Speedrunning Naruto to the Top

"In your current condition, are you able to unleash the Infinite Tsukuyomi?"

After the initial excitement subsided, Izayoi looked at Uchiha Madara and went on:

"In the past two years I've searched through more than a hundred different pocket-dimensions and still haven't found any trace of Ōtsutsuki Isshiki. I strongly suspect that the guy never escaped into another space at all—that he's still hiding somewhere in the real world, and that, for some special reason, our normal sensory techniques simply can't pick him up. Almost as if he were… like Black Zetsu!"

At that last remark a flash of insight shot through Madara's mind, as though a layer of fog had suddenly lifted.

Casting aside any curiosity about how Izayoi could remain so calm, he threw his head back, glanced at the blood-red moon in the upper-left of the sky, and rocketed upward.

As he ascended, Madara tore off his horned forehead-protector; a deep fissure appeared on his brow. The fissure opened left and right, revealing a scarlet eye rippled with concentric black rings and ringed by nine tomoe. It was the dōjutsu attainable only after swallowing a Chakra Fruit or becoming the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki—the Kekkei Mōra Rinne-Sharingan.

He shot Izayoi—who made no move to stop him—a puzzled look. From the very start Izayoi had done little more than lob a single Truth-Seeking Ball at the Three-Tails; otherwise he had simply gone along with everything: every battlefield shift Madara suggested, he followed. Even that attack on the Three-Tails felt half-hearted.

Madara had assumed Izayoi's cooperation sprang from a desire to spare the combatants on the other front. But after witnessing the power of the Tenza-no-Ya, hearing Izayoi's odd reactions, and even being prompted to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi in hopes of flushing out Isshiki, Madara sensed something was off.

Still, one glance at Izayoi's chakra—so meager compared with his own, weaker even than Ōtsutsuki Toneri's—quelled his doubts. Before absolute power, all schemes are futile; the gulf between them was simply too vast.

Madara fixed his gaze upon the crimson full moon and poured the Rinne-Sharingan's tremendous ocular might into it. In the years since Izayoi had cleaved the moon apart, the fragments had re-formed under the Six Paths-created gravitational field that now drew solar energy.

Under Madara's projection the moon began to change. Smaller black circles traced onto its surface one after another, forming ripple patterns. Huge black tomoe dotted the ripples' perimeter, and finally a single pitch-black spot filled the moon's very center.

At once everyone who could see the sky noticed the transformation—warriors in the distant battle, people on the continent still awake and outside—or inside, moon-gazing— even those on far-off islands beyond the shinobi lands.

"What… what is that?"

"A Sharingan?"

"Everyone be careful—it could be a jutsu!"

"It's terrifying—first the world distorted, now the moon… Can shinobi really wield god-like power like this?"

"Is it Madara's eye? Or something the Hokage invented?"

"I have a very bad feeling about this…"

Tension rippled through the battlefield; every living being felt a chill. Only Black Zetsu, racing across the ground, wore an expression of glee.

He had feared that once Madara learned the truth, he would refuse to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi. He had even prepared a last-ditch plan to force him to do so. To find Madara doing it willingly was perfect: once the jutsu was active, only one step remained before Mother could be revived.

Having projected his ocular power onto the moon, Madara formed a hand-seal and murmured: "Shine upon the world… Infinite Tsukuyomi!"

A blinding white light—brighter than a Truth-Seeking Orb's detonation—erupted from the lunar surface, banishing the darkness and turning night into day. Miraculously, the light pierced every obstacle. Whether at home, hidden in an underground shelter, or sealed within a barrier, everyone was flooded with it.

In that instant, except for those whose bodies and minds were already sealed—virtually dead—every person's expression glazed over. On the battlefield, only the armies of Edo-Tensei dead and mechanical puppets remained unaffected; everyone else, from fresh genin to the Fourth Raikage at the summit of the Five Kage, even Naruto and Sasuke in Sage Mode, stared blankly at the glowing white orb in the sky. Their eyes sprouted rippling patterns and turned violet—the Rinnegan.

"God: Nativity of a World of Trees!"

With the populace subdued, Madara followed up with Wood Release elevated to Kekkei Mōra rank. The Infinite Tsukuyomi's white light was not only ocular power but chakra containing all seven elemental transformations—true bloodline of creation. Drawing on it, Madara unleashed a Mōra-level Wood Release.

The entire shinobi world trembled. Cracks opened in the earth and thick branches burst forth. In sparsely inhabited regions the growth was merely gigantic; in crowded cities of the Five Great Nations, titanic boughs rose—monstrous shapes unseen even in legend. Vines sprouted, threading through every obstacle to bind the stunned people into cocoons, suspending them beneath the branches.

In Madara's perception those cocoons twinkled with varying lights—each a person's life force, their chakra. A ninja's glow easily outshone that of a civilian. By brightness alone Madara could instantly sort every shinobi, regardless of village, status, or allegiance, and even read secrets hidden within their bodies. Naruto and Killer Bee's Yang Nine-Tails and Eight-Tails—along with the Yin Nine-Tails hidden so well even Six Paths' sensory couldn't find it—were laid bare.

But Madara's face grew grim. Looking down at Izayoi—somehow completely unaffected by the Infinite Tsukuyomi—he demanded, "Why is the other half of the Nine-Tails in your hands?"

"Already figured it out, haven't you?" Izayoi smiled.

Madara's heart sank. All the oddities in Izayoi's behavior now slotted neatly into place. Flushed with anger he barked, "So should I call you Ōtsutsuki Toneri, or… Ōtsutsuki Izayoi?"

"Toneri does exist, and he is indeed a descendant of the lunar Ōtsutsuki," Izayoi answered, floating up to Madara's height.

"Thanks to him I awakened the Tenseigan." As he spoke, his appearance changed visibly: black hair turned white; horns sprouted; blue eyes shifted to golden Tenseigan pupils. Beside him a black spatial rift opened into a dark gate, from which Toneri's body flew out and was absorbed into Izayoi. His chakra skyrocketed.

"After all these years I can finally return to my original form," he said, brushing white bangs aside. "Allow me to introduce myself: I am Ōtsutsuki Izayoi."

Madara fell silent. Far off, Black Zetsu gaped, trembling.

"How… how is this possible?! Besides Hagoromo and Hamura, how could a third pure-blood Ōtsutsuki exist? He's from the future—he shouldn't have Kaguya-sama's full genes or the God-Tree's chakra. Reversing to pure blood is beyond atavism. Who is he really? Could he be tied to Isshiki, like Madara mentioned?"

Madara's doubts mirrored Zetsu's. After a pause he narrowed his eyes. "What is your connection to Ōtsutsuki Isshiki? Or are you, in fact… Isshiki himself?"

Since becoming the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki Madara had set foot into extra dimensional realms; he understood the limits of bloodline. As a half-blood he had clawed his way here through cunning, opportunity, and luck. Yet Izayoi, so young, stood his equal. Those golden eyes were on par with the Rinne-Sharingan that required the Ten-Tails to awaken. Clearly his bloodline eclipsed even Hagoromo's. If Izayoi's earlier visions were true, Madara could only suspect a connection with Isshiki.

"Sorry to disappoint," Izayoi said lightly, "but I'm not him, and we're unrelated. I'd planned to use you—with the Sage of Six Paths' legacy—to track that man, but after two years we still came up empty. Judging by your face, the Infinite Tsukuyomi failed too. It's as though he's above even Kaguya."

"You scarcely give me any choice," Madara growled. "I've lived two lives yet never met anyone so despicable. Even Tobirama was better than you."

"Believe what you wish." Izayoi's smile didn't waver. "The moment you became the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki, my objective was achieved."

A chill ran through Madara. "What are you implying?"

"You'll know soon." Izayoi's grin turned playful. "But first, reclaim the Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails—you'll need your true, complete form for our fight."

Madara stared hard at him, then without warning swung the Staff again, releasing a blinding arc of white. It streaked like a meteor, furious and all-consuming, faster and broader than before—chakra of seven elements and Yin–Yang Release, the very force that obliterates all forms.

Earlier even Izayoi in Six Paths Sage Mode had needed nine Truth-Seeking Balls as a black shield to block such a strike.

This time Izayoi merely raised a hand—

The colossal slash froze in front of his palm.

Then, as though magnetized, the energy drew inward, flowing through his hand and into his body—exactly like the Rinnegan's Preta Path absorption. Madara's eyes went wide. "Impossible!"

Black Zetsu was equally stunned. Truth-Seeking Orbs and Six Paths chakra are said to be beyond absorption even for Rinnegan or Tenseigan, much less Kekkei Mōra. Madara's strike, embodying all chakra natures plus Yin–Yang, should be unabsorbable even by Hagoromo, Hamura, or Kaguya—yet Izayoi had done it effortlessly. If even a Truth-Seeking Ball explosion or Six Paths Sage Arts couldn't harm him, what could?

No time to gape—Madara wheeled and shot toward Killer Bee and Naruto. Izayoi's unknown powers pressed him hard; his former arrogance vanished. He needed the Ten-Tails' complete form before facing this treacherous, vile youth. In his urgency he forgot Izayoi's earlier comment: if Izayoi wanted him at full power, it could not be for any good reason.

~~~

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