chapter 86 part 5
"However, this body still possesses a tenacious Life Force. This must be the power of the First Hokage, and also the origin of your existence. Judging by the healed wounds on his body, was this a transplant of the First Hokage's Cells?"
Tsukasa Kaede showed no respect for Madara's remains, brazenly tearing at the flesh and conducting various cruel examinations: "Then I roughly understand. The Rinnegan should be Madara's own eyes, transplanted to Nagato years ago? This guy actually hid such important news from me. Mito Uzumaki must have deduced it, which is why her expression was so strange when she spoke of the Rinnegan to Madara. The reason he only had one Three-Tomoe Sharingan also makes sense."
He said this for the benefit of the White Zetsu and Black Zetsu present.
Black Zetsu asked, "Lord Tsukasa Kaede, what do you plan to do then? Are you going to dig out Nagato's Rinnegan? Lord Madara is dead, we all follow your orders; no one can stop you."
Tsukasa Kaede glanced at Black Zetsu: "Even if I obtain the Rinnegan, it's useless to me; I can't use it. Should I put the Rinnegan on Madara's Corpse? Kaedence Madara chose to transplant his eyes to Nagato during his lifetime, there must be a reason, and perhaps the inability to bear the Rinnegan was one of them. If he couldn't do it, my physical condition would make it even harder."
"Then, are we still using Nagato as the main chess piece for the Moon's Eye Plan?"
"First, wait for Madara to be resurrected. I don't yet understand many secrets, such as how to control the Ten-Tails after it's revived? We can't just use Genjutsu, can we? Madara must know some method. I suspect the key to controlling the Ten-Tails is the Rinnegan," Tsukasa Kaede scoffed. "That old man hid too many things from me, but the feeling is mutual; I also hid many things from him."
Black Zetsu said no more, and the Base beneath the Mountain Graveyard immediately fell silent.
After studying Madara for a while, Tsukasa Kaede confirmed that this body could still briefly activate Susanoo a few times, which was somewhat useful—in fact, he could completely use the Living Corpse Reincarnation Jutsu to replenish this body's Life Force and heal all its injuries.
At that point, using Madara to activate a partial Susanoo shouldn't be a problem, and Tsukasa Kaede would effectively have a Kage Level Combat Power.
However, he wouldn't do this for now. If Madara were truly resurrected with a healthier body, it wouldn't be beneficial to him.
First, confirm whether Madara is truly dead, then decide the next step.
Compared to the body of a decrepit Madara, Tsukasa Kaede quickly shifted his focus to the Gedo Mazo.
He walked in front of this colossal being, and just looking up at it felt like staring into an abyss; he couldn't grasp the limits of this ferocious-looking monster.
"Madara never told me the origins of this thing either."
"It seems to be the husk of the Ten-Tails, Lord Madara apparently expended great effort to summon it from inside The Moon into the Shinobi World. He mentioned it a few years ago," White Zetsu's gaze towards the Gedo Mazo also held a trace of primal fear.
All White Zetsu were derivatives of the Gedo Mazo.
"The Moon... It seems there are many mysteries in the Shinobi World."
Tsukasa Kaede was noncommittal. He suspected that the Ōtsutsuki Clan on The Moon, discovering that the Gedo Mazo they had guarded for over a thousand years had been stolen by people from the Shinobi World, were probably furious by now? The civil war between the Main House and Branch House should have ended long ago. After the Branch House annihilated the Main House, they gouged out everyone's Byakugan, not even sparing their own Branch Family members' Byakugan. For many years, they had been diligently trying to piece together the Giant Tenseigan.
At the current point in time, the Giant Tenseigan should not have been born yet. The Branch Family members should still be reproducing normally, and extracting the Byakugan from all newborns to fill the unformed Tenseigan.
Therefore, these Branch Family members, who had sacrificed everything for the Giant Tenseigan, even to the point of extinction, were helpless even if they knew Madara had stolen the Gedo Mazo while they were unprecedentedly weak.
It was also fortunate that Madara's timing was so precise. If he had done such a thing years earlier, the Ōtsutsuki Clan on The Moon might have banded together to kill their way into the Shinobi World to settle the score, rather than being so helpless as they were now.
"The husk of the Ten-Tails, what a fine thing..."
Tsukasa Kaede jumped onto one of the Gedo Mazo's fingers and bent down to touch it.
In the original Timeline, an Akatsuki member would stand on each of these fingers.
Over the years, Tsukasa Kaede had constantly pondered one question: what kind of body was his ideal perfect body?
This standard had constantly changed.
In the first few years after arriving in the Shinobi World, his frail body could barely withstand the invasion of the Pathogen, suffering torment from illness daily, constantly hovering on the brink of life and death. Countless times, he was just a step away from returning to the Pure Land.
Provided that the Pure Land would actually accept the Soul of an outsider like him.
At that time, in his endless torment, Tsukasa Kaede desperately wanted to acquire the body of a native of the Shinobi World, even just the most ordinary civilian would suffice, at least to avoid the current pain.
Later, he gradually adapted and established a foothold in this world, and his thoughts naturally changed. Ordinary natives were no longer enough to attract Tsukasa Kaede; he wanted to acquire the bodies of Ōtsutsuki descendants, ideally obtaining Hashirama Cells.
But now, standing before the Gedo Mazo, his thoughts had subtly shifted again:
If there was an opportunity to obtain a body closer to the Ōtsutsuki, who would still covet the bodies of Ōtsutsuki and Shinobi World native hybrids?
Hybrid bodies had many uncertainties. Someone like Hinata Hyuga, possessing the purest Byakugan, was an extremely rare case.
Hashirama Senju must also be a rare case. Starting from Asura, the First, only Hashirama Senju had mastered the explosively powerful Wood Release, which was precisely the power closest to the Ten-Tails God Tree!
Special circumstances aside, if one were to speak of pure Bloodline, the descendants of Hamura Ōtsutsuki on The Moon had, from beginning to end, reproduced internally without mixing with Shinobi World natives. Their Bloodline was the purest, and their genes were the most stable.
"Let me think, if I could cultivate a body using the Gedo Mazo, that would be absolutely perfect, but the scale of the project would also be enormous."
Tsukasa Kaede mused, if he were to change bodies multiple times, using Hashirama Cells to create a body now would be very suitable. But if he were to acquire a body using the method he envisioned, even one successful attempt would carry significant risk.
(end of chapter)