Chapter 2

Tatsumi stared at the man named Madara and observed him closely, before racking his brain for answers. He tried to think if he had heard of someone with that name before or if there's a village named 'Konohagakure' somewhere.

"Madara Uchiha… sorry, never heard of you. I don't know a Leaf Village, either."

"I don't expect you to. My people have long since departed from this world. It has been hundreds of years since then."

That explanation did nothing but create even more questions in Tatsumi's mind. Madara has been dead for hundreds of years? Why was he even here then?

"So why exactly are you in my mind? I don't even know you."

"I am not sure."

Tatsumi immediately sent a deadpan expression towards Madara. Right now, he felt a huge urge to cut this conversation short and just wake up from his slumber.

"You're the one that showed up in my dream, and you don't know?! Some great leader you are—"

The young man was cut short when Madara's black eyes suddenly turned red with a swirl, as both of which now sported three tomoes near the center. It was the same pair of eyes that Tatsumi saw a while ago, and they actually belonged to this man.

"...what's with your eyes? They're all red now…"

Madara glared at the boy, which was enough to send a chill down his spine from how intimidating he looked. It didn't help that the strange eyes that he now possessed only added to it.

"I said that I am not sure, not that I didn't know, brat. I am here because you were chosen."

"C-Chosen? For what?" Tatsumi asked after recovering from the sudden fright that Madara gave him.

"You were chosen to inherit the powers I once wielded in my lifetime and at the same time, your body will adjust itself to be able to adapt to everything that you will receive. All of it will belong to you. However, I am not sure of how exactly I ended up manifesting an illusion of my body inside your mind. By all rights, this shouldn't even be possible…"

All Tatsumi could do was stare at the older man after everything he just said, a look of complete bewilderment plastered on his face.

"What…?" he breathed out as his mind tried to comprehend what he heard from the man.

Madara rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Don't make me repeat what I just said. Didn't I tell you to listen, boy?"

"I was listening, old man! But what you said doesn't make any sense. What powers are you talking about? What do you mean my body will adjust itself? What do you mean all of it will belong to me? Are you some kind of ghost who decided to haunt me and my dreams?"

"He definitely reminds me of that blonde brat…" Madara pinched the bridge of his nose again while muttering those words to himself.

"Hey! I asked you a question, old man! Are you a ghost of some kind?!"

"I was hoping to end this quickly, but it seems I would have to linger for a bit longer," Madara sighed again, before flashing a more serious look afterwards. "Allow me to teach you a quick history lesson then, boy."

In mere seconds, the scenery around the two changed completely. From standing in a dark void with nothing around them, they were suddenly in the middle of a battlefield.

There were two separate groups facing off against each other. Both of them had someone carrying a flag that bore different colors which showed their allegiance. Both

"This is what the world was like hundreds of years before you were born."

With a loud cry from each side, they fought each other with various weapons, including swords, shurikens, spears, battle fans, kunais, and daggers. In no time at all, dead bodies from both sides fell to the ground like it was a symphony being played.

As Tatsumi looked at the people who were fighting each other, he also took a glance at Madara. It was the latter who caused this change in their environment, not him. He didn't even think about it.

This was enough to show Tatsumi that Madara might not be playing around with him at all…

"This was the state of the world in my youth. Full of war, bloodshed, and violence. Children were raised to kill by their parents for the purpose of defending themselves from enemy clans."

"This isn't a world that I'd like to live in."

"Hn. Consider yourself lucky, brat. Everyday, my people would wake up and train for hours right after we eat our meals, only stopping whenever we have to watch out for our enemies or if we were told to kill someone."

"I'm guessing you didn't have a good childhood, huh?"

"There was no such thing during the Warring States Era. There was no royalty nor social hierarchies in my time. Once young men learn how to pick up a weapon, you are automatically considered an adult. An adult with responsibilities to his clan."

"I think I get what you mean, but this doesn't explain what you were saying about inheriting your powers."

"Then we are due for a change in scenery…" Madara smirked as the environment around them changed again.

And from there, Madara told Tatsumi the important events of his life while changing the landscape to allow the boy to see it for himself; his childhood, teenage years, his time as an adult, his death, how he cheated death itself (Tatsumi fell on his butt after watching what happened), to his older days and second death (Tatsumi almost fainted from seeing it even though they were in his own mind), up until his revival and third death.

Needless to say, Tatsumi felt like he had stepped into uncharted territory by the end of it. To think that all of this happened hundreds of years ago…

Ninjas, chakra, jutsus, affinities, hidden villages, shinobi wars… all of this new information came crashing down on him like a collapsing building. In response, Tatsumi was absolutely unprepared for it.

It also made him realize that the man he had been speaking to until now was no ordinary man this whole time. It made him realize that this man was someone who had cheated death twice and fought against thousands of ninjas and was able to get the upper hand almost every time.

Now he was thinking if he should apologize for everything that he said about him out of respect.

"Now, boy… do you understand the privilege you are about to receive from me?" Madara asked as everything around them returned to what it was before.

Madara folded his arms and waited patiently for an answer, but the young man was too overwhelmed to even say anything.

It took a few moments for Tatsumi to recompose himself after taking in every bit of information he got from Madara, which was funny since they were still in his mind.