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"Sigh… Madara's weakness is his back. That's how I stabbed him in the chest last time, too."
Hashirama saw his old friend get stabbed in the back yet again. A vivid sense of history repeating itself washed over him, and he couldn't help but sigh.
"Lord Hashirama, you're a surprisingly nice guy, you know that?"
Qianyu kept his eyes on Madara Uchiha and Black Zetsu, one hand gripping Hashirama's crumbly one, and quipped casually.
"What in the world is going on? An internal spat at the final step?"
Tobirama couldn't be bothered with these two clowns. His brow furrowed slightly as he calmly analyzed the battlefield.
"AAAGGGHHHHH—!"
At that moment, Madara Uchiha suddenly let out a roar of agony. The ground before them cracked open in response, and countless streams of chakra gushed from the fissures like geysers, forcibly pouring into Madara's body.
Simultaneously, Madara's body swelled violently as if pumped full of air, floating up like an overinflated balloon. His skin strained to the point of bursting, teetering on the edge of explosion.
"Oh, Madara~ Prepare to offer yourself for Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's rebirth. It is your honor."
Black Zetsu giggled, transforming into a pool of black fluid that wrapped around Madara's body in layers, coiling around him with an almost affectionate intimacy, like a child returning to its mother's embrace.
"This chakra… it's stronger than the Ten-Tails. Is it the chakra of those captured by that bizarre tree?"
"Madara's body can't handle this excessive chakra. It's swelling up. He'll explode if this continues. We must stop him, now!"
Rasa and the others nearby wore expressions of horror. But they didn't even need to voice the warning. Qianyu had already raised his other hand, aiming at the main trunk of the God Tree, and shouted sharply.
"Lord Hashirama! Lend me your power! Let's use that move we practiced!"
"Yosh!"
Hashirama responded instantly. Through their clasped hands, he channeled a continuous flow of his refined Sage chakra into Qianyu's body.
Leveraging his perfect chakra control and the 'melts-all' property of his Lava Release Rasengan series, Qianyu merged Hashirama's Sage chakra with his own Lava chakra in his right hand.
"Sage Art: Super Lava Release: Rasengan Shuriken!"
With a roar, Qianyu formed a massive shuriken that burned like a miniature sun and hurled it viciously at the God Tree's main trunk.
SHHHHHRRRRK—!
The colossal shuriken swept through the trunk. It met almost no resistance, slicing through the nearly hundred-meter-wide tree as easily as a hot knife through butter.
BOOM!
The trunk, thousands of meters tall, collapsed with a thunderous crash. Immediately, the chakra streams erupting from the ground seemed to lose their driving force, trickling and flowing back into the earth.
"Alright. That should temporarily cut off the chakra transmission. But the God Tree will regenerate itself before long."
Qianyu released Hashirama's crumbly hand, discreetly brushing the sand from his own, and turned back to the others.
"That damn brat! Ruining things again!"
The Black Zetsu on Madara's body ground its teeth in fury, but it could only watch helplessly as Qianyu obstructed its mother's perfect rebirth.
That last technique's power was too terrifying. Even if it charged in, it would be useless—instantly shredded to pieces and incinerated to ash… Mother would still need its counsel after her revival!
"Damn you, Qianyu! I'll make sure Mother squeezes every last drop of chakra from you later!"
Gnashing its teeth, Black Zetsu accelerated its consumption of Madara.
The situation was what it was. To deal with Isshiki Ōtsutsuki, who was lurking somewhere, watching like a tiger, it had to help Mother revive quickly.
Why… why is this happening? So from beginning to end… was I the one who was wrong all along…?
As his form was slowly engulfed by Black Zetsu and his consciousness sank into darkness, the last images to flash through Madara Uchiha's mind were of his conversations with Qianyu, Hashirama, and the others. A flicker of confusion passed through his eyes.
Hashirama… Qianyu… Where exactly did I go wrong… Where… did I… go wrong…
THUMP.
A dull sound. Madara's body, having expanded to its limit, suddenly began to shrink. The contours of a curvaceous female figure grew increasingly distinct.
"Huh? Madara turned into a woman?"
"Shut up, Anija! No one will think you're mute if you don't speak!"
In their line of sight, "Madara Uchiha" finally transformed into a woman wearing a white robe, with long, waterfall-like grayish-blue hair, and horns growing from her forehead.
On her flawless, pale forehead, a Six Tomoe Rinne Sharingan squeezed out from a crack, gleaming with a crimson light.
Without a doubt, this woman was the newly reborn progenitor of chakra—Kaguya Ōtsutsuki!
SWISH!
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's eyes snapped open. Her rebirth process had been disturbed, and a trace of displeasure, a hint of anger, surfaced on her cold, beautiful face.
"Moths drawn to a flame. Offering up the chakra that rightfully belongs to this one is your only fate."
With that, she elegantly flicked her sleeve, tossing out the completely drained Madara Uchiha she had consumed. He was flung out like trash, crashing heavily to the ground.
"Madara…"
The moment he saw Madara, Hashirama's face contorted with pity. He leapt forward, catching the plummeting figure.
Tobirama frowned but said nothing.
The current Madara was in a pitiful state. Not only was he missing the lower half of his body, but his chakra was nearly exhausted—a completely different person from the triumphant figure of mere minutes ago.
It's hard to imagine what that airhead just did to Madara's lower half, Qianyu thought wryly.
Tobirama and Qianyu simultaneously activated the Flying Thunder God Technique, transporting Hashirama and the others far away from Kaguya.
"Hmph. A swarm of insects."
Kaguya's beautiful eyes swept over their new location. She devoted part of her focus to regenerating the God Tree while simultaneously skimming through the last millennium of the shinobi world's history.
…
"Is that… Hashirama?"
Madara's dim, sightless eyes could no longer see. He spoke, his voice a faint thread of breath.
"My dream… is shattered. You always said… fostering people willing to follow behind us, to inherit the dream, was what mattered. Perhaps… that was right. But I… hated having anyone at my back."
"Let's not talk about that now, Madara."
Hashirama held the figure in his arms tighter and sighed. "You're exhausted. It's time to rest. Perhaps… in the Pure Lands, we can share a drink as comrades."
"Comrades… huh. Alright. In that case… we… also…"
Madara Uchiha's voice grew softer and softer. His arms went limp, falling loosely. Drained dry, his lamp extinguished, he had reached the end of his life.
"Whew. Although another inexplicable being has popped up, at least we don't have to worry about the menace of Madara Uchiha anymore."
Rasa saw this. He let out a long breath, surprised by how calm he felt.
Perhaps it was because there had been so many twists and turns in today's battle. So many that nothing could surprise him anymore. Jiraiya beside him felt the same.
"Yeah. Madara Uchiha is finally…"
"No. Madara can still be saved!"
Qianyu's firm voice cut through sharply. Everyone stared at him, completely baffled.
Tobirama even smacked Qianyu on the head, cursing. "What the hell, Qianyu? Are you insane? Why the hell would you save him?!"
Qianyu thought to himself, Of course it's for the rewards!
Even a wrecked ship is worth the iron in its nails. Never mind that Madara Uchiha was now just half a man, sucked dry into a "useless skin-bag" by Kaguya. He was still a bona fide Six Paths-level powerhouse.
According to the system's underlying logic, if he could save Madara Uchiha, he would definitely receive Six Paths-level rewards.
"Whether I pin that airhead to the ground or she sucks me dry… it all comes down to this one moment…"
Kaguya could use her space-time dōjutsu to appear at any moment. Qianyu decided to act immediately. He fixed his wide eyes on Madara Uchiha, the pitch-black patterns within spinning wildly.
"Izanami!"
"NANI?!"
In the next instant, Hashirama found that the Madara in his arms suddenly had his lower half back. Not only that, his faint, weak breathing had once again become strong and steady. Clearly, he was no longer in mortal danger.
This time, Qianyu did not reset Madara's location. Otherwise, that would just send Madara right back into Kaguya's belly. Even food delivery isn't that direct!
He reset Madara to a state of 'just barely alive.' Even so, resetting the state of a Six Paths-level powerhouse consumed nearly all of Qianyu's ocular power.
However, for the imminent system reward, it was all worth it.
[Ding! Rescue successful. Congratulations, Host, on obtaining: "Rinnegan", "Six Paths Power"!]
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