[Chapter Size: 1900 Words.]
Third Person POV
Northern kingdoms.
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Madara continued moving through the forest, jumping from tree to tree, his eyes lighting up the darkness as he passed quickly. Suddenly, visions of crossed swords, blades sparking against each other as two people tried to kill each other in the middle of the forest, with blood and flames happening so fast it was hard to understand those visions, causing great stress in Cirilla as she got up in the middle of the night sweating and trying to breathe deeply.
"What was that?!" she murmured, unable to understand what had happened in her dream, but one thing was certain: she had a vision of both the present and the future.
Cirilla had started having some strange visions without being able to understand after she began learning to use these strange abilities with Madara. She had strange dreams, often dreaming of Madara, which made her laugh sometimes, but she had never seen such a serious look on Madara as she saw him jumping in the forest, his gaze practically demanding blood while he was hunting something that Cirilla didn't understand.
"Who was he fighting..." she asked, looking at the sky. In the vision, it was daytime, so it would probably happen later.
She quickly put on a dress and began to open her door. "Princess Cirilla...?" the royal guard looked surprised to see the girl leaving the room.
"I want to see Uncle Mousesack," she demanded.
"Sorry, Princess. But we are in the middle of an emergency," he said, as they had received a declaration of war that night.
"I will go out no matter what... whether you want it or not..." she replied and began walking, while the man just sighed, knowing that if she didn't go willingly, she would escape as she always did.
They headed to the audience hall while the castle remained in chaos, people running back and forth. "What is happening?" she asked curiously, still unaware of the situation.
"It's not my place to say, Princess..." he commented as they reached the entrance, the royal guard speaking to another at the door, who nodded and entered the audience hall.
"Can't I go in?" she asked, surprised, as they didn't open the door for her and seemed more rigid than usual.
"Unfortunately not," the royal guard said, and in the next moment, the druid appeared, looking at the princess.
"Tell me, little Ciri... what can I do for you, calling me so suddenly?" he asked curiously.
"Where is Madara?!" she demanded immediately.
"Madara? Why are you asking that?" he asked, surprised.
"I saw him fighting someone, who is it?!" she asked, not caring about revealing this.
"You saw?!" he looked at her, surprised, thinking of the ancient blood.
"Tell the queen I will be busy now taking care of her granddaughter, as it is somewhat important," Mousesack told the royal guard immediately and asked the princess to follow him to his laboratory.
Meanwhile, many kilometers from the capital, a boy was looking at the ground, surrounded by carriages full of mutilated bodies everywhere, investigating the place, while the bodies were already being devoured by vultures.
"What is happening...?" Madara saw the bodies in the same state as the one Mousesack had shown him. It was a mystery to him.
Besides the bodies being eaten, there were blade cuts on most of the bodies, it even seemed like they had been tortured. So Madara saw that there was nothing else to do there besides starting to investigate the tracks and followed, seeing a bit of trampled grass.
He continued following these tracks into the forest and went through the forest until the day began to darken, with Madara having no choice but to settle on top of a tree for the night.
'This reminds me of the old days...' he murmured internally as he sat on a branch to rest a little, as he hadn't slept the previous night while traveling through the forest.
The sound of the night was like any other in a forest, with all kinds of sounds being heard, and he ended up falling asleep for hours, but what woke him up near dawn and caught Madara's attention at that moment was a growl accompanying the sound of bushes a few dozen meters away. With his sharingan activated, he saw a ghoul dragging a dead body at that moment.
"So one of you is here, but just you?" Madara commented, looking around for any other creatures, but there was nothing else but this thing.
Madara, seeing the trail, didn't want to waste time following the creature, so he got above it and waited behind its neck, slashing its throat from back to front, piercing it.
"!!!" The monster immediately convulsed, trying to get the blade out, but it couldn't even scream, though it was still alive, since a common blade wouldn't be enough to kill it. Madara decided to help it as he jumped down.
The creature stumbled and tried to rise over the dead body while glaring at Madara with a silent growl, but a flash appeared in front of it, and it was covered in fire the next moment, illuminating the darkness of that area. It tried to scream and contort until finally giving in.
With the smell of both rot and burnt flesh in the air and the creature finally dead on the ground, Madara decided to continue on his path as the day finally arrived from the east.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the forest, a witcher was rubbing his face by a stream as the day began when he felt something. He realized one of his controlled creatures had been lost and possibly killed.
"It seems he has finally arrived," he murmured calmly, keeping some satisfaction in his voice.
"So let's lure him here," he spoke again and began drawing a sign in the air.
Several ghouls in the forest started moving, growling, heading towards the direction of the ghoul Madara had encountered.
Madara continued through the forest and soon noticed the movement as two of the ghouls came towards him. He wasted no time, taking out a second blade, a silver one that Mousesack had gifted him some time ago, and jumped on the monsters, eliminating them in the next moment without them even having time to react.
Three more ghouls were farther away. Madara landed on the ground and started running towards the creatures. They growled at the approaching human, leaping directly to dismember him, but Madara easily dodged their bites and claws, spinning his sword, cutting and eliminating them in a few seconds.
As soon as the last ghoul fell dead, everything went quiet with Madara looking towards where they had come from. It was strange; he expected a trap but saw nothing in front of him.
That was until an explosion happened two kilometers away. It was faint from that distance, but the sound carried, and Madara simply jumped into a tree and began running in that direction, knowing it was a call for him.
In a place near a river, open with some scattered rocks and trees still surrounding the area, a man was standing while meditating in the middle of this place. His green snake-like eyes opened as soon as he saw a figure at the edge of a tree, just a child, but this child was staring at him with analytical eyes as if studying him...
"So you came..." the man said, coming out of his meditation pose and starting to rise while doing the same to Madara, analyzing him and wondering if the stories about this boy were real.
"You lured me here," Madara accused calmly.
"That's true... I don't like making traps, as you can see. First, I killed a bunch of people to call for your services as I heard, then placed the ghouls' trail in the forest while they spread out, waiting for you to kill one of them so I would know it was you. After all, you're the only one in Cintra who can kill such a monster," he said.
"..." Madara didn't respond immediately but spoke after staring at him for a while, his eyes not having the Sharingan at that moment, as it wasn't yet time to fight, so he wanted to preserve his energy. "Even so, you heard about me, and yet, you waited for me in such an open place..." he commented.
"As I said, I don't like tricks. I've always killed my enemies directly; I don't need such things... That's why I called you here so no one would interfere in this fight, as you can see..." he said.
"Well... I like that..." Madara nodded, feeling his Uchiha blood boil. He had never heard of anyone powerful enough to challenge him with such confidence, which was an offense to who he was.
"If you're wondering why I'm here and why I made you my target, someone paid for it, someone quite wealthy," he said.
"That doesn't matter... You are not the first to try this," Madara said.
"Interesting, and before we start killing each other, what are you... I've heard many rumors about a boy who can change the colors of his eyes, walk on walls, move as fast as a cat, and even breathe fire... I admit I initially thought you were a witcher, though it was hard to believe given you look like a child." He looked with a slight smile. "But you are not a witcher... my medallion shows nothing for you... which is very strange. Tell me, what are you..." he asked directly.
"If you want to know what I am... very well, Witcher... I am a Shinobi," Madara said calmly.
"Shinobi..." He grimaced at hearing that but soon smiled. "Never heard of it... But I'll believe you are this Shinobi... Show me what you are capable of." He said with a more serious look at the end while Madara nodded.
A moment later, the man moved his hand to the silver sword, not knowing what Madara was, but at least he wouldn't go wrong using a silver sword. As he grabbed it, some symbols glowed on it, showing it was a sword with glyphs.
'An enchanted sword...' Madara murmured as he watched the Witcher move the sword to feel its weight and raise it as if waiting for Madara to attack.
Meanwhile, he felt his heart racing at that moment. He was, for the first time, facing a ninja, a man created by herbs and monster mutagens, someone much more physically powerful than anything he had ever faced. Madara still felt his blood pulsing, craving the thrill of battle, urging him to activate his sharingan, but he resisted, wanting first to have the chance to face a witcher in pure battle. Since the man hadn't taken a potion, Madara wouldn't act with all his strength from the beginning of the fight; he wanted to know his opponent better.
"Very well... Let's dance... Witcher," Madara said as his black eyes narrowed. He assumed a pose of taijutsu and kenjutsu, placing a kunai in his mouth and grabbing one of the blades at his waist. He didn't take the other blade while his other hand held a kunai.
In the next moment, Madara burst from the ground, advancing towards his opponent, who awaited him on the other side, keeping his sword raised.