"Difficult?"
Madara was stunned because he realized that if the Sage of Six Paths truly wanted to stop it, it probably wouldn't be difficult, would it?
After all, the Sage of Six Paths and his younger brother had defeated an Ōtsutsuki, and he had experienced firsthand just how strong an Ōtsutsuki was. Being able to defeat such a crazy fellow was enough to demonstrate the Sage of Six Paths's strength.
But then the question arose: why didn't he stop all of this?
"Hiss."
Not only Madara, but Black Zetsu also sensed that something was wrong.
He had always thought that his brother felt guilty because of the choice regarding Ninshu, which was why he didn't stop it. After all, his meddling was involved, but upon closer thought, if he had wanted to stop it, he definitely could have.
'It's just, why didn't he do so? Could there really be some hidden secret here?'
Black Zetsu was a little flustered. His millennium-long plan had never encountered any problems, which had gradually made him lower his guard. But now, looking back, he felt it was incredible.
What other problems could there be within this?
"You mean, this is the result the Sage of Six Paths wanted?"
Madara frowned deeply, he still found it somewhat hard to believe.
"Hashirama, do you believe such nonsense too?"
"Madara, it's not that I want to believe it, but..."
Hashirama was somewhat reluctant to slander the Sage of Six Paths, but after experiencing so much, he couldn't help but believe it.
Glancing at his younger brother's eager expression, Hashirama decisively chose to continue speaking. He couldn't let his younger brother act recklessly.
"That's just the fact, and his purpose in doing so was essentially for the survival of the entire Ninja World."
"For the Ninja World? Letting brothers turn against each other? Letting this millennium-long war continue?"
Madara's face was filled with disbelief, but Hashirama nodded seriously.
"Exactly. Although it's hard to believe, this is the truth. I want to ask you, who do you think is the biggest enemy of the current Ninja World?"
"The biggest enemy of the Ninja World..."
Madara raised an eyebrow, immediately realizing something.
"Ōtsutsuki Takeshiki?"
"Not just Ōtsutsuki Takeshiki. Don't forget how many Ōtsutsuki have come to the Ninja World over the years, it's just that he is the most terrifying one."
"Hmph, that so-called Path to Godhood is cold-blooded and cruel to the extreme. So, according to you..."
"That's right, the Sage of Six Paths orchestrated this millennium-long war precisely for this moment."
Hashirama took a deep breath and continued speaking with utmost seriousness.
"The millennium-long war was probably to allow the entire Ninja World to constantly be tempered, whether in the use of Chakra or combat techniques, as well as..."
"The tempering of will!"
Madara seemed to understand a little, he clenched his fists and murmured softly.
"Ordinary people, upon seeing a ninja, almost never have the desire to challenge them, the gap is too large. And when we encounter an Ōtsutsuki, it's pretty much the same, but..."
"This millennium-long war has taught us ninjas not to fear powerful enemies."
Hashirama naturally took over the conversation.
He sighed and continued, "Especially when our homeland is threatened, the belief forged by a thousand years of bloody war runs deeper, that will becomes firmer, and we will fight even harder."
"The enemy is indeed terrifying, but if we don't even have the courage to face the enemy, or the belief to fight..."
Madara took a deep breath, and his gaze seemed somewhat dazed.
"Then this world wouldn't even need to struggle, it would have been over long ago."
In just a few short sentences, everyone present had fallen into silence.
Tobirama was somewhat annoyed, because his chance to argue with Madara was gone.
Sasuke, Naruto, and Minato seemed not to have fully recovered. They had never imagined the Sage of Six Paths to be like this.
This seemed a little too terrifying, didn't it?
The legends they had always heard depicted the Sage of Six Paths as compassionate to all beings, working tirelessly for the Ninja World, transmitting Chakra, and so on.
But now, it seemed...
Although he is still compassionate to all beings and wants to find a way out for the countless beings in the Ninja World, the method is quite different.
Minato couldn't help but rub his temples. Under Hashirama and Madara's rhetoric, the image of the Sage of Six Paths had already changed. The actions of this Sage of Six Paths, needless to say, were not benevolent. At the very least, they were heinous.
Allowing the Ninja World to fight for a thousand years, sacrificing countless lives to build a future?
How cold-blooded and ruthless, how utterly frigid and cruel was this?!
"Hiss, is this the true Sage of Six Paths?"
Sasuke and Naruto only now came to their senses. They couldn't help but look at each other, but they couldn't utter a single word.
'This is Hagoromo's goal?!'
Black Zetsu couldn't hold on any longer.
If all of this was true, then what had he done?
'I've become Hagoromo's accomplice?!'
He recalled the past years, he had diligently provoked the descendants of Indra and Asura to rescue his mother. He had allowed their hatred to constantly accumulate, allowed them to continuously fight, and even let this battle continue for a thousand years.
The result...
Turning around, everything he had done was helping his brother?
And it was his most hated brother, who had sealed their mother?
Black Zetsu found such a result hard to accept, things shouldn't have been this way.
'Did he always know I was here, but was just using me to plunge the entire Ninja World into chaos to achieve his goal?'
Thinking of this, Black Zetsu's fists were already rock hard.
Recalling his brother's plan, he even had a thought.
That is, the Infinite Tsukuyomi he created was also permitted by his brother.
'Hiss! He wants to use mother to deal with those Ōtsutsuki?'
Black Zetsu gasped, a sudden thought striking him, but upon closer inspection, it seemed to make perfect sense.
Although the Ninja World had been tempered and its combat power had continuously increased, and even terrifying individuals like Takemi had appeared, to truly deal with an Ōtsutsuki, perhaps only an Ōtsutsuki could do it. So, his mother...
'What a vicious scheme. You truly don't want mother to live.'
Thinking of Isshiki's 'killing spree' and the extremely cold-blooded Path to Godhood, Black Zetsu gritted his teeth at this moment.
'Dream on. I must protect mother. I must...'
'I won't let you, this cold-blooded fellow, succeed.'
'I will absolutely not let mother leave the seal! Never!'
Black Zetsu screamed silently, while Madara seemed to have recovered at this moment.
"If everything is true..."
Carefully pondering everything the Sage of Six Paths had done, even he couldn't help but sigh.
"Then the Sage of Six Paths is too extreme."
Extreme was the only word Madara could think of, but he also had to admit one thing.
When things truly reached that point, the life and death of individuals were no longer important. The survival of the Ninja World was the most crucial.
According to this logic, a millennium of war was inevitable, and Hashirama forming ninja villages and expanding the scale of the war was also inevitable because all of this was to temper the Ninja World, for the future of the Ninja World.
However, this also made him feel somewhat resentful, because the peace he longed for seemed somewhat difficult to achieve?
'No, that's not right. As long as those Ōtsutsuki are dealt with, then everything has a chance, especially that Infinite Tsukuyomi...'
Thinking of this, Madara suddenly looked up, staring at the five individuals before him. In his eyes, there was subtly something different.
"Since this is what the Sage of Six Paths wanted, then I will satisfy him well. But before that..."
"I want to see if you are qualified."
No sooner had he spoken than his massive Susanoo launched an attack.
"Crazy, I knew you would do this." Tobirama spoke disdainfully.
He seemed to have anticipated it, and Hashirama was the same. After all, both Madara and he had been waiting for this battle for a long time.
Outside Konoha, as the six Hokage/potential Hokage began to fight, Takemi had quietly appeared in the sky.
He kept his eyes closed, silently sensing his surroundings. The next moment, he suddenly opened his eyes.
"A bit of a trick. In the past, I really wouldn't have had a way, but now..."
His eyes glowed brightly, and in his vision, space had become a transparent tunnel. Node after node appeared before him, and behind these strange and complex nodes was a deep, extremely hidden space.
And within this space, a monstrous beast was prostrate on the ground, its massive Rinnegan eyes already revealing its identity.
"I finally found you, Isshiki's Ten-Tails."