since been washed away by the passage of endless time.

Yet at this moment, his name had been written on Konoha’s notice board by a boy he had never met before, placed side by side with Hashirama’s on the same notice, acknowledging that piece of history and his achievements.

For a moment, for reasons he himself could not explain, a trace of indescribable emotion rippled through Madara Uchiha’s heart, which had lain dead and still for many years.

After a brief silence, he spoke. "What else? That can’t be all it said."

"Madara-sama, if I tell you, you’re not allowed to get angry."

"Speak!"

"Then I’m saying it."

White Zetsu was still grinning as it proceeded to recount the latter half of the notice word for word.

Those unambiguous condemnations, those unforgivable crimes, are nailed behind the name of Madara Uchiha. Betraying the Will of Fire, severing the bonds with his comrades, and ultimately degenerating into the most dangerous traitor in Konoha’s history.

As for those earlier labels like missing-nin and betrayer of the village, Madara Uchiha did not feel much disturbance in his heart. They were nothing more than the same old lines, repeated over and over for decades until he was long tired of hearing them.

But when he heard the latter half, his expression finally changed.

The notices actually claimed that he, Madara Uchiha, had violated the Sage of Six Paths’ original intention and strayed from the mission the progenitor had bestowed upon the ninja.

A monstrous rage suddenly ignited in Madara Uchiha’s heart.

You, Shinichi Higashino, a mere kid, dare speak recklessly of the Sage of Six Paths? You dare speak recklessly of the progenitor’s original intention?

I am a descendant of the Sage of Six Paths. Are you?

I have seen the stone tablet left behind by the Sage of Six Paths. Have you?

I possess the Rinnegan, do you?

The Uchiha Clan is the direct descendant of the Sage of Six Paths, and I, Madara Uchiha, am the one who truly understands the Sage of Six Paths and has inherited the original heart of the founder of Ninja Creed!

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