Chapter 278: Premonition...

Afternoon.

Boom!

"That Three-Tails you wanted," the First Hashirama said, pointing at the giant turtle entangled by a Wooden Dragon.

Even though he was physically smaller now and weaker overall, the way Wood Release suppressed Tailed Beasts hadn't lessened one bit. Capturing the Three-Tails was no big deal for him.

Link nodded. "Thank you, Lord Hashirama."

"Heh heh heh…" The "first" Hashirama, now in a child's body, laughed with his hands on his hips. He looked quite pleased. "Finally, I got a win this time!"

He and the "other" Hashirama had made a bet on who would be the first to catch the Three-Tails. He'd lost last time, but this time he'd finally won.

"A score of one to one, that's all." The "second" Hashirama—the adult version—didn't even think about it before responding. "Just wait until we—"

"Brother!" Senju Tobirama's voice rose sharply, calling over both Hashiramas (the big one and the small one). He then earnestly and solemnly relayed the news about the elderly Madara.

"How can that be? Madara—" Both Hashiramas spoke at once.

They initially refused to believe it, but quickly accepted the truth. Then they agreed to follow Tobirama's instructions.

First, Link had Sasuke keep an eye on the captured Three-Tails. Following the plan, he would help the second Hashirama reincarnate. After all, to the various "Hashiramas," Edo Tensei didn't diminish that much of their power, and the earlier one was reincarnated, the sooner he could grow back to full strength.

Once reincarnated, the second Hashirama looked about fourteen or fifteen. By his estimate, he'd retained about eighty percent of his power. Tracking Uchiha Madara shouldn't be an issue—he was already familiar with the old Madara's chakra in the "second world," so activating the Funa-tsū technique to chase him down wouldn't be hard.

The only question was when to assemble a team to go capture him—that would be Senju Tobirama's call.

For now, Link left the Three-Tails alone. Accompanied by Utakata, he used Funa-tsū to return to the main world and began spamming "Hermit Purple." It took him a few days to draw from it. Once he finally managed, he immediately tried to check for Uchiha Madara—any version—but, as expected, got nothing.

He felt a small measure of relief.

Then, a sudden pang of anxiety hit. By instinct, he tried checking Black Zetsu—

A blank result.

Blank?!

A chill crept from Link's spine straight to his head. His mind flashed back to the photos of the two Jiraiyas covered by black shadows.

Weren't those dangers coming from two Black Zetsus?

So Black Zetsu ended up in the second world?! That explained the elderly Madara's decisiveness in making his move, quickly activating Funa-tsū and leaving. Someone must have brought Black Zetsu over there.

Now that was real trouble.

Gazing at the vine of Hermit Purple, which had grown thicker with repeated use, Link felt a grim premonition:

"Kaguya Ōtsutsuki might come back sooner than anyone expects…"

The Sage of the Six Paths isn't omniscient or omnipotent. That's a subtle misconception. In truth, Hagoromo and Hamura Ōtsutsuki sealed their mother on the moon without ever even realizing that the "Shinju" (God Tree) was actually their mother herself. They just thought they'd sealed away the tree.

Originally, Kaguya ate the chakra fruit of the Shinju, ended the wars, then drew out the tree itself to cast Infinite Tsukuyomi on everyone. Seeing how the humans enslaved by the tree's roots were suffering, Hagoromo and Hamura decided they had to atone for "their mother's sins." They sealed the Ten-Tails—really an offshoot of the Shinju—inside themselves and thus grew strong enough to defeat the tree.

They had no clue that the Shinju was Kaguya.

In other words, those two brothers, both also of the Ōtsutsuki clan, pitied humanity, went after the Shinju Kaguya had manifested, and sealed part of their own mother inside themselves. That's how they gained the power to defeat and seal the tree. Of course Kaguya was furious—her own kids had basically locked her away.

Even so, as the Shinju she was drastically weakened after losing the Ten-Tails, ultimately allowing her two sons (who didn't even realize it was their mother) to seal her up.

The Sage of the Six Paths later gave Naruto and Sasuke power simply to prevent anyone from reawakening the Shinju or harvesting a new chakra fruit. He had no idea Kaguya Ōtsutsuki—his mother—would be resurrected.

Black Zetsu, however, knew everything, including the cyclical reincarnations of Indra and Asura eventually inheriting enough strength to communicate with Hagoromo. That's why Zetsu twisted the Uchiha Tablet, manipulated Indra's reincarnations for generations, and shaped the doomed cycle between the Senju and Uchiha.

After all, the Rinnegan—linked to the Sage's power—wasn't easy to manifest. Black Zetsu tried many times via different reincarnations. It must have overheard them mention meeting the Sage of the Six Paths, until finally Uchiha Madara succeeded in unlocking the Rinnegan.

In short, it's a major misconception that the Sage of the Six Paths is a perfect puppet-master. He's not all-powerful or all-knowing. Much of what happened was simply beyond his knowledge or control.

He gave his power to descendants, worried about the Shinju eventually sprouting another chakra fruit, and essentially positioned himself as an insurance policy—waiting in the Pure Land to hand out power if a crisis arose.

Each reincarnation of Asura successively received his strength until he came across Naruto and Sasuke. Even then, when Sasuke decided to start a "revolution," the Sage was about to fade away from the living world, trusting only Naruto to fix things.

So Link had no intention of hoping the Sage would step up and help. The Sage had no idea where Kaguya was, no idea about Black Zetsu, and no plan to mobilize the power set aside for stopping the Shinju's revival. He was just a well-meaning NPC ally, so to speak.

Link could think of a way to "bait" the old man by telling him the whole story about Black Zetsu. But that would reveal Link's own secrets as a transmigrator. Even against an Uchiha's genjutsu, he barely stood a chance—imagine going up against Sasuke's Rinnegan, which could subdue all nine Tailed Beasts at once.

The Sage of the Six Paths, without having passed on his power, would hardly be that formidable. It was obvious even without much thought.

Up to now, Link had never worried about suddenly reviving Kaguya after disposing of Uchiha Madara and taking a Rinnegan for himself. But the Black Zetsu from the First World had apparently fled with a trove of intel, leading to the second world's old Madara disappearing.

Link realized now that Kaguya's resurrection was all but inevitable.

"Guess I need a final contingency plan. First, I'll try to capture Madara. If all else fails…"

~~~

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