Madara's brow furrowed as he felt something he hadn't felt in years… Sensation. He had a body again. Which meant he wasn't in the Pure World with Izuna.
"Maaads…
Madara's ear twitched at the disturbingly familiar voice. That wasn't possible. He specifically left orders for Obito to scrape out the Hashirama cells of his body when he died. Obito wouldn't disobey his orders. Never.
"Maaads…
No. Nononononono. He had to be hallucinating. Recalling a very bad memory. Did he dare to open his eyes?
"Can you hear me… Mads?"
Madara huffed and summoned his courage. He was back in the land of the living. He had nothing left to lose. He cracked one eye open.
"…!"
Mu, the Second Tsuchikage, tensed and leaped backwards as the coffin lid came flying off in splinters. That had never happened with the previous Summonings of Reanimated ninja. This one must've been extremely powerful…
When Mu straightened back up, through the dust he caught a glimpse of a gloved hand grasping onto the edge of the coffin. And was the Reanimation… panting? Like he'd just gone through something traumatic?
"I will definitely be having words with that brat…" Madara cursed as he stepped out of the box he was in. Revived he may be, but waking up to Hashirama Senju inches in front of him in a confined space… His reaction had been completely understandable.
If there had been a level beyond the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, or even the Rinnegan, Madara would have awoken it just now. It had been that traumatizing.
"I see the current Summoner of the Impure World Resurrection is a shrewd man of war, to think of resurrecting you…"
Madara became perfectly still after he registered Mu's musings. He activated his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and glared at Mu.
"Impure World Resurrection…? Are you telling me that this isn't the Gedo Art of Rinne Rebirth?"
Mu didn't comprehend Madara's growing ire, but he decided being straightforward was the better part of valor.
"Yes… You, me, and many others were brought back by the Impure World Resurrection in order to fight some Fourth Shinobi World War."
Not even Mu could shield himself from or dodge Madara's outcry of rage as he formed his Perfect Susano'o and took one step forward with purpose. Mu was squished flat, but thankfully the Jutsu had him reform in seconds. Madara continued forward without looking back even once. He had a Summoner to execute.
Far away, the crafty Kabuto Yakushi got the distinct impression that his hours were numbered. Not days. Hours.
If anyone else but Madara could see Hashirama Senju leisurely sitting on one of Susano'o's gigantic shoulders, it probably would have been a comical sight. But as it was only Madara who could see the abomination… It wasn't very funny.
Not to Madara, anyway.
"Y'know, Mads, I thought you had more style than this. Just look at all these shinobi soiling themselves! Yes, it's hilarious, but I would have thought you would have progressively shown off your Susano'o. Y'know, first barebones, then show it with some skin, then show off that eerie hooded figure, and then, well… this. At least carve up some mountain ranges." Hashirama sighed dejectedly as Madara pretty much veered away from the gathered shinobi and went in a seemingly random direction. Hashirama knew of course that Madara was gunning for the Summoner; he'd traced back the link that connected them. At the rate Susano'o was moving, they'd be at the Mountain's Graveyard in, ooh, two hours.
Yeah. It was running full steam now.
"At least show off the Rinnegan!" Hashirama whined to his bestest friend. "You're really going to let all those guys live back there?!"
Madara mentally counted to ten before deciding that maybe Hashirama had a point for once. So miniscule you had to squint to see it, though.
Madara activated the Rinnegan and ran through the hand seals. He didn't even have to stop Susano'o's charge. Or turn around. Hashirama turned around, though, and he squealed with joy as a big ass meteor came crashing down on the unsuspecting Fourth Company of the Alliance. Yeah, Hashirama was still unhinged, Madara mused to himself. Some little floaty guy stopped the meteor, though, to Hashirama's amusement. It looked like that one brat from the Hidden Stone… Mu's apprentice.
He'd gotten old.
"Doh… I wanted to see those Alliance jerks go squish."
Madara let a small smirk grace his lips. Just a little one. Barely even noticeable.
"Wait for it…"
A second meteor that was about the same size as the first came crashing down in the same place. Not even that ancient lawn gnome could do anything about that.
"Dick move, Mads." Hashirama shook his head, but grinned all the same. He sighed contentedly and spread his arms out wide at the fast-moving desert as Madara and his Susano'o ran toward the Mountain's graveyard. "Oh, Mads, I've missed you! All the subtlety and nuance of a napalm enema!"
Madara tuned Hashirama out as he started making a mental checklist of things to do. He was already getting a compressed history review of everything that had happened since his death from Black Zetsu. He was already pissed that everything seemed to have gone wrong in his absence.
Apparently, Obito had spontaneously fixed it so Nagato wasn't traumatized enough to go along with collecting the Tailed Beasts. If that wasn't enough, Obito returned to the Hidden Leaf and made amends with his old team and allies. When Black Zetsu attempted to control him with the Curse Seal on his heart, he soon discovered that Obito somehow disposed of it.
Madara was at a loss as to how Obito could have possibly managed to discover it, let alone actually removing the damn thing. He gave thanks to the Great Sage that Black Zetsu knew how to pick up the slack. He recruited some fool named Danzo who had been chased out of the Hidden Leaf for some 'crimes against nature' or something. Same with some scientist named Orochimaru, who was pretty much right behind him.
From there Black Zetsu recruited people from all over. Kakuzu, Sasori, and a bunch of other no-name supposed S-Rankers that Madara didn't recognize in the least. With what members they were able to bring into the fold, Black Zetsu gathered six of the Beasts. This Fourth War was to collect the One-Tail, Eight-Tails, and Nine-Tails. Madara had to wonder how they managed to fail to get the One-Tail, the weakest of the bunch, but Black Zetsu pleaded an insufferable artist duo that squabbled with one another more often than not.
The truth was that Sasori, losing all of his patience with his partner, poisoned the brat before he could collect the One-Tail for them. Sasori didn't stand a chance against the Jinchuriki.
Madara didn't care about all of that, though. What mattered was that somehow it all went to hell when he was away, and now he'd have to clean this mess up personally.
Just as soon as he annihilated the idiotic, suicidal Summoner who dared to bring him back with Hashirama bits still in him.
Author's Note: I didn't think I'd be back to this anytime soon… Buuut I had inspiration. Kinda. Obviously canon was screwed over in Madara's absence, and that was kind of a last-minute decision on my part. I mean, I could have followed canon to the letter… But it's much more liberating for Hashirama and Madara to do their own thing, no matter how much Madara despises Hashirama's 'company'.
What led Obito to abandon Madara's ambition this time? I'll get to that in the fic that goes between this and the last fic. A kind of interlude that I skipped over for the sake of utter nonsense and confusion. 'Cause that's always fun. :D