kinda a sequel from the riverbank chapter
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"resilient, aren't you?"
hashirama opened her eyes to the darkness of the cocoon, fully aware what image waiting behind and what voices that would greet her, but this time it was different.
the image stayed the same. the greeting, changed.
"i swear i just turned around after fixing your cocoon," he continued, not bothering to turn around as she slashed it open. "but it's you, i'm not surprised."
she stepped out onto a barren land, neither night nor day, with a landscape full of similar cocoons scattered around them.
even without opening any, she knew it's too late to save them.
she spoke, feeling like it's been eons since she used her voice, "now what, madara?"
he finally turned around, and hashirama didn't find the face of her childhood friend.
"enjoying the peaceful world, what else?"
"everyone's dead."
"nobody would try to start a war."
"but i'm human still," she pressed on, approaching. "sooner or later i'll be dead as well." she was revived in a dead body once, and he had brought her fully to life. "well, unless..."
"oh no." madara grabbed her arm. "after countless times surviving my elaborate maze to keep you dead, you'd give up so easily?"
"...i'm not." hashirama blinked. "i'm just stating the fact." his grip was cold, so cold...
this wasn't madara. this wasn't madara she always knew...
"it'd be a pity if you aren't here to see how i've been always right." he pulled her to his embrace.
hashirama tried to push him to no avail.
"keeping you alive, i suppose, is better than having you dead."
"what do you-"
"i think it's high time to make your title a reality, hashirama."
as madara released her, something stabbed her lower back. chakra flooded into her core, drowning her with powers that wasn't hers. powers that once belonged to other living beings.
powers that madara stole from everyone else.
"beloved goddess," madara whispered, caressing her now silver hair, "let's explore our new home."