[FOR EVERY 100 POWERSTONES = 1 EXTRA CHAPTER]
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Two years of unblemished peace. Two years where the memory of war felt like a faded, bad dream. Konoha, under the wise and firm leadership of its first Hokage, Toka Senju, had become a beacon of prosperity and power. The streets, once trod by wary shinobi from feuding clans, now echoed with the laughter of children from a dozen different bloodlines playing together. The Hokage's face, a serene and determined sculpture carved into the mountain overlooking the village, watched over it all—a symbol of the unity between Senju and Uchiha.
On the lip of that very rock, the architects of this new world stood together, looking down at their creation. Toka, her Hokage robes billowing slightly in the breeze, stood beside Indra. Behind them were Hashirama, beaming with paternal pride, Madara with a rare, contented smirk, Izuna, Tobirama, and their respective spouses. They were a council of demigods, a family bound by blood, battle, and a shared dream.
"We've done it," Hashirama said, his voice full of wonder. "It's real."
"It is stable," Tobirama corrected, ever the pragmatist, but even he couldn't hide the slight upward tilt of his lips. "The economic models are sound. The military integration is complete. The other villages respect our borders."
"Respect?" Madara chuckled, a low, confident sound. "They fear him." He jerked a thumb towards Indra. "And that fear is the foundation of our peace."
Indra, his arm wrapped around Toka's waist, didn't deny it. His Six Eyes were constantly active on a low level, a passive scan of the continent for threats. He had been planning, his mind reaching for a future conflict he knew was inevitable. "This stability is the first step," he said, his voice quiet no One can Heard. "But it is not enough. To stand against what is coming from the stars, the entire shinobi world must be united. Not just in fear, but in purpose."
He was speaking of the Otsutsuki, a threat only he and Agni, Fly in the sky, fully comprehended. In his contentment, however, he had made a critical, human error. He had forgotten a fundamental law of the universe: that reality rarely allows a good man to remain in uninterrupted joy for long. And he had gravely underestimated the patience and malice of a scorned son.
Deep beneath the earth, in the lightless places where hope and sanity withered, Black Zetsu watched. The last two years had been an eternity of torment for him. The peace, the laughter, the love—it was all a profane mockery of his mother's grand design. Indra Uchiha was the lynchpin. While he lived, Madara would never fall. The Infinite Tsukuyomi was a dying dream.
His plan was born of pure, concentrated hatred. He could not kill Indra; that was beyond even his capabilities. But he could remove him. Permanently. He had slithered to the ruins of Uzushiogakure, sifting through the scattered, advanced sealing knowledge of the Uzumaki. There, he had found it: the Jikū Fūjin — the Eternal Space-Time Seal. A forbidden technique designed not to kill, but to exile, to trap a target in a pocket dimension from which there was no return, severing them from the flow of time and reality itself.
He knew he could not get within a hundred miles of Indra without being detected. But here, on the Hokage Rock, with the village celebrating below, their vigilance was at its lowest. They felt safe. They were wrong.
Using a possessed White Zetsu body as a vessel, he moved through the earth, a silent cancer rising towards the heart of Konoha. He poured every ounce of his malice, every century of his frustration, into the seal. He emerged from the stone of the Hokage Rock itself, just as Indra was outlining his vision for a unified shinobi world.
The reaction was instantaneous and devastating.
A complex, glowing lattice of chakra, black and purple like a bruise on reality, erupted from the ground, its tendrils aiming directly for Indra.
"INDRA!" Toka's scream was raw with terror. Her love, sharpened by the memories of losing him once before, overrode all else. She didn't think; she acted. With a roar that tore from her very soul, she unleashed her monstrous strength, her fist smashing into the rock where Black Zetsu was hidden. The entire mountaintop shuddered, and a crater erupted, sending shards of stone flying. The White Zetsu body was violently exposed, its form mangled by the sheer force of the blow.
Everyone moved at once.
"IZUNA!" Tobirama barked.
"ON IT!" Izuna's Mangekyo swirled. "Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique!"
Tobirama vanished in a flash of yellow, a Flying Raijin kunai already embedded in the rock behind Zetsu. He reappeared, hands already weaving signs. "Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet!" A colossal dragon of water slammed into the disoriented Zetsu.
The illusions had no effect—Zetsu's will was too ancient, too alien. But the physical attacks did. The water dragon shattered the White Zetsu body further.
Madara was next, a blue blur of motion. He appeared in front of Zetsu, his Eternal Mangekyo burning. "You vile shadow how dare you show your face again in front of me!" he roared, driving a fist reinforced with chakra directly into Zetsu's jaw with a sickening crack.
Hashirama completed the assault, slamming his palms down. "Wood Style: Wood dragon bind" Thick, binding roots erupted, coiling around the broken form of Zetsu, crushing and constricting.
Black Zetsu, within his vessel, cackled maniacally, even as his form was being systematically destroyed. The damage was irrelevant. His goal was achieved.
For Indra had not moved. The sealing matrix had wrapped around him, not like chains, but like a fundamental law being rewritten. He stood at its center, his Six Eyes analyzing the structure with frantic speed. It was a masterpiece of malicious fuinjutsu, a self-sustaining paradox designed to unravel his connection to this dimension.
"Indra!" Toka rushed to him, her hands trying to touch the energy, only to be repelled with a searing shock. Tears streamed down her face. "No, please, don't leave me! Not again!"
Indra turned his head, his gaze meeting hers. The cosmic calm in his eyes was fractured, replaced by a fierce, urgent love. "Toka. Listen to me. This seal… it's powerful. I cannot break it from here. Not in time."
"Then I'm coming with you!" she cried, her voice breaking.
"That's what I'm counting on," he said, a small, grim smile touching his lips. "I have a way to this seal right now. But it will take us away. To another plane of existence. It will take me a decade, maybe two, to gather the power to return."
He then looked past her, his voice taking on the tone of the leader they all respected. "Madara! Hashirama! Tobirama! Izuna! Lead the village! Lead it righteously! Protect our home! I will be gone, but I will return. When I do, I expect to find Konoha standing strong, not fallen into misery! Use the Uzumaki sealing arts unite with all other clan's! To fortify our defenses!"
Black Zetsu, his form dissolving back into the earth, his voice a fading, triumphant hiss, echoed around them. "Farewell, God of Shinobi! Rot for eternity in the void! My mother's world is saved!" Said silently no one can heard.
As his voice faded, Indra focused. 'System. Initiate Emergency Plane-Walk. Primary Passenger: Indra Uchiha. Secondary Passengers: Toka Senju-Uchiha, Agni. Destination: Random stable plane. Use all available power to counteract the sealing energy.'
Acknowledged. Overriding local spatial lock. Commencing transport. Cooldown period will be significant.
A light began to emanate from Indra, not the gold of his chakra, but a brilliant, blinding white—the pure energy of the System itself, of existence beyond their world. It enveloped him, and Toka, who clung to him without a second thought.
Agni, with a screech of defiance, dove from the sky, her form shrinking as she landed on Indra's free shoulder, her fiery wings wrapping around them both. The white light consumed them, flaring against the purple-black of the seal.
For a moment, the two cosmic energies warred on the Hokage Rock. Then, with a sound like a shattering galaxy, the white light won. Indra, Toka, and Agni vanished.
The sealing matrix, its target gone, collapsed in on itself with a silent implosion.
Silence. The wind whistled over the suddenly empty space on the mountain. Below, the village continued its joyous existence, unaware that its heart had just been torn out.
Madara, Hashirama, Izuna, and Tobirama stood frozen, staring at the spot where their brother, their leader, and their Hokage had just been. The peace was over. The war for their return had just begun.
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