After spending a day fooling around with Chōmei, Matatabi purred. Only then did she realize how delicious human food was. Fortunately, Chōmei had ordered two portions of every dish; otherwise, there would never have been enough.
Then, watching Chōmei take out a large sum of money to pay the bill, Matatabi had an idea. She wanted to earn some cash too. If she couldn't leave this place, she could at least make her life more comfortable. Chōmei had done a splendid job of that.
When she asked Chōmei, she learned that he had earned the money by patrolling, serving as a sparring partner at the Ninja Academy, and taking the occasional sparring job from shinobi. After all, sending a tailed beast like him to earn money in a factory wasn't realistic.
Matatabi felt she could do those jobs too, so she applied to Uchiha Mu, who readily agreed. He believed that, given enough time, Matatabi would become part of the community.
Tailed beasts had almost limitless lifespans. Their lives were long, and perhaps their experiences here would be no more than a fleeting interlude. But if the impression left on them was deep enough, it would stay with them for thousands upon thousands of years.
The next day, Matatabi started working. Like Uchiha Mu and Chōmei, she created a large number of clones and sent them out on various jobs while she sat back without a care.
And so another peaceful month passed in the village. Then, one day, an unusual visitor entered the village's barrier. Matatabi and Chōmei intended to stop him, but Uchiha Mu sent them away.
Madara Uchiha looked more weathered, as though he had been through a great deal, yet his gaze had only grown more resolute. Uchiha Mu understood that the Eye of the Moon Plan could no longer be stopped. A battle between them was inevitable.
The reason was simple: Madara Uchiha would not allow anyone capable of influencing his plan to interfere, especially someone whose strength rivaled his and Hashirama's. Such a person was too great a variable.
"Long time no see, Madara."
"It certainly has been a while, Uchiha Mu. Mind if I look around your village?" Madara Uchiha asked.
"Sure. Follow me." Uchiha Mu personally led the way.
"This place is quite different from the other villages," Madara Uchiha said, looking at their surroundings.
"If I were going to build another village like theirs, I wouldn't have needed to leave Konoha. I left precisely because I realized that Konoha, and all the other villages, were nothing more than oversized shinobi clans." Uchiha Mu sighed. The wars to come would be even greater in scale, but he couldn't stop them.
"That's an unusual way of thinking. Is that also why you've been taking money from all over the shinobi world?" Madara Uchiha was rather curious. As an outsider, he knew what the other shinobi villages thought of Uchiha Mu.
"Earning money. I haven't stopped them from earning any. My products aren't even patented. If they won't copy them and sell them themselves, who can they blame?" Uchiha Mu spread his hands.
Madara didn't quite understand what Uchiha Mu meant, so he continued, "Your village is peaceful now. Children play, ordinary people live comfortably, and you brought all of that about. But Mu, do you know what the other villages have in mind for this place?"
"They're probably waiting for me to die so they can swoop in and reap the rewards, right?" Uchiha Mu laughed heartily, unconcerned about the other villages.
"If you know, what do you intend to do? Defeat them beforehand? That won't bring peace. It will only breed hatred, and eventually, that hatred will be enough to topple your village." Over the past year or so, Madara Uchiha had witnessed far too much of the shinobi world's ugliness.
That was why his resolve had hardened. He believed that only the Eye of the Moon could bring shinobi true peace. Since Uchiha Mu also knew about the Eye of the Moon, he wanted to understand one thing: what would Uchiha Mu do when faced with such a situation?
"Lord Madara, we're both Uchiha. Why do you think the Uchiha banned Izanagi, a technique that changes fate at the cost of one's sight?"
"Hmph. It merely turns unfavorable outcomes into dreams and leaves only favorable ones behind. It even sparked civil wars among the Uchiha in the past. Of course I know that," Madara Uchiha said with a quiet snort.
"Then, Lord Madara, if the Eye of the Moon pulls humanity into a dream containing nothing but peace, what will remain in reality? Could it be the reverse of Izanagi? None of that is certain." Uchiha Mu felt he had offered more than enough guidance.
Madara Uchiha fell into thought. Clearly, this had never occurred to him. Over the past year, he had traveled to so many places in the shinobi world. The farther he traveled, the more of its darkness he saw, leaving him increasingly lost and prompting him to overthink.
As everyone knew, the Uchiha Clan shouldn't overthink things, or trouble was bound to follow. Just look at what all their overthinking had led to in the original story. Nothing but disastrous consequences-it had even brought the Uchiha Clan to the brink of extinction.
"As shinobi, we know every technique carries risks. I agree with you there. Once I discover the risks behind the Eye of the Moon, I'll come find you again." Madara Uchiha was already preparing to leave. Although the Hundred-Clan Shinobi Village was peaceful, he thought it was all a bubble. Once Uchiha Mu died, that bubble would burst. There was no point looking at any of it now.
"All right. Once the risks of the technique are clear, perhaps you'll be able to persuade me, Lord Madara." Uchiha Mu left that possibility open. His aim was to keep Madara focused on talking to him; after all, a battle between them would benefit neither of them.
"I hear you've gathered two tailed beasts. What would you do if I wanted to take them when the time came?" Madara Uchiha asked.
"I would stop you. They're members of the village too, after all. Also, since gathering all nine tailed beasts is a prerequisite for the Eye of the Moon, why not get the relevant information from the tailed beasts themselves? With your genjutsu, that should be easy, shouldn't it, Madara?"
"So you already know?" Madara Uchiha looked at him.
"More or less. But you might not believe it coming from me. Why not see the truth for yourself?"
"Very well. I was planning to test the strength of the tailed beasts anyway." With that, Madara Uchiha departed using the Body Flicker Technique. He knew where the Nine-Tails was, and he was going to capture him.
After Madara left, Hyuga Lingnai, Keiko Uzumaki, and the small clones of both tailed beasts gathered around Uchiha Mu, asking what Madara Uchiha wanted.
"Ah, Lord Madara is a little stubborn. He's chosen the wrong path. Matatabi, Chōmei, do you remember anything from before you developed consciousness?" Uchiha Mu asked in return.
"We don't remember, but there was profound darkness and fear. We don't want to recall any of that."
"You know about the Ten-Tails, right?" Uchiha Mu continued.
"Yes. The combined form of us tailed beasts. But that empty shell can only be summoned with the Rinnegan," Matatabi replied. She thought that should be impossible.
Hyuga Lingnai and Keiko Uzumaki were rather stunned by these revelations. This went beyond shinobi clans and villages, reaching back to before the tailed beasts were born. Just what was Madara Uchiha's goal? That uncertainty made them afraid of him.
After leaving the Hundred-Clan Shinobi Village, Madara Uchiha kept feeling that something was off. Hadn't he come here to persuade Uchiha Mu? Why did it feel as though he had been the one getting persuaded instead?
Still, Uchiha Mu had a point. No matter how perfect a ninjutsu was, it carried some kind of risk. The Eye of the Moon Plan couldn't possibly be as flawless as the Stone Tablet claimed.
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