Behind the mask, Uchiha Obito said nothing. He kept his mouth tightly shut, wary that Uchiha Hikaru might notice something was off.
The instant Obito caught sight of Hikaru, he moved without hesitation. His hands blurred through seals, leaving only an afterimage as he slammed his palm against the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu: Impure World Reincarnation!"
A coffin burst up from the earth. With a heavy bang, the lid was kicked open from the inside, bounced twice across the ground, then split cleanly in two.
Two large hands clad in black leather gloves seized the coffin's edges and crushed the wood with a sharp creak.
"…Impure World Reincarnation again?"
"Obito, what's wrong with you?"
"Why revive me in such a manner?"
Uchiha Madara stepped out of the coffin. His voice was calm, but the displeasure and questioning beneath it were unmistakable.
Obito didn't answer. He simply raised a finger, pointing straight toward the slender back of the —the Tailed Beast transformation standing in the distance.
Following his line of sight, Madara fell silent.
For a fleeting moment, he genuinely considered picking up the coffin lid and lying back down.
Unfortunately, the lid was already in pieces, and the coffin itself had been crushed by his own hands. That option was clearly off the table.
In the previous battle, Madara had suffered a heavy loss at Hikaru's hands. Without the Rinnegan, he had no illusions about the situation.
Even as the so-called Rose of the Battlefield, the Shura of the Ninja World, he wasn't delusional enough to deny reality.
Right now… he truly could not defeat Uchiha Hikaru.
"…You—"
Madara opened his mouth to speak, but Obito's finger shifted, pointing back at Madara himself.
"Your current body," Obito said quietly, "after being modified by Black Zetsu, is far stronger than when you were alive. In theory, this is your peak state."
"Uchiha Hikaru cannot be your opponent."
The rest of the words were delivered through genjutsu.
If they could seize the Nine-Tails now, they could revive the Ten-Tails immediately. If not, then all they had to do was stall until noon—when Black Zetsu would complete his preparations and use the reincarnated Jinchūriki to revive the Ten-Tails by force.
Madara's eyes narrowed slightly as he questioned Obito through the same genjutsu.
"…Black Zetsu is capable of that?"
In Madara's mind, that creature was nothing more than a manifestation of his own will—born from Yin–Yang Release. Since when did it possess such knowledge?
The only method Madara knew of manipulating celestial phenomena was Infinite Tsukuyomi—using the moon as a mirror to cast the illusion upon the entire world.
Absorbing power from the sun?
That sounded absurd.
"Black Zetsu took over the body of a genius scientist from Konoha," Obito replied evenly. "That knowledge came from the man's brain."
"You still believe in the power of your own will, don't you?"
"If you possessed a scientist's knowledge, wouldn't you reach the same conclusions?"
Madara paused, then considered it.
With only fragments of information from the Uchiha stone tablet, he had already deciphered techniques that reshaped the shinobi world. From that perspective, this explanation… was not impossible.
As expected of my will, Madara thought smugly.
Far away, atop a distant ridge overlooking the battlefield, Black Zetsu glanced at a timing device and sneezed. He raised his head toward the full moon hanging in the sky—pure, flawless, and pale.
"…Mother must be thinking of me," he murmured.
"Don't worry, Mother. I will save you."
Completely unaware of the battle's shifting tides, Black Zetsu focused only on hastening the moment when the Ten-Tails would be reborn.
The genjutsu conversation ended.
The lingering frustration on Madara's face vanished, replaced by boundless confidence and arrogance.
Uchiha Madara stood tall once more—the Rose of the Battlefield.
"Uchiha Hikaru," he said coldly, "I admit it. At your age, you are stronger than I was back then."
"But unfortunately for you… you're about to understand the true gap between us."
"Open your eyes and witness it."
"This is the ultimate power of the Uchiha—the power of a god."
Madara clasped his hands together, thumbs and index fingers forming a seal.
A half-body Susanoo manifested around him—two-faced, four-armed, mirroring the same hand seal. Its pupils shifted to a pale violet, rippling with concentric rings.
"Tengei Shinsei"
Under the moonlight, the battlefield had been faintly illuminated.
Then, suddenly, a black speck appeared in the sky.
It expanded rapidly—swallowing the heavens.
When the shinobi in the rear sensed the light fading, they looked up instinctively.
What they saw froze their blood.
A meteorite—vast enough to annihilate everything below—was descending from the sky.
Weapons slipped from trembling hands. Swords clattered to the ground. Eyes went wide, mouths twitched, sweat poured freely.
"…This has to be a joke…"
"Th-The power of a god…"
And yet—
Others tightened their grips. Muscles tensed. Fingernails dug into flesh, drawing blood.
Their gazes never wavered from the lone figure standing ahead of them.
"I believe in Lord Hikaru."
"When no one believed the Uchiha could survive that year, Lord Hikaru led us through it."
"He made Konoha stronger—step by step."
"He founded the Ninja Association and forced the villages to abandon hatred and stand together!"
"Lord Hikaru is invincible!"
The voice belonged to Uchiha Inahiro, who had followed Hikaru from the very beginning. After the war, he and Inuzuka Hana planned to marry and hold a grand wedding.
He knew he could no longer keep up with Hikaru's pace.
But Hikaru had never forgotten him.
Every meeting, every brief exchange—Hikaru always asked how he was doing, urged him to cherish Hana, to live well.
If heroes truly existed in the shinobi world, then Inahiro knew only one man worthy of that title.
Not because heroes are remembered—
—but because Uchiha Hikaru exists.
His very presence was a miracle.
"Yes! We believe in the assistant!"
"You must not lose to the strongest man in history!"
"Lord Hikaru—we, the Uchiha, will follow you forever!"
"Lord Hikaru, you are invincible!"
The voices spread like a wave, merging into one unified roar.
"Lord Hikaru, you are invincible!"
Uchiha Hikaru looked down at the shinobi below and let out a helpless smile. (￣▽￣;)
"Really…?" he muttered. "That kind of chūnibyō cheer is actually getting me fired up."
He lifted his gaze toward the falling meteor.
"Then I'll give you a brief demonstration."
"Of what the power of the Uchiha truly is."
...