"This brat, he's actually using Obito's ocular abilities like this!"
At the bottom of the massive wooden bowl-shaped crater that spanned who knows how many kilometers, Black and White Zetsu emerged halfway, gazing at Yagyu, who was slowly descending in the night sky, with deep apprehension.
"This is bad. With space-time abilities and the legendary Sword of Nunoboko, this brat might not give Madara the chance to use the Infinite Tsukuyomi," White Zetsu said.
"Madara must activate the Infinite Tsukuyomi," Black Zetsu said gravely. "Once Mother is revived, this brat won't be a concern."
As the will of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, Black Zetsu, like Hagoromo and Hamura, was well aware of his mother's immense power. The abilities of the Kekkei Mōra were etched into his mind like inherited memories.
Once Mother was revived, even if Yagyu had space-time abilities, she could simply trap him in the dimensions of Amenominaka and seal his fate.
After Mother reclaimed all chakra, there would be plenty of ways to deal with him.
With this in mind, Black Zetsu immediately took White Zetsu and dove underground, swiftly moving toward Uchiha Madara's location to convince him to use the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Meanwhile, Madara's condition wasn't great—in fact, it was quite dire.
At the bottom of the massive wooden bowl-shaped crater lay a body that resembled mud.
His head was still intact, but his body had liquefied, squirming slightly like sludge.
Neither Obito nor Madara could have emerged unscathed after withstanding the explosion of nine Truth-Seeking Balls.
However, Obito was more unfortunate. Not only was he engulfed by the Truth-Seeking Balls' self-destruction, but he was also hit by Yagyu's Underworld Slash: Soul Severance, which completely annihilated his soul, preventing him from reuniting with Rin in the afterlife.
Madara, on the other hand, though his Truth-Seeking Balls were torn apart by Kamui, was still protected by the barrier formed by his four Limbo shadows.
Even though the barrier had many gaps, it still managed to block a portion of the explosion's force.
Moreover, unlike the Truth-Seeking Balls that killed Obito, the explosion from Yagyu's Wood Clone couldn't utilize the Underworld Slash.
Thus, the soul-annihilating damage of the Truth-Seeking Balls wasn't maximized.
Even so, Madara's current state was worse than when he took Might Guy's Night Guy head-on in the original story.
But fortunately, Madara was still Madara.
Even with his body reduced to a pile of sludge, he wasn't dead, nor did the Ten-Tails seize the opportunity to take control of his body. He still firmly suppressed the Ten-Tails' will.
As the Ten-Tails' chakra rapidly depleted, his sludge-like body quickly healed.
Before Yagyu could locate Madara, or before Black and White Zetsu arrived, Madara's body had already fully recovered.
Standing at the bottom of the massive wooden bowl-shaped crater, Madara looked up at Yagyu in the sky, his expression cold and his eyes filled with icy determination.
He didn't feel anger, only deep apprehension and a hint of admiration.
If Yagyu weren't such a massive threat, and if he weren't under such immense pressure, Madara might have even praised him.
He never expected Yagyu to anticipate his actions and prepare such a tactic in advance.
First, Yagyu hid in another dimension to evade his Divine Deep Forest Emergence and Tengai Shinsei. Then, before emerging, he created a Wood Clone and formed nine Truth-Seeking Balls.
Finally, he lured Madara into close combat, threw the Truth-Seeking Balls from another dimension, forcing Madara to use his own Truth-Seeking Balls for defense. While Madara was immobilized and his perception weakened, the Wood Clone emerged and used space-time ocular abilities to tear apart the Truth-Seeking Balls, sacrificing itself to take Madara down with it.
If it weren't for the protection of the Limbo shadows, Madara might have ended up like Obito, utterly outplayed by Yagyu.
In Obito's hands, Kamui had earned nothing more than a "decent eyes" comment from Madara.
But now, this ocular ability had become a major headache.
Compared to Kamui's space-time abilities, Tobirama's Flying Thunder God Technique was utter garbage.
Without the technique's markings, Tobirama couldn't move, and Madara had countless ways to counter it.
But Obito's space-time ninjutsu, which combined offense and defense, left Madara helpless.
If the enemy were just Obito, Madara would only need to dodge his space-time distortions and could easily deal with him, or even ignore him entirely.
But now, despite having chakra reserves far surpassing Yagyu's, and being able to use various Six Paths techniques, as well as god-level ninjutsu like Divine Deep Forest Emergence that could cover an entire country—or even multiple countries if he wished—Madara felt a sense of helplessness.
Using Six Paths techniques would only provide Yagyu with more chakra and ninjutsu, making him even stronger.
Meanwhile, physical attacks like Divine Deep Forest Emergence and Limbo couldn't even touch Yagyu, who could hide in another dimension.
Even the explosion of Truth-Seeking Balls was useless against him.
This feeling of having immense power but being unable to land a single hit on his target was utterly frustrating.
As a result, Madara was at a loss for how to deal with Yagyu.
Long-range attacks were useless, close combat was even worse, and engaging in close combat might even lead to Yagyu outplaying him again.
With such a threat lurking nearby, how could he achieve his plans?
"Lord Madara…"
At that moment, a hoarse voice reached Madara's ears.
"Black Zetsu?"
Madara glanced at the half-emerged Black and White Zetsu and said indifferently, "Leave quickly. This battlefield is no place for you."
"Lord Madara, I have a proposal," Black Zetsu said, ignoring Madara's words. "When Obito became the Ten-Tails Jinchūriki, he could only use a few abilities and couldn't even use his Mangekyō Sharingan's unique ocular abilities. This might be because the Ten-Tails had only reclaimed eight of the tailed beasts and a small portion of the Nine-Tails' chakra from the Gold and Silver Brothers."
Madara raised an eyebrow. "What are you getting at?"
"Lord Madara, you've reclaimed the chakra of all nine tailed beasts and can use far more abilities than Obito. The Ten-Tails' abilities might be related to the amount of chakra reclaimed," Black Zetsu said with a low chuckle. "In mythology, chakra was something the Sage of Six Paths distributed to the world. Why don't you use the Infinite Tsukuyomi to reclaim the chakra of the ninja world? You might gain the true power of the Sage of Six Paths and awaken abilities that can counter space-time techniques."
"Oh?" Madara's eyes lit up. He found Black Zetsu's reasoning quite plausible and nodded. "Your analysis makes sense. It might indeed be related to this."
As fellow Ten-Tails Jinchūriki, Obito was completely incomparable to him, and Madara had seen this firsthand.
Aside from the Truth-Seeking Balls and the Six Paths Staff, Obito couldn't even use Six Paths techniques, let alone god-level ninjutsu like Divine Deep Forest Emergence.
He couldn't even use his own unique ocular abilities or the Rinnegan's unique techniques, and was beaten like a child by Yagyu.
But Madara could use a variety of Six Paths techniques, and his Divine Deep Forest Emergence covering the Land of Rain wasn't even his limit.
The only difference between them, aside from their pre-Ten-Tails Jinchūriki strength, was the Nine-Tails.
Just reclaiming the Nine-Tails had caused such a massive change.
This might indeed be related to chakra!
Moreover, Black Zetsu's reminder made Madara's intuition tell him that the innate abilities he currently had weren't the full extent of the Ten-Tails' power.
If he reclaimed all the chakra in the ninja world and restored the Ten-Tails to its true ultimate form, he might indeed awaken new abilities.
With this in mind, Madara decided it was worth a try.
Once he awakened abilities that could counter space-time techniques, Yagyu would truly be nothing to worry about.
Thus, Madara raised his index and middle fingers, and his body extended several branches that quickly turned into Wood Clones identical to himself.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
In the next moment, Madara's true body and his Wood Clones shot into the sky like streaks of light.
Swish, swish, swish—
As they ascended, several dazzling white lights, like meteors, flew toward Yagyu.
Upon closer inspection, they were Madara's Truth-Seeking Balls.
Boom————
Another earth-shattering explosion erupted, and the blinding white light once again tore through the darkness.
Caught in the explosion's range, Yagyu, who hadn't yet formed new Truth-Seeking Balls, could only hide his true body in the Kamui dimension.
His Mangekyō Sharingan showed only a pure white world.
When the light faded and the world returned to darkness, several figures floated hundreds of meters above Yagyu, scattered far apart.
These figures all looked identical—they were Madara and his Wood Clones.
But since the Wood Clones were perfect replicas, even the Mangekyō Sharingan couldn't detect any flaws.
Even if Yagyu switched back to the Rinnegan, he still couldn't tell which one was Madara's true body.
These Madaras had all removed their horned forehead protectors, revealing a vertical mark on their foreheads.
Then, these marks opened, revealing a crimson eye with black concentric circles and nine black tomoe.
This was the Ten-Tails' unique eye—the Rinne Sharingan.
The Rinne Sharingan was the highest form of the Sharingan, an ultimate form that required external forces to awaken.
This external force was either the Chakra Fruit or the Divine Tree.
One had to either consume the Chakra Fruit or become the Ten-Tails Jinchūriki, the transformed form of the Divine Tree, to awaken this single eye, rather than a pair.
Like the Mangekyō Sharingan and the Rinnegan, which each had two unique ocular abilities, the Rinne Sharingan also had two unique abilities, both of which were Kekkei Mōra-level techniques.
These two abilities were… the Infinite Tsukuyomi and Amenominaka.
However, just as Obito, who had transplanted Madara's Rinnegan, couldn't use Limbo: Border Jail because he wasn't the true owner of the Rinnegan, Madara, who had only become the Ten-Tails Jinchūriki and hadn't consumed the Chakra Fruit, could only use the Infinite Tsukuyomi and not Kaguya's Amenominaka.
If he reclaimed all the chakra, including the Chakra Fruit Kaguya had consumed, he would undoubtedly be able to use both the Infinite Tsukuyomi and Amenominaka.
After awakening the Rinne Sharingan, Madara's three eyes focused on the blood moon in the sky.
An invisible yet terrifying ocular power burst forth from Madara's Rinnegan.
In the next moment, the blood moon in the sky transformed into a Rinne Sharingan visible across the entire ninja world.
Yagyu watched with a smile, saying nothing.
He knew that this was Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, sealed within the moon, responding to Madara.
At this moment, Madara had no idea he had fallen into a trap. Beneath the moon, a beautiful face with a sinister smile was watching him.
This face belonged to the progenitor of chakra.
Similarly, aside from Yagyu, Madara didn't notice that Black Zetsu had separated from White Zetsu and was floating toward Madara's true body.
The true body that even Yagyu hadn't detected was instantly spotted by Black Zetsu.
Clearly, as Kaguya's will, he could see the mark on Madara.
This was one of the reasons Yagyu had no interest in becoming the Ten-Tails Jinchūriki.
Not only was the Ten-Tails within him unstable, but unless he reclaimed the Chakra Fruit from Kaguya, Yagyu wouldn't even be able to sleep peacefully.
Such external forces could only be fully digested through the Ōtsutsuki Clan's alchemy. Even consuming the Chakra Fruit would provoke resistance from the Divine Tree and curses from the planet.
Without the Ōtsutsuki Clan's alchemy, Yagyu had no interest in the Divine Tree or the Chakra Fruit.
Even if he planted the Divine Tree and harvested the Chakra Fruit, Yagyu wouldn't choose Earth, as it was his home.
Gazing at the blood moon in the sky, Yagyu eagerly anticipated what would happen next.
And Madara didn't disappoint him.
After projecting his ocular power onto the moon and seeing it transform into a massive Rinne Sharingan, Madara finally looked away and turned his gaze downward, raising his index and middle fingers once more.
"Illuminate the world, Infinite Tsukuyomi!"
Swish————
In an instant, the enormous moon, like a self-destructing Truth-Seeking Ball, erupted with a blinding white light that enveloped the entire ninja world, even reaching the distant islands overseas.
The world of darkness instantly turned into daylight—more accurately, a world of pure white.
The blinding light ignored all obstacles, engulfing every living being.
Whether they were hiding in buildings, asleep, or in basements, everyone was bathed in the light, their expressions turning blank and their eyes morphing into the shape of the Rinnegan.
Even the fleeing Allied Shinobi Forces came to a halt, standing still with their eyes transformed into the Rinnegan.
"Divine… Deep Forest Emergence!"
After the light enveloped the world, Madara once again activated his god-level ninjutsu, the Divine Deep Forest Emergence.