The wind and snow outside the meeting hall seemed to quiet a little as the Five Kage departed.
Their heavy footsteps echoed down the corridor, until they finally vanished.
Every step felt like walking toward an unknown future.
They needed time—time to return to their territories and explain to the daimyo, who had grown used to comfort and ease, that the world was about to be twisted into a single rope…
All to fight an enemy they couldn't even imagine.
Shinju didn't move.
He still stood before the arched window of the tower, like the stone spine of the entire building.
His gaze pierced the swirling snowflakes, landing on the five black dots in the snow below that were growing smaller and smaller.
They had once been separate peaks.
Now, in his eyes, they were merely five gears—just calibrated, about to begin turning together.
This massive machine called the "Shinobi Allied Army" had already let out its first low rumble.
And he was the only one who could control it.
Now, it was time to clear away the last—and most stubborn—obstacles in the road ahead for this machine.
His consciousness sank like mercury into the deep sea of thought.
A deep-blue light screen unfolded before his eyes. Streams of data slid across in silence.
Then, two names condensed at the top of the screen, shining like stars.
[Senju Hashirama]
[Uchiha Madara]
Below those names, the string of numbers representing "corrective force" finally stopped jumping, settling steadily at a value he had waited for.
Enough.
A faint smile lifted at the corner of his lips.
It was time to welcome those two ghosts of the old era.
He wanted those two legends—who had personally opened an era, and then indirectly ended it—to see it with their own eyes.
To see the brand-new world he had forged.
Deep underground.
An irregular chunk of flesh floated in murky nutrient fluid.
Madara's legacy.
"Orochimaru-sama…" Kabuto murmured softly, as if speaking to an unseen dead soul. "Your failure was that you kept looking up at the stars… and forgot the land beneath your feet."
"Immortality isn't escaping death. It isn't jumping from one shell to another."
"True immortality is becoming a legend—actively becoming history itself—so the world will remember your name and your will forever."
"Death is not the end. Being forgotten is."
"The ambition you didn't finish… I'll complete it."
"In a way that's even grander—and even more thorough."
Kabuto's gaze swept over the shinobi world map spread across the wall.
In his heart, he felt a wave of emotion.
So the Five Great Nations… had truly declined like this?
The marks that represented the Five Great Villages were being crushed, barely able to breathe, beneath a "God Court" emblem drawn in bright crimson ink.
"Shinju… you think order and peace are the answer?"
"You think a unified will can erase what's carved into humanity's bones?"
"No. You don't understand anything."
"You don't know what the true base color of this world is… and you don't know what kind of 'legend' can make even gods tremble."
He picked up a scroll he had prepared long ago.
Let the whole world tremble.
Today, Kabuto would completely transform from "human" into "god," and obtain the power of a god!
With the seal released, a syringe appeared.
The green liquid inside had been refined from the First Hokage's remains, then specially cultivated into concentrated essence.
"This world doesn't need a savior—much less a hypocritical new god!"
"What it needs… is a carnival that can shatter everyone—dreams and order alike!"
"Too many people suffer living in this world. It needs new power to stimulate it."
"And I, Kabuto Yakushi, will be the conductor of this carnival!"
He picked up a scalpel again, aiming it at his left arm.
The blade cut through skin. Blood welled up.
"Let Madara Uchiha's will become the first note that drags all of you into the abyss!"
Before the words even finished, he slammed that chunk of flesh viciously into the wound on his arm!
The process was brutally domineering.
Even Kabuto—already powerful—could barely endure it, almost roaring out loud.
His body was turning into a battlefield.
Then he grabbed the syringe and drove the needle straight into his heart.
Another power—gentle like a river, yet just as vast and boundless—poured into the battlefield that was already on the verge of collapse.
Two completely opposite ultimate forces collided within him.
There was no annihilation like expected—
Instead, it birthed a destructive storm.
"GRAAAAH!"
Kabuto dropped to his knees, his body convulsing violently.
His body was changing—and it kept changing.
When everything in the cave finally returned to dead silence…
That "person" stood up.
He was no longer Kabuto Yakushi.
Two different Sage powers had reached a terrifying balance.
Under their influence, parts of his body became serpentine.
But to him, those weren't side effects.
They were medals of honor.
He flexed that powerful new body and walked deeper into the cave.
A far older altar stood quietly there.
The huge jutsu formula carved into the floor was more precise than Orochimaru's version—and far more evil.
At the center of the altar, the shell of a White Zetsu lay there like a lamb awaiting sacrifice, already placed in the core position.
Kabuto stepped before the altar, raised hands that already felt unfamiliar, and began forming seals.
Rat… Dog… Tiger…
When the last seal formed, he slammed both palms onto the cold ground.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Edo Tensei (Summoning Technique: Impure World Reincarnation)!"
Massive chakra poured forth like a breached flood, surging down his arms into the formula.
The altar's runes ignited instantly, glowing with ominous light.
The earth shook violently.
A pitch-black coffin, carrying a chill like it came from the Yellow Springs, slowly rose from the soil at the center of the altar.
This technique had been used once before in Konoha's destruction plan—Orochimaru had already demonstrated the pattern.
On the front of the coffin, a blood-red character was carved:
"Madara."
A dull boom echoed as the coffin fully emerged onto the surface.
Kabuto released the technique and slowly approached his masterpiece.
He wasn't afraid.
Edo Tensei had plenty of restrictions.
He reached out and gently stroked the cold coffin lid.
A soul that had slept far too long…
Was being forcibly awakened.
"Kk…."
The lid slid open by itself, leaving a narrow gap.
Kabuto stepped back several paces, arms crossed, quietly admiring the scene.
A foot wearing Warring States-era greaves stepped out.
Then a towering figure with long black hair like a waterfall and dark crimson armor emerged from the coffin's shadow.
He merely stood there, surveying the unfamiliar cave—
And an invisible pressure made the air itself congeal.
Uchiha Madara, reborn through Edo Tensei, had arrived.
Kabuto stared at the man before him, feeling that aura—
Even weakened countless times by the technique, it still made the soul tremble.
He raised his hand, index and middle fingers pressed together.
Madara's lifeless body stiffened slightly, then turned.
Hollow eyes locked precisely onto Kabuto.
A perfect puppet.
Kabuto had obtained a trump card—
A card strong enough to flip the entire board…
And to challenge that "new god."
(End of Chapter)
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