Kirigakure Village, Allied Shinobi Forces camp.
Shamon, who had just walked out of the tent to patrol, saw the scene not far away and subconsciously rubbed his eyes.
He wasn't seeing things, right?
Why was Uchiha Renya here—and more importantly, he wasn't wearing a mask today. Judging by the way he looked, he even seemed to be injured.
Watching Renya walk toward the camp, Shamon couldn't help but remind him.
"Poison Master, did you forget to put on your mask?"
Good grief. Konoha wasn't even pretending anymore. They weren't even willing to hide their identity.
A question mark appeared on Renya's forehead. What on earth was this guy talking about?
"Kazekage, are you alright?"
He had come here to warn Shimura Danzo, to stop the failure of preventing Uchiha Madara's plan.
And, incidentally, to kill the Six-Tails jinchūriki.
Since there was no way to stop Madara-sama from carrying out his plan in the short term, the only option was to grit his teeth and kill the Six-Tails jinchūriki, delaying the implementation of the "Eye of the Moon" plan.
No one knew when the Three-Tails would revive. To be safe, it would be better if one more tailed beast died.
In truth, he didn't want to do this, but it was a choice forced upon him.
Besides, it wasn't as if Renya had only ever caused the death of a single jinchūriki. What difference would one more make?
To stop Madara-sama's world-destroying plan, a certain amount of sacrifice was entirely worth it.
Shamon looked at Renya with suspicion. Was the Poison Master really not planning to capture the Six-Tails jinchūriki this time?
Impossible. He must be plotting something!
Fortunately, the commotion here quickly drew Shimura Danzo, Hiruzen, and the others over.
"Renya, what happened to the injuries on your body?!"
Noticing his friend's bedraggled state, Shimura Danzo's expression instantly darkened as he asked in a deep voice.
From the looks of it, this guy was seriously hurt!
Could it be the work of that innately evil Uchiha Madara?!
Damn it—he should have gone along with Renya to take a look.
"Sorry, Danzo." Renya gave a bitter smile. "My plan didn't succeed."
Seeing Renya's pale face, Shimura Danzo didn't say anything, instead having Utatane Koharu help treat his injuries.
The group entered the Hokage's tent.
After Utatane Koharu had mostly finished treating Renya's injuries, Shimura Danzo finally spoke.
"Tell us. What exactly happened?"
Hiruzen and the others also stared at him with curiosity, not understanding what had happened over these past days.
And whether Renya's purpose in capturing tailed beasts was truly, as he claimed, to carry out the "Eye of the Moon" plan…
Danzo did not share what he already knew with his companions.
"My plan was to first help Uchiha Madara collect some tailed beasts, to buy time. Then, when his condition declined, I would persuade him to abandon the 'Eye of the Moon' plan, point out the flaws in the plan, and get him to give up this unrealistic scheme."
"If he listened, everything would be settled. If he didn't, then I would persuade him with my fists."
At this point, he let out a helpless sigh.
"Unfortunately, I underestimated Uchiha Madara's strength. I didn't expect that even at seventy years old, he could still unleash such tremendous power…"
"And then?" The others asked instinctively.
"And then not only did my persuasion fail, I got beaten up instead. Uchiha Madara has also vanished without a trace."
Everyone: "…"
They looked at Renya's regretful expression with strange looks, thinking to themselves—this was your plan?!
They had thought it would be some grand, high-level strategy. In the end, it was still about trying to conquer Uchiha Madara with brute force.
And then failing miserably.
For this, they didn't even know what to say.
As expected, anything involving thinking really couldn't be entrusted to Renya.
They finally understood now—whenever he said he had a plan, there was an eighty percent chance it would be useless.
"Next time, remember to tell us about something like this. Don't try to shoulder it alone."
After a moment of silence, Shimura Danzo said in a low voice.
Fortunately, Uchiha Madara still had some humanity and hadn't killed Renya, this traitor.
Otherwise, he would have lost his only good brother.
"Got it." Renya replied softly.
If he had known it would turn out like this, it would have been better to delay a little longer, or bring teammates along to gang up on Uchiha Madara.
Unfortunately, there was no medicine for regret in this world…
"What are you planning to do now?" Shimura Danzo looked at Renya and suddenly asked. "Protect the jinchūriki together with us?"
Renya immediately remembered his purpose for coming here and said at once.
"You can't protect the jinchūriki. The 'Eye of the Moon' plan requires collecting the chakra of all nine tailed beasts to activate!"
"As long as one tailed beast is killed, the plan can't proceed smoothly!"
Hearing this, the pupils of everyone present shrank sharply, all of them revealing shocked expressions.
So that was the purpose behind Uchiha Madara collecting tailed beasts!
"You mean we not only can't protect the Six-Tails jinchūriki, but actually have to kill him?" Hiruzen asked in disbelief.
"If you're confident you can withstand Uchiha Madara, then you don't need to kill the Six-Tails jinchūriki. But killing him is the safest approach…"
There were only two jinchūriki left in the shinobi world. Naturally, he couldn't bring himself to act against Uzumaki Mito.
That left only the Six-Tails jinchūriki of Kirigakure Village as the sacrifice.
Hearing this, everyone fell into silence.
Since Renya was no match for Uchiha Madara, even with their numbers, they likely wouldn't be able to defeat him either.
It would be better to do as Renya said and directly kill the Six-Tails jinchūriki.
As long as they could delay things by ten years or so, they could simply wait Uchiha Madara out until death.
Even if he didn't die, he would be completely spent.
"You rest here. I'll go discuss this with the other Kage."
After giving this instruction, Shimura Danzo turned and left with Hiruzen.
Only Renya remained inside the tent.
"Madara-sama, don't blame me. The 'Eye of the Moon' plan is false to begin with."
He didn't want Uchiha Madara to be fooled around by Black Zetsu and ultimately get backstabbed with a Black Tiger Heart-Piercing, releasing Ōtsutsuki Kaguya.
Rather than dying such a stifled death, it would be better to solve the problem at its root.
As long as all nine tailed beasts were never gathered, Uchiha Madara would never be able to carry out the "Eye of the Moon" plan.
Ōtsutsuki Kaguya was far too powerful. In the current shinobi world, no one could oppose her.
If she were truly released, the shinobi world would be completely finished.
As for whether this would invite Uchiha Madara's retaliation, that was no longer very important to Renya.
Human strength had its limits. Given Madara's current condition, he couldn't last more than a few years.
Renya would hole up in the camp for a few years first. Then, once Madara-sama's condition declined, he would strike with full force!
If one attempt failed, then twice. If twice didn't work, then three times.
After all, what he lacked the least right now was time—and what Madara-sama lacked the most was time.
Several White Zetsu that had been secretly monitoring Renya divided their tasks clearly and reported everything they had just seen and heard, in full detail, to Uchiha Madara and Black Zetsu.
Uchiha Madara and Black Zetsu: "!!!"
Are you kidding?!
This kid / cook actually wants to flip the table?!