You Got Fooled by a Lump of Coal! Madara, Aren't You Furious?

"Tampered-with... toilet paper?"

Madara Uchiha's expression froze completely.

For the first time, an emotion he had not even noticed himself—panic—surfaced in that purple Rinnegan.

"What did you say?!"

He stared fixedly at Uchiha Xuan, his voice hoarse, as though every word had been forcibly squeezed from the depths of his throat.

"What the hell... are you talking about?!"

The Uchiha Stone Tablet!

That was a sacred relic personally left behind by the Sage of Six Paths! It was the only guidepost leading the Uchiha clan toward their ultimate destiny!

Madara Uchiha had spent his entire life deciphering its ultimate secrets, only barely managing it after awakening the Rinnegan.

And now, this brat who had appeared out of nowhere was saying... it had been tampered with?

And that it was... toilet paper?!

This was no mere insult. This was practically digging up the ancestral graves of the Uchiha clan!

"Nonsense?"

Uchiha Xuan looked at Madara's outwardly fierce but inwardly fearful expression, and the smile on his face grew colder.

He slowly put away his frivolous demeanor, his gaze sharpening like a blade.

He knew it was time to give this slumbering old man the harshest medicine possible.

"I'm saying that broken stone tablet you were so proud of, the one you interpreted like it was scripture, was tampered with long ago by something called Black Zetsu."

"Black Zetsu?"

Madara's brows knitted tightly. He had never heard that name before.

Yet for some reason, the moment Xuan uttered that name, his heart skipped a beat for no apparent reason.

"That's right, Black Zetsu."

Xuan's voice was like a devil's whisper, brimming with fatal temptation.

"It claims to be a product of your 'will.' A pitch-black, disgusting thing that looks like a lump of sentient oil."

As Xuan spoke, he looked at Madara with eyes full of pity and mockery.

"You don't honestly think you awakened these Rinnegan solely through Hashirama's cells, do you?"

"Don't be naive, Lord Madara. Without that little black coal ball secretly using Yin–Yang Release to stimulate your body, you probably wouldn't have even touched the threshold of the Rinnegan before you died."

"And its purpose in doing all that was never to help you achieve any damn peace!"

Xuan's voice was like a heavy hammer, each word ruthlessly striking Madara Uchiha's heart!

"From beginning to end, it had only one purpose!"

"That was to resurrect its mother—a monster from beyond this world named Kaguya Otsutsuki!"

"And you, Madara Uchiha—the legendary Asura of the Ninja World—were nothing but the most useful pawn it carefully selected to resurrect its mother!"

"As for your so-called 'Infinite Tsukuyomi'..."

As Xuan said this, the curve of his lips turned incomparably cruel.

"Its true effect was not to let everyone in the world enjoy happiness in their dreams."

"It was to turn everyone caught in the genjutsu into living weapons without thoughts or souls—White Zetsu!"

"And then use those White Zetsu as the... nourishment required for its mother's resurrection!"

After that speech, the entire cavern sank into deathly silence.

Madara Uchiha sat motionlessly upon his stone throne, as though he had become a statue.

Yet monstrous waves churned within his Rinnegan!

Black Zetsu?

A product of his will?

A tampered stone tablet?

Resurrecting its mother?

Kaguya Otsutsuki?

The truth behind Infinite Tsukuyomi?

A pawn?

Nourishment?

These terms, each one overturning everything he had believed in his entire life, were like countless poison-coated blades wildly twisting through his mind, shredding his unshakable faith and pride to pieces!

No...

Impossible...

This was absolutely impossible!

This had to be a lie that brat fabricated to shake me!

It had to be!

"Evidence..."

Madara's lips trembled as he struggled to force out two words.

"What evidence... do you have for all this?!"

"Evidence?"

Xuan smiled.

That was exactly what he wanted to hear!

"Lord Madara, haven't you ever wondered?"

"Why, whenever you thought about the Eye of the Moon Plan, there was always a voice that sounded in your mind at just the right moment, 'guiding' you in the right direction?"

"Did you really think that was your own will?"

Madara's pupils suddenly contracted!

Because Xuan was absolutely right!

Indeed, throughout his long slumber, something that called itself the "embodiment of his will" had always communicated with him, reinforcing his determination to carry out the Eye of the Moon Plan.

Could it be...

"It seems you won't believe me if I merely tell you."

Seeing Madara's shifting expression, Xuan knew it was time to present the final irrefutable proof.

He slowly raised a hand and pointed toward the bottomless shadow behind Madara Uchiha's massive stone throne.

At that moment, his [Golden Flame Divine Eyes] erupted with an unprecedented, dazzling radiance!

A mental shockwave fused from Sage Jutsu chakra and extreme ocular power shot like an invisible sword into that shadow!

"You little black coal ball hiding in the shadows!"

Xuan's voice exploded through the entire cavern like thunder!

"You've watched the show long enough. Isn't it time you got out here and met your old master?"

"Bzzzz—!"

Following Xuan's roar, the shadow beneath Madara's throne suddenly twisted violently like boiling water!

Then—

A strange, pitch-black mass resembling flowing oil let out a shriek filled with terror and disbelief as it was forcibly driven out of the shadows!

The mass rolled twice across the ground before finally condensing into a half-human-height black figure without a fixed shape.

It looked at Uchiha Xuan and let out a shrill, piercing voice filled with fear.

"Y-you... who exactly are you?!"

"Why... do you know that I exist?!"

Watching this dramatic scene, Madara Uchiha was completely stunned.

Stiffly and slowly, he turned his head.

He looked at that pitch-black "embodiment of will" that had crawled out of his own shadow—something so familiar to him, yet so utterly unfamiliar at this moment.

His mind went completely blank.

"L-Lord Madara... don't listen to his nonsense! I... I am your will!"

Seeing Madara's gaze, Black Zetsu was scared out of his wits and hurriedly tried to defend itself.

"Is that so?"

Xuan sneered and looked at Madara.

"Lord Madara, do you still think I'm spouting nonsense now?"