The darkness of the night played little to no importance to his senses as Madara stalked through the forest, footsteps inaudible even as he stepped on twigs and dry leaves. He was a man on a mission; a mission that he could not afford to fail.

A shadow clone was, on his behalf, protecting his four little brothers as they slept, and in this manner, Madara would not be distracted, his full focal point on the task at hand.

Madara has, for the past few months, been scouting the Senju borders and stalking the Senju patrols whenever his target was with them, and if not, he would return to his compound and guard his siblings whilst they were at their most vulnerable.

At the present time, his target was with four adults, surrounded and within the center of their team's formation. The four shinobi were at least jounin in their chakra reserves, which was highly unusual since, during the Warring States Period, elite ninjas were all but hoarded into the front lines.

He assumes that his target's young age and lineage played an important role in this particular placement. Madara reckons that they were on orders to teach, as well as to guard, his target - somewhat similar to how the Uchiha train their rookies.

His pitch-black eyes scrutinized them from head to toe, digesting their trim woven clothing, variant weapons, and well-cut armor. In times like these, he envies how minted the Senju were compared to the Uchiha. Custom-fitted child armor was an extravagant expense that their clan could never afford despite how keen Madara desired them for his little brothers.

Discounting their children-sized warriors, even the majority of his more mature clansmen wore only their high-collared mantles to battle. It was no wonder they often came back with grievous injuries or in a body bag.

Madara's fists clenched. Despite his best efforts, resources were ridiculously hard to obtain and easy to use up. Although Madara has discreetly guided their farmers on agronomics - thus decreasing his clan's chances of starvation - the crops they painstakingly grew were mostly traded to fund their future battles.

Tajima would often disregard their budgetary and purchase worthless consumables such as explosive tags or shuriken - using up what little investment Madara has painstakingly assembled. The man was like a bloodhound, sniffing around their home until he discovers Madara's hidden stashes. It was only thanks to his storage seal that Madara was able to inconspicuously ration his clans' livelihood, minimizing their chances of dying due to the lack of sustenance.

Just as he was about to continue his inner tirade and anti-Tajima remarks, his intuition screamed that something was up.

It was then he sensed it; a dozen chakra signatures incoming, and fast. Knowing that it would be difficult to keep his identity a secret if he were to intercept and engage them in combat, he snatched up a rock and threw it at the general direction of the incoming signatures.

That got the Senjus' attention. They communicated with their own version of hand signs and cautiously increased their vigilance. Thankfully, one of them seemed to be a sensor type (although quite lacking by Madara's standards). The sensor gestured quickly to the direction of the signatures and they retreated the other way.

Madara situated himself near to his target's group, his own chakra compressed to barely-there levels. Keeping his sensing ability open, he tracked the movements of the dozen non-Senju chakra behind him. They seemed to be entirely unaware that the Senju had changed course, their movements neither increasing nor decreasing.

Madara could only assume that the interlopers were either passing through the Senju clan's land... or on a deliberate hunt to weed out their numbers.

But judging by the size of the interlopers' group, the latter seemed more likely. And before Madara could ponder more on their identity or which clan they hail from, they suddenly surged forward with incredible momentum, their chakra flaring almost eagerly, thrilled at having found their prey, as they gave chase.

He would have stopped in his tracks, turned around, and assassinated them one by one to lessen the risk of his failing his mission, but with how often he scouted the Senju territory, he knew that the Senju guards were leading the interlopers to one of the more nastier traps.

Madara approves and decided to be a bystander for now.

Everything ended without Madara needing to intervene.

All in all, his self-appointed mission was a blooming success.

He had kept Senju Kawarama alive for the duration of this year - the exact same year the seven-year-old had been KIA during Madara's first childhood - before Madara went back to his regular nightly schedule. Hopefully, the lines under his eyes would return back to its primary size and stop growing now.

And if he played the fool whenever Tobirama asks why he has been creepily skulking about Senju lands for the whole of this year, Madara would simply raise a condescending brow whilst stating factually that he has no time for such inane things. And he wasn't one to skulk nor was he creepy. Thank you very much.