When the Golden List announced Kyuubi's information to the public, Madara underground also saw that information. His gaze became sharp, and his face looked very grim.
"When did this First Rank of the Golden List do this..."
Madara turned around to stare at the Gedo Mazo behind him. Inside it, only seven auras remained; the Shichibi had been taken away by Gin.
"Come out!"
Madara mobilized all his chakra, forming a giant hand that rushed into the Gedo Mazo, trying to pull out the Bijuu inside to interrogate them. If the thing left by the First Rank could be obtained by others, he could naturally obtain it too. Moreover, he was in the most advantageous position.
However, inside the Gedo Mazo at this moment...
The seven remaining Bijuu had actually gathered together as one. They united all their chakra to jointly resist Madara's giant chakra hand.
The Gedo Mazo was fundamentally the shell of the Juubi, and these Bijuu were fundamentally fragments of the Juubi. Being inside their original shell, they felt their strength increase faintly. Especially when the seven Bijuu chakra merged, an extraordinary qualitative change in energy occurred.
This wasn't just ordinary strength addition. Returning to their origin inside the Juubi's shell made their strength increase by more than ten percent.
Madara's face became very dark. He realized that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't forcibly pull out even one Bijuu from there.
It should be noted that even the leader of the Bijuu, Kyuubi, was no match for Madara. If nine Bijuu merged they might be able to fight back, but now there were only seven; there was an essential difference here. The union of nine tails was the most perfect and complete; the current union of seven tails' chakra still had inherent defects.
"Damn it!"
Madara pulled back his chakra hand. The large energy consumption made him start to pant, and his life energy was being drained even more severely.
Suddenly, several figures shot in from outside. Their leader was the black-robed figure who had previously chased Gin, followed by other members of the Akatsuki organization.
"Where is he?"
Madara narrowed his eyes, trying to strengthen himself and release his aura fully to intimidate them. Each of these Akatsuki members had bad personalities. Although he was a legendary ninja, if he couldn't suppress them with authority, it wasn't impossible that he would be betrayed.
The black-robed figure was silent for a moment before answering: "Lost his trail. That person's ability after cooperating with the Shichibi is truly strange."
"Trash!"
Madara shouted harshly. His exploding emotions made him short of breath and cough violently.
"Yo yo yo, who's this old man? Why does his face look like he's about to die? Do you need my help?"
Hidan observed Madara from top to bottom. He felt strange why the black-robed figure brought them to a place like this.
Who exactly was this old geezer?
The other Akatsuki members also stared at the decrepit body that seemed to be at the end of its road. They were all shocked because they could feel the terrifying power emanating from him. How could an old man who was almost entering the grave store so much chakra?
Madara suddenly stared sharply at Hidan, then swept his gaze to the others, saying coldly: "These brats came too? That means the Hachibi capture operation also failed?"
This was indeed a bit beyond his expectations. Last time, they could even invade Konoha which was guarded by Hashirama and Tobirama to capture Kyuubi. Now, capturing Hachibi actually failed.
The black-robed figure said flatly: "You can't entirely blame them. First, I wasn't there at that time. Second, Nagato's Life Lamp was already completely drained. Moreover, this time the Raikage used his strength by sacrificing his life to hold them off, to give Killer Bee a chance to escape."
Madara frowned: "The Raikage is dead?"
The black-robed figure nodded slightly and gestured to the side. Kakuzu wearing a mask nodded, then threw a large sack he was carrying onto the floor. The sack opened, and from inside rolled out a stiff corpse—it was the Fourth Raikage, A.
Currently, the mighty Fourth Raikage looked very pitiful. Most of his skin was smeared with reddish-brown bloodstains from dried blood. His right leg was also missing, cut off somewhere. Clearly, Kakuzu wasn't interested in bringing back that corpse's leg.
Madara's gaze swept over the Fourth Raikage's face briefly, then he looked up: "The person is dead, why did you bring his corpse here?"
He was really getting angry now. First, two brats brought by the black-robed figure provoked him for no reason, then Shichibi escaped with Gin, and now the Hachibi capture also failed. The Juubi resurrection plan he had greatly hoped for could now almost be said to be bankrupt.
How could he not be furious?
The black-robed figure said: "This Fourth Raikage is very strong, otherwise, he couldn't possibly have held them off alone so Killer Bee could escape—although at that time Killer Bee also received the Heavenly Wrath reward from the Golden List. The power exploded by a true Kage-level ninja by burning his life energy is extraordinary! His corpse is still useful. If made into a vessel for Edo Tensei, the results will be far better!"
That was a fact. Edo Tensei didn't only depend on who was resurrected, but also on the quality of the corpse vessel used. How could an ordinary person's corpse withstand the extraordinary power of a Kage-level ninja? Even if it could, the strength would be very limited due to the vessel's physical endurance being too low.
"Who exactly is he?"
Hidan seemed very interested in Madara. He shouldered his scythe and walked around circling Madara, then turned toward the black-robed figure.
The black-robed figure said coldly: "He is the true figure behind the scenes of the Akatsuki organization. The legendary ninja who founded Konoha together with Senju Hashirama, the strongest person of the Uchiha clan—Uchiha Madara!"
As soon as that sentence was uttered, the room became quiet for a moment. Even the talkative Hidan froze in place. He stared at the white-haired, wrinkled-skin old man before him with a disbelieving gaze. It was very difficult to connect this old man with that great legendary figure.
"Him?!"
Hidan suddenly laughed uproariously very excessively. He pointed at Madara and mocked: "Regardless of whether Madara is dead or not, even if he's still alive, it's impossible for him to become such a decrepit old geezer. You're insulting my intelligence, aren't you?"
Madara was also one of those who made it into the Golden List's top 10. At that time, his form was shown to the public, but for some reason the Golden List didn't show his current decrepit form, but instead showed his peak form from the past.