That immense life force and Yang Nature chakra, driven by Obito's soul-burning obsession...
…not only neutralized the fatal wound from the curse seal explosion that shattered his heart, but even forcibly knit together his severed limbs, supporting him to complete the final jutsu at the very last moment.
In the end, it was he, Madara himself, who personally paved the way for the other party to reach the Six Paths Power, effectively serving as a stepping stone for another's gain!
An unprecedented sense of frustration and cold killing intent swept through Madara's entire body.
He had schemed his entire life, calculated every possibility, and just as the Rinnegan was within his grasp again, he was bitten back by a pawn at the final moment, losing the Ten-Tails and Six Paths Power he had considered his own!
That giant cocoon standing silently there was, in his eyes, the greatest mockery of his ambition.
Meanwhile, Black Zetsu was also truly filled with vexation.
It had infiltrated the Shinobi World for a millennium, meticulously planning the Eye of the Moon Plan, and was on the verge of resurrecting Madara through Nagato and sacrificing the Ten-Tails Jinchuriki to achieve its ultimate goal: the resurrection of Kaguya.
Nagato using Rinne Rebirth to resurrect Madara was supposed to be a foolproof, critical step.
However, a sudden change occurred!
Of the two crucial Rinnegan, one was forcibly fused into the giant egg by the traitorous Obito, and the other was actually snatched away by Minato using the Flying Thunder God Technique!
Lord Madara had just been resurrected, only to become a man without eyes!
This not only greatly diminished Madara's power but also completely disrupted Black Zetsu's plans.
Without the Rinnegan, Madara could not control the Ten-Tails at all, let alone become the perfect vessel for resurrecting Kaguya.
Watching Madara hovering in mid-air, radiating a terrifying pressure due to his thwarted plans, Black Zetsu cursed Obito and Minato in its heart for ruining everything, yet it was helpless.
It had no choice but to suppress its inner anxiety and unease, quickly flying to Madara's side.
"Lord Madara..." Black Zetsu's voice carried a hint of imperceptible frustration.
"The plan has suffered some unexpected setbacks. However, your subordinate has the Sharingan that Obito previously prepared to use for Izanagi."
It carefully held out two eyeballs emitting a dim red light; they were the eyes Obito had prepared, a pair of two-tomoe Sharingan.
"These are the spare Sharingan left behind by Obito. Although they are far from being as powerful as your Rinnegan, they can at least restore basic vision and some ocular abilities."
Black Zetsu respectfully held the eyeballs forward.
Madara frowned deeply, unreservedly revealing extreme contempt and disgust.
As one of the supreme powerhouses of the Uchiha Clan and a wielder of the Rinnegan.
To have him use such a state, merely the most basic two-tomoe Sharingan, was simply an insult to his power and status.
"Hmph..." Madara let out a cold sneer, the powerful pressure causing the surrounding air to freeze for a moment.
"Inferior substitutes." He couldn't even be bothered to hide his disdain.
However, the reality before him was cruel.
Without eyes, it meant he could not precisely lock onto enemies, nor could he unleash powerful ocular techniques. On this cruel, ever-changing battlefield, this would become a huge, and potentially fatal, weakness.
Even the pride of a powerhouse must temporarily yield in the face of absolute disadvantage.
After a brief and oppressive silence, Madara finally reached out his hand.
He expressionlessly snatched the pair of two-tomoe Sharingan from Black Zetsu's hand, his movements tinged with impatience.
Then, with a speed almost impossible for others to follow, he skillfully pressed the low-tier Sharingan into his empty eye sockets.
The next moment, Madara suddenly looked up.
The newly implanted two-tomoe Sharingan rotated slowly. Although far less profound and powerful than the Rinnegan, that signature cold and oppressive gaze had returned once more.
Although his power was greatly diminished, Madara's intimidation, accompanied by this pair of ordinary Sharingan, once again descended upon this desolate wasteland.
Finally, Madara's scarlet Sharingan locked firmly onto that twisted, expanding "Six Paths Cocoon," and he let out a cold snort.
The Ten-Tails' Chakra was fusing frantically with Obito's body; vein-like vessels bulged on the surface of the giant cocoon, and every pulsation crushed Madara's plans.
"Traitor..." Madara's voice was still filled with irritation.
The connection to the heart's curse seal had long been severed, but the pain of that control being torn away was still branded deep in his soul.
That was the shackle he had personally implanted in Obito's heart; it should have allowed him to manipulate this pawn like a puppet until death.
Yet at this moment, Obito had actually endured the nerve-scorching backlash of the curse seal, turning his frantic obsession for Rin Nohara into fuel, and had forcefully completed the Six Paths Ten-Tails Coffin Seal!
Madara frowned.
The rage over the theft of the Ten-Tails fruit churned in his chest, but another thought also rose within him.
The willpower to tear through such a curse seal was, in itself, a qualification.
He knew better than anyone the horror of the curse seal; it was an instrument of torture capable of crushing the soul, yet Obito had completed the ritual while on the rack.
The wind and sand swept across Madara's hollow chest, and an ambiguous cold snort was crushed in the night wind.
"...Trash."
Madara's Sharingan locked onto the giant cocoon incubating the new Six Paths.
His anger had not dissipated, but beneath the boiling killing intent lay a trace of recognition.
The madness that broke through the curse seal was, perhaps, qualified to control the Ten-Tails.
He finally averted his gaze, letting the wind and sand wash over his body.
The plan to take back the Rinnegan had already collapsed, and Obito's path... was already set in stone.
On the desert battlefield, the slaughter was earth-shaking, and the sand was dyed deep red.
One hundred thousand White Zetsu surged like a tide against the Allied Shinobi Forces' defensive lines, while familiar yet strange faces among the Edo Tensei army unleashed lethal Ninjutsu, leaving the Allied Forces struggling to cope.
The roar of blood, battle cries, and the detonations of Ninjutsu formed the main theme of the battlefield, with most people's minds completely occupied by the life-and-death struggle before them.
However, right in the center of this vortex where chaos and despair intertwined.
A flash of golden light instantly attracted the attention of the Allied Forces' supreme command and even some of the most perceptive individuals!
Minato's figure flashed back to the core command area of the Allied Forces like a phantom; his movements were so fast that many only caught a glimpse of golden light streaking across the sky above the battlefield.
By the time his figure solidified in front of the command platform, before the dust had even settled, he had already steadily raised his left hand.
In an instant, there seemed to be an extremely brief silence on the battlefield.
It was not that sound had disappeared, but that some higher-level information had drowned out the clamor.
The mental network with Inoichi as the core forcibly injected a clear image into the minds of all the Allied Shinobi:
In Minato's hand, he was gripping an eye emitting an eerie purple light!
The eye was as deep as an abyss, rotating with mysterious circular patterns; its cold radiance was chilling, yet it contained an indescribable power.
It was the eye of the legendary Sage of Six Paths, the Rinnegan!
"Ri... Rinnegan?!"
The closest one, Tsuchikage Onoki, exclaimed in shock, the light of his Dust Release wavering in his palm due to his astonishment.
"Well done! Fourth Hokage!"
The roar of Fourth Raikage Ay, who had recovered due to the Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique, exploded like a thunderclap.
A battle intent, a mixture of wild joy and ferocity, instantly erupted on his steel-like face, and his massive chakra surged due to excitement, blowing away several approaching White Zetsu puppets.
This information, like the most potent stimulant, instantly spread across the entire battlefield through Inoichi's mental network.
"It's Hokage-sama! He has snatched the enemy's Rinnegan!"
"The Rinnegan! The legendary Eye of God has been obtained by us!"
"It's the Yellow Flash! He did it!"
"We have a chance! Counterattack! Counterattack!!"
On the battlefield, blazing flames ignited in the eyes of the Allied Shinobi.
Their exhausted bodies seemed to be injected with a brand-new power, and their earth-shaking roars drowned out the screeches of the White Zetsu!
"Charge!! For the Shinobi World!!"
"Fight these monsters to the death!"
"Don't let them get close! Protect Hokage-sama!"
Kakashi, fighting a powerful Edo Tensei enemy in the distance, saw this scene through the distorted space of Kamui, and a flash of relief and gratification crossed his exposed right eye.
"Sensei... as expected, only you could do it..."
He used all his strength to force back the enemy before him, the screeching of his Raikiri becoming even sharper.
Countless gazes, filled with awe, wild joy, and rekindled hope, focused on Minato and the purple eye in his hand that symbolized power and the opportunity for victory.
At this moment, the morale of the Allied Forces erupted like a volcano; the feat of snatching the eye greatly boosted the wavering spirits of the army and blew the horn for a counterattack!
Minato gripped the Rinnegan in his hand, which contained immense power; the cold eyeball seemed to carry the weight of a thousand tons.
The brief excitement of the Allied Forces' high command was quickly replaced by a realistic dilemma.
Who would use this recovered Rinnegan?
Just as everyone feared, the power of the Rinnegan was far from something an ordinary person could easily control.
The top powerhouses present, the Raikage, the Tsuchikage, Killer Bee, and so on...
Although an instinctive desire for the Rinnegan flashed through their minds, reason immediately overcame greed.
They knew well that forcibly transplanting an ocular technique of this level would not only make it impossible to unleash its true power but could also lead to being instantly devoured by it, or even exploding and dying.
This was no different from seeking death.
"At a time like this," Fourth Raikage Ay broke the silence first, his voice low but firm, "power must be concentrated on the sharpest tip of the spear. Minato, this eye should be handed over to Naruto!"
His proposal immediately received the agreement of the other Kage and powerhouses.
In their view, Naruto, who possessed the perfect Nine-Tails Mode and could share chakra to boost the morale of the entire army, was undoubtedly the best candidate to carry this power and transform it into the Allied Forces' ultimate chance of victory.
Minato looked at his son, his eyes filled with inquiry and trust.
Everyone's eyes focused on Naruto.
However, Naruto unexpectedly shook his head, his blue eyes filled with calmness and clarity.
"Thank you for everyone's trust," Naruto's voice was clear and steady, without a hint of hesitation, "but I cannot take this Rinnegan."
Amidst the astonished gazes of the crowd, Naruto continued his calm analysis.
"From birth until now, I have relied on my own chakra, Kurama's power, the Ninjutsu taught by my father, and... the bonds with my friends in battle. I have never used the power of any 'eyes' before; whether it's the Sharingan or the Rinnegan, it is a completely foreign system to me."
He clenched his fists, and the Nine-Tails chakra fluctuated slightly.
"At this critical moment of life-and-death battle, if I were to rashly use a source of power I do not understand or am not familiar with at all, it is very likely that not only would I not be able to help, but I would become a huge burden because I couldn't control it, and it might even break the perfect coordination between Kurama and me. What we need is someone who can immediately and stably unleash the power of the Rinnegan, not a novice who needs time to explore and adapt."
Naruto's words were resonant, and that mature judgment beyond his age moved everyone.
He was not shirking responsibility, but clearly recognizing the boundaries of his own power and the core of the battlefield's needs.
For a moment, the Allied Forces' high command fell into a brief silence, realizing that Naruto's analysis was absolutely correct.
This Rinnegan needed someone who could truly master it.
Just as everyone was silently thinking about how to handle this crucial Rinnegan, which contained the power of destruction and rebirth.
Naruto's clear and firm voice cut through the heavy silence once again.
His gaze swept over the Rinnegan in his father Minato's hand and finally landed on the Uchiha clansmen, who all wore different expressions.
"I have a proposal. This eye... should be given to someone from the Uchiha Clan to use!"
Everyone was stunned, their gazes instantly focusing on Naruto.
Facing their uncertain and suspicious gazes, he explained clearly:
"Do you all remember? When Uchiha Madara was still in his Edo Tensei state, his eyes! That Mangekyo Sharingan of his evolved into the real Rinnegan right before our eyes! And this proves that the Sharingan and the Rinnegan are fundamentally the same source of power; it's just that the Rinnegan is a higher-level eye!"
Naruto's words were like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, instantly stirring up huge waves and resonance in everyone's hearts.
"That's right!" Fourth Raikage Ay said with a sullen face, recalling that heart-stopping scene, his voice tinged with lingering fear.
"That monster... his Mangekyo Sharingan turned into the Rinnegan in the middle of battle without any warning!"
"Terrifying... that was indeed the only word to describe it at the time."
Tsuchikage Onoki floated in the air, his brows furrowed, his tone filled with dread for the unknown power.
"I have lived for so long, and this is the first time I have witnessed with my own eyes that the Sharingan could evolve like this! This is definitely not a coincidence."
Fifth Generation Kazekage Gaara crossed his arms and added calmly.
"Naruto's observation is correct. Based on Madara's case, it can be inferred that the Uchiha Clan's bloodline and the Sharingan are the very foundation of the path to the Rinnegan. This Rinnegan originates from the root of their clan's power system."
Kakashi, as the only person present with a Sharingan, also nodded solemnly.
"In that case, the bodies and chakra characteristics of Uchiha Clan members are undoubtedly the containers most likely to adapt to and even initially master this Rinnegan. Otherwise, using it rashly would carry immeasurable risks."
Everyone's thoughts were pulled back to that shocking scene where Edo Madara awakened the Rinnegan, how the blood-red Mangekyo pattern fused amidst the agitation of terrifying Ocular Power, and finally transformed into those circular ripples symbolizing the power of God.
The pressure brought by that power and the shock of overturning common sense still made their spines chill to this day.