Chapter 263: Letting the Tide Run
"Still not enough."
Reanimated Uchiha Madara stood on top of the Three-Tails and looked down at Hyuga Ritsu, who moved through the battlefield with unhurried ease. A hard glint passed through those crimson eyes.
The result was unpleasant.
It was also exactly what he had expected.
Hyuga Ritsu stood at the absolute peak of this era, the same way Madara himself had once stood at the peak of his own alongside Hashirama — peerless, with no rival in the world. Even with Orochimaru's improvements to the sacrificial vessel, even with the Complete Body Susanoo at his disposal, this reanimated form was still not what he had been in life. The vessel, however refined, could not fully reproduce the power he had carried when he was alive.
Not defeating Ritsu was an expected outcome. He had prepared for it accordingly.
"I'll come back when I'm truly alive. Then we settle this properly."
He murmured it quietly, and began forming hand seals. Tiger — Snake — Dog — Dragon — then both palms pressed together.
Reanimation Jutsu.
In the next moment, black coffins erupted from the earth in rapid succession, rising like a sudden forest of dark pillars, filling everyone's field of vision at once.
Lid after lid swung open.
The dead had come home.
Tatsuhata. The First Hokage. The Second Hokage. The Second Tsuchikage. The Second Mizukage. The Third Kazekage. The Third Raikage. The Fourth Kazekage. And the Fourth Hokage.
The assembled roster hit the watching ninja from both villages like a physical force. Every one of them, except Tatsuhata, was a Kage who had held office. Some faces were unfamiliar — but everyone present recognized the Fourth Hokage.
"The Yellow Flash is here—"
"Fall back, spread out, move!"
"Three-person groups, back to back!"
Shouted orders cut through the air. Both the Konoha and Mist ninja scrambled into motion.
Yagura's grip on his iron staff was slick with sweat. He stared at the Second Mizukage — a reanimated figure with no eyebrows and a face that matched nothing he could have prepared himself for — and felt something drop toward a very dark place inside him.
He had a strong feeling he wasn't going to survive today.
But then —
Hyuga Ritsu let out a sharp shout. "Madara! Are you running?"
The question made no sense to anyone watching. The same confused thought appeared on nearly every face simultaneously: why would Madara be running? The exchange between Ritsu and Madara had looked roughly even moments ago, and now Madara had just summoned the most terrifying lineup of fighters anyone present had ever seen assembled in one place. How was Ritsu, alone, going to handle this?
Before anyone could process it, Ritsu charged.
Sage Art: Wood Style: Advent of a World of Flowering Trees.
His target was clear — the Three-Tails and reanimated Madara standing on its head. He didn't spare even a glance for the other reanimated figures surrounding them. They were low-tier subjects without independent will, reanimated without proper vessels. They weren't worth his attention.
Massive trees erupted from the ground — ancient-looking, wide as houses, driving upward toward the sky, reaching for the Three-Tails to bind it.
The reanimated fighters moved.
The Third Raikage was fastest. He cut through the growing forest like lightning, reaching Ritsu in an instant.
But Ritsu had already read his trajectory. Before the Hell Stab could connect, Ritsu fired back with Sage Art: Spiraling Destruction Needle — a water needle amplified by sage chakra, hitting the Third Raikage's skull like an armor-piercing round. It drilled through that famously indestructible body and punched a hole clean through his head.
The Third Raikage toppled sideways like a derailed train.
Then, from above:
Dust Style: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique.
Reanimated Second Tsuchikage Mū floated in the air, and from his palms came pure white light — the ninja world's only Kekkei Tōta, carrying destruction of an absolute kind.
At the same moment, the Third Kazekage and Fourth Kazekage rode twin clouds of sand into the air, controlling their gold dust and iron sand, sweeping in from the ground like two converging waves.
Heavenly Transfer Technique.
A shaft of white light surged upward.
Ritsu didn't try to tank the Dust Style. He closed the distance to Mū faster than the Second Tsuchikage could react.
Adamantine Sealing Chains.
Gold chains wound around the reanimated Second Tsuchikage in overlapping coils, locking him down completely.
Of everyone in this group, Mū was the most dangerous to Ritsu personally. His Level 5 Physical Regeneration could recover from almost anything — but the Dust Style didn't leave anything to recover from. Being hit by it directly wasn't a wound. It was erasure. So Mū had to be neutralized first. That done, Ritsu could let things proceed the way he needed them to.
He could see it clearly.
While he was occupied holding off the Third Raikage, Second Tsuchikage, Third Kazekage, and Fourth Kazekage, the other reanimated subjects — the First Hokage, Second Hokage, Fourth Hokage, Second Mizukage — were busying themselves clearing away the trees and vines Ritsu's technique had wrapped around the Three-Tails.
Once that was done, reanimated Madara produced the Shukaku pot and began sealing the Three-Tails — now entirely under his Sharingan's control — back inside it. The process took under ten seconds. The Three-Tails was sealed. For the creature, in some sense, it was a return to familiar surroundings.
During all of this, the Ritsu who had "let the tide run" had done just enough — binding the Third Kazekage and Fourth Kazekage, making a visible show of chasing Tatsuhata and the Third Raikage, coming just short of catching them each time.
Madara gave him no opportunity to collect more. The moment the Three-Tails was sealed, he dissolved the Reanimation Jutsu without hesitation, tucked the Shukaku pot away, and was gone.
In what felt like a blink, the devastated ruins of Shiya Harbor were quiet again.
The battle had been fierce from beginning to end. The outcome, by any measure, was remarkable: zero casualties. Neither a Konoha nor a Mist ninja had died. The only real injuries were among the sealing specialists Yagura had brought, caught in the blast radius of Madara's Wood Style: Advent of a World of Flowering Trees.
Minor wounds. Nothing that mattered.
What mattered was the situation now.
"What a shame. He still got away."
Ritsu let the regret show on his face and quietly dissolved his Sage Mode. He walked back to the Konoha side of the harbor looking entirely unbothered, with three gold chains trailing behind him, still firmly attached to the reanimated Second Tsuchikage, Third Kazekage, and Fourth Kazekage.
The Adamantine Sealing Chains were strong enough to resist the pull of the underworld itself. Even with Madara having released the Reanimation Jutsu, Ritsu's chains held those three souls in place. They hadn't returned to the Pure Land. They were still his.
"Lord Hokage." Kakashi's expression was completely lost. "What do we do now?"
He genuinely didn't know what the right answer was.
"Relax, Kakashi."
Ritsu said nothing further, because Yagura was already walking over.
"Lord Hokage. How do we proceed?"
The Fourth Mizukage's eyes were intent.
"What is there to discuss?"
Ritsu spread his hands with a look of mild helplessness. "I had measures in place for Madara's attack, but the man's ability can't be taken lightly. I can beat him — but permanently ending a reanimated opponent is a different matter."
"That's not what I mean. The Three-Tails is gone. What happens to our transaction?"
"The transaction is void, obviously."
"And all the resources my people hauled here — you want me to haul them back?"
"Then tell me what you want."
Ritsu held Yagura's gaze, genuinely curious what the Mizukage was about to propose.
Yagura pressed his lips together for a moment. "A different trade. Return Samehada and the Executioner's Blade, and everything we brought here today stays in Konoha's hands."
The context was simple enough. When the Mist's Seven Ninja Swordsmen had been defeated years ago, they had lost more than their lives — the Shukaku pot had gone with them, along with Samehada and the Executioner's Blade. The pot was now in Madara's hands. But the two swords were still in Konoha's possession, and specifically in Hyuga Ritsu's keeping.
Not getting the Three-Tails back was a disappointment.
But recovering Samehada and the Executioner's Blade was not nothing. With those two swords returned, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen could be made whole again. Kisame Hoshigaki and Zabuza Momochi were the natural wielders for each — both were the ideal next hands to hold them.
Ritsu rubbed his chin lightly and thought it over for a few seconds. Then he nodded.
"Done."
He agreed without hesitation, entirely unbothered by the idea that returning two powerful weapons might strengthen Kirigakure's overall capability. No matter how strong they became, they would still be no match for him. That kind of concern was beneath him.
His mind was mostly occupied with a different calculation — how much longer before Madara had collected all eight remaining Tailed Beasts, and when the right moment would be to release the Nine-Tails from Naruto.
Before that, though, there was something worth trying. Three souls — the Second Tsuchikage, Third Kazekage, and Fourth Kazekage — were still bound by his chains. The Tokoyo Insect primarily harvested lifespan and vitality, but its reach might extend to other things. Knowledge. The secrets stored within a person's soul.
That was worth exploring.
Inside the hollowed mountain in the Land of Lightning.
Madara dropped through the ceiling wrapped in White Zetsu and peeled it off the moment he landed, moving with smooth efficiency. Two steps brought him to Orochimaru's side. He looked up at the enormous transparent cultivation tank ahead of him.
Inside it floated a young man — naked, his skin the colorless pale of something never touched by sunlight, submerged in pale green nutrient solution.
"Orochimaru. How long?"
Madara's crimson eyes fixed on the figure in the tank, burning with barely contained hunger.
"Couldn't win again?"
Orochimaru's reply was entirely off-topic, and the way he phrased the question had a quality that grated.
Madara's jaw tightened briefly, but his composure held. "That Hyuga boy is strong. Not winning was expected. What matters is that I brought the Three-Tails back."
"Oh?"
Orochimaru's expression shifted toward something like genuine surprise.
He didn't win against Ritsu, but he still got the Three-Tails. That seemed strange. Ritsu had the Byakugan, the Heavenly Transfer Technique, combat power that Madara himself admitted was beyond his current reach — how had the Three-Tails slipped away that easily?
"You don't find that suspicious?"
He couldn't help asking.
Madara's arms folded across his chest. "I know what you're suggesting. But I examined it thoroughly with my own eyes. The Three-Tails showed no signs of having been tampered with. And his Byakugan cannot see through the White Zetsu's Mayfly Technique—"
"So you brought the Three-Tails here."
"No. I had White Zetsu carry it to a temporary base in the Land of Waves. I need you to have 'Number Zero' use the Magic Lantern Body Technique to oversee the sealing remotely."
Orochimaru laughed.
For all his stated confidence that Ritsu wouldn't have left anything in the Three-Tails that the Sharingan couldn't detect, Madara's actual behavior was telling a different story — he wasn't taking any chances. Not even small ones.
As a partner, Orochimaru genuinely appreciated that kind of caution.
"Of course. I'll have Number Zero assist you."
He agreed easily.
Number Zero was the name for the Rinnegan vessel — a synthetic human Orochimaru had constructed from the ground up, now capable of wielding most of the Rinnegan's power. The one thing it couldn't do was use the Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique, which was why it was considered an incomplete product.
Incomplete, but still useful.
Without Number Zero to summon the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, they couldn't have begun collecting the Tailed Beasts at all. Having the nine Tailed Beasts in hand meant nothing if you had no way to put them into the statue.
Rinnegan plus Demonic Statue equaled the beginning of the Moon's Eye Plan.
But beginning wasn't finishing.
Ritsu was too strong.
Without eliminating Hyuga Ritsu — the largest obstacle standing between them and the plan's completion — the Moon's Eye Plan could never actually reach its final stage. And for that, Madara needed a vessel capable of using the Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique. He needed to be truly resurrected, not sustained through this half-existence.
"Orochimaru. How long?"
The same question, asked for the second time.
This time Orochimaru didn't deflect. He smiled.
"Thirty-seven days. The perfect Rinnegan vessel will be ready."
He understood exactly what Madara intended to do with it. He didn't care in the slightest. The Moon's Eye Plan held no appeal for him personally — but none of that prevented him from working alongside Madara to unravel the depths of what the Rinnegan contained, to witness phenomena that a normal lifetime of research could never have brought him within reach of.
As for whether the ninja world ended up destroyed at the end of all this — that was a problem for the Fifth Hokage and the other Kage to worry about.
He was a rogue ninja. It wasn't his job to lose sleep over things that weren't his concern.