Impossible! Absolutely Impossible!

Even though Shusen possessed Uzumaki Clan blood and had abundant chakra, that barrage of attacks had still drained him greatly.

After all, he was not Naruto. He did not have the Nine-Tails supplying him with an unlimited amount of chakra.

The longer this drags on, the more trouble there will be. I have to kill him as soon as possible!

Shusen made up his mind and once again had the hundreds of Shadow Clones around him form Rasengans. Centered on Kaguya Wuzhan, they charged from every direction, leaving no blind spots.

"Come on! You think I'm afraid of you?!"

Kaguya Wuzhan roared. His once handsome face twisted into a savage, grotesque mask, his eyes filled with madness.

"Dead Bone Pulse, Dance of the Seedling Fern!"

He unleashed the Kaguya Clan's ultimate forbidden technique, erupting with every last bit of chakra as he truly began fighting for his life.

Boom!!

The already devastated ground was ripped apart in an instant. Countless bone spikes tore through the earth, growing wildly in dense clusters as though they sought to pierce the dark night sky.

"Pop, pop, pop..."

Hundreds of Shadow Clones were impaled and burst apart in an instant, all dispersing into white mist.

Even Shusen's real body could not withstand so many bone spikes. One pierced through his chest and abdomen, leaving him hanging high in the air as blood sprayed out.

From a distant third-person perspective, it looked as if a forest of white bones had erupted from the ground in an instant, as though hell itself had been brought into the mortal world.

"Hahahaha!"

Kaguya Wuzhan laughed wildly. Seeing Shusen hanging from a bone spike in the air, blood flowing endlessly from his body, filled him with indescribable delight.

"Didn't expect this, did you, Black Zetsu? In the end, I won! Once the Dance of the Seedling Fern is unleashed, what can you use to fight me? Hahaha!"

As he laughed, the bones throughout his body cracked and fell away.

The Dance of the Seedling Fern had drained him dry. He was already at death's door, with the life force in his body rapidly fading away.

Yet he still could not suppress his excitement. As long as he could kill his opponent, even dying together would be worth it.

At the very least, Kaguya Wuzhan had not lost!

"Hahahaha..."

Kaguya Wuzhan's ecstatic laughter abruptly stopped without warning.

The "Black Zetsu" corpse hanging from the bone spike suddenly turned incorporeal and vanished.

Yes, vanished!

It had not burst apart like a Shadow Clone. It had simply disappeared into thin air.

"Th-this..."

Kaguya Wuzhan was dumbfounded, staring wide-eyed without the slightest idea of what had happened.

"What are you so happy about?"

A voice sounded from behind him.

Kaguya Wuzhan immediately turned his head. The impostor Madara was slowly walking toward him, one step at a time.

He was already drained dry and on the verge of death, so he no longer feared being caught in a genjutsu. Gathering his courage, he looked up.

The impostor Madara was completely unscathed, his face calm and composed. Only his eyes had changed: the three-tomoe Sharingan in his left eye had turned orange-yellow, while the strange pupil in his right eye remained unchanged.

"I-Izanagi..."

The name of an unbelievable jutsu surfaced in his mind, and Kaguya Wuzhan blurted it out.

The Kaguya Clan and the Uchiha Clan were so closely connected that he naturally knew of the Uchiha Clan's forbidden techniques.

"Correct. Looks like you're not completely stupid after all," Shusen said flatly, making no attempt to hide it.

A few days ago, Shusen had personally witnessed the Kaguya Clan's Second Elder use the Dance of the Seedling Fern. He had been deeply wary of that forbidden technique ever since, so he had long prepared a safeguard in case Kaguya Wuzhan decided to trade his life for Shusen's.

In truth, Shusen also knew a life-for-life jutsu. The Uzumaki Clan's forbidden Reaper Death Seal could likewise achieve an absolute one-for-one exchange. But Shusen treasured his life immensely. If he ever encountered an enemy he could not defeat, he could simply flee with the Five-Elements Cowardly Escape. He would probably never have a chance to use that forbidden technique in his lifetime.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

Kaguya Wuzhan adamantly denied it. He simply could not accept it.

"You're only Black Zetsu, not a real member of the Uchiha Clan. How could you possibly know the Uchiha Clan's forbidden techniques?!"

"When did I ever say I was Black Zetsu?" Shusen raised an eyebrow. "You were the one who assumed that. I've always told you that I am Uchiha Madara. You simply refused to believe me."

Shusen did not tell him that, during his most frenzied period of digging out Sharingan, he had even excavated the Uchiha Clan's ancestral graves.

He had also infiltrated the Uchiha Clan's ancestral grounds and stolen the forbidden technique scrolls that recorded Izanagi and Izanami.

In the Warring States era, there was no distinction between right and wrong, good and evil—only positions. Shusen had done those things merely to survive. If he could have lived a peaceful, stable life, why would he have needed to use a false identity to do such shady things?

Kaguya Wuzhan was dumbfounded again.

For a moment, he could not help but doubt himself.

Had he judged wrongly? Was the other party not Black Zetsu, but truly Madara?

Otherwise, there was simply no explanation for why he could use Izanagi.

Whoosh.

Just as Kaguya Wuzhan began questioning his entire life, Shusen flicked his hand and sent out a wind blade, cleanly severing his neck and bringing his life to an end.

Poor Kaguya Wuzhan never learned who his enemy truly was before he died. In that respect, he was much like his sister, Kaguya Qin—both had always believed they were killed by Shadow Clones.

In short, the siblings had both died in utter confusion.

"That battle was truly difficult."

Shusen sighed. The taut string in his heart, wound tight all night, finally relaxed at this moment.

He was still far too weak. If Izanagi had not been able to rewrite reality and render him invincible, he would have had no way to withstand the Dance of the Seedling Fern.

This made him realize the importance of eyes more than ever.

Shusen took out a scroll, dug out his ruined left eye, then removed a three-tomoe Sharingan that had been sealed in advance from the scroll. He installed it into his left eye socket and reconnected the optic nerve.

He blinked and looked around. This newly installed three-tomoe Sharingan seemed to be a little nearsighted, but the prescription was not severe, and he could still see quite clearly. Compared to the cost of going blind, it was incomparably better.

"I need to use them sparingly. Three-tomoe Sharingan are scarce to begin with, and I only have three left now. Every one I use means one less."

If the Uchiha Clan ever learned that their clan's Sharingan were being treated as disposable consumables by someone else, they would surely be driven mad with rage.

After dealing with his eye, Shusen walked forward and sealed Kaguya Wuzhan's corpse into a scroll before taking it away.

Of course, Shusen could not leave him to rot in the wilderness. Tomorrow, the main forces of the Kaguya Clan and the Uchiha Clan might converge at the Ninjasteel Mine, and the corpse could perhaps come in handy then.

At worst, he could bring it back to the laboratory and study the Dead Bone Pulse.

"My foolish little brother, your second brother has eliminated a major threat for you, yet you still know nothing about it."

Shusen shook his head with a smile, deciding that if his foolish little brother ever objected to taking the blame again, he would give him a beating.

His second brother was not doing things for him for free. All of this had to be repaid, even if he did not know about it.

Shusen then cleaned up the battlefield. After confirming that he had not left behind anything that could expose his identity, he plunged headfirst into the ground and used the Five-Elements Cowardly Escape to return to the Ninjasteel Mine.

A great deal had happened that night. The pale light of dawn emerged at the horizon, and morning gradually brightened.