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"…Hey, hey, Lord Tobirama, don't be like that~" Qianyu's sheepish voice came from another direction before Tobirama's words had even finished echoing, so fast that everyone present was momentarily stunned. "I just saw everyone was too tense, thought I'd lighten the mood with a little halftime show, you know?"
"???"
"Q—Qianyu?!"
The familiar voice sounded again. Jiraiya stared in disbelief towards its source. There stood Qianyu, perfectly intact. He whirled back—the dried-up, wooden figure that had been Qianyu was gone.
"Jiraiya-sensei, what I was trying to say earlier was: I'm fine! No need to worry!"
Jiraiya's face was streaked with tears. Qianyu flashed a cheeky, shit-eating grin.
As if he'd ever do something as stupid as sacrifice himself. Until his ocular power ran dry, he could reset his own state anytime with his left eye's dōjutsu.
"Qianyu! You—AAARGH!!"
Jiraiya wanted to scold him, but the flood of relief crashing over him was too much. The dam broke. All he could do was let out a raw, wordless roar, venting all the pent-up fear.
"It's fine… he's fine, that's what matters…"
Beside him, Rasa was the same, overwhelmed by the dizzying aftermath of a false alarm. He couldn't muster a single word of reprimand.
"You bastard! What the hell kind of time is this for jokes?!"
Tobirama's eyebrow twitched violently. If it weren't for the fact that the inherently evil Madara Uchiha still needed dealing with, he'd have lunged forward to stab Qianyu a couple of times right then. It's not like the kid could die!
"Tobirama… you just said Tsunade and him…?!"
A beat too late, Hashirama's jaw dropped into a perfect 'O'. He looked from Tobirama to Qianyu, as if he'd just stumbled upon some world-shattering secret.
"Anija, were you even listening to me?! Now is not the time for this!!"
"I know, Tobirama, but you said Tsunade and him—"
"Damn it all!"
Tobirama cursed, unable to hold it back. Stuck with a brother this utterly hopeless and a prospective grandson-in-law this infuriating, he felt a profound urge to just lie down and die.
"Hmph. Your eyes aren't blind. So, that ability, similar to Izanagi… is it a dōjutsu your Mangekyō Sharingan awakened?" After a brief moment of surprise, Madara saw through Qianyu's trick. A smile of absolute confidence returned to his face as he crossed his arms. "The cost of using such a power isn't small. How many more times can you manage it now?"
"Mmm… Probably another twenty or thirty times?"
Qianyu mentally checked his remaining ocular power and answered with a hint of uncertainty.
"T-twenty… or thirty times?!"
The smile on Madara's face vanished with an almost audible snap. Another three to five times, and his body might start giving out. Twenty or thirty? Just how much stamina did this damn kid have?!
After stumbling so many times already, Madara had stopped questioning what was 'possible' with Qianyu. The kid was unnatural. You couldn't apply common sense. It was better to believe it could happen.
"The sideshow is over… Chibaku Tensei!"
Madara absolutely wasn't afraid. He just decided it was time to get serious. His right hand shot up. Black spheres of gravitational force erupted from his palm like dark rain.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The spheres rocketed skyward. The ground beneath their feet shattered on a massive scale. Countless rocks were torn from the earth, dragged upwards by the spheres, coalescing in moments into massive meteors hundreds of meters in diameter.
His work done, Madara shot into the sky himself. Weaving between the forming meteors, he became a streak of light piercing the clouds.
"Hey, hey! Don't run away! Can't handle it?!"
Qianyu hadn't expected the legendary Asura of the Shinobi World to just bolt. He shouted at the retreating figure, "Weren't you the one who wanted me to entertain you? Let me kick you a couple more times! What if I was lying just now?"
"…Susanoo!"
Madara climbed higher. Qianyu didn't hesitate. He leaped into the air with all his strength, and chakra erupted from him like a geyser.
Whoosh!
The instant gravity began to reclaim him, a silver-white warrior god caught him. It unfurled wings that blotted out the sky and spiraled upwards.
"Susanoo: First-Aid Kit Wild Dance!"
As it pursued Madara, the silver Susanoo casually swung the massive medical kit on its back. The blow sent a good portion of the meteors raining down on the battlefield veering off course.
"Sage Art Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands!"
On the ground, Hashirama brought his hands together. A wooden Buddha statue, a 'scaled-down' version merely under a kilometer tall, manifested. The thousands of seemingly slender arms on its back formed an impassable mountain range.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Under Hashirama's control, the statue adjusted its angle with earth-shaking groans. Then, all ten thousand arms shot forward as one, a relentless, omnidirectional barrage slapping the falling meteors out of the sky.
"My god… is this the world of the strong…?"
"Hmph. Without us 'ordinary' people, they'd just be ordinary too."
The battle of the cheaters was getting more insane by the minute. The normal players watching from below were utterly stunned by the gods brawling in their skies.
…
"According to the stone tablet's inscription, when the possessor of the Rinnegan's power approaches the moon, the Moon's Eye that brings about the infinite dream will open, illuminating the world."
The moon in the sky had been dyed a bloody crimson. As Madara drew nearer, it deepened to the color of fresh, flowing blood, eerie and unnatural.
"Grah!"
With Qianyu potentially closing in to disrupt him at any moment, Madara gritted his teeth against the pain. He grabbed the horn-like protrusion on his forehead—his makeshift headband—and wrenched it off, revealing his brow.
Gllltch.
A vertical fissure split open on his forehead. A single, blood-red eyeball writhed within before forcefully pushing its way out.
"Now… become one. Infinite Tsukuyomi!"
Madara formed a one-handed seal. The crimson eye on his forehead rolled wildly. Six pitch-black tomoe within it projected themselves onto the blood-red moon above.
Shimmer.
An intangible, mysterious light radiated from the crimson moon. It spilled silently towards the earth, falling indiscriminately on every corner of the planet.
"Look at the moon!"
"The moon… wh-what's happ—"
As Madara unleashed the Infinite Tsukuyomi, the phantom of the Ten-Tails once more drifted from his body. It inflated like a balloon, swelling to over a thousand meters in an instant, and crashed to the ground.
CRRRRUMBLE!
After the deafening roar, the Ten-Tails' tails and limbs transformed into thick roots, drilling deep into the earth. The wooden tumor on its back burst open. A giant flower bud appeared and in the blink of an eye, grew into a towering, heaven-piercing tree.
The true form of the Ten-Tails—the God Tree!
"So fast?!"
Qianyu, still in pursuit, jolted with alarm. He'd expected this, but the sheer speed of the Infinite Tsukuyomi's activation still caught him off guard. He felt a sudden, profound awkwardness—like he hadn't even finished putting on protection before the other party was already done.
"Don't look at the moon!"
Qianyu swiftly guided his Susanoo back towards the ground. Its vast wings folded inwards like a tent, enveloping Jiraiya and the others.
It wasn't that he didn't want to send clones to protect others. But the Ten-Tails chakra within him was finite. Daring to split it now was too risky.
"Heh heh… A world of dreams, free of hateful chakra… It begins!"
With Madara's cold laugh, the entire shinobi world was blanketed by the Infinite Tsukuyomi's light in mere moments.
No matter where they were, human or animal, all gazed skyward as one. Their eyes were gradually overtaken by the Rinnegan's distinctive lavender hue.
The God Tree's roots spread with terrifying speed across the world. Trunks dozens of meters thick erupted from the earth in countless locations, their dense branches instantly shrouding the land.
Rustle… rustle…
Innumerable ribbon-like tendrils slid from the branches, hanging down. They gently coiled around the bodies of those ensnared by the genjutsu.
People were wrapped into human cocoons by the tree's appendages. Slowly, they were lifted, hung from the branches like macabre fruit. The scene was peaceful. And deeply unsettling.
"Oh? The Infinite Tsukuyomi's light can't penetrate his Susanoo? Can it be his ocular power has already surpassed it?"
At that moment, Black Zetsu's form oozed from the earth. His eyes narrowed toward Qianyu's position. Seeing Qianyu actually block the light, a fresh wave of apprehension washed over him.
"It seems… I must hasten Mother's revival."
…
Whoosh.
Having completed the Infinite Tsukuyomi, Madara descended gracefully to the ground. Black Zetsu scurried obsequiously to his side.
Madara glanced at him sideways but paid him no mind. After all, who would ever doubt their own creation?
"I offered you the chance to hand over the tailed beasts peacefully. You refused. But the outcome is the same. Now, everyone dreams happy dreams within the God Tree. They all live in their ideal worlds."
With the situation firmly in hand, Madara's composure returned. He addressed the group within Qianyu's Susanoo shell with detached finality.
"Inherently evil Madara Uchiha! You've merely given everyone a false dream!" Tobirama was the first to leap out as Qianyu retracted the Susanoo's wings. He pointed an accusing finger at Madara. "Is this your so-called ideal?!"
"Madara… you… Ah." Hashirama let out a heavy, sorrowful sigh, unable to comprehend how his old friend had strayed so far down this wrong path.
"Hmph. It is you who do not understand!" Madara's voice was icy in response to Tobirama's accusation. "Do you think everyone is like you? Possessed of great power, living as lofty figures? Most people in this world cannot even grasp their own fate! They merely scrape by, surviving in a cold, cruel reality! Letting them live in a beautiful dream is a mercy!"
"…"
Qianyu was uncharacteristically silent. As someone who had once been just an ordinary person in a past life, Madara's words struck a chord deep within him.
"Accept reality. It is over." Madara now turned his gaze to Qianyu, speaking with the tone of a victor. "Qianyu. As a pawn, you have served your purpose. You shall receive my gratitu—Gah?!"
"Wrong, Madara. You are no savior. And this… is far from over."
Black Zetsu's sinister whisper slithered into Madara's ear. Before the stunned eyes of everyone, a black hand punched straight through Madara's chest from behind.
"My body… I can't move?!"
Madara's pupils contracted violently. His body felt petrified, as if cast in solid concrete. He couldn't budge an inch. With immense effort, he managed to turn his head just slightly, his eyes meeting Black Zetsu's mocking gaze.
"Madara… what makes you think you're any different from Qianyu? That you're the one using everyone?" Black Zetsu's mouth split into a wide, grotesque grin. "To believe you alone are special… don't you find that laughable? In truth… you too have been living in an illusion. A dream I wove for you."
"Black Zetsu… what are you saying? I created you. You are my will!" Confusion flooded Madara's eyes.
Black Zetsu shook his head, a derisive snort escaping him. "Heh. You are mistaken about that as well. My will… is Kaguya Ōtsutsuki."
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