Chapter 301 - 301: Duy Blocks ANBU. Tobirama Screams.

Tobirama kept his usual cold, carved-from-stone composure, but behind that mask his thoughts increasingly spiraled with a rare, bitter clarity.

He had suspected an Uchiha was behind the recent chain of tailed-beast disappearances.

Maybe even Madara himself, in some twisted undead form.

But not like this.

There had been witnesses, scattered reports from foreign spies, traces of chakra that pointed toward a Sharingan user far beyond ordinary.

It made sense.

Only a Uchiha with overwhelming ocular mastery could take multiple bijuu in such clean, surgical strikes.

And it was clearly not anyone from Konoha.

If it were, Ryusei and the Uchiha clan might have already overthrown their so-called Hokage's faction long ago.

So Tobirama assumed an external Uchiha, powerful, unattached.

Perhaps even Madara.

Or someone of his caliber.

Like a potential hidden successor.

The idea had been unsettling…

But still within the realm of possibility.

Nothing, however—nothing—prepared him for the truth standing before him now.

Madara Uchiha.

In this form.

In the flesh.

Alive.

Breathing.

Radiating a vitality and raw force beyond anything he ever held in life.

Not Edo.

Not a puppet.

Not a revenant.

A living, fully restored Madara Uchiha, carrying the legendary Rinnegan, Hashirama's cells, and an aura so potent that Tobirama felt his stomach twist.

This wasn't a complication.

This was a catastrophe.

Tobirama understood right away.

A nightmare scenario, Madara behind them, Ryusei in front of them, the entire village caught between two forces capable of erasing nations.

And as if that wasn't enough, standing behind Madara was Minato's own supposedly dead student, alive, Mangekyō Sharingan awakened, Hashirama's cells evident in his chakra flow as well, wielding that accursed spatial ability of some sort that had already warped them through the barrier like it didn't exist.

Tobirama wasn't stupid.

He now realised this was how they managed to take so many bijuu so cleanly before this.

This barrier was built so nothing could enter or leave this dimension unless it passed through Tobirama's or Minato's marked channels.

But slipping in from another dimension was an entirely different loophole, perhaps, one they hadn't accounted for, and likely couldn't.

After all, the Sage of Six Paths already had his hands full maintaining a barrier that could withstand such an extremely overwhelming force and shockwaves from the outside while also preventing Ryusei's group from escaping.

And now the flaw had been exploited by the worst possible man.

Tobirama felt a chill creeping up his spine, something close to dread, something he hadn't felt since childhood.

His carefully laid preparations, the backhand forces stationed inside the village…

Now that he saw Madara in person, they all felt laughably insufficient.

What could any of those shinobi do against this, even in any number?

Tobirama stared at him.

At that monstrous chakra.

At the gravity of his presence.

At the fact that even after death, Madara had somehow risen stronger than his prime.

Fortunately, at least a little bit, his sensing had been fast enough.

So he swiftly relayed everything to Minato telepathically: the danger to his wife, the intruders approaching her room, the urgency.

They still had Flying Raijin markers placed there, so the two teleported instantly.

At least they arrived less than a second before Madara entered that room.

Even so…

Tobirama's jaw tightened, and for the first time in decades, he felt the cold truth settle in his chest.

A calamity.

And he now stood at the center of it.

At this moment, Tobirama's mind raced faster than anyone else's on the field.

In a single breath, he reached a brutal, pragmatic conclusion.

He should never have rushed here.

He should never have alerted Minato.

Because given the current state of the war, the rational move—the only rational move—was obvious.

Let Madara take Kushina.

Jinchūriki or not, weapon or not, Konoha could recover from losing the Nine-Tails.

They could rebuild, reorganize, survive.

What they could not survive was Ryusei being let loose from outside the barrier at the worst possible moment and eventually collapsing the entire village through this single distraction.

But now, Tobirama couldn't retreat.

Not with Minato beside him.

Not with his pride.

Not with dozens of shinobi already converging and watching their every move.

To back down now would be equivalent to declaring Konoha defeated before the battle even began.

Still, he forced himself to calm, analyzing the situation with cold precision.

Why was Madara collecting the tailed beasts?

The answer was self-evident: he needed them for some larger conversion, some procedure that probably required time.

Meaning—

Madara had no reason to linger.

If he obtained the Nine-Tails quickly, he would retreat just as fast.

And stay here to watch the fun and help either side.

After all, whoever won between Konoha and Ryusei would become his only true rival in the future for whatever crazy plans he had.

Madara would likely want to be prepared as much as possible for that and tilt that balance in his favor as much as possible through his current position.

Let them fight it out and drain each other while his ultimate goal gets accomplished.

Tobirama's jaw tightened.

Madara's side had a clear upper hand right now.

So if Tobirama fought "seriously" for a while, put on enough resistance to make the village look uncompromising, acted in front of Minato…

Madara would still take Kushina and leave.

And the moment he did, Tobirama could shift focus back to Ryusei before the situation outside spiraled completely out of control, hopefully.

It wasn't a good plan.

It was simply the least catastrophic one.

And Tobirama knew he would have to act on it soon.

However, just at that exact moment, something absurd rushed toward the scene in a streak of blue vapor and torn grass.

A man in bright green.

Might Duy.

The Seventh Gate.

He slid to a halt beside Tobirama and Minato with a dramatic skid, fists trembling with eagerness, spouting the usual nonsense about youth, courage, and protecting the village.

Tobirama felt his stomach drop.

For the first time in years—alive or dead—he actually frowned hard in visible irritation.

Of all moments…

Of all people…

Of all timing…

This was the worst.

Tobirama understood the situation instantly.

Duy wasn't coming from any outer perimeter.

He was coming from the Uchiha district.

The same district where Tobirama had previously ordered nearly his entire ANBU force to swiftly eliminate the remaining Uchiha in the village, in their compound under pretex, while everyone else fought outside—out of spite, strategy, and political necessity.

Except… they weren't massacred.

They were arriving with Duy instead.

Which meant only one thing.

Ryusei.

He remembered the reports of Duy's strange closeness with Ryusei years ago during their shared Genin period, a mentor-student, training, and sparing, almost friend-like dynamic.

He remembered Duy's odd return from that conveniently timed "external mission" they had sent him on, intentionally keeping him far from the village before the internal conflict erupted, since he was too much of a variable due to that connection with Ryusei that he knew about.

Yet somehow, under a good enough excuse and suspiciously perfect timing, Duy had coincidentally reappeared in Konoha the exact moment before the "civil war" began.

They let him inside because they had no excuse to bar Konoha's beloved hero from the village when he had a solid reason.

No, maybe Ryusei also helped him deal with that mission earlier, directly somehow.

And they still dismissed his power.

After all, without the Eighth Gate, Duy was merely High-Kage level.

But now—

Tobirama's eyes narrowed sharply.

Duy's aura was wrong.

Utterly, impossibly wrong.

This was the Seventh Gate, yet his body wasn't cracking, tearing, or burning in the slightest.

Just like Ryusei's own body, while using it as he had previously sensed from a distance.

He was perfectly stable.

Harmonic.

Balanced.

Almost… immortal in structure.

Not like Edo Tensei… but also not a normal living body.

Something unusual, something that bent the rules of flesh and chakra just enough to be wrong.

And then Tobirama sensed it.

Something else as well.

Ryusei's own essence.

Inside Duy.

He was not like Ryusei; he was partially Ryusei now, somehow.

An echo of Ryusei's strange slug fragments, which he previously didn't sense due to their unassuming nature, currently fused deep into the man's tissues, strengthening them, reinforcing every cell, holding the Gate open without damage.

A tailor-made enhancement.

A perfect vessel for the Gates.

A temporary pseudo-immortality that let Duy operate in the seventh gate like a normal state.

Duy's power had shifted so dramatically that he now hovered slightly above Kage level.

Tobirama's teeth clenched.

So that was Ryusei's plan.

He had secretly strengthened Duy before the battle.

Left a sliver of himself inside the man.

Sent him back into Konoha specifically to prevent the Uchiha massacre, which he had done single-handedly.

To "convince" everyone. And with Duy's long-standing relationship with Ryusei, combined with the fact that many of the Uchiha civilians in the compound were genuinely innocent in the eyes of someone like him—or any ordinary Konoha shinobi—of course, he acted.

And of course, he succeeded so easily.

No wonder Tobirama's ANBU operation failed.

One man with new monstrous power, on top of his reputation as one of the biggest heroes in the war that just ended, was enough to stall them all and cause quite a stir, and block them.

And Ryusei's second purpose was painfully obvious.

Duy would never stand idle while the village was under attack.

Especially if the invaders were trying to kidnap Kushina.

Naturally, he would rush straight here.

Naturally, he would interfere.

Naturally, he would buy time.

Time Ryusei desperately needed.

Time for Ryusei to somehow cement the victory outside.

Time for everything to collapse perfectly in his favor.

Tobirama felt a sharp, cold rage twist inside him.

He had underestimated Ryusei's smarts. Again.

Even with Duy, they could not hold Madara for long.

But they did not need to win.

They only needed to stall.

Long enough for Ryusei to set things outside.

Even minutes—no, even seconds—were as precious as gold in this situation.

Tobirama's expression stayed still and cold, but internally he was furious, frustrated, and—worst of all—forced to acknowledge the truth:

If the Sage of Six Paths didn't have another hidden contingency…

Then, perhaps, they were all in far deeper trouble than he had possibly imagined before.