Facing the suddenly swapped-in Sasuke, Madara was utterly shocked.
The first thing that entered Madara's sight was, naturally, the exact spot he had been staring at all along.
Back then, Madara once clad the Nine-Tails in Susanoo, creating the insanely strong Majestic Attire Susanoo, which Hashirama praised by saying, "Madara really does have some ideas!"
But now, Madara felt completely ashamed.
He finally understood what it meant for the new generation to replace the old, and what it meant for the later wave to violently push aside the former one!
Even if he shoved his head into a damn latrine, he still would never have imagined Susanoo being used like THIS.
After being startled by the sheer style of this "Majestic Attire Susanoo," Madara's gaze moved upward and met Sasuke's eyes.
'The Rinnegan!'
This.... descendant of the Uchiha clan, this kid who, like him, was also the reincarnation of Indra's chakra, actually awakened the Rinnegan at such a young age!
Envy, jealousy, greed, admiration… Countless emotions surged through Madara's dead heart one after another, leaving him totally overwhelmed.
'Young people these days really have it too damn easy!'
Back then, if he had been able to drink a daily cup of Hashirama cells too, why the hell would he have waited until he was nearly old and dying to awaken his eyes?
And if he wasn't mistaken, Sasuke's method of awakening them was totally different from his as well.
Madara lived out his life calmly and only awakened the Rinnegan on the verge of death.
But Sasuke's Rinnegan clearly awakened the same way the Sharingan evolved: through intense stimulation, because he had absolutely no choice but to awaken it for Naruto's sake!
At the same time, Madara keenly noticed that Sasuke's Rinnegan was not the same as his own.
'Sasuke's Rinnegan had tomoe in it?!'
'Does this tomoe Rinnegan possess even stronger ocular powers, or does it retain the abilities of the Sharingan?'
Because Madara hadn't yet managed to pry out from Hashirama what Sasuke's Mangekyō abilities were, he had no idea whether Sasuke's earlier swap with Naruto used the Rinnegan's power or the Mangekyō's.
In the end, Madara completely gave up trying to think it through.
If his Edo Tensei body retained even a tiny fraction of the strength he had in life, he might still entertain the idea of stealing Sasuke's Rinnegan.
But now? He needed a makeshift slingshot, a pulley system, and a lever just to break a single piece of glass!
He was even weaker than he had been at death's door!
At his current pathetic level, unless Sasuke simply stood there and let him gouge out his eyes, Sasuke could probably ruin his plans with a casual shove, even without using a drop of chakra.
'Hm?'
Just as Madara was about to close his eyes and accept punishment, he suddenly noticed something.
He opened them again and studied Sasuke more carefully.
"Could you be Izuna's descendant?"
'Izuna?'
Sasuke froze for a moment.
'That name sounded strangely familiar… Wait. No!'
"Don't say that name!" Sasuke's expression instantly turned terrible.
He remembered now.
Izuna was the name from that cursed doujin Sai drew before—the one where Izuna somehow became tied to those awful, traumatic memories involving his mother, Mikoto!
The moment he remembered it, bad memories came flooding back.
And on top of that, Madara just tried to go after Naruto!
Sasuke's eyes turned icy cold.
"I am an ancestor of the Uchiha clan. Since you too have awakened the Rinnegan, then you should fulfill your responsibility and bring peace to this world. Help me. Help me cast off this frail body, and join me in creating a new ninja world!" Uchiha Madara made one last desperate attempt to recruit Sasuke and struggle for survival.
Unfortunately, Hashirama didn't understand how to win over an Uchiha.
And Uchiha Madara himself clearly didn't understand how to win over an Uchiha either!
"Ancestor of the Uchiha clan? In the end, you're nothing more than a stray dog abandoned by everyone."
Sasuke, after a long absence, once again activated his signature cool-guy mode and rejected Madara's invitation without a second of hesitation.
Knowing how Edo Tensei worked, Sasuke didn't launch a direct attack.
Instead, he simply brought his hands together with a loud clap.
Madara's frail body suddenly began to float upward.
"Th-this is?"
Watching the entire thing unfold, Tobirama was stunned at first, then quickly understood.
'Wasn't this one of the Rinnegan's legendary abilities—the sealing technique Chibaku Tensei?'
"Wait, Sasuke!" Tobirama hurriedly called out for him to stop.
"Second Hokage, are you trying to plead for him? He almost ruined Naruto just now." Sasuke frowned as he glared over at Tobirama on the floor.
He found it strange.
Based on the stories he heard, as well as what he just saw through Tenko (Heavenly fox kinda mouthful so i use a japanese name now), the Second Hokage and Uchiha Madara clearly had an extremely serious, blood-feud-level conflict.
So why the hell was Tobirama stepping in to stop him now?
"I'm not trying to stop you. I just want you to be careful. You only just awakened your eyes, and you're not proficient with them yet. Don't waste your ocular power carelessly! Right now, Madara is complete and utter trash. There's no need for you to waste the Rinnegan's power on someone like him. If all you want is to trap his ass, an ordinary iron cage would be enough. There's no need for Chibaku Tensei at all."
Lying flat on the ground, Tobirama met Sasuke's eyes and gave his opinion with complete seriousness.
As someone who had been staring fixedly at Sasuke ever since he appeared, Tobirama noticed that when Sasuke clasped his hands together and used Chibaku Tensei, several tomoe in his Rinnegan straight-up vanished.
If he hadn't been watching the whole time, he might have thought he remembered wrongly, or simply saw it incorrectly.
But the truth was exactly that.
This meant Sasuke's Rinnegan might not only retain Mangekyō abilities, but might also visibly regress when too much ocular power was consumed!
Yes—just like that future adult Sasuke, who had only one Rinnegan and whose tomoe completely disappeared.
However, based on the stories Makoto told, Tobirama originally concluded that adult Sasuke's tomoe Rinnegan formed from the Rinnegan forcibly granted by the Sage of Six Paths together with Yin power.
But now Sasuke also had a tomoe Rinnegan.
Though it was no longer just one eye, but a full pair, there were still many things that couldn't be explained.
'Could it be that the wandering spirit of the Sage of Six Paths secretly gave Sasuke a push?'
He didn't know.
But in Tobirama's eyes, a Rinnegan awakened through forced stimulation might have the fragility of a premature infant, so Sasuke absolutely had to be cautious.
"Understood. Thank you!" After hearing the Second Hokage's warning, Sasuke nodded in acknowledgment and finally calmed down.
He really had been blinded just now by Madara's legendary name and by his intense anger over Naruto.
Still, now that he already used Chibaku Tensei, even if it hadn't consumed much ocular power, it would be a total waste not to finish it, right?
The surrounding houses began to violently crack apart and collapse, gathering toward Uchiha Madara.
Sasuke's Chibaku Tensei didn't form a black sphere.
Instead, exactly like Six Paths: Chibaku Tensei, it directly treated the target itself as the core of the gravitational pull.
"Can you control it so Madara's ass sticks out?" Tobirama suddenly added another brilliant comment.
"Tobirama, you fucking bastard, I—!" Madara, who already prepared himself to be sealed away, instantly flew into a massive rage when he heard that and began cursing.
But before he could get out more than a sentence or two, a pile of stones buried his head, and no more sound came out!
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