Kakuzu responded, things were happening much faster than he had imagined.
In a short while, Uchiha Madara and Kakuzu found the residence of the Seven-Tails Jinchūriki.
The Seven-Tails Jinchūriki was a child, only twelve or thirteen years old. In his sleep, he noticed someone standing by his bed.
The moment he opened his eyes, before he could even gasp, an unparalleled dōjutsu poured directly into his body through his eyes. In less than a moment, his gaze became vacant, and his face appeared dull—a sign of being caught in a genjutsu.
"Truly terrifying dōjutsu," Kakuzu, standing nearby, felt a deep sense of dread. This horrifying genjutsu, even if used on someone as strong as himself, probably wouldn't be too strenuous.
Without any unnecessary movements, Uchiha Madara stepped forward and quickly performed hand signs. He placed a hand on the Jinchūriki's stomach, and a surge of chakra, distinct from its normal color, was drawn out, indicating the Tailed Beast was being extracted.
Kakuzu watched silently from the side.
Extracting a Tailed Beast was no simple task.
Even for ninja specialized in sealing, successfully extracting a Tailed Beast was incredibly difficult.
It was unexpected that Uchiha Madara was not only astonishingly powerful in combat but also exceptionally skilled in sealing jutsu.
In a short amount of time, Uchiha Madara completed the Tailed Beast extraction, and the Jinchūriki subsequently lost his life.
Uchiha Madara glanced indifferently at the body, clutching the Seven-Tails' chakra in his hand, and directly shoved it into Kakuzu's stomach.
"Ugh—!"
Kakuzu's eyes suddenly widened.
When he came to his senses, he was in a strange space. The surroundings were dim like twilight. Soon, he discovered a giant creature that resembled a rhinoceros beetle, with six wings and one tail.
Kakuzu narrowed his eyes, roughly identifying the creature before him based on its appearance. "Although it's called the Seven-Tails, it only seems to have one tail."
Kakuzu had heard bits and pieces about the appearances of various Tailed Beasts over the long years.
The Seven-Tails was startled when it saw Kakuzu, followed by an outburst of powerful chakra.
The Seven-Tails had witnessed everything the man and the other man had just done. This guy, who just pulled it out and put it inside his body, didn't seem like a good person at all.
Moreover, Kakuzu naturally didn't look like a good person. The Seven-Tails didn't waste words. It flapped its wings, full of killing intent, and lunged forward. "Die, human!"
Facing such a colossal creature surging towards him, a normal person would be struggling just to stand still, let alone confront it. However, for a ninja of Kakuzu's experience, it wasn't enough to make him feel fear.
He leaped, performing a backflip in mid-air, narrowly dodging the Seven-Tails' charge. During this, he even had the leisure to sneer from his mouth, "Hmph, as savage as the rumors say."
After landing perfectly, Kakuzu stared at the Seven-Tails, a blatant greed in his eyes. "But precisely because of that, it has value for exploitation."
He ripped off his upper garment, revealing his grotesque body, which looked as if it had been stitched together by a tailor. Black tentacles emerged from his body, twisting wildly and emitting an evil aura like miasma.
"Bastard—!"
A voice filled with resentment permeated with strong killing intent. The Seven-Tails wished it could flay this human who coveted it alive on the spot.
These humans, one by one, all thought of utilizing their Tailed Beast's power, which was why it hated humans so much.
A spherical mass of red and blue chakra began to form around the Seven-Tails' mouth.
With a sort of suction, these chakra spheres rapidly gathered, merged, and expanded, finally becoming a massive black orb.
Kakuzu stared intently, feeling a strong sense of foreboding. This was the legendary Tailed Beast Ball; if he were hit by it, it would be no laughing matter.
Kakuzu split his body, sacrificing a part to save the main body.
The Tailed Beast Ball directly splattered his face, followed by an explosion. Kakuzu lay motionless on the ground.
The Seven-Tails stared at Kakuzu's still body. Before it could rejoice, a black, alien-like organism surged into Kakuzu's body like a fleshy pillar.
With a pounding heartbeat, Kakuzu slowly got up.
The Seven-Tails looked at Kakuzu before it in disbelief, feeling a chill run down its spine.
"What kind of creature is this human? Compared to this monster, the one in front of me is clearly the real monster."
"Quite heavy-handed, aren't you?"
Kakuzu cursed, formed hand signs, and manipulated the alien organism to perform ninjutsu.
Wind Release: Pressure DamageLightning Release: False DarknessFire Release: Searing Migraine
These three techniques were not only vast in range but also incredibly powerful. When they struck, even a creature as powerful as the Seven-Tails found it agonizing, letting out screams of pain.
The Seven-Tails barely managed to endure the round of attacks.
"Damn human!"
"I'll return it tenfold!"
Just as it was about to retaliate, an unexpected event occurred.
A cage suddenly appeared around it, binding it directly. Moreover, it was filled with sealing power, far superior to the Jinchūriki's previous seal.
"Finally made your move, huh..." Kakuzu narrowed his eyes, uttering in a low voice.
Uchiha Madara's intervention was something he had anticipated.
Trapped within the cage, the Seven-Tails roared in powerless fury, its voice filled with bitter curses. "Ahhh, human! When I get out, I'm going to kill you!"
"We'll see when you can get out," Kakuzu said dismissively, a sneer on his face.
He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was back in the real world.
Uchiha Madara had observed the entire battle with his Sharingan. He commented on Kakuzu's quick return to reality, "You adapt quickly, don't you?"
"So this is a Tailed Beast. It doesn't seem as formidable as the rumors claim."
This wasn't Kakuzu boasting. For him, the Tailed Beast restrained in the cage truly couldn't cause any disturbance. So, it seemed like nothing special, perhaps just a bit noisy at most.
"That's just for you."
Uchiha Madara shook his head. "Most Jinchūriki have Tailed Beasts implanted in them from a young age. Do you think a child would have this kind of strength and mental fortitude?"
Kakuzu agreed. "That's true."
Uchiha Madara asked casually, "How's the Seven-Tails' power?"
Kakuzu glanced at him. "In your eyes, it's probably nothing special."
Uchiha Madara scoffed, not denying it. "How long do you plan to take to control the Seven-Tails inside you?"
Kakuzu, relying on his intuition, gave a fair response: "I don't know, but it shouldn't take too long."
Uchiha Madara nodded.
With this, the chess piece that was Kakuzu was nearly in place.
While Kakuzu was mastering the Tailed Beast's power, Uchiha Madara planned to wait for a while, find a suitable opportunity to force Tōshirō to reveal his Sharingan's abilities, and thus arouse the suspicion of the Leaf's higher-ups.
An Uchiha member who usually never displayed Sharingan abilities, and outright denied possessing the Sharingan.
Yet, on the battlefield, he achieved great feats thanks to his Sharingan abilities. At that time, the Leaf's higher-ups would undoubtedly develop extreme distrust towards Tōshirō. Some aggressive individuals, like that Danzō fellow, would certainly harbor murderous intentions to guard against Tōshirō.
And at that point, it would be Uchiha Madara's true moment to act.
Through manipulation, he would unveil the previously laid chess pieces, prompting the Leaf's higher-ups to make decisions that would trap and kill Tōshirō, and in the process, sacrifice Tsunade's life.
This would undoubtedly cause Tōshirō to turn completely dark, filled with extreme hatred for the village, obsessing over revenge, and making insane moves to attack the Leaf's higher-ups.
The Leaf's higher-ups, to clear their names, would definitely shift the blame, define Tōshirō as a rogue ninja, and then, through intentional or unintentional appropriate guidance, it would be time for him and Tōshirō to finally meet. By then, Tōshirō would be his perfect tool.
Having obtained the Seven-Tails and the Hero's Water, Kakuzu had lost interest in staying in the Hidden Waterfall Village and intended to leave.
Before leaving, he casually asked Uchiha Madara if he wanted to leave together.
He had thought Uchiha Madara would have no reason to stay either, but unexpectedly, he was wrong.
"No, I plan to stay here for a while longer," Uchiha Madara refused.
Kakuzu looked strangely at Uchiha Madara, not understanding him.
He wasn't interested in the most valuable Seven-Tails or the Hero's Water in this ninja village. Was there something else that could pique his interest?
Something even he, a local, didn't know about.
Uchiha Madara explained, "There's something quite interesting here. I plan to stay here for a while."
Kakuzu, being nosy, asked, "What is it?"
Uchiha Madara didn't hide it, speaking in a low voice, "The Hero Tree."
As the name implied, since it was called the Hero Tree, it had some connection to the Hero's Water, as the Hero's Water was produced from this very tree.
It was said that this great tree had existed for thousands of years and was a mysterious tree.
Mentioning trees naturally brought to mind Hashirama Senju's Wood Release.
When he was in the Hidden Leaf, Uchiha Madara knew that the village had been experimenting with Hashirama's cells.
If an ordinary person had Hashirama's cells implanted in their body, it would stimulate a large amount of chakra, but it would also have significant side effects.
This had a similar effect to the Hero's Water produced by the Hero Tree. Uchiha Madara was interested in this point, so he decided to stay and thoroughly research this great tree to see if he could discover anything.
Perhaps he could even find the key to awakening the Rinnegan.
Uchiha Madara had always been very interested in why the Senju clan had only produced one Wood Release user in thousands of years.
At that time, he thought it was because Hashirama was extraordinarily talented and therefore developed Wood Release. Furthermore, since they were rivals in their youth, even if he asked Hashirama, he probably wouldn't reveal the truth.
Of course, this wasn't a distrust of Hashirama, but rather that Hashirama had a cunning younger brother, Tobirama, by his side.
Tobirama must have warned his elder brother beforehand about what could be said and what shouldn't be casually mentioned.
So, Uchiha Madara didn't think much of it and naturally didn't ask further.
However, in recent years, Uchiha Madara had gradually developed a strong interest in the origin of Wood Release, and a question arose in his mind.
"Was Wood Release truly a Kekkei Genkai developed solely by Hashirama?"
Taking his own Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan as an example, the conditions for giving birth to these eyes were extremely stringent, requiring the right time, place, and people, with none being dispensable.
Did Hashirama also use some external force to develop Wood Release?
For example, a miraculous encounter where he accidentally fell into a cliff and then ate a magical fruit on the cliff face?
Given Hashirama's reckless personality at that time, such a possibility was not impossible.
Otherwise, if Uchiha Madara went through immense hardship to obtain his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, and Hashirama developed Wood Release solely through personal effort, wouldn't that make him seem utterly useless?
Even though Hashirama Senju had passed away, Uchiha Madara secretly continued to compete with him in certain matters.
He wanted to prove that Hashirama's Wood Release was not developed purely by personal effort but through external means.
This wasn't just about competition; it was also for successfully merging and giving birth to the Rinnegan.
Uchiha Madara subconsciously found reasons for himself.
(End of Chapter)
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