Inside the coffin Chen had opened, dark, murky fluid rippled!
Madara stepped closer, took one look, and frowned. "What the hell is this? Where did you get so much asphalt? And you put it in a coffin? Isn't that bad luck?"
Hearing that, Obito walked over with a curious look. After examining it for a while, he grabbed the edge of the coffin and gave it several shakes.
"Glug, glug, glug." The "asphalt" inside the coffin made a thick, churning sound as it sloshed around.
Obito shook his head, unable to make sense of it.
Madara crossed his arms and looked at Chen. "The secret of the Rinnegan is really hidden in this asphalt?"
"Of course." Chen smiled harmlessly. "Because this isn't asphalt. It's your corpse, Uncle Madara."
"Oh, I see... Wait, what did you say?" Chen's tone had been so natural that Madara nearly failed to react.
Madara pointed at the asphalt that had just been mixed evenly in the coffin. "You're saying this is my corpse?"
"Mm." Chen nodded honestly. "That's right. Your corpse."
"..." Beside the coffin, Obito lowered his head, and his shoulders began to tremble wildly.
Professionally trained as he was, he did not let it show on his face right away.
But deep inside, bronze-like laughter had already erupted: I-I thought being blown into a pile of scraps was miserable enough. Madara, you turned into a puddle of asphalt! Hahahahahahahaha!
Madara scratched his wild long hair, his expression turning strange as he found himself unsure how to react.
Lowering his hand, Madara gestured toward the "asphalt" in the coffin with his chin. "Well, even if it doesn't matter anymore, shouldn't you give me an explanation?"
"Of course." Chen straightened his clothes and adopted a solemn expression. "After the Ninja World War, the corpse you left behind on the battlefield was recovered by Konoha."
"Afterward, two opinions emerged within Konoha regarding how to handle your remains. Konoha's veteran advisers, Koharu Utatane and Mitokado Homura, both disciples of the Second Hokage Tobirama, strongly advocated destroying your corpse to prevent people like Orochimaru and Kabuto from appearing in the ninja world again and playing with life and death."
"The other opinion came from the Ninja Ban established after Kakashi Hatake became Hokage. The predecessor of the Ninja Ban was the Hashirama Cell Laboratory."
"They argued that your corpse should be preserved. A ninja's body was a treasure trove of intelligence, containing information on bloodlines and jutsu. Not to mention that you, Uchiha Madara, were the only one capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with the First Hokage, and had even awakened the Rinnegan once. Destroying your corpse would be equivalent to destroying the ninja world's greatest treasure."
"With neither side willing to yield, your corpse was temporarily preserved and frozen."
"Until Naruto became the Seventh Hokage, when Sasuke, the Shadow who supported him, formally proposed that Naruto preserve your corpse, establish the Forbidden Ground beneath Konoha, and have specialized Anbu guard the coffin containing your remains."
Madara was deeply surprised. "Sasuke proposed it?"
"That's right. Sasuke had considered using Impure World Reincarnation on you if necessary in the future."
"Sasuke had actually been quite farsighted back then. Not only did he propose preserving your corpse, he even suggested that Naruto seal all the Tailed Beasts' Chakra inside himself."
"That would both protect the Tailed Beasts and allow Naruto to gain power close to that of a Ten-Tails Jinchuriki."
"Naruto refused. He did not want to restrict the Tailed Beasts' freedom. He only chose to combine Yin-Yang Kurama into one, while returning the other Tailed Beasts to their respective territories."
"I won't judge his decision back then. At the time, the ninja world truly was flourishing."
"Later, through an informant within Konoha's Anbu, I learned of the Forbidden Ground."
"At the time, I had not yet resolved to take the path I am taking now. But after one disappointment after another in my dealings with Konoha, I finally made up my mind to break into the Forbidden Ground and take this coffin away."
"And if you hadn't obtained my corpse?"
"Then I naturally had other ways to use Impure World Reincarnation on you."
Seeing the smile curl at Chen's lips, Madara thought, I almost let this brat lead me around in circles!
"Chen, you slippery bastard! I don't just want to know where the corpse came from! I want to know where the 'asphalt' came from!"
Oh dear, had he seen through it?
Fine...
"I used Yin-Yang Release to purify your corpse, creating something similar to Black Zetsu!"
"You said Yin-Yang Release?" Madara narrowed his eyes.
Speaking of Yin-Yang Release, there was a common misconception that needed to be addressed.
Most people assumed that Yin-Yang Release was exclusive to Ten-Tails Jinchuriki.
That was not the case. That was merely high-level Yin-Yang Release.
Madara had mastered the basic form of Yin-Yang Release long ago. Before his death, he had passed it on to Obito through genjutsu, together with the Uchiha Forbidden Jutsu and the Six Paths techniques.
"Yin-Yang Release, the Uchiha Forbidden Jutsu, and the Six Paths techniques—I taught all of them to Obito back then. You couldn't possibly have been there, could you?"
"That's right, I wasn't there. I hadn't even been born yet. I was born in the same year Obito unleashed the Nine-Tails' attack."
Madara turned to Obito, who was still struggling to suppress his laughter. "Did you teach him?"
"When I was alive, I never even met this pile of Chen... Pfft!"
Madara could not be bothered to wonder what Obito had failed to hold back his laughter over.
"Then that's strange... How did you learn Yin-Yang Release, Chen?"
Obito was also extremely curious about that.
Then Chen said, "You taught me, Uncle Madara..."
"???" Was this another bad joke?
This time, Chen did not beat around the bush.
"In Samadhi during Zen Meditation, the version of you I imagined taught me Yin-Yang Release, along with the Six Paths techniques and the Uchiha Forbidden Jutsu!"
"The imagined... me? Taught... you?"
Madara nearly suspected he had misheard again.
"That's right."
Chen spoke with absolute certainty, while waves surged within Madara's heart. "Was the Samadhi that Zen Master taught you really such an absurd thing?"
Chen had said that the Sage of Six Paths' Ninja Creed truly had its own system. Madara had never expected it to be system upon system, layered two deep.
"Of course, such imagination must meet certain conditions. It cannot be created entirely from nothing."
"All right." If there were restrictions, Madara found it slightly more acceptable.
Madara lowered his head and stared at the "asphalt" in the coffin, offering a kind reminder. "But be careful, Chen. Don't let anything strange get mixed into me!"
That was called—
Once burned by Zetsu, ten years afraid of asphalt!
"Don't worry, Uncle Madara. To be safe, I have already thoroughly tested it with Amaterasu-no-Mikoto. First, I pulverized it with Amaterasu-no-Mikoto, then restored it with Utsuro-ryu. If there had been even the slightest suspicious component, it could never have passed."
"That's good." Madara thought, If this useless body of mine can fulfill Chen's future, then perhaps it would count as the 'inheritance' Hashirama spoke of!
"Do what you want, Chen!"
"All right. I'm deeply grateful!" Chen nodded solemnly and formed a hand seal with two fingers!
Sizzle! From the chest of the Hashirama Clone above them, Black Rods from the Six Paths techniques extended downward and branched like tree limbs, their tips plunging into the "asphalt" inside the coffin!
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle! Using the Black Rods as a medium, the "asphalt" flowed upward in reverse, gradually covering the Hashirama Clone's skin until... the asphalt in the coffin ran dry and vanished completely.
Madara's lips curled upward. So Hashirama and I have truly become one now.
A perfect Hashirama Clone, and my complete corpse purified through Yin-Yang Release... The power of Ashura and the power of Indra. The conditions for awakening the Rinnegan are indeed complete.
Through Chen, Madara had already confirmed that Hashirama and he had been the previous generation's reincarnations of Indra.
Then another question arose.
Chen, how would he integrate this external power that did not belong to him into his own body and use it to awaken the Rinnegan?
Madara did not ask. He would quietly watch Chen show him!
Crack! Chen snapped off a section of the Black Rod that had been inserted into the coffin, raised it, and stabbed it into his own shoulder.
Connected by the Black Rod, he could replace the "touch" of his palm.
The pattern in Chen's left eye trembled with an intensity of light it had never displayed before!
Madara's gaze shook. "This feeling of Dojutsu Power... It isn't Haniyasu or Mizuha. Could it be the dojutsu he has never used until now...?"
"This is the dojutsu my younger brother awakened for me with his death..."
—Twin Bloom!
Before you continue