Speedrunning Naruto to the Top

Almost no one noticed Uchiha Madara's transformation.

At the distant battlefront people merely saw the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path appear and then vanish again.

The sole exception was—Black Zetsu.

Somewhere in the ninja world, Black Zetsu was being watched by one of Madara's wood-clones.

His outward expression did not change, yet inside he was trembling with excitement:

At last … after a thousand years, a Jinchūriki of the Ten-Tails has appeared again!

Only two steps remained: once Madara cast Infinite Tsukuyomi and Black Zetsu poured Mother's will into him, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki could revive through Madara's body.

…

"Such chakra… looks like the original has succeeded," the wood-clone muttered, glancing toward Madara's location and curling his lips into a smile.

Then he turned to Black Zetsu and, in a half-mocking tone, asked:

"Happy, Zetsu?"

"Very happy," Black Zetsu rasped back, dropping the formal honorific and asking, "Madara, you learned my identity from the Sage of Six Paths, didn't you? In other words, you think I'm Kaguya's third son?"

Madara narrowed his eyes.

"You're still not certain? Didn't the Sage of Six Paths tell you? Otherwise, how could you have copied his Six-Paths Sage Mode?"

"I never met the Sage," Madara said honestly.

"I merely inherited his power."

Black Zetsu fell silent, a chill running through him.

He had not expected that his identity was exposed not by secret lore nor by Hagoromo, but by the dōjutsu of Hagoromo's descendants.

An eye that can see the past? Black Zetsu thought.

So even the events a thousand years ago—Kaguya secretly creating him, the civil war in the original shinobi sect, his altering of the stone tablet, the subtle suggestions placed in Madara's mind—all had been witnessed.

Black Zetsu suddenly realized another, more alarming point:

If that eye could view the past, surely it had also observed Madara's own resurrection safeguards.

Why, then, had Ōtsutsuki Izayoi allowed Madara to be reborn and to gather the Tailed Beasts?

Why had he not simply killed a Jinchūriki to keep the Ten-Tails incomplete?

While Zetsu brooded, Madara asked again:

"Do you know of Ōtsutsuki Isshiki?"

Zetsu searched his memory.

"Is he an ancestor of Ōtsutsuki Toneri? Or an earlier clan elder?"

Madara's expression darkened.

"Even Kaguya's will doesn't know Isshiki?"

Black Zetsu felt a jolt of foreboding.

"Why do you think I should know him?"

Madara didn't explain at once.

After pondering a few seconds he asked,

"As a creation of Yin–Yang Release, do you carry all of Kaguya's memories?"

"I'm Mother's third son—how could I possibly hold all her memories?" Zetsu answered, affronted.

Madara relaxed inwardly.

It seemed true: Zetsu knew nothing of Isshiki.

Likely even Hagoromo and Hamura were ignorant; Kaguya would never have told her sons about a subordinate who once outranked her and then betrayed her.

Izayoi's eye alone had revealed that secret, Madara reasoned—but he still could not gauge how much was true.

No matter. He had already become the Ten-Tails' host; his chakra now dwarfed that of Izayoi and Toneri.

Capturing Izayoi—or ripping out his soul—would reveal the truth.

Madara gave a thin smile.

"Sit tight and wait, Zetsu. So long as my true body has a way to keep you in check, I promise you'll meet a delightful ending."

Black Zetsu chuckled hoarsely.

"Madara, you underestimate me—no, you underestimate Our Lady Kaguya.

Your Sage Mode can't even sense my presence, can it? The Ten-Tails is only the God-Tree's husk; its true essence is the Chakra Fruit!

You monkeys simply cannot fathom Mother's might!"

Madara's heart dropped.

He tried to relay their entire conversation to his original body—only to find his own wood-clone suddenly paralyzed.

"Zetsu—you—!" Madara stared, incredulous.

Attached to him, Black Zetsu gave a sinister laugh.

"Just a wood-clone… did you think you could truly restrain me? I could have escaped at any time; I merely waited so the plan wouldn't be disturbed.

Now that you're the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki, destiny is set.

Madara, you were only my pawn. Even with the Sage's bequest you cannot escape a pawn's fate!"

Black masses spread over the clone, swallowing it whole.

Being a product of Yin–Yang Release itself, Zetsu could overrun a body—even that of a Ten-Tails host—were it not the real body.

With the clone gone, Zetsu used Mayfly to sink into the earth, racing toward Madara and Izayoi's battlefield.

…

At that very moment

Izayoi was intently reading Madara's new "status."

Colored "bubbles" floated around Madara—two‐ digits in count.

Ignoring anything below red grade, he focused only on the crimson and Multi-Color bubbles.

Originally Madara had only one Multi-Color tag—Kekkei Genkai : Rinnegan (Multi-Color).

His Sage Mode, dependent on Hagoromo's solar seal and incapable of self-generation, was merely red.

But now six new Multi-Color tags glittered:

Kekkei Genkai: Rinne-Sharingan (Multi-Color)

Sage Body (Multi-Color)

Kekkei Genkai: Wood Release (Multi-Color)

Regeneration (Multi-Color)

Flight (Multi-Color)

All-Attribute Constitution (Multi-Color)

Counting his original Rinnegan tag, Madara now bore seven Multi-Color traits.

Among them, Wood Release and All-Attribute Constitution drew Izayoi's keenest interest.

Had Wood Release advanced to Multi-Color tier, it was no longer a mere Kekkei-Genkai but a true Kekkei Genkai, akin to the God-Tree's source.

Likewise, the "All-Attribute" tag implied Madara's elements had reached a new extreme—perhaps, Izayoi mused, an attached hidden trait he himself lacked.

Izayoi squinted—pondering whether he, too, could raise his own constitution to Multi-Color and thereby ease the fusion of elements into Web-class powers.

Madara, ignorant of Izayoi's thoughts, was relishing his transformation:

"So this is the Sage of Six Paths' power… utterly different from before."

He glanced at Izayoi and suddenly felt the other's chakra pitifully small beside his own.

Absorbing the statue imbued him with more than the combined Tailed-Beast chakra—it had elevated his life level.

Moreover…

Madara gazed at the solar seal in his palm, stunned by new knowledge pouring into his mind.

So this is the real inheritance of the Sage…

Smiling, he told Izayoi,

"Victory is mine!"

With that, Madara's Sage's staff morphed into that oddly-shaped black blade—Sword of Nunoboko, the "Sword of the Heart."

A sweep of the blade unleashed blinding white light. Izayoi's nine Truth-Seeking Balls merged into a black shield to block it, yet what spilled past sliced entire mountain ridges to nothing—erasing them as though with the Ball's own power.

Even Izayoi felt his heartbeat quicken, excitement in his eyes.

"So this is a Ten-Tails Jinchūriki… no, the Sage's own power!

Yin–Yang Release used like this rivals even space-time itself. Truly splendid!"

Madara froze, seeing the man neither afraid nor angry but exhilarated.

"What's with that look… wasn't I the one with the upper hand?"

~~~

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