"He escaped..." - Zetsu was standing now next to Madara who had a dark expression.
"..." - Madara couldn't believe he was played like that.
"Uhm..." - Gengetsu looked at Mu who only nodded, before escaping as well.
There was nothing to do anymore for them except for fighting a Madara they cant beat and wait until they are sealed.
So they thought it was better to just return to their villages and help.
"Shouldn't we chase those two?" - White Zetsu asked carefully.
But Madara and Black Zetsu couldn't care less right now about those two small fries (in their eyes)!
Even the godlike Madara wasn't able to stop Eiji's escape, simply because Eiji was already specialized in speed, plus Sage Mode and with the head start from surprising Madara.
'Was this all part of his plan? Was he acting like a coward back then to lower my guard?' - Madara's mood worsened and worsened the longer he thought about it.
But in truth, he was just overthinking it.
This was expected however because of the knowledge Eiji displayed about the God Tree, and Madara didn't know the extend of Eiji's knowledge, so he felt like there appeared a serious threat to his grand plan.
"Zetsu...what was this brat's name?" - Madara
"Eij...Nakamura..." - Black Zetsu
"...Eiji..." - Madara made sure to remember this name.
Then he breathed in and said: "Since I was revived earlier than expected, I will have to revise the plan a bit...tell me where Obito is..."
A haggard group entered a teahouse and the warmth of the interior instantly embraced their bodies which were cold from the snowy weather.
"Do you really think we will meet Sasuke here?" - Naruto breathed into his hands while sitting down at a table.
"Maybe..." - Jiraiya took down a paper in which was written: Let's meet at the nearest Shiki Ryuu.
It was obvious who wrote the latter and who they are supposed to meet here.
While they were escaping, a snake with the letter attached to it appeared in their path.
Jiraiya and Yamato noticed the suspicious snake and decided to stop their sprint to check it out.
After that, they decided to split up: Jiraiya, Sakura, and Naruto would meet Eiji (and Sasuke as they hoped) while Yamato and the rest of the surviving Anbu would head straight to Konoha to report.
While waiting, they ordered some tea and drank it to warm their bodies.
And then an employee approached them and asked them to follow him to the VIP room.
When they were in front of the door, the employee left.
Naruto opened the door hastily and shouted: "Sasuke!"
"...damn, do you have to be so loud? A teahouse is supposed to be quiet..." - Eiji picked his ear and had a slightly annoyed face.
"Sasuke...isn't here, right?" - Sakura asked him straight.
"Well, yeah. He just reunited with his dead parents, so isn't it normal that he wants to spend time with them instead of me and you?"
Jiraiya sat in front of the desk with a stern face: "Alright, what did you want to talk about? You should know that after what happened today, Konoha will turn completely hostile to you and the Shiki Ryuu, so I hope you have something good to say."
"That's rude, you know? It wasn't my plan to revive Madara...but Sasuke did it anyway. It's entirely his fault, ok?" - Eiji picked his nose.
"SHUT UP! DONT TALK ABOUT SAS-" - Naruto stopped after Jiraiya glared at him with eyes that said: "Act like a shinobi!"
"Even if this is true...Sasuke is with the Shiki Ryuu, so your side is still to be blamed." - Jiraiya returned to the discussion with Eiji.
"Yeah, I know...I really feel a bit responsible for that and I want to get rid of Madara too...but to be honest he would have been revived later anyway..." - Eiji turned serious too.
"What are you talking about?"
"Hmm...do you know why the Akatsuki wants to gather all Tailed-Beasts?" - Eiji smiled while starting to explain.
"It's to merge them into the Jubi. It was a plan devised by Madara himself, but he died of old age, so he had the leader of Akatsuki act to make his plan come to fruition. And then at the end when all Tailed-Beasts are gathered he would have been revived."
"...so you are saying the Akatsuki was formed for Madara's plan? But what do they plan to do with the Jubi?" - Jiraiya
"How would I know?" - Eiji pretended to not know since there was no benefit to exposing everything he knows right now.
"Then...is this all you wanted to talk about?" - Jiraiya wasn't convinced and thought it was just an excuse from Eiji's side so that he wouldn't need to take the blame.
"Of course not...I wanted to share how we can get rid of Madara!" - Eiji leaned back.
"Sigh...so I assume you need my or Konoha's cooperation for that?" - Jiraiya understood now why Eiji wanted to meet them.
Eiji showed two fingers: "There are 2 ways: We have to wait until Sasuke can use his ability again to fully control Madara while the Jinchurikis go into hiding. To be honest, this what my plan originally was. Revive Madara and let Sasuke use his ability to fully control Madara, but it looks like Sasuke didn't want to wait... "
"Are you talking about the Kotoamitsukami?" - Jiraiya remembered how Tsunade, who went through all of Root's documents, told him that either Sasuke or Eiji would have taken Danzo's eye after the battle back then.
"Yep." - Eiji
"How long would we have to wait?" - Jiraiya understood what Eiji was getting at.
"He used it on Kabuto before reviving Madara...so a few years at the least." - Eiji
"..."
"What's the other option?" - Jiraiya
"Tobi...I must say that your cooking isn't too bad." - Kisame was smiling with his shark teeth while eating the Onigiri Tobi made.
"Hehehehe...Tobi always dreamed to be a cook in his youth before he lost all his money on gambling and needed to join a criminal organization-" - Tobi was brushing happily his hair.
"..." - Itachi didn't say anything, but Onigiri was one of his favorite food, so he enjoyed it silently.
They were currently resting at a nearby river in the wilderness.
But then Zetsu appeared.
"What's wrong? First time I'm seeing Zetsu make such a face?" - Kisame asked in his usual nonchalant manner.
"Isn't it obvious? He must be envious that he didn't get any of Tobi's onigiri!" - Tobi
Zetsu didn't know where to start. He needed to talk with "Tobi" ins private, but his mental state was in such turmoil that he didn't know how to do it: "...that's..."
"?"
Are you out of your mind? You think I would allow such a disrespectful act? That Orochimaru did it, didn't surprise me given his personality, but that's why I won't allow something like that to happen again!" - Jiraiya didn't hide his anger.
"Pervy Sage is right! I won't let you disrespect the former Hokage!!" - Naruto
"Technically I'm also a former Hok-" - "SHUT UP! I WILL NEVER CONSIDER SOMEONE LIKE YOU TO HAVE BEEN EVER A HOKAGE" - Eiji was cut off by Naruto.
"Sigh It's not like we have a better option than that. The only one who could face Madara is the Thirst Hokage...plus with Kabuto, I'm confident that if you give me some time, we will be able to revive the First with his full strength, which would be ideal since Madara is currently weakened." - Eiji expected this sort of reaction, so he hid his annoyance while sipping on tea.
"I won't let Konoha fall so low that we would rely on such a vile Jutsu that violate the laws of nature...this isn't only about disrespecting the former Hokage..." - Jiraiya
"I also agree...we should let the dead rest." - Sakura voiced her opinion.
"Wasn't the Edo Tensei developed by the Second Hokage though?" - Eiji
"But it was also declared a forbidden Jutsu by the Second Hokage later on by himself. We should honor his decision, no?" - Jiraiya was experienced and wouldn't lose easily in an argument.
"Normally I would agree, but all four former Hokage's souls are currently imprisoned in the Death God's belly and it's said that they are tortured for all eternity there...wouldn't you want to release them from their suffering?" - Eiji
"Definitely, but given your explanation about the mask we can release them and don't need to revive them after that." - Jiraiya
'Oh crap, did I mess up? I probably should have only told him about me having a way and not get specific...' - Eiji drank from his teacup, giving him a natural way to get time to think.
"..."
"What's wrong?" - Jiraiya
Eiji couldn't come up with anything...
Tobi, more specifically Obito, looked at Zetsu like one would look at a schizophrenic who babbled nonsense.
After forcing himself to calm down (it was Black Zetsu, White Zetsu continued to be hysterical), he decided to just say that the boss ordered Tobi to meet him.
With that, they got separated and Zetsu explained to Obito what happened.
Of course, it was hard to believe what he heard.
It would count as a good joke if it wasn't real, but unfortunately, it was.
But after continuing to stare at Zetsu, Obito breathed in. The way Black Zetsu behaved convinced him that this wasn't a joke. However, if white Zetsu told him that he would've just ignored it.
"...sigh...so what's his plan now?" - Obito was vexed since he started to harbor feelings of going with the Eye of the Moon Plan in his own way since he didn't trust Madara fully.
But now that Madara was revived he needed to play along, so he didn't say anything unnecessary.
"He ordered all Akatsuki members to gather so that they can meet him since he plans to lead it from now one himself." - Zetsu
'As expected...my guess is that after that he will try to accelerate the plan or go for the Shiki Ryuu first...' - Obito analyzed in his mind.
"What about the villages, did they make a move? It seems that after Nagato destroyed Kumogakure, surviving shinobis rushed to the other villages demanding a Five Kage Summit. However since the former Mizukage and Tsuchikage returned to their villages, things got chaotic and Kumo didn't receive an answer from most of the villages. For now, only Konoha gave an answer and agreed to it." - Zetsu
When he heard that Obito scoffed: "They know Madara is revived and the 5 great villages still continue to play politics? They never change, do they? So, where is he now?" - Obito didn't need to travel to the meetup location, so he decided to not drag this one and meet Madara now.
"...I'm gonna kill those two..." - Ukon woke up in an inn.
Next to him in the same bed was an unconscious Kabuto lying.
He wasn't sure if Sasuke just didn't care or if he started to pick up some of Eiji's bad habits.
Whatever the case was, Ukon was currently in a girl's body, so this was beyond thoughtless!
He looked at his current body and gritted his teeth - he needed his real body back as fast as possible.
The reason he was so adamant about having his real body back, wasn't because he hated not being a man anymore (this too), but more importantly because he lost his only connection to his dead twin brother.
Plus, he didn't get his revenge on Orochimaru, so saying he was in a bad mood was an understatement.
But even though he wanted to rip Eiji into pieces right now, he could rely only on Eiji to get his body back.
"...fucking hell..." - Ukon looked at the unconscious Kabuto and decided to kick him to blow his frustration off.
"...is this really okay, pervy sage?" - Naruto asked Jiraiya when they left the Shiki Ryuu.
"I'm also not too fond of it, but it's the best possible way for now...plus having the Shiki Ryuu with their information network as allies, is beneficial...hihihihihi" - Jiraiya said that with a serious face before he saw some of the Land Of Iron women walking down the bustling street.
Sakura wanted to punch Jiraiya's lecherous visage, but so much happened today that she didn't have the energy to do so and just sighed: "In the end, he still didn't tell us where Sasuke currently is..."
"Hmph! We should have beaten the information out of him!" - Naruto crossed his arms.
"Beat him? Did you forget what happened the last time we fought him?" - Sakura
"Of course I didn't forget! But with Pervy Sage here and my super-strong new technique, it would have been a breeze!" - Naruto
Sakura glanced at Jiraiya who was on the ground after being hit by a woman he asked out (harassed): "Yeah...right..."
At the Valley of the End, Madara who was sitting on his stone figure's head, gripped his fist when suddenly Obito teleported behind him: "The drawback of the Edo Tensei is that the revived Shinobis are weaker than when they were alive. Why don't you cancel it and just let Nagato revive you as it was originally planned? Other than you reviving, everything is still going according to plan, so this might make things less complicated."
Without turning around, Madara responded: "Even if I'm currently weaker, there is no one who can defeat me. For the ant, a lion who grew old and weak is still worlds apart from the ant. Besides...a somewhat capable brat suddenly appeared and going with the original plan would be troublesome."
"Are you talking about the Lost Hokage, Eiji Nakamura?" - Obito
"Lost Hokage? The first time I've heard that... what's with this nickname?" - Madara
"I don't want to let long stories right now, so to summarise: the youngest Hokage in history, and after only a few weeks since he became Hokage he killed a village elder which ended his career. So not only was he the youngest in history, but also the shortest-serving Hokage." - Obito
When he heard that, Madara burst into laughter: "How interesting! I've never seen a shinobi like him...a pity that he had to cross me..."
A short silence.
"So, will you take charge from now on?" - Obito
"It will make things more efficient. Plus as I said I'll need to revise the plan a bit. Zetsu already briefed me on the members...so there is another Uchiha besides you? What was his name again?" - Madara
"Itachi...but I have to warn you, he is quite the troublesome fellow. It's always hard to tell what he's thinking..." - Obito's expression got darker under his mask.
"This doesn't matter. If we can't trust him, I'll just eradicate him...now enough with the talk. It's time for me to meet them." - Madara got up and glanced at Hashirama's stone figure before suddenly vanishing, leaving Obito behind.
'Even if you are Madara, it would be dumb to underestimate Itachi...'