Mars-like debris, shattered rocks, swirling sand, scorching heatwaves, thick smoke—everything violently mixed together.
The area grew dark and hazy, making it almost impossible to see past your own hand.
Within a kilometer radius, it had become a living hell.
Even the distant [Loulan] ruins were shattered beyond recognition by the shockwave.
This time, those ruins were about to become nothing more than ruins within ruins.
Such was the terrifying power of this falling meteor.
Thankfully, Tobirama promptly activated the Flying Thunder God, rescuing the majority of the regular ninja.
Otherwise, not one of these ordinary ninja would have survived...
Moments later, a battered indigo-colored figure slowly pulled itself up from the rubble.
It was Lord Madara's Perfect Susanoo.
Just before the meteor struck and the barrier collapsed,
He, just like Hashirama had done moments before, swiftly activated his signature technique.
One was meant to resist the meteor's impact—the other purely for survival.
After all, Hashirama's body was from the Impure World—it couldn't be killed.
But Madara was flesh and blood. If he'd truly been hit by that meteor, it would've meant certain death!
Fortunately, things turned out okay.
Much thanks to Hashirama's Daibutsu blocking most of the meteor's power.
Otherwise, even the Perfect Susanoo alone might not have been enough to protect him...
Especially considering how much chakra had already been drained by Tobirama's barrier.
Even for Madara, there wasn't much chakra left in his body.
Activating the Perfect Susanoo had already been a real stretch...
"Phew! That damn Tobirama fights like a beast!"
"Almost got taken down by that bastard..."
Lord Madara let out a bitter laugh, panting heavily.
Yet he still wore that twisted grin—thrilled beyond measure.
He loved seeing that loser Tobirama fail in his plans, looking every bit the defeated dog.
...
Lord Madara demoted his Susanoo back to its third form to save chakra.
Then, he jumped out from within the massive warrior,
Standing atop its head and turning his gaze toward the upper-left.
There, another elderly figure draped in white robes floated silently midair.
"I knew you'd come!"
Madara murmured with slight bitterness.
The figure turned sideways, revealing a pair of pure white eyes glowing brilliantly:
"Madara Uchiha, I didn't expect we'd meet again so soon."
"It seems your situation isn't exactly great?"
"On Earth... is there really someone strong enough to wound you this badly?"
Madara tore off the remains of his shattered armor and arrogantly retorted:
"Not particularly strong—but very underhanded."
"So never underestimate the ninja of this world—ever!"
The white-robed figure replied calmly:
"We are well aware of that now."
"After all these years, our observation of the surface has never ceased..."
Madara gave a light chuckle:
"Is that so? So we've been living under surveillance all along. What a terrible feeling."
"Cut to the chase! Is what I need ready?"
"It's all prepared; but first, we must deal with a few nuisances before retrieving it."
Madara turned his gaze into the far distance.
In the distance, Hashirama, who had been shattered by meteor strikes, was gradually regenerating.
...
Actually.
The root of this incident could be traced back even further in time.
Over a month ago.
Lord Madara's secret new plan had already begun taking shape.
Before him stood both the ruined Demonic Statue of the Outer Path,
and on the other side were Hashirama wielding the Nine-Tails,
and Shimoku Uchiha holding the Four-Tails and Five-Tails.
Trying to wrest the Tailed Beasts from both of them and continue the Eye of the Moon Plan seemed practically impossible!
Unless Madara could obtain overwhelming power that crushed both sides.
Was it really that easy for someone's strength to suddenly skyrocket?
If he really had that kind of power, who the hell needs a Ten-Tails anyway?
He'd already have the entire Ninja World kneeling before him!
Thus, Lord Madara was forced to explore alternative methods to bypass this bottleneck.
Searching for new paths—
either to enhance his own strength,
or to improve upon the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
At this moment,
Black Zetsu, the so-called most filial son, proposed a highly valuable suggestion:
Namely—to travel to the moon.
Offering all the pureblood descendants among the lunar shinobi, the Otsutsuki Clan,
as sacrifices to the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
By doing so, even without collecting all nine Tailed Beasts,
they could still obtain a Ten-Tails, further cultivating it into the God Tree!
...
Truthfully, Black Zetsu had long known there were descendants of Hamura residing on the moon.
Precisely because he feared being discovered by Hamura and his offspring,
for hundreds of years, Black Zetsu had remained cautious and operated only in shadows,
rarely exposing himself.
Now proposing such an idea meant taking tremendous risk!
After all, his own mother Kaguya
was sealed within the interior of the moon!
Sending Madara straight to the moon without caution and making contact with Hamura's descendants significantly increased the exposure risk.
Yet now, Black Zetsu had no other choice...
Putting Hashirama aside for now—
even that Shimoku Uchiha was simply too terrifying!
He wasn't even twenty yet!
And yet his strength already reached such a horrifying level...
If they didn't resurrect his mother while Madara was still around,
who knew whether they'd stand a chance against that brat in a few or even tens of years?
How could he *not* panic?
Hence, he had no other option but to roll the dice on this dangerous idea.
Moreover, according to his judgment,
the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, originally sealed on the moon,
had clearly been summoned to Earth through Nagato's Rinnegan for quite some time now.
Yet the descendants of Hamura on the moon remained completely unresponsive.
Very obviously, something was wrong!
If those lunar descendants truly followed Hamura's last will faithfully protecting the seal,
how could they possibly ignore the theft of the Demonic Statue?
This proved that those descendants likely had already betrayed Hamura's legacy.
No longer committed to guarding the seal.
That made them potential targets for approach and manipulation.
Should all the descendants of Hamura on the moon indeed become fertilizer for the Demonic Statue,
even without the numerous Tailed Beasts of Earth, wouldn't cultivating a Ten-Tails be possible?
This is definitely much easier than forcefully taking the Tailed Beasts from Hashirama and Shimoku...
...
After carefully weighing the pros and cons.
Lord Madara decided to adopt this plan.
Compared to fighting head-on against Hashirama and Shimoku,
it was clearly better to target the Otsutsuki survivors residing on the Moon.
Even if they really couldn't be overpowered, he could always try cooperating with them!
In Lord Madara's opinion,
deceiving those Otsutsuki survivors would absolutely be much simpler
than tricking that cunning little punk Shimoku or the stubbornly straightforward Hashirama.
It was definitely worth a shot.
As for how to reach the Moon?
That was simple too:
Just dig a hole inside the [Demonic Statue of the Outer Path], placing a Clone Technique inside.
Then his main body would activate the [Rinnegan] to send the statue back to its original sealing location on the Moon.
Afterward, the clone would initiate a [Reverse Summoning], summoning the main body over.
Then reaching the Moon would be as easy as breathing.
Next,
whether to devour and sacrifice all the Otsutsuki survivors on the Moon,
or to deceive and unite with the powerful experts there,
was entirely up to Madara's decision.
Clearly, this was Madara's true plan!
Originally, Madara hadn't planned to execute this plan immediately.
He had intended to wait until he found and reclaimed his other [Rinnegan],
then descend upon the Moon at full strength.
He'd be in a much better position for success.
Who knew that just as the [Demonic Statue of the Outer Path] finished repairs,
the [Konoha] side started stirring things up, orchestrating a huge scheme intending to destroy the [Akatsuki] organization.
Seeing this,
how could such a golden opportunity slip by Lord Madara?
Therefore, he played along with the situation, quickly dispatching Obito and others deliberately into their trap.
This perfectly diverted Konoha's focus elsewhere, buying him the time he needed to descend upon the Moon and carry out his grand scheme.
A mere One-Tail?
Ryumyaku Chakra Control?
Compared to this new plan, they weren't even worth mentioning.
Now looking back,
Madara succeeded!
Successfully forming an alliance with the Otsutsuki survivors on the Moon!
Gaining a formidable force no weaker than [Konoha].
No one knew exactly how he managed to deceive them successfully,
nor what conditions he had agreed upon with these Otsutsuki survivors?
But none of that affected the final result.
The outcome was:
his allies arrived, descending alongside a massive meteorite.
Directly destroying all of Tobirama's preparations, severely crippling Konoha's forces!
This move, initiated from high above in the stratosphere,
turned the battle around completely.
What a rush!
You'd have to be delusional to think Tobirama could've predicted this move!
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