The Truth Revealed!

Seeing that Black Zetsu dared to interrupt his earlier remarks, Madara frowned in displeasure.

"I never gave you the right to speak."

Madara stared intently at Black Zetsu with his left Rinnegan, and said in a cold, unquestionable voice:

"All you need to do is listen."

Having said that, he ignored Black Zetsu's venomous gaze and continued speaking to himself.

"Although the changes that occurred between the Uchiha and Konoha, triggered by Uchiha Kuro, did indeed surprise me greatly."

But at that time, I was not swayed in the slightest by the path of Infinite Tsukuyomi.

After all, the Ninja World itself is still that world that is rotten to the core and beyond redemption.

At this point, Ban paused, and the light in his eyes flickered almost imperceptibly.

"Only--"

He spoke again, his voice lower and deeper than before:

"Perhaps it's out of a competitive spirit."

"But when I witnessed firsthand how the Uchiha and Konoha, whom I had deemed 'beyond saving,' were actually changing little by little under that brat's influence, I couldn't help but have this thought:"

What exactly made me inferior to that kid back then?

With this question in mind, I began to recall those old events from back then.

As Madara explained where he fell short compared to Kō, Obito couldn't help but scoff.

The hissing sound wasn't loud, but it sounded particularly jarring in the quiet cave.

Madara gave him a cold glare, but ultimately said nothing more. He simply turned his gaze back to Black Zetsu and continued:

"And it was from that time on, whether influenced by Uchiha Kuro's words and actions along the way, that I began to re-examine those old events that I didn't want to recall, and I suddenly realized a question that I had never seriously considered before."

Madara looked at Black Zetsu and said in a deep voice:

"My entire understanding of Eye of the Moon Plan comes from that one stone tablet from beginning to end."

Aside from that stone tablet, I had almost no other samples to verify its authenticity.

He turned to look at Obito, who was turning his face away, and said seriously:

"Just like that brat once said to Obito."

"Before embarking on an unfamiliar path, you must first have a complete understanding of it."

"So I made a decision: while carrying out the Eye of the Moon Plan, I would secretly search for two things."

Firstly, is there anyone else in the Uchiha Clan besides myself who has seen that stone tablet and even touched upon its true secrets?

Secondly, it is to search for the remaining traces left by the Sage of Six Paths on this land.

To confirm whether he truly believed the Eye of the Moon Plan was the only way to save the world back then.

And, what exactly caused this "savior" plan he was so determined to undertake to ultimately fail?

"Shadow Clone..."

Black Zetsu struggled to lift his head, staring intently at Madara with his single, almost cracked, eerie yellow eye, and spoke with hatred:

"You used that Shadow Clone that was keeping an eye on Uchiha Kuro and Uchiha Obito... to launch this operation?"

"Heh, your reaction time isn't slow either."

Madara raised an eyebrow in surprise, then nodded calmly:

"That's right, although I didn't know you existed back then."

The decision to allow the Shadow Clone to move outside was a reluctant one, made only because the original body lacked the means to move freely in the outside world.

Looking back now, it was quite a close call that I managed to avoid your surveillance by sheer luck.

Madara subtly curled the corner of his mouth, then ignored Black Zetsu's utterly ashen face and calmly continued speaking:

"In my spare time while monitoring Uchiha Kuro and Obito, I went to almost every place in the Ninja World where the Sage of Six Paths had left his mark, according to legend."

Although most of them are fake, after years of searching, I have found some truly useful items.

For example... the true philosophy of the Sage of Six Paths.

Madara looked down at Black Zetsu and said in a deep voice:

"That being called ' Ninja Sect '."

Black Zetsu froze completely. It stopped roaring and struggling, and simply stared silently at Madara's deep Rinnegan with its single, already beginning to lose focus.

The moment Madara uttered the words "Ninja Sect," he had already pieced together all the causes and consequences.

Without a doubt, the Ninja Sect's ideology and the Eye of the Moon Plan are completely unrelated.

From the moment Uchiha Madara learned of the Ninja Sect ideology, it was impossible for him not to have doubts about the Eye of the Moon Plan.

Once he begins to have doubts, given this man's inherent obsession and cunning, he will definitely keep pursuing the matter until he uncovers the truth.

For an ordinary person, trying to trace back the history that has been deliberately erased over thousands of years is naturally as difficult as ascending to heaven.

But he is Uchiha Madara.

Even though he was just a dying man, even though he could only borrow a Shadow Clone was detached from the outside world, he was still the Uchiha Madara with a firm will!

He never stops doing what he wants to do.

The "history that should have been forgotten" that Obito earlier was probably the "results" that Madara secretly collected over those years.

Based on this, and having accumulated enough information, Uchiha Madara had the "foundation" to touch the truth!

"Based on my research over the years, this is the true concept behind the Sage of Six Paths and Hagoromo Otsutsuki."

And what I recovered—those seemingly scattered and lost parts of the Ninja World's past history, which were actually deliberately covered up and erased by someone..."

Madara coldly fixed his gaze on Black Zetsu's ashes-like face and said in a deep voice:

I've come to this conclusion.

"In the darkest corner of this Ninja World, there exists an ancient and hidden entity."

It instigated the millennia-long conflict between the Uchiha and Senju Clan, and secretly propelled the entire Ninja World to its current state.

Its purpose, from beginning to end, has always been singular.

As Madara spoke, he walked towards Black Zetsu.

He leaned down, looking into Black Zetsu's trembling yellow pupils, and whispered:

"Through the endless battles between the Senju Clan and Uchiha Clan over a thousand years, a being emerged who possessed the ability to see through the contents of the stone tablets..."

Evolving the Sharingan to the Eternal Realm qualifies one to approach the realm of the "Rinnegan," thus becoming a pawn in the Eye of the Moon Plan.

"And that monster, hiding in the deepest recesses of it all, manipulating everyone like pawns..."

Madara looked down at Black Zetsu and said in a cold voice:

"It's you— Black Zetsu."