Inside the barrier, in a pool of blood.
Madara Uchiha's body lay there silently.
No.
That was not a "body."
Deep within the gray-white pupil of that blind left eye, something was awakening.
Izanagi.
The ultimate genjutsu that rewrote the boundary between life and death.
At the cost of permanently blinding one Sharingan, it turned "death" into a "dream."
And Madara Uchiha still had that trump card.
"Ugh... ah..."
A low groan, as though coming from the depths of hell, escaped Madara's mouth.
His body began to tremble slightly.
Those fatal wounds-the hole through his chest pierced by a ninja blade, the tear where his back had been stabbed through-slowly healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Blood flowed backward.
Torn muscles rejoined.
Shattered bones returned to their original state.
It was as though time were flowing backward over him.
As though death had never come.
"Minato Namikaze..."
Madara Uchiha slowly opened his eyes.
His left eye was gray-white.
In his right, three scarlet tomoe slowly rotated.
He sat up, looked down at his healed chest, then raised a hand and touched his blind left eye.
"What a... Fifth Hokage."
His voice was low, carrying an anger he could not suppress.
"What a... Minato Namikaze."
He abruptly stood, facing the direction in which the Konoha ninja had withdrawn.
His blind left eye stared emptily into space.
But his scarlet right eye burned with killing intent like the fires of hell.
"Minato Namikaze... drop dead!"
His voice exploded inside the barrier like thunder.
Then he reached toward his blind left eye.
His fingers dug into the socket.
"Ugh...!"
A muffled grunt.
Blood poured from his eye socket, running down his cheek.
He forcibly gouged the blind Mangekyō Sharingan out of its socket.
He clenched it tightly in his hand.