The immediate danger had been averted. The barrier that until now had prevented Madara from getting to the Jūbi or, conversely, Jūbi from escaping, was dissolving now that they no longer needed it.
Tobirama sealed the vessels back in the scroll and entrusted them to Yuki. Then he dismissed her, safely locking away her dangerous goods.
Naruto stepped up to them. "Hey, can we release the Bijū again?" he asked. "They're my friends, you know, and I promised them."
Tobirama started to say something, but Mito interrupted him before he could let loose another insult. "It's for their own safety," she said. "That way no one can abuse them again. At least until they are no longer in danger, they should remain sealed. But then there is probably nothing to be said against releasing them again."
Kurama switched places with Naruto. "I'll take your word for it, old witch," the fox said, then pointed at Tobirama. "And you'd better stick to it, too, or I'll deal with you personally!"
"Oh yes, and what will you do then, you flea-infested beast?" shot back Tobirama.
"You'll see!" growled Kurama. Then he switched places with Naruto again.
Naruto rubbed his head and grinned widely. "You really are best friends, Nidaime-jiji."
"I can' believe this!" hissed Tobirama.
Minato waved his arms. "I really must apologise for my son, Nidaime-sama. I am most sincerely sorry for that."
Kushina contented herself with head-butting her son for his disrespect.
Mito hastily intervened before Tobirama could flex his ego. "Let's go and check on Hashirama instead. You know he and Madara shouldn't be left alone, they always get stupid ideas."
That had always been the magic word to draw Tobirama's attention. "You're right." He put a hand on Mito's shoulder and teleported her to Hashirama.
She was not surprised to find her husband in the arms of his best friend. They kissed each other. Mito smiled. So that was when they had all had to die before things came to be as they should have been all along.
Tobirama disbanded his shadow clones and came to them in person. "Anija, get a grip!" he growled.
Mito elbowed him in the ribs. "Shut up, you old curmudgeon."
Hashirama broke away from Madara but put an arm around his shoulder. Madara scowled as much as ever and crossed his arms in front of his chest, but allowed the gesture. It almost surprised Mito not to find a flower in his hair, as Hashirama had always liked to do to him in the past, and to Mito as well.
Hashirama was beaming all over. "In the end, our dream brought us together again. It is tragic that it had to come so far. But all's well that ends well, right? This alliance has bound the shinobi together more tightly than any village could have done."
Tobirama pointed threateningly at Madara. "Just to be clear: I still don't trust you in the slightest."
"Well, how fortunate that the feeling is mutual," Madara retorted with sarcasm.
The two fought a heated eye duel.
"But it turned out that Kuro Zetsu had his own plans, and that didn't suit me at all," Madara continued. "Needless to say, I don't like being deceived like that."
Mito looked at the torii that Hashirama had stacked some distance away. At the very bottom, she could make out a black speck that had taken on a remotely human shape. He clawed his fingers into the rock but did not escape the seal.
"I still have a vessel, we can seal him away in that," she said.
"No, I'd better seal him with the Chibaku Tensei where he belongs. Then we'll put an end to it for good," Madara objected.
Zetsu apparently knew what that meant. His attempts to free himself became more desperate. "What, no! Madara, you can't do this! Let's work together, I'm sure there's another way. But you can't betray mother like this. You don't know what you are doing."
Madara ignored him.
"What are you up to?" asked Tobirama suspiciously.
Madara looked annoyed, but explained anyway. "The Chibaku Tensei is the same jutsu that Rikudō Sennin once used to seal the Jūbi in the moon. And that is also where he belongs again, together with Zetsu. He can't do any more harm there. See, no need to be so nervous."
"I'm sure you'll forgive my mistrust, but it was you who instigated this whole war in the first place," Tobirama countered in a surprisingly civil manner.
"And now it's me who's resolving it, because I'm the only one capable of doing so!" snarled Madara.
"I'm really glad you're finally seeing reason, Madara-chan. I am very grateful to you for that," Hashirama hurriedly interjected.
Madara made an unwilling sound. Then he shook off Hashirama's arm and went to Zetsu. "No one is going to stand behind me and get away with it if they're also plotting against me."
"You can't really want that, Madara!" begged Zetsu. "Just think of all I have given you. I have shown you the way to the power of the Rikudō. What you could do with it, if only you'd stop listening to that wooden head."
"Shut up, baka!", Madara snapped at him. "You have no right to call Hashirama that." Then he turned to Mito. "Give me the vessels in which you sealed Gedō Mazō and the Bijū."
Mito was silent for a moment. She looked at Madara and she felt his chakra and to her amazement she hardly noticed any of the hostile aura that had still surrounded him at the beginning of this whole mess. She looked at Hashirama. He seemed more confident than ever.
Mito made a decision. Contrary to popular belief, Hashirama was not a naïve idiot who trusted blindly. He saw the good in his fellow man and he firmly believed in it. But he also did not hesitate when it really mattered, he had already proven that once when he had gone so far as to kill Madara. He trusted Madara, and she trusted Hashirama.
"It would be enough if you just sealed that Zetus there and the demon statue, wouldn't it?" she asked. "I promised Naruto I would release the Bijū again if there was no danger for them to be abused, and I don't like to break my promise."
Madara looked at her silently for a moment. Then he nodded. "That should do it, yes."
Tobirama was the only one who didn't seem happy with that, but he reluctantly complied. Again he summoned Yuki and released the seals in the scroll. He looked venomously at Madara as he handed him the vessel with the demon statue and was clearly ready to go for Madara's throat at any moment should the latter reveal the slightest sign of turning against them again after all.
Madara was cooperative. "Chibaku Tensei once created the moon, so it has enormous destructive power," he explained. "It creates gravity, which it uses to bind anything that gets too close. So don't say I didn't warn you."
Tobirama folded his arms in front of his chest and pretended to have missed the last remark.
Madara created a midnight-black orb between his hands, which he flung high into the air. Zetsu made a pitiful sound when he saw it. Madara activated his jutsu.
As he had said, the sphere created an enormous gravitational pull strong enough to rip open the rock around them. They were all Edo Tensei, but still they did not want to be caught by it. Hashirama created roots that dug deep into the earth, keeping them on the ground, while chunks the size of houses were torn right out of the rock around them. They strove upwards, towards the sphere, and attached themselves to it. Soon they formed a tightly packed planetoid that grew rapidly larger as more debris strove towards it.
Madara hurled the vessel with the demon statue into the sky. Then he grabbed Zetsu. Hashirama released his seal, and already Zetsu was following the vessel. His desperate cry quickly quietened as he was buried under rock debris.
Finally, Madara seemed to consider the size of his planetoid sufficient. The battle with Jūbi had brought enough destruction that it really didn't matter that a small asteroid had just been created. Madara hurled it into the sky.
And with that, the war was indeed over.
Great things rarely happened accompanied by kettledrums and trumpets. Much more often they happened in silence, in quiet, very inconspicuous moments. The sun rose in the east. A bird chirped in the distance.
Mito released the seal on the remaining vessels and freed the seven Bijū who were enclosed within. The creatures seemed a little dazed and irritated by the situation, but when they saw Naruto waving enthusiastically in the distance, it seemed to dissipate quickly. They rushed to their friend.
"And what will become of us now?" asked Madara into the silence that followed.
"We made numerous mistakes in our lifetime," Hashirama said. "And even after that, many things went wrong in the world and we were not entirely uninvolved in all of it. I'd say we'll stay a bit longer and help make sure everything is really fine now. After that, we can still be dead."
Mito nodded and smiled. "That sounds like a good idea."
In the end, I decided to only hint at the conversation between Madara and Hashirama because this is Mito's story and she was busy with other things. The problem with Madara is that he has his resistance to TnJ skilled to 100% and then to Legendary, so the sticking point was Zetsu after all. He had panicked that Mito and Kushina would get a grip on the Jūbi after all and had blabbed.
What happens next: Obito and Kakashi spawn again. Hashirama heals Obito and, together with Kakashi, Minato and Naruto, uses Talk no Jutsu on him, so Obito finally agrees to destroy the Rinnegan eyes he got from Madara. Madara gives Sasuke a dose of TnJ and blows sense into him. The zombies stay in Konoha for a while and sort out a few things that went wrong in the past. Obito and Kakashi get along again and everyone is happy. (Sorry Neji T.T) When everything is finally settled, they finally dissolve Edo Tensei and Madara finally gets to welcome Izuna into the afterlife. Happy ending 3