Naruto: Passerby and Returnee

Chapter 539 The Appearance of the Eye of the Moon

Madara's Wood Release technique originated from transplanted Hashirama cells, a fact that his keen sensory abilities had already detected.

It was Tobirama who stepped forward to explain, his face dark with anger. For the first time, he was astonished by his teammate's unreliability—the idea of ​​having Madara prove the Eye of the Moon's authenticity through action was simply absurd! Only a stubborn idealist would believe the world of illusions was absolutely wonderful.

"They're out." Naruto's senses are the strongest; he locked onto Madara the moment he appeared. Sure enough, the landing spot Madara chose was the Ten-Tails.

The monster had a humanoid form, but a deformed face and back. A huge eyeball adorned with magatama and tree ring patterns and a humanoid mouth were located on either side of its head. Its back was raised high like a snail shell, and ten tails with hand-like appendages at the ends were flying everywhere.

This is the Ten-Tails' final form, apart from its appearance as a divine tree.

However, the giant beast did not appear for long. Before anyone could react, it rapidly shrank to a single point and disappeared in just a few breaths.

This is no longer the time to care about the First Hokage's stance; the most dangerous enemy has probably already been born.

"This...could it be...?"

"The Ten-Tails Jinchuriki... has truly been born."

"Taming the Ten-Tails should...take some time, right?"

"What should we do now? Will the sealing technique still work?"

The chatter was filled with unease. Just facing the Ten-Tails was already terrifying; now, the most dangerous ninja in the ninja world had acquired the most dangerous power. What did that mean? They dared not even imagine it.

"Sitting idly by and waiting for death won't solve the problem."

The first to step forward was Sasuke. This wasn't surprising; Sasuke is the kind of person who'd charge at anyone, regardless of who they are. However, he wasn't acting blindly. His greatest strength lies in gathering intelligence during battle, and making impulsive advances for probing purposes is often necessary.

Moreover, he no longer needed to meticulously manage his chakra; shadow clones were the best tool for scouting. This time, he finally refrained from a large-scale attack, instead using his clones as cover to discreetly approach the area where the Ten-Tails had disappeared.

Seeing this, Naruto made the same choice, using an equal number of clones to follow, and then he smiled and greeted his seniors before catching up.

The bravery of the two juniors left the seniors bewildered. As they exchanged glances, Kakashi, who had been absent-minded, suddenly snapped out of it and quickly followed in the footsteps of the two students, moving even faster than they did, as if he were chasing after something.

Immediately after, Hashirama, who had been slacking off for a long time, moved. He instantly entered Sage Mode, but without forming any hand seals, he simply raised one hand. As that hand slowly rose, the ground began to tremble violently, and intertwined tree branches shot up from the ground, entwining and merging together, eventually growing into a "tree" that reached a height of a hundred feet. This was a Wood Release technique far surpassing any previous "Advent of the World of Trees." Even though all Impure World Reincarnations should have no further growth potential, Hashirama Senju had tempered his soul in an extraordinary way, achieving a feat he had never accomplished in his previous life!

The reason he did this was because he had "seen" Ban's movements.

Madara, having become the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki, didn't become obsessed with his immense power. While overjoyed, he was also increasingly anxious, eager to immediately unleash the Infinite Tsukuyomi. This seemed out of character for him; possessing power meant immediately experimenting with it and gaining complete control—that was his usual approach. However, his lifelong plan was nearing completion, and two people of paramount importance in his life were witnessing it from the best seats, making his eagerness understandable.

So, Madara decided to go with the flow. He abandoned the invisible clones he created using Limbo: Border Jail to block the troublesome rebels, and then, while flying high into the sky, he created a shower of meteors with a small-scale Chibaku Tensei to ensure no one would disturb him. During this process, he witnessed the birth of a giant tree, and then took a moment to mentally admire Hashirama's little surprise.

He finally ascended to a height that seemed to echo the moon, and at that moment, there was no one in the world who could stop him. Although he had never used that technique before, following the guidance of his heart seemed to be enough. With a hoarse murmur, he broke off the horn on his forehead, and the Rinne Sharingan that had just grown on the Ten-Tails' face was now slowly opening between his forehead.

The moonlight was reflected in a blood-red hue, and the patterns of magatama covered the moon's surface. The moon had truly become the eye of the moon, and the legendary illusion was about to be cast!

"There's a very strange Madara who's sniping our shadow clone."

"Hmm?" Naruto turned his head slightly, puzzled, only to see a pale purple light in Sasuke's eyes. He was taken aback. His senses were overwhelmed by the Ten-Tails' immense energy, and Sasuke already possessed a huge amount of his chakra. The process of the two working together had been long enough, yet he hadn't noticed the changes in Sasuke.

Naruto quickly regained his composure and explained the current situation, "It's normal for you to find it strange, because the shadow is invisible to the naked eye. It's not in the same dimension as us, yet it can still attack us."

"Could he also exist at the boundary between life and death?" Sasuke blurted out his question. The only information he had about dimensions came from his dreams.

Unfortunately, while Naruto was very clever in some ways, he was also overly obtuse in others. He didn't notice how strange it was that Sasuke knew the boundary between life and death, and instead retorted matter-of-factly, "It hasn't reached that point. It's just a kind of 'misalignment.' If he could influence the boundary between life and death, he wouldn't have died so easily."

While the two were talking, Madara Uchiha had already flown quite a distance and had also dropped a surprisingly large number of artificial meteorites. They weren't as large as the two most impressive ones, but they still posed a significant problem.

Sasuke had no choice but to pull out his Nine-Tails Armor Mode again. Tailed beasts were clearly more effective than Susanoo at clearing out these things. Moreover, they might even be able to interfere with Madara's flight during their aerial attacks.

Naruto, who had been playing a support role, did not disappoint this time either. Madara's shadow distinguished the two's true forms and was about to attack directly, but Naruto stopped it with a single gesture. This was the first time the technique had failed since its inception. The shadow's expression turned somewhat surprised, and it struggled desperately but could not break free of the restraint. As a result, it was locked until the moment it was supposed to return to its original form and melted away.