"Everyone is within the God Tree now, each experiencing their own blissful dream." Madara looked down at the remaining shinobi. "They are within their own ideal worlds."
Sasuke stared back at him, his voice biting and cold. "Is this your ideal world? You've done nothing but trap everyone in a fabricated illusion!"
Madara merely sneered. "From the endless, bloody history of shinobi warfare, I have acted as the savior and eradicated all conflict. Accept reality. It is finally over."
Suddenly, Naruto and Sasuke stiffened. Even Kakashi and Sakura's pupils shrunk in sheer horror.
A pitch-black hand had thrust directly through Madara's chest from behind, the dark substance staining his front.
"You are mistaken, Madara..." Black Zetsu's voice rasped in his ear. "You are no savior. And this is far from over!"
Madara's eyes trembled with shock as he strained to look at Black Zetsu behind him. To his horror, he found himself utterly paralyzed. This was a betrayal he had never anticipated. Black Zetsu, his own creation, had turned on him?! How could this happen? Especially now, with Kanon asleep and his ultimate dream finally within his grasp.
"What made you think you were any different from Obito?" Black Zetsu mocked coldly.
With Kanon securely trapped within the Infinite Tsukuyomi, Black Zetsu knew this was his golden opportunity. He had struck without a moment's hesitation.
"Did you honestly believe you were the one pulling all the strings, Madara? Did you think you alone were special? Don't you see how pathetic you look?" Black Zetsu jeered. "Madara! You, too, are trapped in a grand illusion, one that I meticulously tailored just for you."
"Black Zetsu... what are you talking about..." Madara growled, his voice laced with confusion and rage. "I created you. You are the manifestation of my will."
"Wrong again. My will belongs to Kaguya!" Black Zetsu cackled.
"What the hell is going on?" Naruto demanded, completely bewildered.
"Infighting at a time like this?" Kakashi frowned, his mind racing.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed to sharp points. "No, that's not it! He just mentioned Kaguya."
"Kaguya?" Naruto echoed, stunned. "Who is that?!" Sakura added in confusion.
"The Sage of Six Paths mentioned that name to us." Naruto connected the dots instantly, turning a shocked gaze back toward Madara and Black Zetsu. "Could it be..."
Right on cue, the surrounding God Tree began to violently surge. Deeper into the battlefield, Minato watched with a heavy frown as the cocoons of the bound shinobi began to rapidly drain their chakra, funneling the massive energy back into the tree.
"The tree... it's absorbing their chakra?"
In the distance, Madara let out a harrowing scream. At this very moment, his heart shattered. Everything had been utterly obliterated. His dream, his pride, his ultimate ambition, everything he had spent three lifetimes pursuing, crumbled into nothingness. Madara had failed.
Now, he looked like nothing more than a helpless, grief-stricken man completely swallowed by the very power he sought to control. He continued to scream as the black fluid bled deeper into his chest.
In his mind's eye, a torrent of memories flashed before him: Izuna in their youth, Hashirama chasing dreams by his side as they grew, Obito whom he had salvaged in his twilight years, and Kanon… the most exceptional successor he had taken pride in since his resurrection.
His Limbo: Border Jail clones were dissolving one by one, signaling the rapid fading of Madara's life force.
"What is happening?!" Naruto yelled. "This chakra is insane!"
"Madara's shadows have all vanished! Something's gone completely wrong!" Sasuke shouted, bracing himself.
It was at this exact moment that a single tear silently traced down the cheek of the sleeping Kanon in the distance.
The next instant, a vortex of swirling rose petals materialized. With a sudden pulling force, it tore Madara completely away from the epicenter of the cataclysm.
Stripped of his Six Paths Mode, Madara tumbled onto the earth. All his fighting spirit had evaporated; he lay there on his knees, gasping for breath on the brink of death. Meanwhile, across the battlefield, the catastrophic mass of chakra continued to condense.
The entity known as Kaguya Otsutsuki was about to be reborn into the world.
This was the contingency plan Kanon had entrusted to Konin. Having already known the true nature of the Infinite Tsukuyomi, Kanon had strictly instructed Konin to save Madara's life at all costs.
Thus, Madara drew breath, but he could no longer see a path forward. His inner world was completely crushed.
The once fiercely proud and unyielding man knelt in the dirt, his spirit broken and his head bowed low. Yet, he knew that in the final fraction of a second before his demise, Kanon had saved him.
He lifted his eyes to look at Kanon's unconscious form, her features locked in the illusion of the Infinite Tsukuyomi. The sight pierced his heart like a dagger. At his absolute nadir, when all his cards were spent and his path had hit a dead end, it was this very junior, the one he cherished most, who had saved him and granted him a chance to live out his days in safety.
He couldn't bear to face her, nor could he bear to face himself. Curling into a tight ball on the ground, Madara let out a series of broken, distorted cries of agonizing torment.
Madara Uchiha, a man who had spent his entire existence pursuing strength and global peace, found his internal reality violently torn to shreds the moment the truth was unveiled. He realized that the grand purpose of his life was nothing but a fiction woven by another, a masterfully orchestrated deception.
The sheer weight of that betrayal felt like a freezing blade driven straight into his heart, suffocating him. Madara remained curled tightly beside Kanon as a dead silence settled over the immediate clearing, so oppressive that even the wind seemed to steer clear.
Watching the Ten-Tails distort and collapse into a massive sphere before finally giving rise to a woman, Madara felt his soul fracturing completely.
It had all been Black Zetsu. The Uchiha Stone Tablet had been tampered with. The Infinite Tsukuyomi was never the sublime salvation he had envisioned. It was merely a trap laid out by Black Zetsu to resurrect Kaguya Otsutsuki by harvesting the chakra of every living shinobi.
Lying beside Kanon, Madara's frame shook violently. He was just as powerless and stranded as Kanon had been when she lay amidst the ruins of Otogakure.
His path had been fundamentally wrong. Just when he believed himself to be the savior who had finally brought order to the chaos, the universe had dealt him a despairing, heartbreaking twist.
While Madara drowned in the turbulent waves of his own mind, Black Zetsu's raucous laughter echoed from Kaguya's side.
"Ha ha ha ha ha! What made you think you were anything more than a pawn?!" Black Zetsu mocked. "Both you and Kanon, blindly believing in the Infinite Tsukuyomi, were nothing but pieces on my board! Let Kanon rot in her eternal slumber."
"She will make excellent nourishment for Mother's chakra! Ha ha ha ha!" Black Zetsu laughed maniacally, his dark mass anchoring itself onto Obito's body, his grin stretching maliciously from ear to ear. The sound of Madara's despairing cries only sweetened his triumph.
A man who had exhausted his entire life, and even plotted beyond the grave, to realize his ultimate ambition, only to discover at the final hour that his cherished dream was a total fabrication. To Black Zetsu, such despair was the ultimate comedy.
There was no turning back now. Beside him, the form of Kaguya Otsutsuki gradually solidified. Just as she had appeared a thousand years ago, she stood elegant, ethereal, and majestic, her long white hair flowing smoothly against her pale skin.
Meanwhile, within the isolated expanse of the Flower Realm, cherry blossom petals drifted lazily across the sky. In the middle of a vast field blanketed by countless blooming flowers, Konin sat quietly on the ground, gazing out at the scenery.
Behind her, an immense cherry blossom tree shed a continuous cascade of soft pink petals.
Konin looked down at Kanon, who was fast asleep across her lap. Her expression softened with deep affection as she gently stroked Kanon's cheek, whispering softly, "Kanon-chan, you must be incredibly happy in your dream right now."
Gently brushing a stray tear from the corner of Kanon's eye, Konin felt a surge of emotion. She had been looking after Kanon throughout this ordeal, watching her cry and laugh, then laugh and cry all over again in her sleep.
"If you want to cry, just cry. Don't hold it in." Those were the exact words Kanon had once told her right here in the Flower Realm when Konin was transplanting the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
"I can't cry..." Konin had merely shaken her head back then. Her heart carried too many regrets; she had lost far too much.
To become the absolute strongest in the world, yet lose the ability to shed tears, Konin had witnessed the golden age and subsequent collapse of an entire era. She had stood by through countless farewells and deaths. In the end, the world fell silent, the heavens grew dim, and she alone ascended to the absolute peak. Though she was peerless under heaven, her heart was weighed down by a profound, unyielding sorrow.
Yet, she had ultimately fallen short. What was the use of being the strongest if the people who had passed away and the times that had gone by could never truly be restored?
Staring at Kanon's current state, Konin was reminded of her own past self. She had been exactly like Kanon, save for one crucial difference: she never had an alternate version of "herself" to lean on.
She had walked the fine line between life and death completely alone, surviving time and again purely on sheer willpower until she finally stood unrivaled at the true shore of ultimate power. In that unforgiving shinobi world, she was her own sole salvation.
"Kanon-chan... it's time to wake up. Our target has finally shown herself."
Konin's eyes grew sharp as she looked toward the edge of the realm.
"Once we bring her down, the ultimate, supreme invincible law will finally be complete. The absolute strongest jutsu..."
"Infinite... Flower Realm!"
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NOTE: This fic has been completely translated. If you want to read the whole story head over to my p-atre-on: p-atre-on.c-om/Overgod [Just remove the hyphen to access normally]