Chapter 20: The Sad Truth

< following the events of the last chapter >

[Mikoto's P.O.V.]

I had finished placing my seals and they were waiting for me to activate them. We entered the strange ruins of a forgotten clan from hundreds of years ago.

Eichi, upon entering the room the three targets were, rushed ahead and grabbed a beautiful woman with strange eyes. Following the plan I activated {The Flying Thunder God Technique} and teleported them both to the faraway area I prepared the barrier before.

After that I activate the seals I put around this placd so that nobody could escape from here.

Well it was more for Zetsu, seeing as Madara was connected to a wooden statue and surely wasn't able to move.

Madara was the one to break the silence:

"Who are you?"

Hmm? Was he trying to use a genjutsu on us? I instinctively activated a new domain I was able to create.

{Divine Shrine}

It took a single second for the whole basement to be covered by wood supressing both Madara and Zetsu's chakra and supplementing Ryo and myself.

"That's not how you greet a visitor you know. Madara Uchiha?" Ryo cheekily said next to me.

When did he learn to provoke people?

Madara started laughing while Zetsu was clearly panicking afraid that his plan would fail again.

"You must Mikoto Uzumaki then I presume? I haven't heard from anyone else that was able to use the Wood Release apart from Hashirama." Madara sounded quite amused.

I just grinned and nodded, I wasn't to keen on a conversation with a psycho to be honest.

Ryo walking closer to the two then spoke up:

"I always heard great storys about the mighty Madara Uchiha. You might be traitor Konoha's but you strength has always been worshipped and many Uchiha's strived to reach your level.

I must say, I'm quite disappointed from I can see."

Uff, I could see Madara's pride being hurt after Ryo's words.

He then continued:

"For someone of you class to be played by this black thing is quite hilarious. What was it again? He's the manifestation of your will or something like that?"

Zetsu looked like he was about to run away when a strong oppressiv force freezed him on his tracks. Madara didn't look much bothered, that just goes to show how strong his mental strength is. But to be played with by Zetsu despite that is quite the embarassement indeed.

"Before I kill you I at least want you to know Madara, without you Konoha wouldn't exist today afterall.

You were played like a fool by this thing here, manipulated you, making you think you were its creator when in fact you were not."

"What do you mean?" he was already nearing death, he saw no reason for Ryo to lie to him.

Ryo started explaining:

"He isn't the manifestation of your will, but the will of a so called god. Her name is Kaguya Otsutsuki and she was the mother of th Sag of the Six Paths."

Madara's expression showed shock for the first time since we entered and looked at the trembling Zetsu. Ryo's conqueror's haki was now fully focused on him, Zetsu inside my barriers and the {Divine Shrine} had no way out.

I created this domain especially for people like him, the wood circulated not only my own chakra but a replication of my own blood as well. It wasn't much but enough to not let him faze through it and thanks to my ability he couldn't take control of it either.

Madara pondered for a while before looking back at Ryo.

"What exactly did he manipulate? Was my dream of wanting a world of peace and love instead of this war filled world wrong? Even now countless people all over the world are losing their lives creating new hate or passing theirs on to next generation. I never let myself be deceived, all the choices in my life were made by me!"

I was having enough of this and replied Ryo's stead:

"You might have the right dream but you're an idiot nontheless. Your plan is to put everyone into a genjutsu, right? That doesn't solve anything! The only thing you'd be doing is trapping them inside a lie.

Besides that whole stone tablet wasn't even the original to begin with, that black freak over there tempered with it and changed the message the Sage of the Six Paths left behind."

Hearing this Zetsu became serious he stopped shivering and attacked us using multiple jutsus of different releases. A huge explosion went od in the cave but when the dust settled, a giant body of a hybrid between a human and a dragon was revealed.

A ferocious grin appeared on Ryo's face revealing multiple sharp fangs. The oppressive aura around him increased and for the first time in his life, Zetsu felt fear.

That in front of him was no simple human afterall. He was a dragon, a being believed to rival the gods, with enough power to rule everything in this world.

"Haha. It's not that simple to get rid of me you know." Ryo told the frightened black figure.

His claws extended out of his fingers and were covered by a black and red lightning. With a single strike he ripped Zetsu into multiple pieces making my job harder.

"You idiot we can't kill him, we have to seal him away but look at him! Now I have to make sure I don't miss a piece!" I shouted at Ryo.

Seeing the strange sight of an enormous dragonlike figure apologizing to Mikoto like a child would do with its mother, made Madara burst into laughter.

He looked at our confused expressions and activated his Rinnegan gathering all of Zetsu's parts.

"Here take him. I don't have the strength left to fight people like you and after seeing his miserable attempt at silencing you, I'm pretty sure you weren't lying.

But I'm curious to how you know all that."

"Why aren't you angry at this? I mean you wasted so much time with this just to find out that you plan was destines to fail from the very beginning?" I couldn't understand why Madara felt so... in peace.

"Hahaha. This wasn't my first failure boy. Besides I'm tired, I don't have the strength to start from scratch. I, Madara Uchiha, give up."

I gritted my teeth and let out my frustration:

"What do you mean you give?! You let yourself be played like a fool and when the plan fails, you just give up?!"

He looked at me with curious eyes and answered:

"What can I do now? I'm approaching my death and I can't leave these old ruins anymore. I have done all I could."

He continued to look at me before he continued:

"Hashirama would surely say something like 'I tried my best for as long as I could, it's time to pass the torch to the next generation'. Hahaha.

Now get over with it. I'm tired tired of living in this world."

I took out a little box engraved with a ton of seals. I opened it and it absorbed all of Zetsu's remains before closing again.

Seeing Ryo approach him, Madara grined and ripped his Rinnegan out.

"I leave this with you, I hope you'll use for peace but well if you want to use them to destroy the world than go ahead, I don't care.

A little warning though, that woman your friend disappeared with is not simple. She just appearedmout of nowhere and I have no idea who she is but even I felt threatened by her."

I took his eyes and put them inside a container to not let them rott and answered with a confident smile:

"Oh don't worry I don't think Eichi will have much trouble with her."

...

[General]

Not far from the Otsutsuki Clan's ruins was a wide area devoid of plants and animals.

That area was used as a battlefield between two people.

A whiteskinned woman with a mix of purple,blue and black coloured eyes was looking at her opponent.

He was kneeling on the ground covered in wounds. The woman moved her hand and another deep wound appeared on the man's chest making him collapse.