MTLNOVEL Chapter 166: Chapter 176
Black Zetsu didn't believe Kitahara Kaede's power was limited to just this.
It was probably out of consideration for not damaging the surface too much, so he used fewer earth fragments on Toneri's body—resulting in the Chibaku Tensei sphere sealing Toneri to appear relatively small.
But…
No matter what you said, no matter who Toneri was, no matter who Kitahara Kaede was—
Now…
Now.
Now!
NOW!
"Haa—!!"
Uchiha Madara, piloting his massive Susanoo, slashed his blade straight down upon the moon's surface.
No—
This wasn't just slicing the surface.
The blade continued deeper.
"There's something there…" Madara sensed resistance.
"Cut it open! That must be the seal left by the Sage of Six Paths' younger brother!" Black Zetsu exclaimed.
—That, of course, was a lie.
It was clearly the combined seal of the two brothers—used to imprison Kaguya-sama.
But… who cares now?
"Haaah!"
Under the massive blade of Madara's gigantic Susanoo, the seal was immediately severed—
BOOM!
The moon's surface cracked open with a thunderous roar.
At that moment, Black Zetsu's body leapt off of Madara.
A White Zetsu body landed on the moon's surface—Black Zetsu latched onto it.
And then…
It dove into the split moon.
Kaguya-sama…
It had finally come!
After a thousand years—it had finally broken the seal.
It had never expected that a physical breach was also a viable method.
It had waited far, far too long!
But now… it didn't matter how it happened. The seal was broken!
Kaguya-sama, please don't abandon me!
Black Zetsu, piloting the White Zetsu body, plunged deep into the moon's interior.
The two brothers' old seal was now completely gone.
And then…
Black Zetsu discovered—the inside of the moon… was empty.
Empty?!
Impossible!
Even under the slash of Uchiha Madara's 250-meter Ultimate Susanoo, the seal laid by the Sage of Six Paths and his brother was cleanly destroyed.
But…
Now…
Black Zetsu, possessing a new White Zetsu body, took advantage of its species' adaptability—through soil, sea, water, it could travel—so it dug directly into the moon's interior.
And what it saw was…
A completely hollow, clean-cut inner surface.
Smooth. Empty.
"This can't be—!"
Black Zetsu was stunned.
"..." Uchiha Madara.
Madara, floating above with his towering Susanoo, looked down at Black Zetsu.
"There's nothing inside?"
"..." Black Zetsu.
Madara had been deceived into cutting open the moon, thinking it held the power of Hamura Ōtsutsuki sealed within.
And now, it turned out to be empty?
"Then that means… Toneri was lying…"
"…Or maybe not. After all, no one has ever actually cut open the moon before, so perhaps Toneri himself was misled."
"But when I made the first slash… I definitely felt resistance."
"So I used my full power, and that resistance finally disappeared."
Madara considered this carefully.
"Which means—something was inside."
But now…
He recalled his Susanoo blade, and at that moment realized—
His peak state was showing signs of collapse.
Because the essence of Susanoo came from the Mangekyō Sharingan, it forcibly drew out chakra from within his body to form the armored warrior.
Activating Susanoo—especially in its ultimate form—meant draining his own chakra.
Even though his body had returned to youth, and even had the Rinnegan—
—his chakra was being rapidly consumed, and it wasn't recovering fast enough.
In fact, it felt slower than even his Edo Tensei state.
"…Which means the Edo Tensei technique wasn't without its merits," Uchiha Madara reflected.
He wouldn't complain—this was what a real ninja should experience: true chakra depletion.
With Edo Tensei, chakra was constantly being replenished, refilled unnaturally fast. Lose a bit? It'd fill right back up.
So—with a soft snap—Madara deactivated his 250-meter Ultimate Susanoo.
He landed on the moon's surface.
"..." Black Zetsu.
"..." Black Zetsu again.
Its body had already tunneled into the cracked-open moon.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
There was no trace of Kaguya-sama's original body.
It reluctantly re-emerged—White Zetsu surfacing from the moon like a mole, revealing only its head.
"Well?"
Uchiha Madara asked, "Did you find the Sage's younger brother's power?"
Madara was so bold.
He'd just done the heavy lifting of slicing open the moon—and yet still left the actual power search to Black Zetsu.
This proved how deeply he believed that Black Zetsu was a product of his own will.
To him, Black Zetsu = himself.
"No sign of it yet."
"But I suggest we cut the moon into more pieces and check again," Black Zetsu said.
Currently, the moon had been sliced in half—its two parts now drifting slightly apart under external forces.
Madara and Black Zetsu stood only on the left side.
And Black Zetsu had only explored the left half.
"..." Uchiha Madara.
"..." Uchiha Madara again. "Let me rest a bit."
He grumbled.
Though he called himself a god, the truth was—if Black Zetsu had just suggested "cut more pieces" before—he wouldn't have wasted so much chakra just to cancel his Susanoo.
"And how long will you need to rest?" Black Zetsu asked.
"..." Uchiha Madara.
"A day," Madara muttered. "Based on the moon's hardness, normal Susanoo won't work—we'll need complete form again to slice it."
"..." Black Zetsu.
Is Uchiha Madara really this fragile?
No—because he was now back in a human body, chakra could only recover naturally.
"Well then, get to work," Black Zetsu said. "Go back to the ninja world and fetch a few sealing scrolls."
"Let's seal up Toneri's treasures here on the moon first—before we do more cutting."
"That way, we won't accidentally destroy anything important."
"And since I have no power right now, it'll be your job to run errands," Black Zetsu concluded.
"..." Uchiha Madara.
"…Tch. I have to go?"
"Fine."
Madara grumbled, then nodded.
Even though he felt like a delivery boy, Black Zetsu was his own will, after all. Running errands for himself wasn't that strange.
Besides, Black Zetsu was right.
It was only a will, not a real being. It had no strength.
So it was only natural for him to do the legwork.
And also…
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