Chapter 168: Chapter 178
"..." Yakura.
"Fifth Kazekage-sama, don't you think you're… kind of giving up on everything lately?" Yakura asked quickly.
Right now, among the ranked ninjas of Sand Village, those who had taken part in the failed Konoha Crush plan during the Chūnin Exams had not yet been released.
So, the village's overall combat strength was weak.
But thanks to Kitahara Kaede using Edo Tensei, those shortcomings were filled.
Among the resurrected was an elite jōnin who had been sent on a suicide mission by Rasa. Now revived, she had taken on the role of Kazekage's assistant.
That she could forgive the past was proof of what a remarkable person she was.
But…
"Our Sand Village basically belongs to Konoha now," said Temari. "So there's really no point worrying about that stuff."
"If the sky falls, Konoha will be the one holding it up."
"And don't you think things are honestly better now than when we were just on our own?"
"..." Yakura.
He fell silent.
Because after Kitahara Kaede sold Scorpion, Sand Village received a large sum of money, and their access to resources significantly improved.
The village's water shortage? Now resolved by sealing techniques. Water could be stored and imported with ease.
So… yeah, life was indeed better than before.
"Bang!"
But just as Yakura was struck speechless, he looked up and noticed the moon changing again.
Like slicing a watermelon—it was being chopped into more pieces.
And Black Zetsu went to inspect every single one, only to reach one conclusion:
Damn it—looks like he got tricked by Kitahara Kaede again.
Chapter 094: The Moon Is Sliced—Sage of Six Paths Appears! (Please auto-subscribe, please fully subscribe)
It was nighttime. The moon was clearly visible. So when it was split in two, any ninja who paid even a little attention would have noticed.
Some were anxious. Some gave up. Some were indifferent.
All types of reactions.
Meanwhile, on the moon—
Black Zetsu had already sent Uchiha Madara back to the ninja world and returned himself.
The only thing brought back from the trip? Sealing scrolls.
Sealing scrolls were a basic form of sealing technique. Originally developed by the Uzumaki Clan, who had incredible mastery over sealing arts and generously shared it to benefit all ninja.
One result of that was item-sealing techniques.
You didn't need deep knowledge or tons of chakra—just a bit was enough to seal a large amount of items into a scroll and retrieve them quickly when needed.
And now Madara was doing just that: sealing up everything of value related to Hamura's lineage on the moon.
To cover more ground, Madara even summoned four Limbo clones—invisible to normal people—and had them all working simultaneously.
It was exhausting.
But Black Zetsu's method was convincing.
Because only the Tenseigan had been found so far—not Hamura's actual power. Of course, the search had to continue.
After all—
The Tenseigan was merely the product of centuries of bloodline development among Hamura's descendants. The true treasure… was Hamura's original power.
Just like how in the ninja world, it was known that the Sage of Six Paths gave humanity chakra, and thus created ninja…
Then as his brother, Hamura's own hidden power couldn't possibly be small.
So Madara continued searching.
But first—they sealed up everything. The puppets, the palace, even the ceremonial wedding kimono Toneri had made for Hinata.
All of it.
Even the castle where Toneri lived—gone.
The giant Tenseigan stored within it? If it couldn't be used—
Fine.
Then seal the entire castle along with the Tenseigan.
That's why such a large-scale operation was necessary.
"Sealing Technique: Collect!"
Uchiha Madara truly lived up to his name as an equal rival of Hashirama. His grasp of niche jutsu was masterful.
It took three whole scrolls to complete the work.
But just as he was about to put them away, Black Zetsu raised a hand.
"The scroll with the giant Tenseigan—I should keep that one."
"My place is far more secure than yours," said Black Zetsu.
As he spoke, he reached toward Madara.
"..." Uchiha Madara.
"..." Uchiha Madara.
Madara thought for a moment and nodded.
After all, he had died, been Edo Tensei'd, then resurrected, and now fully alive again—not part of the original plan.
He'd died a few too many times… so he wasn't confident he wouldn't die again.
If he were to drop the scroll by accident…
He'd never live it down if Tobirama found it!
So maybe it really was safer to leave it with Black Zetsu.
And so, Madara handed over the brown scroll that sealed the entire castle and the giant Tenseigan.
Black Zetsu then did something gross—it opened its mouth and swallowed the scroll whole.
"..." Uchiha Madara.
"..." Uchiha Madara.
He didn't show any disgust. In fact, he was rather excited inside.
"Well, there's nothing left here that needs attention," he said.
"Correct."
"Let's begin demolition—no, I mean slicing!" Black Zetsu corrected itself.
"If we can't find the seal, it'd be a waste for all our effort to yield so little," it added.
That was all the motivation Madara needed.
He had come to the moon, then went down, came back up, and used a ton of energy.
He could not leave empty-handed.
And so—
"Haaa—!"
Madara activated his full-body Susanoo, and began slicing the moon like a watermelon.
Black Zetsu stood quietly, watching.
Madara was full of energy.
But…
It was all a lie.
Black Zetsu watched calmly.
While Madara was recovering his chakra and making his trip to and from the moon, Black Zetsu had already scoured the entire place.
The conclusion?
It's just a moon.
There's nothing here.
But in the beginning, when Madara first struck, there really had been some sort of seal.
Which meant… it was the second possibility after all—
Kaguya's seal had already been broken.
Her real body was now that bunny—Kitahara Kaede's ninja rabbit.
She had escaped the moon already.
A decoy.
Which meant everything they'd done on the moon… was pointless again.
But that was information Black Zetsu would keep to itself.
And Madara? Easy to manipulate.
Which led to this truly bizarre scene—
As the night passed, Madara's 250-meter Susanoo continued slicing the moon.
"Haa…"
"No sign of anything…"
"But…"
"There's still so much moon left."
Madara hadn't found anything, but figured the pieces just weren't small enough yet.
So he kept slicing.
Even though it was completely meaningless.
Thus—
Fruit Ninja - Moon Edition continued with Madara on the moon…
Meanwhile, the ninja world greeted a new day.
[Beep!]
[Daily Descendant Chat Group (^_-) has been activated.]
[@Hashirama Senju, @Tobirama Senju, @Kakashi Hatake, @Lady Chiyo, welcome to today's chat time.]
[Big Dumb - Hashirama]: Finally, it's on again!
[Tobirama Senju]: …
[Tobirama Senju]: Big Brother, there's something you need to know.
[Big Dumb - Hashirama]: Hm?
[Tobirama Senju]: Uchiha Madara went to the moon yesterday.
[Big Dumb - Hashirama]: ???
[Minato Namikaze]: ???
[Lady Chiyo]: Uchiha Madara went to the moon?
[Tobirama Achievement - Izuna]: My big brother went to the moon?
[Tobirama Senju]: You two shut up.
[Tobirama Senju]: Here's what happened. After Toneri's situation was resolved yesterday, I went with Kitahara Kaede to the coast near Cloud Village to mark a Flying Thunder God seal.
[Tobirama Senju]: And while we were at it, we placed a seal for the Fourth Hokage's mark too.
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