"Tobirama, I think your Impure World Reincarnation failed."
After a brief silence, Senju Hashirama pointed at the completely motionless coffin and said this to his younger brother.
'Failed?'
The other onlookers exchanged glances.
From the looks in each other's eyes, it was clear everyone with eyes could tell what was going on.
This is not a failure.
The Second Hokage simply went too far!
"Uchiha Madara tried to kick the coffin lid open with one kick, but the moment he did, his leg snapped. It's regenerating right now." Hanabi, using her Byakugan to see through the coffin, quietly explained the situation to Makoto and the girls around her.
And that was indeed the case.
If you listened carefully, it wasn't that there was no movement at all inside the coffin.
You could hear the faint rustling of paper-like fragments drifting about. That was the sound of an Edo Tensei body regenerating.
This coffin wasn't some defensive Wood Release creation from the First Hokage.
It was just an ordinary wooden coffin.
If one kick broke his leg, then just how fragile was that body?
...
When Uchiha Madara first awakened inside the coffin, his movement was instinctive.
Because an Edo Tensei body had no normal sensation, when he kicked hard enough to break his own leg, he didn't even react to what happened at first.
Only once his consciousness went from hazy to clear did Madara realize something was wrong.
And when he realized it, he was shocked and couldn't accept it!
Madara lay in the coffin with his eyes closed, his mind racing as he tried to figure out exactly what happened.
The first thing he could confirm was that he was brought back by Impure World Reincarnation.
Not the Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique—Impure World Reincarnation!
Whoever revived him this way presumably heard of his fearsome reputation and wanted to borrow his power.
But a shinobi brought back through Impure World Reincarnation would be much weaker than in life, and for someone as powerful as him, that weakening would be even more severe.
So from Madara's point of view, the current situation ought to be normal.
—In Madara's understanding, this forbidden technique was still just what the Second Hokage invented: something for gathering intelligence, mutual destruction, and disgusting enemy shinobi.
But...
Was this really normal?
Because his strength was reduced so drastically, Uchiha Madara couldn't even sense what was happening outside the coffin, so he had no idea how many people were out there or who exactly reanimated him.
He couldn't even sense the chakra of the person he was most familiar with—"Hashirama."
Even if an Edo Tensei body was supposed to be a little weaker, this was far too weak, wasn't it?!
Madara felt like even in his final years—frail, ancient, and surviving only by relying on the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path—he was still healthier than this!
His sensory ability was so poor he couldn't even tell what state his body was in, let alone whether anything had been stuffed into it.
In the end, Madara could only conclude that the shinobi who reanimated him must have been too incompetent, and did too poor a job with the preparation, resulting in the current state of affairs.
If Madara hadn't been absolutely certain that Tobirama already died before Madara himself pulled the plug and departed this world, he would have suspected Tobirama of pulling this stunt!
As for now...
Uchiha Madara decided to imitate the clever feigned death he once performed at the Valley of the End—He would play dead by not moving!
Granted, since he was already dead by definition, playing dead was especially easy in this case.
As long as he didn't move and didn't circulate chakra, then to anyone looking, he would be indistinguishable from an actual corpse—or from a failed reanimation.
So Madara decided he needed to keep pretending for now. He first had to confirm exactly who reanimated him.
If it was some weak and inexperienced ninja, then he could guide them a little, contact Black Zetsu and White Zetsu, and have them deliver a suitable body so he could be reanimated properly a second time.
...
Creeeak—
Seeing that there was still no movement from inside the coffin for a long while, Senju Tobirama also began to suspect that maybe he overdone it and made Madara into something as brittle as a corn chip, so fragile that he couldn't even push open the lid.
So Tobirama simply stepped forward and opened the coffin for him.
At last—
The legendary shinobi Uchiha Madara, clad in Warring States armor and looking imposing and majestic as ever, appeared before everyone.
That's right.
Tobirama was considerate enough to restore Madara's appearance to the young image he was most familiar with, rather than his elderly form.
Only...
Imposing though the appearance was, the chakra and presence simply didn't match it!
Looking at Madara now felt a bit like looking at King from One Punch Man.
Your memories and your common sense told you he was terrifyingly powerful. But reality and the feeling coming off his body told you he was a complete weakling!
With his eyes closed, Madara cracked one eye open the instant the coffin lid was removed.
The moment he saw Tobirama, half his heart went cold.
'CRAP!'
But when he noticed that Tobirama's eyes were also those of an Edo Tensei, he relaxed again.
'So it wasn't Tobirama who reanimated me—Tobirama himself was also reanimated.'
Madara immediately settled down and felt a weight lift from his chest.
Because the instant he saw Tobirama, his first thought was to break free of the Impure World Reincarnation's control, let his soul ascend, and return to the Pure Land rather than suffer Tobirama's humiliation!
But it failed.
Because this body was so weak, Madara couldn't even tell why it failed.
'Was it simply because this body was too weak to break free? Or had the caster deliberately implanted something to me to prevent my escape?'
As someone who once was a pure stat monster, now that his stats were cut to nothing and he had no special mechanics to rely on, Uchiha Madara was in agony.
Watching Madara play dead, Makoto couldn't help but feel a little emotional.
Madara's current behavior was no less of a blow to his pride than when he once faked his death at the Valley of the End.
This was already the greatest humiliation his self-respect could have suffered.
If Obito died and then got reanimated, even with his strength reduced, he still would remain useful.
So it was no wonder Obito could keep fighting until he was reduced to ashes. Even if Kamui's stats were weakened, offensive Kamui was still true damage, and defensive Kamui was still absolute defense.
Just like how the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki could be immune to all ninjutsu damage, yet still couldn't nullify Kamui.
Because Kamui wasn't ninjutsu damage. It was space damage. If you wanted immunity to Kamui, you'd need immunity to spatial damage.
"Brother, I'm leaving Madara to you. This is a key to one of the residences I got from Orochimaru. Here."
After opening the coffin, Tobirama didn't do anything strange.
He gave Madara one look, then turned around and tossed a ring of keys to his older brother, Hashirama, before stepping aside.
That made Madara relax even more!
'It seems the mastermind behind all this hasn't just reanimated me—they reanimated Hashirama before me too.'
Tobirama was nothing more than some underling brought in to do the dirty work.
After lifting the coffin lid, he didn't dare do anything and simply left.
Entirely normal. Entirely reasonable.
"Leaving him to me? So it wasn't a failure? Then what's going on with Madara right now?" Hashirama caught the key and looked confused.
"...Not sure." Tobirama shook his head.
From Tobirama's angle, Madara was simply pretending to be dead and acting dumb.
But there was no need for him to expose that.
—After all, he kept his promise.
Once Madara was reanimated, he handed him over to his big brother and didn't toy with him.
If Madara himself chose to play dead and let everyone toy with him, that was Madara's own business.
Tobirama had not, from beginning to end, even used the caster's authority over Impure World Reincarnation to control Madara's behavior.
As for whether Madara might know the hand seals for Impure World Reincarnation and use them to break the contract—
There was no need to worry about that.
If the Madara who was reanimated was the one at his full prime, then after breaking the contract he would gain an immortal body with infinite chakra, one capable of steamrolling the entire shinobi world.
But now?
If Madara broke the contract, then he would be stuck forever in this frail body, unable even to return to the Pure Land.
Wouldn't that just be making himself suffer for no reason?