Everyone ended up staring at Madara after that reveal. I cough. "Can you elaborate a bit? How, and why exactly, is Zetsu doing this?"
Madara calmly begins talking. "His initial plan was to capture all of the tailed beasts, merging their chakra would have allowed him to revive Kaguya, the mother of the sage of six paths. The absence of the seven tails has led him to attempt a more desperate gambit. Zetsu wants to merge the chakra of all living humans. Since all of the chakra in the world originates from Kaguya herself this could lead to her revival."
Tsunade frowns. "Could? So he plans to exterminate all human life on the off chance that this will revive Kaguya?".
Madara nods. "Indeed. The Akatsuki was a front for his operations. Their leader was manipulated into gathering the tailed beasts for him. Right now he is operating together with Kakuzu."
This fucker is blaming everything on Zetsu. He's either got some plan or angle he doesn't want everyone to know about. Another possibility is that he thinks telling us about the infinite tsukuyomi plan would lead us to distrust us.
I cross my arms. "They captured Shukaku. We wanted to seal him but got ambushed by them after subduing him. Hinata and I died, got brought back with the edo tensei then revived ourselves."
Mei and Darui seem to be waiting for the discussion to unfold a bit more before involving themselves.
Mei ultimately decides to stop just listening. "Do you have any evidence for any of this? Or are we supposed to just believe you without any form of evidence?"
Madara shakes his head. "This will be proved the moment that he puts his plan in action. Otherwise I have nothing that would be able to convince any of you completely, I called you in order to bring this to your attention. The only evidence that I can provide is this."
He then activates his rinnegan. "This is the rinnegan. It is acquired through combining the chakra of the Indra and Ashura incarnations. During my battle with Hashirama I faked my death and used his flesh to awaken it. It allowed me to bring myself back to life after an ally of mine used himself as a sacrifice to bring me back."
Tsunade takes a deep breath. "I suppose you have some form of plan? Other than desecrating my grandfather more than you already have."
Madara nods. "Zetsu will be impossible to catch, our only option is to find Kakuzu. His greed will lead him to be unable not to take any missions. If he is seen we can investigate further as soon as possible."
I sigh. "We could probably just bribe Kakuzu. Also, we should probably bring back as many S-Rank shinobi as we can with the edo tensei. Even if we don't put them to any use, it's better to preemptively resurrect them than to risk Zetsu using them against us."
Darui shakes his head. "I cannot just put my dead shinobi under your control. If it is proven that this is indeed a danger then I will consider it."
Mei nods. "I concur. If this is conclusively proven to be true then I will also agree, otherwise our dead shall stay dead."
Madara shakes his head. "You have two options. Either agree to having your dead secured or I will do so myself. I will not allow the enemy to grow stronger because of your disunity."
Tsunade has crossed her arms and has begun tapping her bicep thoughtfully.
In practice Tsunade and I are the only ones who can really afford to have an opinion on this matter. If either of us agrees to force the issue the other would then be somewhat compelled to agree as well. Darui and Mei's villages are too weak to put up any real opposition.
I shrug. "On my side we don't have the corpses of anyone strong enough to matter. If Tsunade agrees then it would be best to use the edo tensei preemptively before Zetsu can, that's if he hasn't done so already."
Madara takes a deep breath. "He already has. Hashirama was brought back by him. Zetsu's mastery of the edo tensei is thankfully lackluster, so we will not be facing Hashirama at his prime."
That's still pretty bad. Our tattoo's are useless if we turn into edo tensei, but Hashirama can actually use senjutsu. Hashirama can actually balance nature chakra and adapt on the fly, meanwhile our seals rely on us having an actual chakra network in order to function properly.
Tsunade sighs. "I will agree to using the edo tensei pre-emptively. If this turns out to be just hot air I'll personally turn your insides into your outsides."
I give Mei and Darui a look. They both appear somewhat put off now. If they agree then they would be putting their elites under someone else's control. Neither Tsunade nor I would agree to teaching them the edo tensei, meaning they would have to put their trust in us if they agree. If they don't agree and we force the issue then they would have a tremendous loss of face. Since unlike Sakuragakure and Konohagakure they are much more decentralized this could lead to the two of them personally losing the grip on power.
Madara gives both Darui and Mei a bored look. "Make your choice. Either agree or be forced to."
Mei sighs. "I can't really stop you can I? So long as it is only Konohagakure that will use the edo tensei on our dead then I will consent."
Darui stares at the ceiling, before closing his eyes. "As she said. Neither of the two of us have any practical choice in the matter. I will agree so long as it is only Konohagakure that touches our dead."
I cross my arms. "Now to get back to catching Kakuzu. I propose we use shadow clones to alert each other as soon as he is sighted. I'll hand Darui and Mei the instructions for it. If all of us have shadow clones on standby in each other's villages we will be able to alert each other instantly."
Madara nods. "That will suffice. Once either of them are sighted we must capture them. Killing Kakuzu would accomplish nothing, since we need to interrogate him for information. Zetsu almost certainly has countermeasures prepared in case of his death. Both of them must be captured alive"
I take an empty paper and begin writing down the instructions for the shadow clone jutsu. Once I'm done I make four shadow clones and then hand over the paper to Mei and Darui. "Here are the instructions. It shouldn't be too difficult to learn and you two have more than enough chakra for four clones."
One of the clones goes to Tsunade, one to Madara, one to Mei and one to Darui. Tsunade and Madara do the same. It takes Mei and Darui about half an hour to learn the shadow clone jutsu with the assistance of Tsunade, Madara and I. Afterwards all of us head back to our respective villages, clone company included.
While Madara was not entirely honest, He did hide his plan for the infinite tsukuyomi, I honestly believe he doesn't have any hidden agenda at this moment. The man is an idealist, he genuinely wants what he believes to be best for the world. His explanation does sound somewhat plausible. In the legends the Sage is said to have shared his chakra with the world, and he in turn got his chakra from Kaguya.
What I don't understand is why had Zetsu taken Shukaku? I don't think that the tailed beasts are a critical part of his plan anymore. If he had wanted them for power then he could've taken literally any other tailed beast. There is no way someone who's lived for over a thousand years and whose sole goal relied on the tailed beasts does not have anything prepared to either seal them or deal with them. That would be the equivalent of a vampire living for a thousand years, being really invested in the stock market and still ending up dirt poor.