"Are you not getting up?"
"Uh…"
Madara sat up—if he didn't, Kyoichi was clearly about to finish him off.
Sitting on the ground, he looked at Kyoichi with confusion.
"You seeing through my Izanagi doesn't surprise me. I've used it before, so it's not strange you recognized it. But… why didn't you follow up with a killing blow?"
"You in a hurry to die so you can go down and meet Hashirama Senju?"
"Uh…"
What a foul-mouthed brat.
Madara was speechless and sighed lightly.
Though truthfully, he had been wondering who would win if his old friend Hashirama fought this youngster—
but he wasn't exactly eager to die just to find out.
Besides…
Even if he went down there, it wasn't like he had to see Hashirama.
Madara didn't explain further. He simply glanced at Kyoichi and said:
"Your strength is truly astonishing. But if I had my Mangekyō, you wouldn't be my opponent."
"Oh? And where are your eyes now?"
Kyoichi was deliberately prodding him, feigning ignorance to get a reaction.
Madara only chuckled.
He patted the ground beside him, signaling for Kyoichi to sit.
Madara was completely exhausted.
His eyes could only support that one battle, and Kyoichi had forced him to burn through both his life force and the power of five transplanted Sharingan. Even if he had another five on standby, his body no longer had the vitality to withstand them.
In these final moments, he simply wanted to talk with this young man.
"You're strong. Very strong. Not like me, nor Tobirama, nor Hashirama."
"As a junior, of course I have to surpass the seniors—otherwise how would I face them after death? Think about that guy from Kirigakure. After he went down there and met the Second Mizukage, do you think he had any face left?"
It wasn't that Kyoichi was picking on them—
but the Third and Fourth Mizukage had been embarrassingly incompetent.
Back then, the Second Mizukage might not have been on par with Hashirama and Madara, but he could compete with the other Second Kage.
One could say Kirigakure's strength peaked with the Second Mizukage.
But…
After just two generations, Kirigakure nearly wiped itself out from internal conflict. If not for Terumī Mei cleaning up, the Five Great Villages might not have included Kirigakure at all.
Hearing this, Madara couldn't help but laugh softly.
"No matter how strong the children are, they're still no match for adults. The only reason they 'win' is because adults let them. After all, who seriously fights a child at full strength?"
Kirigakure…
Of course that wasn't a coincidence.
Kirigakure was the easiest village in the world to manipulate.
The Land of Water was an island nation—isolated, reliant on ships for external connection, but strong enough to defend itself or carry out Madara's plans.
Thus…
Madara had set his sights on Kirigakure.
And indeed, the village's subsequent history was tragic.
As for Madara's words—
Kyoichi inwardly scoffed. Lost to me and still claiming it was "an adult letting a child win"?
Will he die if he doesn't boast for a moment?
But he couldn't be bothered exposing him, so he simply let Madara keep up the façade.
Madara had no shame at all.
Because he genuinely believed what he was saying.
"Madara, I know what you're trying to do. And I know even more than you think. Want to hear it?"
"Well, I don't have much time left. I can humor a child and play along."
Madara didn't object.
He didn't believe Kyoichi truly knew the full picture. Even the stone tablet—though readable with the Rinnegan—didn't show everything. Madara had only understood the complete message after unlocking his Rinnegan.
How could Nagato's ocular power compare to his own?
Madara was confident.
But—
Kyoichi continued:
"Nagato didn't see everything, no. But from fragments and clues, it's not hard to deduce your goal: collect the Tailed Beasts, combine them into the Ten-Tails, and become its jinchūriki, right?"
Madara smiled silently.
Kyoichi went on:
"After becoming the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki, you'll use a certain technique to achieve your objective. You people from that era were above petty ambitions—so I don't believe you're aiming for simple domination. You want something like… peace, don't you?"
"Uh…"
This time Madara wasn't ignoring him—
he genuinely didn't know how to respond.
For a long time, he'd thought Hashirama understood him best. But in the end, Hashirama had misunderstood him as well—thinking he only cared about positions and titles.
Yet now…
A junior separated from him by decades had spoken his true heart.
Madara didn't know what to say.
After a long silence, he sighed:
"Peace was the dream of everyone from our generation. You might not understand… In those days, children stepped onto the battlefield before they were old enough to write. Life and death depended entirely on luck. Many of my younger brothers died in war."
"Everyone hated war. Everyone longed for peace. But humans can never truly escape conflict. They repeat the same mistakes over and over for the smallest reasons."
"My goal… is to create a world where shinobi no longer fight each other."
Madara didn't explain the method.
Even if Kyoichi guessed this much, Madara wouldn't spell it out—
what if this kid was tricking him?
Knowing wasn't the issue.
Getting tricked into saying it was embarrassing.
"It's a genjutsu, isn't it?"
"Oh? And why do you think that?"
"Ten-Tails jinchūriki. Eyes. Uchiha. Put those three together—it's impossible not to think of a genjutsu. And that technique should involve the moon, right? Nagato saw a 'moon' character on the tablet."
"…Correct."
Madara did not deny it.
Kyoichi grinned.
"If that's what you're planning… then you're wrong."
"Oh?"
Madara raised a brow.
"Let's not talk about whether peace achieved through genjutsu is even possible. As your junior, let me critique your plan objectively."
Kyoichi picked up a twig and drew three circles on the ground.
Madara's body was weak.
But—
Kyoichi used medical ninjutsu to stabilize him.
"From known information, the moon might contain a sealed being—the one called Ōtsutsuki Kaguya. She likely has a connection to the God Tree, the Ten-Tails."
"To use your genjutsu, you need to establish a link with the moon."
"What if the final result… is that Kaguya gets released?"
After saying all this, Kyoichi didn't press further—
he let Madara think.
Madara frowned slightly.
Before this, he absolutely would have dismissed Kyoichi's words as nonsense. He was a man of absolute confidence—how could a plan he'd refined for decades be flawed?
But now…
Kyoichi held all the initiative. Madara's life was slipping away.
More importantly—
Kyoichi's reasoning was clear and logical.
"You believe that stone tablet because the Rinnegan proved part of it true, so you assume the rest must also be true. But did you consider this—maybe most of it is true…"
"But one sentence isn't."
"Or rather… that one sentence wasn't written by the Sage of Six Paths at all."
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