"The moon." I said. "The Keyhole of this World is on the moon."
"At the core of the moon, yes."
What.
Why?
Why is the Keyhole at the core of the fucking moon?! Who would look there?!
...
Who would look there?
...
That's... actually a really good hiding spot. Why would anybody search a dead rock for the Keyhole of a World?
Who would have done that?
Certainly not me, because that idea never even crossed my mind.
...
Fuck me, this makes more sense the more I think about it. The moon was Juubi's prison, and it would have been at or near the core... And the Moon Eye Plan... and the fact that the moon is clearly generally important, like quite a few places that Keyholes are hidden...
It's... obvious in hindsight.
"That's clever." I eventually said. "That's really clever."
"The World thinks so." The Shinigami stated, passively.
I nodded, slowly.
"I... will deal with that after I've dealt with the Juubi."
"Of course."
...
"I get the feeling you don't get much conversation."
"I do not."
...
"Well." I paused for a moment, considering. "When this is all over, I'll make sure to visit you."
"That would be kind of you."
...
He is not a great conversationalist.
"Catch you later, I guess."
"Goodbye."
A bit awkward, but...
I stepped lifewards.
I'll deal with it later. Had what amounted to a god to be fighting, after all. The distraction was... not unaffordable, considering what I've been doing, but also not desirable.
Alright, Juubi. Back to giving you my undivided attention.
"What was that about, Hiruzen-dono?"
"Nothing that concerns you or anybody else other than myself and Drich, Onoki-dono." Hiruzen stated. "Inoichi, do you have anything else for us, or is that that the extent of immediately pertinent information?"
It was a rather blunt way of changing the subject, something that precisely nobody in the room missed. For a ninja of Hiruzen's calibur, it was even quite strange. It was, however, quite effective in informing everybody else that he had absolutely no intentions to elaborate on the subject.
Inoichi shook his head. "Only minutia, Hokage-sama."
Hiruzen nodded, briefly glancing at his smoking pipe before sighing and tucking it away. "Then I would propose that we move on to discussing how we shall hunt the Akatsuki down, if that is alright with all of you?"
Mei and Gaara nodded quickly, while Onoki and A were a bit slower, but still agreed.
"Very well. I was originally thinking at a dedicated task force would be most suitable..."
"Naruto."
Naruto's eyes opened. It was that dark orange place, again, but this time, the other Bijuu and Jinchuuriki weren't present.
"I was in the middle of sleeping, man." He says, not really complaining. He sits up, coming face to face with a pair of of Kyuubis. "Good to see you out of your funk, though."
It's a distinct lack of reaction that catches his attention. He has spent, by this point, years getting a reaction out of the Kyuubi, needling him, drawing him out of his shell through sheer annoyance. It's left him with a very good idea of how the Kyuubi's mind works, what's too far and what's not far enough.
This?
He sighs, straightens, and stops smiling. "Alright. Go."
"Madara died." The Kyuubi says. "During the fight. Hashirama killed him."
Naruto draws a breath. "You're certain." It's not really a question.
"It was the only good thing about that entire fight. Watching him die." Yinkura answers anyway.
"Alright." He takes a moment to consider it. "So he died and came back, somehow."
"Izanagi."
Naruto frowned. "The Kami?"
"It is a technique." Yangkura explained. "Granted by the Sharingan. Through the usage of spiritual and physical energies, the user can manipulate their own personal reality, transforming themselves into an illusion. This allows them to undo damage to themselves, no matter the scale; even immediate death can be undone as if nothing had happened."
"That sounds kind of stupid and also ridiculously powerful. What's the drawback?"
"The usage of it would render the Sharingan used to activate it permanently blind." Yinkura answered. "There was also a counterpart technique, designed to stop Uchiha from utilizing Izanagi unwisely."
"Okay, cool." The pieces began to click into place. "So you think he used that technique to... what, revive himself afterwards?"
"It is the only thing that makes sense." Yangkura stated. "He died. He must have revived himself after his body was retrieved and laid to rest, which is the only way he would have been able to escape attention. You'll also recall that image that the Yamanaka projected; Madara's hair covered one eye."
"Which would have been the eye that went blind using Izanagi." Naruto finished. "I don't like how much sense that makes."
He slumped, breathing out slowly, eyes closing as he went over it all in his head.
Neither Kyuubi said anything more.
"What does it change?" Naruto asked after a moment, looking up. "Madara... Tobi, Obito. There's a connection there; if he only died fifteen years ago, then... Obito was probably taken in by Madara, which means Madara may have had a chance to make more backup plans... And probably did."
"There is another thing." Yinkura noted. "The sequence of events the Yamanaka described. Madara was the one to create the tree that the Juubi's corpse was placed upon. The Juubi's corpse was not placed anywhere it could be easily accessed."
"Why does that matter?"
"The corpse, in its statue form, can only be summoned and manipulated by somebody who wields the Rinnegan." Yangkura answered. "Which implies that Madara possessed it."
Naruto swallowed. "He... couldn't have gone wherever it was and pulled it out from there?"
"No." Yangkura denied, immediately. "Not when he'd already be down an eye. The Juubi's corpse was sealed in the moon by Father and Uncle-"
"Okay, hold up!" Naruto threw his hands up. "The moon- father and uncle-" He paused, taking a deep breath and letting it out.
For a few moments, he simply stood there, obviously a bit lost. "I think-" He began, haltingly. "- that I'm going to need some explanations for those, because that's all new to me."