Chapter 131: Uchiha Madara's Backup Plan
Uchiha Taiga strode toward Uchiha Madara's position.
His pace was unhurried. As he stepped across the devastated terrain, the crushed rocks crunched beneath his feet.
His breathing had steadied, and his footsteps were firm. The two trails of bloody tears had dried on his cheeks, leaving dark red streaks stretching from the corners of his eyes down to his chin.
He didn't wipe them away, simply letting them stain his face.
Uchiha Madara's bisected body lay scattered on the ground. His upper half had fallen to the left, while his lower half lay to the right, separated by three or four meters.
The cut was perfectly clean, as if sliced by the sharpest blade, leaving smooth edges.
However, along the edges of the wound, fine dust was crumbling away, detaching from his body grain by grain and drifting into the air.
At the same time, new dust gathered and rose, attempting to fill in the missing gaps.
The disintegration and regeneration occurred simultaneously at an equal pace, locked in a stalemate.
Madara's Reanimated body could neither fully heal nor completely crumble, leaving him trapped in a state of partial collapse.
The cracks on his face had multiplied significantly. Stretching from his forehead to his chin, from the left side of his face to the right, they were densely packed like a dried-up riverbed.
His eyes remained open, but his Rinnegan had reverted to the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. The crimson Sharingan gleamed with a dark red light under the moon.
Taiga stopped in front of him and crouched down. Looking at the two halves of the body on the ground, he broke into a wide grin.
"How does it feel?"
Madara's upper half lay on its side. He pressed one hand against the ground, attempting to push himself up, but with nothing below his waist, the effort was entirely futile.
He didn't keep trying. Abandoning the idea, he remained on his side and looked up at the crouching boy. His eyes held admiration and acknowledgment, mixed with an indescribably complex emotion.
Madara opened his mouth and laughed. It wasn't loud, but it was incredibly hearty.
"Brat, that jutsu just now was quite impressive."
Taiga shrugged, tilting his chin up slightly.
"Of course I know it's impressive. I don't need you to tell me that."
His tone carried a natural, justified pride. As he spoke, he reached out and waved toward the distance—the exact direction where Yugito Nii and Tsunade were located.
The three women had calmed down. Seeing his gesture, Yugito immediately sprinted toward the center of the battlefield.
Yugito took the lead. She looked a bit disheveled, but her speed was undiminished.
Tsunade, however, seemed to be in a strange state. Her entire body was still trembling so much that she couldn't make it very far before needing Shizune to support her.
Taiga withdrew his gaze and looked back down at Madara.
His eyes lingered on Madara's face for a moment before he spoke thoughtfully.
"So, your appearance here... was Uchiha Obito's doing?"
Madara's smile remained unchanged. Lying on the ground, his voice was steady, betraying no emotion.
"As expected, you've already figured it out. Makes sense. There's no way a genius like you could be deceived."
He paused, a hint of mockery touching the corners of his lips.
"That Obito kid truly is a fool."
Taiga nodded, his tone carrying a degree of agreement.
"You're not wrong about that. So, he dragged you out of the underworld because he's completely out of options, right?"
Madara's lips curled upward. "Naturally, that kid could never be your match."
His voice lowered, and his smile faded. His gaze turned serious, staring intently at Taiga as if his eyes were blades trying to dissect the boy.
"Brat, you possess the Mangekyo Sharingan. Have you ever read the stone tablet beneath the shrine in the old clan compound?"
Hearing this, Taiga paused slightly.
He blinked, then shook his head.
"Never seen it."
His tone was entirely casual.
It was the truth.
"My relationship with the Uchiha clan isn't exactly great, and I have no desire to get involved with their baggage. I've been to the old compound a few times, but I've never bothered to check out that stone tablet under the shrine."
Madara fell silent for a moment before laughing, the sound even louder than before.
"Is that so? Those fools truly are idiots, pushing away a genius like you."
The next moment, his laughter abruptly stopped. His expression hardened, and his gaze turned sharp once more.
"Brat, with the power you possess, you are more than capable of changing the ninja world. Why haven't you done it?"
Taiga tilted his head, a puzzled look crossing his face.
"Why should I?"
Just as he spoke, hurried footsteps approached from behind.
Yugito arrived first. She rushed to Taiga's side and looked him up and down, her eyes quickly scanning his face and body before finally landing on the dried blood streaks at the corners of his eyes.
She frowned, a hint of urgency in her voice.
"Are you alright?"
Taiga looked up at her and smiled.
"I'm perfectly fine. Don't worry."
He held out his hand.
"Give me the scroll."
Yugito didn't waste words. She unclipped a sealing scroll from her waist and handed it to him.
Taiga took the scroll, weighed it in his hand, and unrolled it, preparing to do something.
Tsunade and Shizune finally arrived as well.
Tsunade stood a few steps away, keeping her distance.
Her gaze shifted from Taiga to the bisected body on the ground, her pupils shrinking slightly.
Staring at that face, her throat went dry, and her voice came out hoarse. "Is that really Uchiha Madara?"
Taiga didn't even look up, answering casually.
"The one and only."
Hearing Tsunade's voice, Madara turned his head on the ground and glanced at her.
His eyes lingered on her long blonde hair and the diamond-shaped seal on her forehead for a second before his lips curled up slightly.
"Are you Hashirama and Mito's granddaughter?"
Tsunade's body stiffened.
Her lips parted as if to speak, but no words came out. Her heart was a tangled mess of conflicting emotions, leaving her unsure of what to say.
Madara suddenly burst into laughter. The sound echoed across the ground, carrying a sense of liberation.
Then, his gaze returned to Taiga, his voice rising in volume.
"Brat, with your current visual prowess, you are more than capable of deciphering the secrets on that stone tablet. Go read it. You will see the true reality of the ninja world. When that time comes, you will become just like me."
He paused, the smile freezing on his face.
"I'll be waiting for you."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Madara's body began to change.
Starting from the edges, his form turned into fine ash, fracturing and crumbling from the inside out. The ash drifted away under the moonlight, like smoke scattered by the wind.
The smile remained frozen on his face. His eyes were still open, but the light within his pupils had already faded.
Layers of ash peeled away from the two halves of the corpse, revealing what lay beneath.
It was a white, humanoid body.
A White Zetsu corpse!
The White Zetsu was roughly the same size as Madara, but its skin was a sickly pale white. Its eyes and mouth were slightly open, and its body was rigid.
Seeing this, Taiga clicked his tongue.
"Just as I thought. This guy prepared a backup plan in advance. He actually managed to break through the sealing power of my Tenseigan chakra."
Aside from disintegrating matter, his Jade Wheel Reincarnation Explosion possessed another special ability... sealing.
To put it bluntly, it was a Sealing Jutsu, albeit a unique one based on visual prowess.
Anyone struck by it would have their chakra and life force sealed away.
However, since Madara was a Reanimated body, he naturally had no life force to speak of. Therefore, Taiga's visual prowess chakra had only sealed away Madara's chakra.
Taiga shifted his gaze away from the White Zetsu corpse on the ground and looked up in another direction.
Far off in the distance, at the edge of the night sky, a faint chakra fluctuation was rapidly moving away, so subtle it was almost imperceptible.
Yet, within Taiga's sensory perception, it was unmistakably clear.
Taiga grinned, flashing a smile.
"So the backup plan is over there, huh?"
He tossed the scroll back to Yugito, stood up, and rolled his wrists to stretch them.
"Yugito, hold onto the scroll."
Yugito caught the scroll, but before she could say a word, Taiga vanished from his spot.
"I'll be right back."
Taiga's body transformed into a cluster of light particles that flickered in the air before dissipating, chasing after that distant direction.
Tsunade stood rooted to the spot, staring in the direction Taiga had disappeared. She then looked down at the White Zetsu corpse on the ground, her brow furrowed tightly.
Yugito tucked the scroll away, took a deep breath, and sprinted after Taiga.
She wasn't as fast as him, but she knew the direction. Running that way couldn't be wrong.
Only Tsunade and Shizune remained on the battlefield, surrounded by scattered rubble, craters, and the White Zetsu corpse that had already begun to crumble.