Shin arrived at the passageway he had used before and found the entrance completely sealed.
"Has Madara really decided to hole himself up forever?" he muttered softly as his figure gradually vanished.
The cave buried deep underground remained dark and unfathomable.
As faint ripples spread through space, Shin appeared without a sound. The cave was bright and dry, far more livable than it had been several years ago.
Uchiha Madara sat quietly in his stone chair. He looked up, but before he could speak, other voices rang out beside him.
"Huh? A strange guy showed up."
"Who is it? Who would come here?"
"I can't sense his presence. So strange."
"Excuse me, do you know what the urge to poop feels like?"
Uh, something strange had gotten mixed in.
With a casual sweep of his gaze, Shin saw more than a dozen entirely white figures around him. They looked like some kind of solid white glue, yet were distinctly different.
White Zetsu? They weren't here the last time I came. Shin ignored the curious White Zetsu and asked Madara, "What are these?"
Uchiha Madara lightly waved his hand, and the White Zetsu around them receded like a tide, naturally merging into the rocks and ground. "I cultivated them last year using Hashirama Cells inside the Ten-Tails' husk. They possess great vitality and other uses. I think they're quite good." Uchiha Madara rose to his feet. The tubes of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path behind him did not retract as they had before, remaining connected to his body and constantly transmitting
life force.
Years of living underground had isolated Madara from the world. Since sealing the entrance, he had lost all sources of food and thus needed the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path's endless supply of life force