Since his resurrection, Uchiha Madara had always assumed Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō were working under Obito.
After all, the three of them had used the Chimera Technique to greatly enhance their powers. On top of that, all three were from Konoha, cooperating so seamlessly that Madara naturally lumped them together as Obito's people.
But to his surprise, the ones behind Danzō and Hiruzen were not Obito at all—it was someone else entirely!
As he passed through the dim corridors of the Root base, Madara's frown deepened. Only after stepping through a strange barrier did the space before his eyes suddenly open up.
A vast, majestic palace came into view. The fact that it clearly existed in a different dimension made Madara tense.
"Brat of the Sarutobi clan, who exactly is your master?!"
"You'll know when you see him," Hiruzen said in a low voice. After hesitating a moment, he added:
"I don't know why my master wants to meet you at this moment. Until now, besides Danzō and me, he has never shown himself to anyone else. Not even Uchiha Obito knows of his existence."
"But I can tell you this—my master is a truly transcendent being. Even the Sage of Six Paths cannot compare to him!"
With that, Hiruzen paid no attention to Madara's shock. He quickly guided him into the palace, then vanished without a trace.
Such words—spoken with reverence, even fear—only made Madara more curious about this so-called master.
After all, Sarutobi Hiruzen's current strength was hardly weaker than his own—undoubtedly at the peak of the Super Kage level. And Hiruzen had once been Hokage of Konoha, wielding both great power and authority. In the shinobi world, he stood near the very summit.
And yet, such a man now called another "master"!
Madara's curiosity burned even stronger, until at last he stepped into the palace hall and laid eyes on the figure seated upon the throne.
But at the very first glance, Madara frowned.
Ordinary.
Far too ordinary.
Even with his Rinnegan, he could see nothing unusual about the man… no, there was a faint chakra signature, but it was no stronger than that of an average jōnin.
And precisely because of this, Madara's shock deepened.
How could someone whom Sarutobi Hiruzen called master possess only such a pitiful level of chakra?
"It's our first meeting," said the man on the throne—Jigen—slowly rising to his feet. "Descendant of Hagoromo."
Hagoromo… the name of the Sage of Six Paths.
Madara scowled at the man before him, his tone stiff:
"I didn't expect someone like you to exist in the shinobi world. Truly surprising."
"There are many things in this world that you know nothing about," Jigen replied calmly.
"In the long history stretching back thousands of years, even the battles between you and Senju Hashirama amount to no more than a single page turned."
"Is that so."
Madara let out a cold laugh.
"Then for one who claims to have seen millennia of history, to secretly summon me here now… Is it because you fear that brat Obito?"
"Fear? Heh…"
The faint chuckle carried undisguised disdain for the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki.
Though the Ten-Tails' power was vast, to the Ōtsutsuki clan it was nothing more than a tool loaded onto a host body.
The only difference was that this particular "tool" had devoured an enormous amount of natural energy from the shinobi world.
"Uchiha Obito's current power may seem godlike to you people," Jigen said evenly, smiling faintly as he watched Madara's stunned expression, "but to us, it merely means he has stepped just barely onto the threshold."
"It seems you don't know the true secret of the shinobi world, Madara."
"The true secret?" Uchiha Madara gave a cold snort.
"The Sage of Six Paths splitting the Ten-Tails, turning it into the power of Yin and Yang, and spreading chakra. Isn't that the true secret?"
Jigen slowly shook his head.
"That is merely the history written by Hagoromo. What you know is nothing more than a fabrication crafted by others."
"What do you mean?" Madara's expression darkened.
"The Eye of the Moon Plan."
Jigen casually spoke aloud the very plan that had long been Madara's lifelong obsession. Then he added another name:
"And—Black Zetsu."
"Black Zetsu calls itself your will, claiming to be a creation born of your spiritual power fused with Yin–Yang Release—a piece you designed to guide Uchiha Obito in carrying out the Eye of the Moon Plan."
"But the truth… is entirely different."
"Black Zetsu's true identity is the third child of the so-called Rabbit Goddess—the younger brother of Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo, the Sage of Six Paths!"
"Everything you thought you knew, everything you've tried to do—including the IEye of the Moon Plan—was all the result of Black Zetsu's secret manipulation! And the root of it all… was simply that Black Zetsu seeks to free his mother, Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, from her seal!"
"Wh… what?!"
Madara froze on the spot, his face full of disbelief.
He had, of course, heard the legend of the Rabbit Goddess's deification, but he knew none of the details. But this—this was absurd!
That Black Zetsu—the being he believed to be the embodiment of his own will, born from his spiritual power and Yin–Yang Release, the one to whom he had entrusted all of his plans—wasn't his creation at all? Instead, he was Kaguya's third son, Hagoromo's own younger brother?!
How could that be possible?! He had seen Black Zetsu being born with his own eyes!
"I know you won't easily believe what I say," Jigen said calmly. Both his hands lifted slightly, and from them spilled a chakra that even Madara could not resist.
In the blink of an eye—before Madara could even realize it—the world around them shifted.
When he opened his eyes again, they were in a strange, unfamiliar space.
"Genjutsu?"
"No need to be tense. I merely want to show you the world's true face."
With a sweep of Jigen's hand, the scenery transformed. Streams of radiant light surged, and before Madara's eyes unfolded a world overflowing with dense natural energy.
Monks, onmyōji, samurai, shrine maidens…
Figures of all kinds flashed before him—yet not a single ninja appeared, nor the Shinigami or Quincy who now roamed the shinobi world.
This was… the shinobi world thousands of years ago!
Back then, the divide between nobles and commoners was far clearer. Nobles held absolute status, absolute power. Commoners were simply commoners.
The nobles schemed and fought for wealth and power, launching wars for their ambitions. When the wars ended, the politicians shook hands at the negotiating table, while the commoners who had died were forgotten and discarded.
This scene, repeating endlessly like a cycle, left Uchiha Madara silent.
Even if, from time to time, a mighty overlord arose to suppress all and bring peace, the end result was always the same.
"I was right all along, Hashirama. Only with the Eye of the Moon…"
"There is no such thing as the Eye of the Moon."
The cold, detached voice cut off Madara's muttering. The endlessly cycling illusionary world before his eyes shifted with those words.
Two figures descended from the heavens!
Their presence and aura bore a seventy-percent resemblance to Obito's current state—but they were far more majestic, far more powerful. Obito's eyes were Rinnegan, but theirs were Byakugan.
The illusion changed.
These two celestial beings descended upon the shinobi world, planting the God Tree, sweeping aside all resistance with an unstoppable force, and beginning to devour the world.
But just as everything was about to be settled, one of the two celestial beings' subordinates betrayed the leader, feeding him to the Ten-Tails and promoting the Ten-Tails' complete growth!
And then—the Rabbit Goddess swallowed the fruit, overwhelmed the shinobi world with her power, and bore two children.
One was named Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo, the other Ōtsutsuki Hamura.
The truth of the world unraveled before Madara's eyes. He stood there stunned, unable to put words to the scenes flashing past.
The scene continued to change.
The two children grew older. The Goddess's nature began to change—she sacrificed humans, created White Zetsu, and ultimately her actions turned her own children against her.
War erupted.
The Goddess was defeated and sealed by her two sons. The Ten Tails she had consumed was ripped from her and sealed away by her elder son.
Because the battle against Kaguya Ōtsutsuki had ravaged the world, Hagoromo set out on a journey of atonement—restoring the wasted land, finding homes for the tailed beasts. In this time, he spread chakra, created Ninshū, divided the tailed beasts, and came to be known by the world as the Sage of Six Paths.
"So this… is the history of the shinobi world…"
Madara whispered, his eyes filled with complex emotions.
He already knew fragments of this history, but seeing it laid out before his very eyes still shook him to his core.
"That is only half the history of the shinobi world," Jigen's voice echoed darkly. "What you are about to see now… is what I truly wish to show you."
"Hm?"
The scene rewound to the moment Hagoromo and Hamura sealed their mother. But this time, at the very instant the Rabbit Goddess was sealed, a pitch-black figure silently slipped out from her sleeve.
"That is…"
Madara's pupils dilated sharply, shock spreading across his face.
"Black Zetsu?!"
Even with only a fleeting glimpse, there was no mistaking it—it was Black Zetsu.
The scene in front of him was still constantly changing.
The Goddess sealed. Black Zetsu escaped.
When Hagoromo passed from the world, honored by the people as the Sage of Six Paths, Black Zetsu began weaving its secret web in the shadows.
It provoked the conflict between Indra and Asura. It guided the downfall of Ninshū. It stirred chaos and war throughout the shinobi world…
It manipulated each successive reincarnation of Indra and Asura—until it reached Uchiha Madara. And there, posing as Madara's "will," it wove its schemes in the darkness…
One scene after another played out before Madara, leaving the Shura of the shinobi world utterly silent.
He didn't doubt what he saw. Every order given, every deed done—he remembered them more clearly than anyone.
It was real.
Black Zetsu wasn't born of his will—he himself had been nothing more than Black Zetsu's pawn!
No wonder, after his resurrection, Black Zetsu's attitude toward him had been so cold compared to Obito. Because now Obito had fully surpassed him, and Black Zetsu no longer needed its old pawn at all!
"Why…"
Madara suddenly lifted his head, his blood-red eyes fixed tightly on the man before him.
"Why are you telling me all of this?!
Why awaken someone like me—a man who has drowned endlessly in this world of lies? Why?!"
"Don't worry. I have no twisted sense of amusement. It's simply… for something else."
"What?"
"Hatred."
Jigen slowly uttered the word.
"After everything you've seen, you should already have guessed my identity."
Someone who could see through everything so clearly, who could dismiss the Sage of Six Paths as a clown, who could regard Black Zetsu's millennia of scheming as nothing—there could only be one.
"One of those who descended upon this world together with the Rabbit Goddess…" Madara said, his eyes narrowing, his words steady and deliberate.
"Yes. You may call me Jigen… or you may call me… Ōtsutsuki Isshiki."
His voice was calm, detached.
"Back then, Kaguya betrayed me, offered me up as a sacrifice to the Ten Tails.
Not only did it leave me in this feeble, pathetic state, it also forced me to waste a thousand years trapped in this forsaken corner of the world."
"And now that Black Zetsu's thousand-year plot to revive his mother is on the verge of success… how could I possibly allow him to have his way?"
"But due to certain special circumstances, I cannot act directly.
And so—you, the one Black Zetsu has already discarded, are the perfect choice."
"…Am I supposed to feel honored?" Madara let out a self-mocking laugh.
His lifelong faith, his unshakable pursuit, had just been shattered—revealed as nothing but lies. For him not to have gone insane on the spot was already a testament to the strength of his will.
Yet what awaited him was not despair, but a chance—a chance for revenge placed right before him.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Simple. Follow your own heart." Jigen spread his hands.
"I can grant you power—power far greater than you possess now, enough to rival even Uchiha Obito as he is today.
All you need do is act upon your own will: destroy those who deceived you, who manipulated you. Tear down this laughable, miserable reality in its entirety.
And as your reward—once it is done, I will reclaim the power I lent you, and I will plunge this world into an eternal dream.
I will grant you the realization of the dream you have chased all your life."
Madara fell silent.
There was nothing left to hesitate over.
Now that he had seen everything, now that he understood everything—and knew that he did not yet have the strength to shatter this vile, loathsome reality himself—Jigen's offer was the only path forward.
After a brief silence, the former Shura of the shinobi world lifted his head. His scarlet eyes locked onto Jigen's.
"I accept."