Chapter 455: Pure And Unstained

Standing at the entrance of the inn, Yahiko watched Obito wave as he ran off.

Only after that streak of blue disappeared around the corner of the street did he turn around and smile at his two companions.

"I never expected that a great ninja clan like the Uchiha would also have someone as warmhearted as Obito."

"Perhaps we’ll become good friends in the future."

Meanwhile, the Obito whom Yahiko believed would become a good friend had already returned to the streets near Konoha.

Having just finished helping the three visitors from the Village Hidden in the Rain, he was planning to head to the society headquarters to see if any odd jobs needed doing when his attention was drawn to a figure standing in the middle of the street.

A middle-aged monk wearing gray robes stood there completely motionless. Around him, people bustled back and forth: men pushing handcarts, women carrying children, and hurried ninja. Yet he seemed to be standing in an entirely different world.

The monk slowly swept his gaze across the surrounding streets, the houses, and the distant Hokage Rock, as though recalling something, or perhaps trying to identify something, as if everything before his eyes was both connected to him and completely unrelated to him.

This place had long since ceased to resemble the one in his memories, yet traces of those memories lingered everywhere.

Madara Uchiha had once believed that until the day he died, he would never again set foot on this land. Yet now, draped in borrowed monk’s robes, he stood amid the bustling streets of Konoha like a fish swimming against the current. For a moment, even he found the situation rather absurd.

"Mister!"

A clear, youthful voice came from the side, interrupting Madara Uchiha’s thoughts.

He turned his head slightly and looked toward the source of the voice.

It was a young kid wearing goggles and a blue athletic jacket. His black hair was pushed up slightly by the goggles, and he wore the familiar expression of someone who acted as though everyone was already his friend.

"Is this your first time in Konoha?"

Madara Uchiha looked at the other party. The eyes visible beneath the goggles were bright, radiant, and straightforward.

He suddenly found it rather ironic. After returning to Konoha, the first person to strike up a conversation with him was actually a greenhorn who didn’t seem particularly bright.

And that greenhorn even happened to be a member of the Uchiha Clan.

"You could say that." Madara Uchiha replied indifferently.

"You could say that?" Obito Uchiha tilted his head, somewhat puzzled by the vague answer, but he did not dwell on it.

He merely felt that the monk looked somewhat lost, probably having gotten confused in the enormous Konoha, so, as was his habit, he casually took on another small favor.

"Mister, you’re here for the Shinichi Society’s founding ceremony, right? Quite a few outsiders have come to Konoha these past few days. If you haven’t found a place to stay yet, I can recommend a good inn. If an inn won’t do, there’s also a temple on the western side of the village. It’s a bit old, but it’s kept quite clean."

Madara Uchiha did not answer. He merely looked the youth up and down repeatedly. Obito Uchiha grew somewhat uneasy under that gaze and was just about to say something to break the awkward silence when the middle-aged monk suddenly smiled faintly and pressed his palms together.

"Then I shall trouble this young benefactor to lead the way."

...

That night, atop the cliff behind Konoha’s Hokage Rock, a white figure stood facing the wind.

The young monk Genjo held a string of bodhi prayer beads in his hand. The night wind atop the cliff gently stirred his white monk’s robes. Moonlight fell upon the side of his face, making his already extraordinarily handsome features appear even more detached from the mortal world, as though in another moment he would ascend directly into the heavens beneath the moonlight.

At that moment, the sound of measured footsteps came from behind him.

Genjo did not turn around, and only after the newcomer came to stand beside him did he calmly speak, as though he had finally been joined by an old friend with whom he had long arranged to climb the heights together.

"It is said that when Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha were still kids, they stood upon this very cliff and looked down upon the land below. Here they made the grand vow to establish Konoha, and later they even named the village’s leader the Hokage, after the fire that Madara Uchiha excelled at wielding."

Hearing this, the gray-robed monk fell into a brief daze. The youthful spirit buried beneath decades of dust upon this land suddenly surged back with those words.

Only back then, the one standing beside him had been Hashirama, that fool who always grinned broadly while pointing at the land below and saying to him, "Madara, what do you think about building a village here in the future?"

Now, standing upon the same cliff, the one beside him was this young monk who called himself Genjo.

"Senior brother Nitai." Genjo turned his head and smiled faintly. "Tell me, if Madara Uchiha were standing here again at this very moment, looking down at the village he personally helped create and later personally abandoned, what do you think he would be feeling?"

Madara fell silent for a moment before replying calmly, "Junior brother Genjo, you jest. I am not Madara Uchiha, so how could I possibly know what he is feeling?"

"You are right, senior brother. My question was indeed presumptuous." Genjo smiled faintly and did not press further, instead turning his gaze once more toward the lights below.

Silence settled over the cliff for a while, broken only by the mournful sound of the wind sweeping across the rocks.

"Speaking of which, I met an interesting child in the village today."

At that moment, Madara suddenly spoke again. "The child has a simple heart and clear eyes. I imagine he is usually a warmhearted person. He has simply not yet witnessed the world’s true face, and so there is nothing unnecessary in his eyes. They are pure and unstained; whoever he sees, he believes to be good."

"Pure and unstained? Whoever he sees, he believes to be good?"

Genjo turned to look at him, his smile carrying a hint of amusement.

"It seems that during these past few days on the road, senior brother has been catching up on some Buddhist scriptures."

"It wasn’t something I deliberately studied." Madara replied calmly, without denying it.

"Heh." Genjo chuckled softly. "So, senior brother is trying to tell me that you have found your own Narayana Child?"

"Oh?"

Madara raised an eyebrow and asked evenly, "Junior brother knows that I am not particularly versed in Buddhist scriptures. I would ask my junior brother to explain."

"The Narayana Child, also known as Narayana Deva, serves as the assistant and subordinate of the heavenly emperor Indra. In some ancient tales, the Narayana Child is even considered an incarnation of Emperor Indra himself, acting in his name and carrying out his affairs. That is why I said that my older brother has found a Narayana Child of his own."

Genjo smiled faintly as he explained, "Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the Narayana Child has found you, senior brother."

"I see."

Madara nodded without a change of expression.