Madara

"That damned Tobirama!"

Madara, still recovering from his battle against Hashirama and going through the process of implantation of Hashirama cells, grumbled for the nth time as soon as he woke up.

His goal in his fight with Hashirama was getting his cells and pretending to die.

Yet, he wanted to fight against Hashirama seriously one last time, so he even brought Kyuubi with him.

But he still lost.

And if Hashirama made up his mind from the beginning, the fight wouldn't have lasted for three whole days. Only after sparing Madara several times and telling him to stop, did Hashirama finally made up his mind to kill Madara.

Madara didn't believe himself to be weaker than Hashirama. Hashirama's insane chakra was balanced with his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. But, no matter how many wounds Madara gave Hashirama because of his hesitation, Hashirama always healed even without any handsigns.

After the battle, it was clear to Madara that no matter how many tricks he used, he can't beat Hashirama. All this while, Hashirama has been going easy on him.

He scoffed. If Hashirama was even half as ruthless as himself, the world would have been united and there will be no wars.

But Hashirama is a fool, so he has to create a new world of peace under Infinite Tsukuyomi.

That's why, he had prepared Izanagi in advance. Unlike a normal three tomoe Sharingan which can rewrite death only after ten seconds at most, Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan is another deal.

If a three tomoe Sharingan is compared to no Sharingan, and Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan is compared to three tomoe Sharingan, the difference in power is still more than a thousand times.

Moreover, his Sharingan is exceptionally powerful, and his chakra reserves are only third to Hashirama and Mito.

Knowing Tobirama's tendency, Madara knew that he will experiment on his corpse until Hashirama recovers from chakra exhaustion and finds out about it.

So set Izanagi to activate a month after his death, coupled with using his EMS ability on himself to further increase the time gap of Izanagi.

It was successfully, and he put his Shadow Clone in the coffin, and he himself went into hiding inside the Divine Tree roots to avoid Hashirama's perception.

The only danger was Hashirama going into Sage Mode, and somehow noticing him.

But no one can force Hashirama to go into Sage Mode besides Madara himself.

Madara didn't like to admit it, but he has to live like a rat until Hashirama is alive.

But, Tobirama opened his coffin again, and popped his Shadow Clone. Now, Tobirama knows that Madara is still alive.

If Hashirama goes into Sage Mode, there is very high chance of getting discovered. The safest place is the root of the Divine Tree's remnants, so Madara can only lie here and wish that it will prevent Hashirama from detecting him.

Still, there is a high chance that he is safe.

Hashirama must have learnt Sage Mode to find Madara. If he couldn't find Madara back then, there is a high chance that he wouldn't be able to find him now.

"So you were alive, Madara!"

Madara jumped from his bed, taking his gunbai in his hand.

"You found me huh?"

Madara looked at Hashirama in disdain, who looked too happy to see the person who was about to kill him being still alive.

"Huh? Why do you look blind in one eye?"

"Why do you care? Go away! I am not going back to Konoha!"

"Madara, come back! Become the Hokage!"

Madara sneered at the proposal.

"You gave the power of choosing the Hokage to those weak clan heads under Tobirama's influence. Clans that I can annihilate without any effort.

And they chose you. I would have chosen you too, of course. But that decision should lie in the hands of Senju and Uchiha clans only!

I no longer care about Konoha. I want to bring peace to the whole world!"

Hashirama sighed and shook his head.

"Let's say that we united the whole world. What about after we die? We both know that even amongst the Senju and Uchiha, we are abnormally strong. Even my son is not very strong.

If we conquer the world, after we die, it will be chaos. There will be countless factions, and the Warring era will become prominent again. The best we can do is to create Konoha to be a safe cradle for children. And trust the children to build upon our form of peace with their own ideas."

Madara scoffed.

"The most talented amongst the children you talk about is the kid of Sarutobi Sasuke. While Sasuke's fire style was better than Izuna, Izuna mainly used lightning style to counter Tobirama.

Do you really believe that the Sarutobi kid will have even half of your strength?

You maybe a peace loving idiot. Even the children of Konoha might be. But what about others? People are greedy. They will attack Konoha once we are gone. The world will engage in more fiercer wars.

You only want to protect children because your brothers died as kids. What about adults? Do they don't have any right for peace!?

What about Izuna!?"

This time, Hashirama got angry.

"Then why didn't you let Tobirama heal Izuna!? He knows Medical Ninjutsu! Why did you try to heal him yourself with the half-ass medical ninjutsu that you copied with Sharingan!?

Didn't I send you several letters that Tobirama will treat Izuna! That we should stop fighting!? But you waited until his condition got worse and worse, and wanted to die fighting the Senju clan by yourself!

You are stupid!"

"You are calling me stupid!? How could I trust Tobirama!?"

"You could have trusted me! Tobirama will never try anything in front of me!"

"I don't trust you! You killed me!"

"You are very much alive! And I only killed you because I had no choice! I was telling you to stop fighting countless times! More than a thousand times! Only when I was about to deplete my entire chakra I had to kill you! You are stupid!"

"Hashirama!"

"Madara!"

"Why are you going this far anyway!? How do you plan to achieve peace if you are opposing my way anyway!?"

"Infinite Tsukuyomi! I will put entire world in a genjutsu so that they can live the life they want!"

"..."

Hashirama was speechless at Madara's masterplan for peace.

"Isn't that fake?"

"Who knows what is fake and what is real!? Do you know if this life is real or a very strong genjutsu from the Sage of Six Paths!?"

Hashirama hesitated, before saying, "Madara, you know the Ino-Shika-Cho? I heard that Yamanaka clan took care of traumatised members of the trio of clan. How about I ask the Yamanaka clan head for help?"

Madara frowned.

"What does 'traumatised' mean?"

"Umm, I actually don't know myself. Yamanaka clan head was talking about it during a meeting. Anyway, what you are talking about is insane! Putting the entire world into Genjutsu? You will sacrifice the world's free will to force them? Peace can't be forced this way."

"What the hell are you talking about Hashirama!? Our strength forced peace. Not talking! If you killed me during that time instead of pointing at yourself, peace would have been achieved either way."

"Strength was necessary. But do you think the Uchiha clan would have been happy that way? Just living doesn't mean peace. You have to be happy too. You know what? You don't have a wife and kids, that's why you are unhappy all the time like Tobirama."

"I don't need a woman distracting me."

Hashirama sighed.

"I heard from Tobirama that a big wedding is going to happen in Suna. Why don't you attend it and let off some steam and relax. Maybe talk to Ichika-dono? She was eager to stop Kazekage-dono from going to war. Maybe you will get some better ideas for peace from her instead of putting everyone under Genjutsu?"

Madara frowned.

'If I try to fight against Hashirama again, when I don't even have Kyuubi, and the secret of Izanagi is out, I might really die this time. And won't be able to complete my plan of Infinite Tsukuyomi. Killing Hashirama near a tree is impossible.

I can feel that Hashirama's chakra is waning, he must have used considerable life force in healing his wounds. I will live longer than him.

Since I can't hide from Hashirama anyway, I should bide my time, and maybe I should consider controlling Suna instead of Kiri for my plans just in case I can't awaken Rinnegan until I am too old. It's the eyes of Sage and of Six Paths. Those who have awakened Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan before me must have tried to awaken Rinnegan, but probably died before they could do so. I must live for a long enough time...'

Madara changed his plans a bit, and sighed.

"Alright. But I am not going back to Konoha. I am going to travel around the world to find for another way for peace."

"No genjutsu!"

"Yeah yeah."

Hashirama performed the seal of reconciliation.

And Madara did it too.

Black Zetsu, watching the scene from afar, grumbled and left. He realised that he will have to work much harder.

And in Roran, Ichika suddenly sneezed while preparing for the party. And she was getting a really bad feeling. Afterall, she felt like everything is going too well.