Chapter 86: He Shines So Bright

Itachi led the great shinobi alliance along with the other kages against the 10-tailed beast, Madara, and Obito. The war was nowhere near its end, yet the great shinobi alliance was almost brought down by its knees by both Madara and Obito. Even Itachi could barely go against the combination of the two and the 10-tailed beast.

The rest of the shinobi alliance are fighting against the minions summoned by the gigantic tree in the middle of the wide, open battlefield.

After the five kage summit, Itachi was declared by Mifune to be the leader of the great shinobi alliance. The other four agreed, since Itachi is the smartest and the strongest out of all of them. Even the Raikage had to agree that Itachi is stronger than him.

But even then, they've lost too much. If it wasn't for the sacrifice of Shikaku, Inoichi, and Choza, they wouldn't be here. The new generation of shinobis are fighting against this great enemy with some of the old generation, but they were still in a disadvantage.

Itachi had to 1v1 Madara because the others are too busy with Obito and the 10-tailed beast. He was barely winning, even with all his strength. If only Hikaru was here, the war would've been over in an instant.

Itachi had his Susanoo activated but it was still far too inferior against Madara's full bodied and armored Susanoo. Only with great difficulty would he be able to block an attack from Madara, and he could barely damage Madara's Susanoo.

Even though Hikaru stated that Itachi was as strong as Madara, he only meant the past Madara. But this Madara has the rinnegan, mokuton, and the sage mode of Hashirama Senju. To be honest, it's almost unfair for Itachi. He's already low on chakra, his eyes are hurting from overuse, and this is all because of his Susanoo and his use of Amaterasu countless times against Madara.

Bang! Crack!

Itachi blocked another slash from Madara's giant Susanoo swords with his Yata Mirror and counterattacked with his Sword of Totsuka, thus creating a crack on Madara's Susanoo!

"Ho, you're strong for someone your age. You're as strong as I was back then, 100 years ago. But do you think you can beat me at that state!?" Madara then slashed at Itachi again with his Susanoo at full strength, but he managed to block it again.

'I can't beat him, he's too strong for me right now. Damn it, if only I had a few strong shinobis by my side, we could've taken him down. We are at our weakest state; I need to create a way to defeat them!' Itachi said in his thoughts, trying not to panic.

Barrage after barrage of Madara's Susanoo almost brought him down to his knees. He's stuck on defense mode, unless there's someone who could turn the tides of the battlefield, it's going to be difficult to stop them.

"Are you tired, huh!? C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, you bastard! You awakened my battle lust, don't stop now! Hahahahaha!!" Madara laughed as he continued his barrage of attacks onto Itachi's Susanoo.

'Tch, this battle freak. For now, I'll retreat. If I can regroup with Azumi and Sasuke, I'm sure we can figure something out.' Itachi planned.

The adult Sasuke from another dimension has already left a week ago after Boruto was finished with his training with Toneri. He would've been useful here, but he cannot keep them here any longer. They have their own war to fight, and we have our own.

The moment Madara stopped his attacks, Itachi canceled his Susanoo and ran towards the main battlefield, where Sasuke and Azumi are. He needs to preserve his chakra and his stamina, or he won't be able to fight any longer.

And as he expected, Madara followed him from behind, yelling at him to get back. He's really a battle crazed person. If it was any other shinobi, they would've lost a long time ago from that monster. Well, Madara cannot be compared to Hikaru, who's in a complete league of his own.

He kept running until he managed to get reunited with his younger brother and Azumi. They were fighting Obito, who's on top of the 10-tailed beast. Though, he can see that the situation is dire.

Even though they expected that the war will be hard fought, they forgot one single variable. The Edo Tensei technique.

Kabuto revived almost all of the strongest shinobis to exist. Even the Akatsuki was revived!

Itachi could see that they were fighting a losing war, but they still have to try, or the deaths of all those people would be in vain! Itachi then fired an Amaterasu on Madara, who's behind him. Madara dodged it, but by the time he turned his head towards Itachi, he was gone.

Seeing that he's opponent has retreated, Madara just decided to accompany Obito, destroying the wills and hopes of the shinobi alliance.

His plan is near its completion, only those small fries are getting in his way but that would be fixed soon. His body is still in Edo Tensei, so he needs return his mortal body again and make himself the 10-tails' jinchuuriki. After that, he will cast the Eye-of-the- Moon plan.

Once his goal has been achieved, all the pain and suffering would finally be gone. None of that shall remain in his illusionary world, only bliss will remain. The unending dream of peace that he and Hashirama dreamt of, is not that far away now. It is now within his grasp, the ultimate peace.

Azumi was fighting an akatsuki member, when Itachi appeared and sealed that reincarnated akatsuki member into his totsuka sword.

Azumi was covered in her new version of chakra, a long cloak made of the fox's chakra was behind her waving around with chakra energy lazily moving around like flames.

"Itachi! Did you defeat Madara?" Azumi asked hopefully.

"Unfortunately, I couldn't. He was too strong for me. I was planning on sealing him into my totsuka sword, but I couldn't. Madara is going to get his mortal body once again, and once that happens, that will be the time we'll attack, during his moment of weakness." Itachi said to Azumi.

Azumi nodded and proceeded to battle other Edo Tensei shinobis. Itachi then did the same but he preserved some chakra, so that he can fight again later.

Madara appeared on top of the 10-tailed beast's head, and sitting on top of it was Obito. He's eyes surveyed the chaotic battlefield he himself created.

"You've done a good job, Obito! Now, the only thing you need to do is revive me with the rinnegan!" Madara said, confident that his plan will work.

"That's going to be hard, considering I only have one rinnegan with me. The pair of rinnegan you gave to Nagato was stolen by someone, and Nagato and Konan are nowhere to be found. This eye of rinnegan I have right now can barely control the juubi, if I try to revive you right now, I'll lose control of the juubi and it would start attacking us too. We are at a disadvantage, too. If they come to know that that we can barely control the juubi, they'll attack us head-on without caring for the casualties. I'm sure you can understand the rest, Madara." Obito said stoically.

Since Hikaru took the pair of rinnegan that Nagato had, Obito had to create the rinnegan on his own using his own body. He needed to rush things and decided to put a ton of Hashirama cells inside him along with Madara's. Kabuto then performed a surgery on him, which took about 24 hours. Yet, at the end of it, he was only able to create a single eye of rinnegan after all that suffering. But it was enough to control all the tailed beasts and enslaved them under his power.

But the results were disastrous for his body. He cannot move from his position, or he would lose control of the juubi. He was only able to fight earlier because he only controlled a few tailed beasts earlier, but since he now controls the juubi, he can no longer fight on the battlefield.

Obito could feel killing intent leaking out of Madara. He knows his angry, no, furious. After all those planning, this is the only results he gets.

In the surface, they may be winning, but they are actually on the losing side. No, it's better to say that the two opposing sides are tied.

No one is winning, yet no one is losing either.

Madara gritted his teeth, knowing that he will not be able to perform his eye of the moon plan. But getting angry over it would not bring him any benefits.

Obito, though, did not tell Madara something else. He's dying from just using the rinnegan. Since he forcefully awakened it, in such a short time at that, his body couldn't take in the power of this rinnegan. He feels like he's missing something, something very important for the wielders of the rinnegan.

But right now, he's body is destroying itself. Nothing makes sense anymore, for him. The only thing he wants now is to see Rin, that was his only dream. But from what he can see, they're losing the war. Everyone is against him, not a single soul in this world is truly on his side.

He realized that after he was defeated by that kid. Kabuto only wanted his body for experimentation, Madara only wanted him here to revive him.

All of this just doesn't make sense. But he's ready to die. He'll rot in hell, that's for sure.

This rinnegan of his will be destroyed along with his body.

'Hmph, at least I'll have the last laugh. Forgive me, Kakashi, but this is how it should be.'

As soon as he finished saying that inside his thoughts, his heart stopped beating. The rinnegan in his eye socket destroyed itself. Madara rushed towards him after seeing him fall down, just to get the single eye of rinnegan, but it was already destroyed.

As if the time slowed down by itself, he saw something descend from the sky. It was already night, yet it was bright. It shined so bright, so bright that it blinded his eyes.

The last thing he saw was those black eyes, shining under the moonlight.

'Ah, what was his name again...? Yes, I remember now... Hikaru...'