Chapter Text
"Looks like you're all awake. Now, about what happens next-"
Tobi paused as Zetsu emerged from the ground beside Kabuto, raising an eyebrow.
"What's wrong, Madara?" Zetsu asked.
The cube in the masked Uchiha's hand began rattling as Tobi glanced at the cube in doubt.
"What's wrong?"
As Sasuke eagerly awaited a response, a sudden movement caught the group's attention. Tobi's hand came crashing down onto the ground with a bone-chilling force. The impact caused the mysterious cube to plummet, colliding with the earth's surface and creating a colossal, gaping crater. All four individuals instinctively recoiled, desperately seeking refuge from the chaos unfolding before them.
Naruto yawned as he threw another Rashenshuriken into the sky. Beside him, were laid the bodies of two Otsutsuki. Their heads detached from their bodies while their limbs were stuck into the ground with black chakra rods.
"There's a barrier?"
The Rashenshuriken suddenly hit something in the sky before exploding as the blond kage took a mental note of the height. 'Quit using so much chakra, Naruto. You don't wanna alert any more of them, do you?'
"Whatever. It'll be fine."
'You're way too over-confident sometimes, you know that?' Kurama's voice went through Naruto's head as he walked toward Kaguya's castle.
"It's not like I didn't earn it."
His tailed beast went silent. It felt as if decades had passed, yet nothing to use to count how much time had gone by while Naruto was fighting. 'Last thing I want to worry about is your life, kid.'
"So you DO have a soft spot for me!"
'SHUT UP!!!' He roared, only to be greeted by Naruto laughing out loud as he smiled inside the young ninja's mindscape. 'Anyways, what're you planning to do with all those scrolls you found before your fight?'
"Oh them? I'm going to store them in Mount Myoboku after the war." Naruto replied, stacking the scrolls and sealing them in his scroll. "I must commend f*ckasaku-san for providing such a helpful scroll."
'Agreed.'
Multiple purple eyes appeared on the cube. They contained three tomoe on their two innermost circles for a total of six. The cube emitted a brown aura with a reddish tint.
"Madara! What the hell is happening!?"
Zetsu was too shocked to speak, while both Kabuto and Sasuke demanded immediate answers. Meanwhile, Tobi was frozen. The cube in the ground now had the same markings as Naruto's Rinnegan.
"I- Impossible! No human has ever possessed this type of power!"
The cube levitated into the sky, rotating to showcase its markings. Sasuke stepped back in shock, unable to believe what he was seeing.
"No! That's not true! No human should possess the ability to use the rinnegan. It's... it's impossible." He said. "How... how did he do it?"
"What's impossible? What is that thing?" Kabuto asked, looking up at the object in the sky.
"Is that... a rinnegan?" Tobi muttered to himself as he gazed at the cube.
"Trouble," Zetsu whispered in Tobi's ears before going inside the ground.
With another burst of chakra, the cube sent the trio flying. Sasuke and Kabuto hit a tree, while Tobi crashed into a cliff. The cube released a blinding beam of light that created a white space.
"What the hell is going on?"
Kabuto could see the cube, but it was the only thing in sight. Even Tobi had no answer for this strange phenomenon. Sasuke, however, was in complete panic mode. His body was trembling while his eyes widened in horror.
"Hahahahahaha!"
As Sasuke shifted his gaze upwards, both Tobi and Kabuto turned their attention in the same direction, curious to see what had caught Sasuke's attention. Their eyes fell upon a long, slender figure with flowing locks of blonde hair, suspended in mid-air.
As they continued to observe the figure, they soon realized that it possessed the same Rinnegan as the embedded cube, causing them to exchange perplexed glances.
"Y- You!" Sasuke gasped, feeling a strong pressure emitting from the being before him.
As they both laid eyes on the Rinnegan within the embedded cube, an expression of confusion washed over their faces. Sasuke, in particular, seemed taken aback by the sight before him, gasping audibly as he struggled to comprehend what he was seeing.
The Rinnegan surrounding the cube had now disappeared, leaving the trio in a state of shock and confusion as they tried to figure out what they had just witnessed.
"Was that..." Tobi started.
"Naruto?" Sasuke asked, his eyes wide. "H- How?"
"W- What do we do now, Madara?" Zetsu's voice came from the ground.
"What do we do now!? What the hell was that, Madara!?" Kabuto asked.
"That... was the nine-tails jinchuuriki, I presume. He must've mastered the rinnegan." Tobi replied. "There is no time to waste. We have to kill him immediately."
"But what about the war?" Kabuto questioned.
"Deploy your reanimations. Zetsu, they're all collected in one place, correct?" Tobi ordered, turning to Zetsu.
"Yes, they are. Should I summon the White Zetsu clones?"
"Go ahead. Kabuto, go and take care of the special weapon. He and Sasuke will fight together."
Kabuto and Sasuke nodded before disappearing. Zetsu let out a sigh before looking at the ground, his eyes meeting the soil. He focused his mind on the location of the hidden White Zetsu clones before looking up and making eye contact with Tobi.
"Anything else?" Zetsu asked.
Tobi turned his back towards the man-plant. "The hand. Keep that on standby and deploy the clones."
Meanwhile, at the Allied Shinobi Forces' headquarters, Tsunade was walking alongside the Raikage, discussing the situation of the war and the preparations.
"I-"
Before she could continue, the entire building was shaken to its core as they sensed a familiar presence from afar. "What was that?" Tsunade asked.
"So I ask you, all of you, please lend me your strength in this fight!" Gaara exclaimed, his words gaining a loud cheering from the entire shinobi alliance who pledged to fight alongside him.
"We won't let our comrades die, right?!" The Kazekage announced, gaining even louder cheers from the crowd.
The army was suddenly hit with an overwhelming surge of chakra, causing them to become completely immobile. A brilliant and blinding white light emanated from a far-off distance, leaving the soldiers stunned and unable to move.
"What was that!?"
"Are we under attack?"
"Is it Madara!?"
The atmosphere within the army was rife with tension as they braced themselves for another potential assault from the elusive masked Uchiha. However, all of a sudden, a multitude of pale white Zetsu beings materialized from the earth, causing a collective gasp of shock and apprehension amongst the soldiers.
"Everyone! Fight!"
They raised their weapons and charged forward, ready to battle the White Zetsus. At the same time, the remaining members of the Akatsuki also arrived on the scene, joining in the fray.
They raised their weapons and charged forward, ready to battle the White Zetsus. At the same time, the division captains quickly got down to the battlefield to give the troops a boost of both strength and morale.
"Tenzo! Let's do that!"
"Right! Water Style: Great Waterfall Jutsu!"
Many shinobi cleared the way for Yamato as they noticed Kakashi weaving hand signs mid-air while Yamato expelled a large volume of water, right towards the white Zetsu attacking them. The water then cascaded itself down in a shape of a vortex as the surrounding zetsu was caught off guard and fell into the current of water, losing their footing and being swept away by the strong flow.
"Lightning Style: False Darkness!"
Kakashi emitted lightning in the shape of a spear from his mouth, which then pierced through the independent droplets around the vortex, before entering the water and electrocuting every single Zetsu in there, effectively killing them in the process.
"Nice! That's what I was looking for!" Anko exclaimed, a smile appearing on her face.
The other teams were also battling the Zetsus, each using their unique skills to decimate the enemy forces.
"Kankuro! Temari!"
"We know, Gaara! Get out of the way everyone else!"
Gaara lifted his siblings with one sand clump each as they surrounded a portion of white zetsus, with the Kazekage pulling out multiple hand-like figures from the ground around them. Kankuro's red-haired puppet flowed out fire-style attacks with his palms while the hands circled the Sandaime, creating a sphere around him.
"Here we go, Temari!"
"You're late, Kankuro!"
Temari pulled out her giant wind fan as the sand clump positioned her to fire multiple wind-style attacks, amplifying the fire around the sand sphere. The sphere let out intense amounts of heat as Gaara signaled the clumps to land behind him. The Zetsus were engulfed in the heat wave, the high temperature effectively burning the enemies.
"They're not dead yet," Temari remarked, narrowing his eyes as the Zetsu's burned bodies began healing themselves.
"Particle Style: Atomic Dismantling Jutsu!"
Back at the headquarters, Tsunade and the Raikage were getting constant reports of the ongoing situation.
"Lady Tsunade, the enemy's numbers are increasing exponentially. We don't know if they can hold them off."
"That's just the White Zetsu! What about the reanimations!?" Tsunade demanded.
"Screw that! What in the world was the chakra a moment ago!?"
"We can't say. It could've been the nine-tails, but something tells me it's not him.."
"It was different." Tsunade sighed, placing her hand on her chin. "That chakra, it had a very cold feeling..."
"It couldn't have been Madara. But if not him, then who was it?" The raikage wondered, thinking back to the chakra they felt a few minutes ago.
"Lady Tsunade! There's someone who wishes to speak with you!"
"WHAT!?" Tsunade and the raikage exclaimed, the latter immediately standing up from his chair. "We're in the middle of a war! Who the hell is it?"
"It's- It's!"
"Just spit it out, boy!" The raikage roared.
"It's... It's..."
"Who is it!?" Tsunade yelled, slamming her fist onto the table.
"It's- It's the Rokudaime Hokage!"
