Natsuro looked at the bisected corpse of Six Paths Obito lying on the ground, and for a moment, he felt dazed. Although he had known from the start that he had a natural advantage over Six Paths Obito, he hadn't expected the battle to go so smoothly.
After all, most of the abilities granted to Obito by becoming the Ten-Tails jinchūriki were practically useless against him. The only real threat was the Truth-Seeking Orbs.
But even then, Natsuro, though unable to create perfect Truth-Seeking Orbs himself, had a deeper understanding of them than Obito did. Evading them was child's play for him.
And Obito's immunity to ninjutsu? It was completely ineffective against Natsuro, who used only Sage Arts.
In short, all that Obito had gained from becoming the Ten-Tails jinchūriki were boosts to his base attributes such as speed, reflexes, chakra, and so on.
But with the help of Naruto and the Yang Nine-Tails sealed within him, he had achieved perfect Nine-Tails Mode. Combined with his own jutsu arsenal, the difference between them was practically nonexistent.
Even if Obito had retained his intangibility ability, it would've only caused him some trouble. After all, he had already tossed several Flying Thunder God–marked items into Kamui's dimension using Kakashi's Mangekyō Sharingan.
Ever since Natsuro had enhanced his space-time abilities through dimensional traversal, he had already gained the ability to access Kamui's dimension directly without Kakashi's help, he just hadn't used it to avoid alerting anyone.
Ironically, he never got a chance to use it anyway, since Obito couldn't access it himself anymore.
At this moment, the Yin Nine-Tails withdrew its chakra, and Natsuro's golden form finally faded away.
"Natsuro… something feels strange about your body now…" Yin Kurama suddenly said.
"Oh? What's strange?" Natsuro replied with a smile at the corner of his lips.
"I feel like… you're not human," said the Nine-Tails. It hadn't noticed anything unusual in Natsuro's normal state, but during their fusion just now, it had sensed something peculiar.
Yet it couldn't comprehend what exactly Natsuro's condition was.
"Heh… you'll find out eventually," Natsuro answered calmly, not bothering to explain further.
"Hmph! I don't care anyway," Kurama snorted. But even as it spoke, it too looked over at Obito's mangled corpse and muttered with a touch of awe, "Can't believe you actually defeated someone with the power of the Sage of Six Paths…"
Kurama could tell that Obito wasn't exactly on the same level as Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki (the Sage of Six Paths), but the gap wasn't a qualitative one. Meaning, if Natsuro could defeat Obito, then he had what it took to challenge the Sage himself.
"Nothing to be surprised about," Natsuro said as he walked toward Obito's body.
Suddenly, a black tendril burst from the ground and wrapped around Obito's corpse.
"No you don't!" Natsuro's eyes narrowed. He instantly vanished, but he was a step too late. The Dimesional Blade he sent down only managed to sever part of Obito's body…
Roughly… a quarter? Natsuro squinted toward the distance.
There stood Madara Uchiha, with none other than Black Zetsu at his side.
"No surprise there. Black Zetsu's concealment abilities are unrivaled," Natsuro muttered in admiration. His sensory perception was constantly active, and almost nothing could escape it, but he hadn't sensed Black Zetsu's presence at all.
It truly lived up to its legend... manipulating events under Hagoromo's nose without being discovered. Its stealth extended beyond sensory perception. To detect it while hidden, one might need to be on Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's level...
"Oh? Saying that makes it sound like you know me," Black Zetsu said with a sinister grin.
"Maybe… I really do," Natsuro replied casually, then turned to Madara. "Even if you have Obito's body, it's useless—"
He suddenly stopped, stunned as he looked at Madara standing there, with one Rinnegan, and the other eye a pitch-black void, looking disturbingly hollow, like a child from a horror film.
"You're… alive?! When did you revive?!" Natsuro asked in disbelief. That Madara standing there was no longer Edo Tensei, it was a fully revived Madara Uchiha.
"As expected of someone who defeated Six Paths Obito… You noticed so quickly," Madara chuckled lightly and answered,"It happened while you were busy fighting Obito and unable to monitor anything else."
Madara had planned to resurrect ever since Obito became the Ten-Tails jinchūriki. But he was wary of Natsuro interfering, so he waited for the perfect moment, when Natsuro was occupied with Obito, and Naruto and Sasuke were being treated by the Allied Forces' medics.
As for the rest of the Allied Forces? Madara didn't care about them. He easily tricked them.
To facilitate his resurrection, he had sacrificed the most unique White Zetsu among them... the one once known as Tobi, Obito's "half-body," capable of using multiple Wood Release techniques.
Even so, Tobi lacked the ability to perform the Rinnegan's Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique. In the end, it was used to convert the remaining White Zetsu army into energy to fuel the jutsu, barely managing to execute it without the Rinnegan absorbing everything completely.
Moreover, since the jutsu's target was only Madara himself, not an entire village like when Nagato used it in the original story, it succeeded just barely.
And because the target was only one person, the jutsu was performed without summoning the King of Hell, avoiding attention from Natsuro or Obito.
Of course, this single usage drained their remaining supply of White Zetsu from the Gedo Statue, effectively wiping out their numbers. Though White Zetsu weren't powerful, they were emotionless puppets, thus convenient to use.
Losing them was a pity… but compared to Madara's life, what did the Zetsu army matter?
"I see," Natsuro nodded. During his battle with Obito, he hadn't been able to spare the focus to monitor Madara. After all, Obito wielded Six Paths power, and his attacks were no joke, any misstep could have left him gravely injured.
Now, Madara had already retrieved Obito's body, absorbed the Ten-Tails again, and reclaimed his own Rinnegan from Obito's eye socket.
Natsuro watched all this, knowing he was too late to stop it. He could only watch as Madara became the new Ten-Tails jinchūriki... and this time, with both Rinnegan!
"Six Paths Madara… just how powerful will you be?" Natsuro mused with genuine curiosity. In the original story, we never saw Madara fully unleash his strength with both Rinnegan, he was backstabbed by Black Zetsu before he could.
But back then, he faced Naruto in Six Paths Sage Mode and Sasuke with the Six-Tomoe Rinnegan, the two biggest hacks in the series. Being overpowered by them wasn't shameful.
In fact, if he had faced just one of them, he might not have lost at all.
Meanwhile, Natsuro took what remained from Obito's partial corpse, extracting a bit of residual Six Paths power.
He sensed the chakra within, containing the essence of all Nine Tailed Beasts, from Shukaku to Kurama, but without any of their individual wills.
Which suited him perfectly.
He had never intended to use tailed chakra imbued with beast consciousness. With this pure, will-less chakra as a seed, he could slowly cultivate it with natural energy.
If all went well, he would eventually be able to use the powers of all the Tailed Beasts...
Shukaku's sand power, Magnet Release, and sealing techniques;
Matatabi's unique Fire Style;
Isobu's Ice Release;
Son Gokū's Lava Release;
Kokuō's Boil Release;
Saiken's Acid Release;
Chōmei's special scale powder;
Gyūki's regeneration;
And Kurama's malicious intent sensing and chakra transfer.
These powers were innate to the Tailed Beasts, and stronger than those derived from forced human fusions. Eventually, he would possess multiple Kekkei Genkai, without ever having to painstakingly develop them.
Which, of course, let him… skip the grind.
However, Natsuro didn't have the time to cultivate all those abilities just yet. What he needed right now was… the power of the Six Paths!
Quickly, he began channeling the residual Six Paths chakra from Obito's corpse, slowly condensing a pitch-black Truth-Seeking Orb, which floated steadily above his palm.
Gradually, Natsuro opened his eyes and looked at the perfectly stable orb. Unlike before, it no longer had that tendency to spontaneously explode. A smile crept across his lips.
After all his research, he had finally overcome the last barrier upon coming into contact with real Six Paths power.
From this point forward, he would be able to use true Truth-Seeking Orbs in battle. Unlike Obito, who couldn't generate them on his own, he could create and wield them freely at will.
More importantly, forming a Truth-Seeking Orb also meant that Natsuro had finally found the path to fusing all chakra natures together, something he had been striving for since the start of the Fourth Great Shinobi War.
And the fusion of all chakra natures was known as… Kekkei Mōra.
It wasn't that everyone who attained Six Paths power could automatically produce Truth-Seeking Orbs, rather, Natsuro's hard work had finally paid off when it intersected with that power.
"That's… a Truth-Seeking Orb? You actually mastered that power?" Yin Kurama was stunned once again. After all, Obito and the others had only generated Truth-Seeking Orbs automatically upon becoming the Ten-Tails jinchūriki. Apart from the Sage of Six Paths himself and his kin, Yin Kurama had never seen anyone actually create one manually.
Yet now, Natsuro had performed that miracle, right in front of it.
"Strange, is it?" Natsuro smiled faintly. In a few months, he'd likely be able to demonstrate the powers of all Nine Tailed Beasts as well—he wondered what Yin Kurama would think of that.
Yin Kurama went silent for a moment… then sighed. Honestly, by this point, it wasn't even that surprising anymore.
With that, Kurama flopped down again to begin recovering the chakra it had just expended—because it knew full well that another brutal battle was just around the corner.
"Boom!!"
Suddenly, a massive surge of power erupted from where Madara Uchiha stood. The pressure was so intense, it felt like space itself had grown heavier.
Natsuro narrowed his eyes in response to the wave of energy.
Unlike Obito, who couldn't use the Rinnegan's powers or his Mangekyō Sharingan's Kamui, Six Paths Madara, who could use all of the Rinnegan's abilities, was on an entirely different level.
Slowly, Madara stepped forth from the crater left by the Ten-Tails' violent transformation. His appearance had changed drastically.
No, he could no longer be called just Madara Uchiha.
He was now Six Paths Madara.
His once black, flowing hair had turned stark white. A horn-like protrusion grew from his forehead, like a headband born from his own flesh.
The red armor he had once worn was now replaced by the Sage of Six Paths' white robes. Behind him floated a ring of nine Truth-Seeking Orbs, and his exposed arms had turned pitch-black. In his hand was a black Six Paths staff.
"So this is the power of the Six Paths…" Six Paths Madara muttered in awe, even more astonished that Natsuro had defeated someone wielding this level of strength.
Even if Obito couldn't use the Rinnegan or Kamui, the raw stats alone such as speed, reflexes, chakra were enough to make him practically unstoppable. Neither Hashirama nor Madara himself in life could have overcome that.
"Sixth Hokage… the more I feel the power of the Six Paths, the more I realize how strong you are," Six Paths Madara said. Even now, having become the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki and attained this godlike power, he didn't dare underestimate Natsuro.
"You flatter me," Natsuro replied, his expression grave as he eyed Madara's dual Rinnegan. The threat Madara posed now was far beyond what Obito ever had.
"Over-humility isn't a good trait, Sixth Hokage. I, Madara Uchiha, now recognize you as the strongest Hokage of this era, stronger than Hashirama, and even than I was back then." Madara's eyes burned with intensity as he stared at Natsuro.
"Unfortunately… I don't need your recognition." Natsuro tightened his grip on the Ink Blade, his body already coursing with Swift Release chakra.
"Hahahaha! Very well, Sixth Hokage! Then let us begin round two of this war! This time, don't expect to win so easily!" Six Paths Madara roared with laughter before charging straight at Natsuro.
Six Paths Madara… has entered the battlefield!
If you want to read more...
Check out the patreon and get 55 chapters in advance -> SaintXI
Currently on Chapter 423 - Challenging Unohana