"However… I think this plan can be modified slightly," Uchiha Hatoha said as he looked at the old man seated on the stone chair.
"Oh?"
Uchiha Madara lifted his eyelids and looked at Hatoha, his voice calm and unfathomable. "How would you change it?"
"There's no need to go to the Land of Rain to recruit that Rinnegan wielder. I believe that relying on myself alone is enough to gather the nine tailed beasts, revive the Ten-Tails, and completely destroy this rotten old world. I'll leave you a blank slate, and then you can freely create the new world you envision on it!"
"...Without a Rinnegan wielder to perform the Gedo Art of Rinne Rebirth, how exactly am I supposed to create a new world?"
"Oh, right. According to the plan, you'll be dead by then."
Hatoha slapped his forehead, offering an apology with no sincerity whatsoever. "Sorry, I forgot about that."
Then he muttered to himself, "So in the end, we still have to go to the Land of Rain and recruit that Rinnegan wielder after all… But honestly, what if that guy doesn't agree with your ideals? To put it bluntly, normal people probably wouldn't be able to accept your philosophy."
"Haha, Hatoha, you're saying that like you yourself are normal,"
Asu, who was attached to Hatoha like an outer garment, couldn't help but interject with a laugh.
Unexpectedly—
"That's because I'm not," Hatoha replied calmly. "From the moment the thought of destroying this utterly rotten old world was born in me, I stopped being normal. I'm well aware of that. If I had a choice… I'd have zero interest in destroying the world at all!"
But now, he had no choice.
From the moment Tsuruha was murdered, he had already lost the right to choose. There was only one road left before him, a dead end leading straight to destruction. Destroy the world, and then destroy himself.
"The matter of recruiting the Rinnegan wielder can be discussed later," Madara said. "What I want to know right now is this: on what basis do you think you can gather the nine tailed beasts by yourself alone? You and I were both once Konoha shinobi. You should know very well how powerful the Five Great Ninja Villages truly are."
Madara's scarlet eyes locked tightly onto the youth across from him.
"Madara-sama, Hatoha has awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan!"
Asu spoke up first at this moment.
"The Mangekyō Sharingan?"
Madara paused, the crease between his brows easing slightly. "If you've awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, then you do have some capital… But that alone still isn't enough for you to look down on the Five Great Ninja Villages. The Mangekyō Sharingan isn't so powerful that it can sweep the entire shinobi world—"
He suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
His eyes widened abruptly. "Hatoha. Your Mangekyō Sharingan… what is its ocular ability?"
"Asu, get down first."
Hatoha didn't immediately answer Madara's question, instead speaking to the White Zetsu named Asu clinging to his body.
The next second, the White Zetsu wrapped around Hatoha automatically peeled itself off, revealing Hatoha's original form. The white substance that fell away gathered once more, reforming into the peach-faced White Zetsu.
"Asu, stand still. I'm going to give you something," Hatoha said.
"What? Give me something?"
Asu asked excitedly.
Hatoha didn't respond. He simply raised his right hand and pressed it against Asu's forehead.
"Huh?"
For an instant, Asu's gaze became unfocused.
Then he snapped back to his senses, scratching his smooth bald head. He stared wide-eyed at Hatoha and stammered, "Hatoha, th-this… what is this? Why do I suddenly feel like there's a bunch of weird, messy knowledge inside my head?"
"That's what I gave you," Hatoha replied.
"But wh-what exactly is it?"
"A soul."
"Eh?"
Asu froze on the spot.
Madara, who was watching from the side, was already losing patience. Frowning, he said irritably, "Hatoha, explain it clearly. Don't make this nearly dead old man rack his brain. You gave Asu a soul? Is this your Mangekyō Sharingan's ocular ability?"
"Amenoyagōmimi no Mikoto," Hatoha said.
"That is the ocular ability of my Mangekyō Sharingan."
"Is that the only one?" Madara asked.
"Huh? There can be two?"
Hatoha was taken aback.
"A Mangekyō Sharingan can have one ocular ability, or it can have two. It varies from person to person," Madara explained. "But don't think that a Mangekyō with only one ability is weaker than one with two. On the contrary, Mangekyō Sharingan with a single ocular ability often possess an even more terrifying power."
He then pressed on, "Hatoha, I've never heard of an ability called 'Amenoyagōmimi no Mikoto.' There's no record of it in the clan's surviving materials. What exactly does it do? Is it related to souls?"
"I can seize the soul of anyone I kill and make it my own, gaining complete control over all the power they possessed."
Hatoha answered calmly.
At the same time, he raised his hands and formed seals.
"Lightning Release: Scattering Wave Shock!"
Brilliant lightning burst forth from his hands.
"Kumo shinobi's Lightning Release!"
Madara's eyebrow twitched upward.
"My chakra nature is purely Fire, and I had never developed any other nature before. Yet now I can not only use Lightning Release, I've directly mastered multiple Lightning Release techniques. That's because I currently command the soul of a Kumo shinobi I killed."
"His chakra, his ninjutsu, his combat experience… all of it belongs to me now."
After hearing this explanation, Madara fell silent.
After a long while, he finally spoke.
"No wonder you're confident you can collect the nine tailed beasts on your own… You just gave Asu a soul. Does that mean that, besides yourself, you can also distribute the souls you've taken for others to use?"
Hatoha did not answer.
Because beside him, Asu had already unleashed "Lightning Release: Scattering Wave Shock" as well, his palm erupting with dazzling lightning.
If Hatoha alone might still have been suspected of copying a Lightning Release technique with the Sharingan—
Then Asu's use of the technique was absolute proof that Hatoha was not lying.
"...Is there an upper limit? The number of souls you can command can't possibly be infinite, right?" Madara asked.
"There is naturally an upper limit. Amenoyagōmimi no Mikoto… the 'eight' is that limit. But this limit refers to the number of souls I can personally command, not the number of souls I can give to others. As long as there are enough souls available, I can distribute all of them."
"Oh, and each person also has a limit to how many souls they can bear. It varies depending on the strength of the soul and the quality of the vessel. But no matter what, none of them can surpass me."
This time, Madara sank into an even longer silence.
He stared at Hatoha, his emotions… exceedingly complex.