Black Zetsu had planned to use Madara to break free of the seal, throw the Uchiha District into chaos, and coordinate with Obito to disrupt all of Ren's plans.
But Ren's sudden return had turned the entire situation around.
Worse, Madara had only just broken free of the seal. His power had not yet returned to its peak.
Against Ren, who possessed the Rinnegan, he could not seize the initiative.
Madara knew it too.
He drew the Complete Body Susanoo back, putting distance between himself and Ren again.
Ren looked up at Madara inside the Susanoo.
Madara was still staring at those purple eyes.
"Ten days ago, you didn't have the Rinnegan."
He spoke in a low voice.
"I saw your eyes myself. Back then, you only had the Mangekyō Sharingan."
"If you'd already awakened the Rinnegan, you wouldn't have needed to use a secret technique that damaged your own body."
"So you underwent this transformation in the past ten days."
Madara was full of questions.
"But how did you do it?"
"Hashirama Cells are extraordinarily hard to obtain. It took me decades to bring my Rinnegan to fruition."
"You're still young. How could you have completed that evolution in so little time?"
Black Zetsu could not understand it either.
He had witnessed countless years in the Shinobi World and knew how exacting the conditions for developing the Rinnegan were.
Madara Uchiha had possessed the Eternal Mangekyō and obtained Hashirama Cells, yet it had still taken him decades to succeed.
Nagato had the Uzumaki clan's powerful vitality, but even after receiving Madara Uchiha's Rinnegan, he had only become a vessel for those eyes.
Ren had never received Hashirama's Cells, nor had he previously displayed the visual power of an Eternal Mangekyō.
How had he achieved such an inconceivable transformation?
"Madara."