just as planned

It had been three days since Kaoru and Sixth Path Madara began their battle. Regardless of their strength, fighting for three days would inevitably leave them exhausted, both physically and mentally.

Kaoru, who initially had the upper hand, now bore many injuries and lost his right hand, while Madara, though benefiting from regeneration, was not as effective due to reaching the limit of his chakra.

"Amazing, truly amazing. Of all the enemies I've faced, I must admit you are the strongest, Kaoru! Even surpassing Hashirama, I, Uchiha Madara, acknowledge that!"

Madara, who was recovering, began to speak again.

"Old man, be silent! Aren't you tired? You know, I really want to go home, relax on my bed, sleep for a week, and stop thinking about these foolish wars!"

On the other hand, Kaoru, bored and tired of waiting for the slow Zetsu to find them, started getting irritated. In his heart, Kaoru promised to punish Zetsu after sealing him.

Kaoru could have easily killed Zetsu, but to confront Isshiki and other Otsutsuki who might come, Kaoru needed Kaguya's power and the assistance of the old man Rikudo to train Naruto and Sasuke if the Otsutsuki arrived after Kaoru and the others left the shinobi world.

If Kaoru killed Zetsu, he wasn't sure there would be another way to convince Kaguya to cooperate in facing the Otsutsuki. If lucky, he might help reconcile the annoying mother and son feud.

"Los Lobos!!!" Kaoru once again summoned his ice wolf pack to attack Madara.

Their battle continued until Kaoru sensed the presence of the Black Zetsu, who had finally found them. Although their current location did not allow optimal chakra usage, Kaoru admitted Zetsu's hiding ability was impressive; he could only sense Zetsu when he was about 300 meters away.

Upon realizing Zetsu's presence, Kaoru increased his speed and attack power.

Madara, thinking that Kaoru was in a hurry and becoming exhausted, felt delighted, believing their battle would soon end.

However, Madara, with his high self-esteem, would not take advantage of such a weakness. Instead, he also increased his speed and attack power to retaliate against Kaoru.

On the other side, the Black Zetsu, who finally found Madara, observed the battle between Kaoru and Madara. He was waiting for the right time to kill Madara and sacrifice him as a vessel for Kaguya.

After realizing both sides were in a pitiful condition, Zetsu slowly approached Madara, who was too focused on Kaoru to detect Zetsu's presence.

When no one expected it, except Kaoru, Zetsu suddenly appeared behind Madara, attacking and piercing Madara's chest before crushing his heart.

Madara, who did not expect to be betrayed by Zetsu, asked, "Why? You are the embodiment of my will!"

"I am not the embodiment of your will, but I am the embodiment of the ancestral chakra, the rabbit goddess, Otsutsuki Kaguya. My goal is to use you as a vessel for Kaguya's resurrection!"

Hearing this, Madara was shocked. He did not expect to be deceived all this time.

"As you said before, useless puppets should be destroyed, right? And now, witness the resurrection of the goddess that will destroy the entire world!!!!"

"....."

"....."

"....."

Even after waiting for some time, nothing happened. This confused Madara and panicked Zetsu.

Zetsu continued to try to call Kaguya, but his efforts were in vain. They heard laughter from the person they had ignored since earlier.

"Hahahahaha, in vain. Kaguya cannot be resurrected that way because I have severed the connection between Kaguya, the Ten-Tails, and the ley lines of the world."

"Your method of resurrecting Kaguya involves using the Ten-Tails or the world tree, which ultimately connects to the world's chakra flow. This allows Kaguya to control and take over all forms of chakra. Since these three elements are interconnected, Kaguya's resurrection could be easily accomplished."

"But with the severed connection, Madara's critically injured body cannot serve as a vessel for Kaguya because of the difference in their chakra amounts, which should be handled by the Ten-Tails. Moreover, with the disconnection of the Ten-Tails from the world, it turns into just a chakra-loaded monster. It can no longer influence the world's rules. In other words, even if Kaguya were to be resurrected, she wouldn't have the Ten-Tails' power. She also wouldn't be able to manipulate the world's chakra."

"Is my explanation too long? In simple terms, now the Ten-Tails, Kaguya, and the world are completely separated. It's impossible to resurrect Kaguya using the Ten-Tails!"

Zetsu and Madara, hearing this, were speechless. Zetsu, who knew about his millennia-long plan failing, became panicked and started showing a very interesting expression to Kaoru.

"How could an ordinary human like you do that?"

Kaoru just smiled. Madara, still able to think despite his Sage of the Sixth Path's body being in critical condition, suddenly realized.

"*Cough! So that's it, the world reconstruction spell, right?"

Zetsu, hearing Madara's realization, had an odd expression as if not believing the possibility in his mind.

"Isn't that the technique you used to move both of you to avoid the destruction of the shinobi world?"

Kaoru, who had always shown a cheerful and expressive face, suddenly changed and displayed a very cold expression, with eyes that seemed to scorn all creatures.

"When, precisely, did you fall under the misapprehension that I was using the 'world reconstruction spell' just to fight with Madara?"

Madara, seeing Kaoru, finally realized that he had been fighting a monster with a human face all along. He himself was deceived and thought that Kaoru's technique was used to keep their fight away from the other ninjas.

But all that was just a facade. Kaoru deliberately sacrificed a large number of shinobi to deceive and trap Zetsu because he also knew that no ninja was without sin.

Kaoru, raised in a ruthless mafia environment full of deceit and betrayal, naturally had a different view from most people.

Kaoru knew from the beginning that he was not a hero. He wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice millions or however many lives to achieve the best outcome for himself and his loved ones.

If he had to judge himself, Kaoru wouldn't hesitate to say that he was a monster, a demon, or whatever because that's what he was.

Even so, Kaoru would still try his best to minimize the casualties in each of his plans.

Seeing Zetsu, who could only stay silent, and Madara, who was already very weak, Kaoru immediately raised his hand in front of his chest and created a triangular pattern.

The technique Kaoru was going to use was one he considered the pinnacle of ice element usage. The original owner of this power was someone Kaoru respected in terms of loyalty, even though the original owner had a slight problem in her head.

"Mahapadma!"

Without any command, an energy wave exploded, and in an instant, everything in the world stopped moving.

Animals, plants, humans, water, waves—everything stopped because the technique Kaoru used could freeze time.

The original owner of the technique was Esdeath, and Kaoru also bought the Teigu or Imperial Arms that was the same as Esdeath's, but he used additional points to eliminate the side effects of the Teigu.

Initially, Kaoru wanted to buy Aokiji's Hie Hie no Mi, but eliminating the Devil Fruit's weakness required an unreasonable amount of points, even exceeding the cost of the Devil Fruit itself.

This was because the Devil Fruit's weakness was a law in the world of One Piece. So indirectly, Kaoru had to pay the cost to change the world's law.

While Demon's Blood's weakness, owned by Esdeath, was a weakness that only applied to that specific weapon and was not a law of the world applicable to all kinds of weapons. This was why Kaoru chose a Teigu that was cheaper and more practical.

Additionally, Kaoru didn't know the limits of Aokiji's Devil Fruit, which might only be able to permanently change the climate at its highest level.

Unlike Demon's Blood, which could freeze all existing molecules and create a domain as if time were stopped.

After trapping Zetsu in his technique, Kaoru quickly sealed Zetsu into a special container. He intended to use Zetsu to negotiate with Kaguya later.

Then Kaoru approached Madara and ended Madara's suffering by killing him. Furthermore, Kaoru wanted to show respect to Madara, who willingly became a villain for the sake of achieving peace, by killing him without pain.

When everything was finished, Kaoru deactivated his technique, and a few minutes later, he saw a flying figure that he recognized as Chifuyu with her modified Infinite Stratos purchased from the guild store and modified by Orochimaru and Kaoru himself.

Chifuyu, who managed to find Kaoru, quickly approached him and landed to pick him up.

"How did it go?"

Kaoru turned to Chifuyu and showed his characteristic smile that could melt men and women of all ages.

"Everything ended as planned!"

"In that case, let's go home!"

Kaoru nodded in agreement, and they flew together with Chifuyu's IS, preparing to pick up Shirou and Chopper who were still in the backline.