Kushina walked forwards towards Haruto and raised her hand causing him to flinch.
But in a surprising turn of events, she placed her hand on his head and gave it a quick rub.
"Why are you such a strange toddler!" Kushina squealed while rubbing Haruto's soft hair, smiling as she did so. "You're always after Madara… thinking about how to defeat him like he's your plaything… can't you be more like kids your age?
Can't you be more like Naruto? Wondering about whether a girl you like likes you back or not?"
Haruto escaped Kushina's assault on his head with a blush on his cheeks and a deadpan expression.
"I'm not a kid!" Haruto tried placing forth his explanation without going to the extent of explaining that he was a sixteen year old, soon turning seventeen stuck inside the body of an eight year old.
"Yes you are!" Kushina said before locking him in a headlock and giving his head a good rub.
And although there wasn't any physical warmth on his head because Kushina was a resurrected individual, Haruto felt his chest clench a little.
The action reminded him of his mother back home.
'I'll come home soon mom…' Haruto thought to himself as he finally freed himself from Kushina's grip.
In the end Kushina gave up trying to baby Haruto too.
She looked at him with some dissatisfaction but she kept put as Haruto repeated his question once again.
"So? Do you guys have a better idea on how we can defeat Madara?"
Tobirama huffed but Hashirama laughed, "What better plan can there be other than beating him up?"
That got a grin out of Haruto, not because he was a battle maniac, but because he felt Hashirama was talking out of his arse.
"You don't know how powerful Madara can get once he gets the Rinnegan and becomes the Jinchuriki of the ten tails… and I doubt that his strength will be limited by that. He'll probably transfer into the sacrificed body of one of the five kage before he meets us."
"Then we either hide the present Jinchuriki's or simply have you or big brother become the Jinchuriki of the ten tails before Madara even comes close to one." Tobirama suggested.
Haruto frowned at that, "I doubt that'll be possible… since the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path or the ten tails' husk can be summoned by the owner of the Rinnegan at any point in time… and to seal the tailed beasts into it requires the help of nine kage shinobi."
"Hmm…" Tobirama frowned at that new information before speaking calmly, "Then that leaves us no other option than to fight. And if we have to fight regardless of what happens, we better prepare for it. We can pit Jigen and Madara against each other before swopping in."
"That is what I'm hoping for too…" Haruto confessed. "If Madara gets greedy for a better body and goes to use Jigen's body… he'll probably get terribly injured and then give us the opportunity to seal him away much like the Sage of Six Paths sealed his mother into the moon."
"You have a seal capable of doing that?" Toibrama asked interested.
Haruto shook his head partially before nodding, "Not exactly, but similar. As long as he is weakened, the seal will automatically activate and seal him up, so we don't need to kill him per say, just weaken him."
"Can't I just punch him until he is sealed in that case?" Hashirama asked, pointing at himself goofily.
Tobirama nodded but then raised a question he felt was important… "But brother what if he does the same thing as he did when he fought with you? What if he uses the abilities of his Mangekyou sharingan to rewrite reality?"
"You mean Izanagi?" Haruto asked surprised.
"Yes and no." Tobirama said, "Madara's first Mangekyou ability allows him to see into the future to spot life threatening dangers… It is the eye of instinctive perception. And his second eye grants him the hidden right to rule… or rewrite reality as he sees fit.
It has a few conditions, but that's the jist of it. Madara can simply activate the eye on his body after a battle and change his condition to be completely perfect regardless of the losses he suffered during the battle. And in your seal, he can simply rewrite himself out."
Haruto's mouth fell open.
'Is that how Madara survived Might Guy's kick then? Not with his innate healing ability but because of the power of this Mangekyou sharingan?'
"Can we not just pluck that eye away in battle?" Kushina asked softly, causing Hashirama to shake his head.
"For someone who has mastered their sharingan, having or not having it physically doesn't make much of a difference. They can activate their abilities without it too."
Haruto sighed in disbelief.
Madara seemed to be getting one powerup after another since the moment he'd come into this world and he was powerless to do anything about it.
'Are we doomed to die here?'
'Am I doomed to repeat failure?'
"Let's calm down for now… we have enough time for now to prepare a plan against Madara… in the meantime we should try and figure out a way to improve our strength for our final fight against him." Tobirama said calmly, causing Haruto to snap out of his thoughts.
'Yeah… I have my template characters too… as long as Madara improves… and the longer he improves… the longer I can improve myself too…'
"Do you know what happened to Tsunade-sama by the way? Did she appear in the same place as you or something?" Haruto asked the other question that had been weighing him down, "Same goes for Jiraiya and Shizune… did they come to the same place as you once they vanished?"
Hashirama's mood instantly fell, "Tsuna-chan's missing, right… I was looking forward to meeting her…"
"We'll find her Hashi… don't worry." Mito said softly, stepping in close to pat Hashirama's shoulder.
"I see… so not even you guys know where they are then…" Haruto frowned.
Tobirama shrugged his shoulders before speaking calmly, "No matter what happens to her, I'm sure Tsunade will be able to take care of herself. And even if she was weaker than her enemy, I'm sure her enemy will keep her alive to trade information with her."
"Hmm…" Haruto frowned but still felt the knot in his chest unravel slightly. After all, what Tobirama was saying made sense, at least to him.
"What do you think, Haruto? Where could she have gone?" Kushina asked with a worried expression of her own.
Haruto frowned for a second and then explained, "I sent a part of my soul back in time along with Jiraiya and Shizune to see exactly what happened in that room at that point in time… if none of them have been able to uncover the reason… that just means it is a powerful enemy.
And there is only one more powerful enemy left if we rule out Madara.
The Otsutsuki.
The Otsutsuki own a time travelling turtle and can open portals. So in a closed room, they are the only suspects available. Perhaps they captured Tsunade… and perhaps she is still in the future performing her own preparations…"
Kushina's eyes started spinning in circles hearing the theory but Minato caught her in time to prevent her from collapsing causing Mito to crack a smile along with everyone else.
That was when Tobirama asked another question he felt was quite important, "By the way Haruto-kun… you never told us before… How do you know all of this?"
***
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