In the end, Madara chose to use an illusion upon himself, weaving a dreamscape that would please him.
The difference was, when others entered the world of illusions, they would never wake again, but Madara was already so powerful that he would awaken on his own after a certain amount of time.
Every time he awoke, it left him restless and ill at ease.
He even wished countless times that he had someone to speak to.
Over the long years, he was forced to release those bound by the God Tree to keep him company, and only then did his mood improve a little.
Even though he looked down on these people, just watching them from a distance brought him an unexpected sense of joy.
It was during this process that he began, uncontrollably, to reflect on himself: had he truly succeeded, or had he failed?
If you said he failed, all of his goals had been achieved perfectly.
But if you insisted he succeeded, why did he feel no happiness at all?
In the end, even he had to admit: no matter how beautiful, an illusion is still an illusion.
At first, the feeling of doing whatever he wanted within the dreamscape was exhilarating, endlessly finding new ways to indulge himself.
He even turned Hashirama into a woman in the illusion, making "her" unable to resist him, wildly pursuing him, only for him to treat Hashirama with complete indifference.
That was just a tiny glimpse, far more outrageous things happened as well.
The feeling of having whatever he wanted, however he wanted it, was intoxicating to him.
But over time, after a few hundred years in the illusion, he began to feel a little bored.
He even deliberately introduced small setbacks into his dream-life, and found that this wasn't so bad.
Later, he began to set himself many difficult challenges within the illusion, overcoming them again and again through painstaking effort and cleverness.
Later still, he even allowed himself to experience failure in the illusion, realizing that failure was not necessarily a bad thing, that it could make his experiences more complete, and his heart more mature.
Eventually, his illusion began to resemble reality more and more, because only then did it feel real to him.
Whether it had been tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, he finally grew weary of a dream-world where he could have whatever he wanted.
From the depths of his heart, he began to feel that no matter how bad reality was, it was still beyond anything an illusion could offer.
The word "real" itself moved him, and he felt an impatient longing to touch it.
The illusion was indeed pleasurable, but if it was nothing but pleasure, over and over again, forever the same, it became truly meaningless.
After countless satisfactions, his heart had long since been deeply healed.
And then, the dissatisfactions of reality no longer seemed to matter much to him.
---
In the real world, only a single minute had passed when Madara suddenly awoke, staring blankly around him.
Realizing where he was, he immediately reached out to touch his body, felt his face, then kept glancing around in all directions.
After a while, he slowly let out a breath, then suddenly thought of something, and couldn't stop himself from bursting into wild laughter.
"Hahahahaha! Interesting, interesting."
Hundreds of times of success, and the endless satisfaction after each one within the illusion, had completely erased his impulse to carry out the Infinite Tsukuyomi plan.
Yet he wasn't angry in the slightest.
Because he could clearly feel that Shin had not forcibly interfered with his illusion, nor used any special means to alter his perception.
He had only kept on fulfilling him, fulfilling him, fulfilling him.
In the end, it truly made him fall in love with reality again, and he instead scoffed at the so-called Eye of the Moon Plan.
I've already succeeded hundreds of times in all kinds of ways, what attraction could this thing possibly have left?
Seeing Madara laughing so happily, Shin also began to smile.
His smile wasn't as exaggerated as Madara's, but it was sincere nonetheless.
"What are you laughing at?" Madara instantly grew irritated, and without hesitation smacked Shin right on the forehead. "I'm your family, and this is how you treat me?"
"Uh..." Shin was stunned. The hell is going on here?
"Are you... alright?"
Madara shot him a fierce glare and snorted. "Still, I'll give you this, even if it was with genjutsu, you knew how to make me happy."
"Feels good... Hahaha!"
This time, Shin didn't laugh along.
Who knew what kind of crazy thing Madara might say next.
This strange state lasted for half an hour before Madara finally calmed down.
"You tell me, if I had just said what I felt to Hashirama directly instead of bottling it up and letting it build... would things have turned out differently?"
Shin nearly lost it. Seriously? Is your brain filled with nothing but Hashirama? What kind of love potion did he give you?
Why don't you two just get together already? So what, Mito was just a third wheel?
Still, he answered honestly, "Hashirama and Tsunade have similar personalities, both are the easygoing type. If you don't speak up, they won't even realize there's a problem. But at their core, they're both kind-hearted. If you're really willing to put down your pride and talk to him, he'll definitely understand you and consider your feelings more."
Hearing that, Madara smiled again, but this time, it wasn't a wild laugh, just a satisfied smile.
"What a pity... I'm afraid I won't get that chance," Madara said after a long pause, sounding a little melancholic.
"How could you not?" Shin quickly said. "Just revive him. You and I both have that ability, if you want to see him, you can do it anytime."
But Madara shook his head. "I don't know how to face him. I've always blamed him for not understanding me... but when have I ever truly understood him?"
"You're overthinking it. At least so far, aside from venting your anger by fighting him once, you haven't done anything harmful to Konoha," Shin said reassuringly. "If you just speak your mind, he'll understand."
After a long silence, Madara sighed. "Hah... I'll think about it."
"Well then, when you meet him, you can decide what to say."
"Alright, enough about me, tell me about yourself," Madara said, no longer dwelling on it.
Shin didn't hold back. He told Madara everything, the origin of chakra, Kaguya, Isshiki, the entire Ōtsutsuki clan, and his prediction that in 200 years the shinobi world would be destroyed.
"So, you're planning to use me as a test subject?" Madara immediately sounded displeased again.
"Heh heh, my eyes are the result of experiments, just like you, aren't they?"
"Experiments aren't the goal, they're just the means. Our ultimate goal is to obtain power."
"And then let those bastards see our fury, let those self-important, high-and-mighty jerks know we're not easy to deal with."
"Now you're talking my language." Madara said. "When have I ever backed down? I've only ever made others back down."
"How do you plan to deal with Black Zetsu?" Shin asked.
Madara pondered for quite a while before speaking: "That guy may have bad intentions, but he's taken good care of me for so many years. Since all he wants is to save his mother, let's give him that chance. But not now, like you said, for now we can't handle Kaguya. When we've grown strong enough to no longer fear her, releasing her won't be out of the question."
Shin nodded. "That's what I was thinking too."
With that, he removed the barrier he had set up.
Black Zetsu, who had been waiting outside, rushed in immediately, looking nervously at them.
"Shin has told me about your situation." Madara looked at him calmly. "You want to rescue your mother, Kaguya, don't you?"
Black Zetsu froze like he'd been hit with a paralysis jutsu, completely dumbfounded.
He had hidden this for nearly a thousand years, never telling anyone, not even the Sage of Six Paths had learned of it.
But now, Madara had just bluntly exposed the deepest secret in his heart.
In that moment, he felt utter despair.
It's over. Completely over. Everything's over.
But just as he was breaking down, Madara's voice rang out, "I can help you, but you have to keep helping me."
"What did you just say?" Black Zetsu's voice trembled.
"I said I can help you, but you have to keep helping me."
"Why... why would you help me?" Black Zetsu asked in confusion.
"Because we share a common enemy," Madara explained. "And besides, I've gotten used to working with you."
"What common enemy?" Black Zetsu was still completely baffled.
"Your mother's name is Kaguya, but how much do you actually know about the Ōtsutsuki clan?" Shin interjected.
"I don't know much... only that she came from beyond this world, not a native of Earth."
"I can tell you for certain, your mother broke the laws of the Ōtsutsuki clan. If she's released, the Ōtsutsuki will never let her go. And the truth is, the Ōtsutsuki clan has long had designs on Earth, and in the future, they'll invade for sure. That's why I said we share a common enemy. And the enemy of my enemy... is my friend."
Shin then revealed to Black Zetsu everything he knew about the Ōtsutsuki clan, leaving him once again utterly stunned.
And based on Shin's explanation, it was true: the Ōtsutsuki would never spare his mother.
Kaguya had come to Earth with the purpose of planting the God Tree and harvesting its chakra fruit to take back for her clan's use. But she acted against Isshiki and, without authorization, consumed the God Tree's fruit herself, depriving the Ōtsutsuki clan of the chakra supply they were supposed to receive. This was a serious violation of the mission entrusted to her by the clan.
Not only did she consume the fruit, she also used the God Tree to create the White Zetsu army, in preparation to fight against any other Ōtsutsuki clan members who might arrive. Such actions put her in direct opposition to the Ōtsutsuki, constituting a betrayal of the clan.
Moreover, the Ōtsutsuki clan collected chakra fruits from various planets to advance their own evolution and fulfill certain long-term plans.
Kaguya's actions had disrupted this resource point, Earth, causing problems in the clan's chakra-harvesting network across the cosmos. This disturbance threw off the clan's entire development plan.
From the perspective of the Ōtsutsuki clan, her deeds were unquestionably punishable by death.
Black Zetsu was indeed devoted to saving his mother, but he absolutely did not want to see her released only to be hunted down by the Ōtsutsuki clan. That would mean he had doomed her himself.
Just the thought of such a possibility sent chills down his spine.
"Do you want to release Kaguya right now and have her hunted down, dying because of you, or do you want to accept my proposal, wait a while, and join forces with us to fight the Ōtsutsuki clan?"
Madara presented two options for Black Zetsu to choose from.
On the surface, it seemed like there was a choice, but to Black Zetsu, there was only one real answer.
He wanted to save his mother, but even more, he wanted her to be safe.
"I choose the second option," Black Zetsu said solemnly.
"Good. From now on, you'll continue to follow me. Once the time is right, I'll release your mother. Then you can tell her the truth and persuade her to join us in opposing the Ōtsutsuki clan."
"I understand. From now on, I will follow you just as I always have."
With Madara persuaded and Black Zetsu brought under control, Shin's mood improved considerably.
"Are you coming back to Konoha with me now, or do you have other plans?"
"Don't try that with me. I gave you my word, and I won't go back on it."
"Then come with me first. Let's restore you to your peak."
---
B4 level of the research facility.
"Shin! And... Madara?" Orochimaru's eyes lit up when he saw that Shin had really brought Madara back. He hurried forward.
This was top-tier experimental material, there wasn't another like him in the entire shinobi world. How could he not be thrilled?
Especially seeing that Madara was now aged and frail, walking unsteadily, he grew even more eager.
Because today, he would personally oversee the birth of a miracle, using decades of research to restore Madara's youth.
Everything Shin had envisioned had now been fully validated, proving that the path of scientific evolution was entirely viable.
If they could truly return Madara to his prime, it would mean that the first stage of their immortality research had been a complete success.