"Burp."
As night deepened, accompanied by the crackling of the flames, Madara raised a bowl full of broth to his lips and drained it in one gulp, letting out a pleased sound from his throat.
He wiped the broth from the corner of his mouth, set down his wooden chopsticks, and asked with a trace of hesitation, "Could a Ten-Tails formed from one-tenth of the Tailed Beasts' chakra completely defeat Hashirama's Sage Jutsu Great Buddha?"
"Probably?" Rikusei replied suspiciously through a mouthful of food.
"What do you mean, probably? It definitely can."
Faced with his Teacher's suddenly sharper tone, Rikusei set his bowl and chopsticks aside and seriously assessed their respective strengths.
"The Hokage once used the Wood Golem to defeat Teacher's Complete Body Susanoo." Seeing Madara nod somewhat unwillingly, he continued, "So, against the Great Buddha formed from Sage Jutsu, what does Teacher think could defeat it?"
Madara stared at the dancing flames beneath the bright-red hot pot broth. After narrowing his eyes and thinking for a while, he said, "With the complete Nine-Tails added in, it should be possible to contend with Hashirama's Great Buddha. But now that he has Wood Release formed from the God Tree, he should be even stronger."
"Then don't rely on the Ten-Tails." Seeing that no one was competing with him, Rikusei lowered his head and rapidly picked up slices of meat from the rolling pot. "I suggest directly using the power of the Rinnegan."
Madara looked at him in confusion. "Wouldn't that be too unfair?"
Rikusei, eating alone, gestured through the air with his chopsticks at his conflicted Teacher. "There is no fairness in the ninja world."
"True."
His face illuminated red by the firelight, Madara hesitantly agreed. Fairness could be set aside for now; the most important thing was beating Hashirama