For five straight days, Madara and Hashirama barely moved. If not for Tobirama bringing them food and water, Jie suspected the two of them might have collapsed before Konoha was even built.
All that time had been spent on one topic: how to build Konoha.
Were they planning the next two hundred years before the first house was even built?
Just as Jie was silently mocking them, one Uchiha ninja and one Senju ninja arrived outside his wooden cabin together.
"My lord, we have found the Eight-Tails."
"The Nine-Tails also has a lead. The clans have already sent people to confirm it."
The Uchiha ninja spoke respectfully. He did not know Jie's exact identity, but with Jie's strength, calling him "my lord" was the safest choice.
Jie smiled.
The last missing pieces had finally appeared.
Once all nine tailed beasts were captured, he could summon the Gedo Statue and merge them into a new Ten-Tails. Jie was curious what kind of surprise a newly restored Ten-Tails would bring him.
Besides, he had watched the two stubborn fools outside sit there for long enough.
There was no luggage to pack. Jie rose straight into the air.
Before leaving, he looked toward Madara and Hashirama for a moment. Then, as if nothing had happened, he followed the location sent back by the Uchiha and Senju clans and flew away.
Madara and Hashirama noticed him leave, but neither of them paid it much attention.
Jie's target was the tailed beasts wandering through the ninja world, not anything else. They did not know why he was so interested in those beasts, but that had little to do with them.
After several days of contact, they also had a rough sense of Jie.
Jie would not endanger the ninja world.
Or rather, something like that seemed beneath him.
Both could tell he was stronger than them, though neither knew by how much. The closest thing to a fight had been what he did to Tobirama, and even then, Jie had only thrown out a few Rasengan from a distance before forcing him into danger.
That was less like a battle and more like casual punishment.
So as long as Jie did not threaten the ninja world, Madara and Hashirama had no reason to interfere.
If they had misjudged him, then when the time came, no matter the price, they would still try to stop him.
After Jie left, Madara and Hashirama sat in silence for a while before finally standing up.
They had already discussed the village for five days. The general structure and most of the important details had been decided.
The remaining problems would only appear once the village existed.
Now came the hardest step.
They had to convince the Uchiha and Senju to give up the hatred built over centuries and work together to establish the first ninja village.
That was not something a short joint mission to find the tailed beasts could solve.
They were the leaders of their clans, but even they could not simply force their people to let go of blood feuds.
Whether the village could truly be built would depend on their ability to persuade their clans.
Not long after Madara and Hashirama left, the old battlefield became quiet.
At some point, a strange black stain crept over a blade of grass where the two of them had been sitting.
Then something even stranger happened.
Without any wind, the blackened grass slowly bent in the direction Jie had flown.
A hoarse voice broke the silence.
"Who exactly is this Uchiha Jie who appeared out of nowhere?"
If Jie had still been there, he would have recognized the black substance immediately.
Black Zetsu.
After waiting for more than a thousand years, Black Zetsu had finally found a suitable Indra reincarnation he could control: Madara.
Originally, Madara should have lost this battle against Hashirama. After that, Black Zetsu would guide the bitter and dissatisfied Madara toward the Uchiha clan's Naka Shrine and let him see the stone tablet that had already been altered.
Once Madara learned the so-called truth hidden on the tablet and his beliefs began to twist, Black Zetsu could appear at the right time and slowly turn him into the perfect pawn.
That had been the plan, until Jie appeared.
At first, Black Zetsu had not cared too much.
His goal had never changed. He wanted to revive Kaguya. To do that, he needed the chakra of both Indra and Asura.
Black Zetsu could sense neither chakra in Jie, so Jie had not seemed worth special attention.
But after Jie appeared, everything began to slip out of place.
Madara learned Sage Mode. He did not lose to Hashirama. At one point, he had even held the advantage.
That alone had surprised Black Zetsu, but it had not truly worried him. Even if the path shifted slightly, he believed he could still pull Madara back.
What Jie did next was different.
A village could still be built.
But not the kind Jie had described.
If the ninja world truly entered a long period of peace, Black Zetsu would have far fewer chances to move in the shadows.
Worse, if Madara became one of the true leaders of that village, everything Black Zetsu had prepared for him would be wasted.
After watching the Uchiha for more than a thousand years, Black Zetsu understood their obsession too well.
Once Madara found a path that could realize his ideal, whether that path was right or wrong, he would walk it to the end.
At that point, no matter how much effort Black Zetsu put in, it would be almost impossible to turn him away.
Still, even that was not what worried Black Zetsu most.
If this generation of Indra and Asura reincarnations failed, he could simply keep waiting. He had already waited for more than a thousand years. A few more centuries did not matter.
What truly unsettled him was Jie's sudden interest in the tailed beasts.
Black Zetsu had erased nearly all records about the tailed beasts from the ninja world. Other than him, almost no one knew their true nature.
To ordinary ninja, the tailed beasts were only wandering disasters. Jinchūriki had not appeared for nearly a thousand years, so Black Zetsu did not believe Jie could have uncovered that secret on his own.
More importantly, with Jie's current strength, even becoming the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki would not help him much.
For a moment, even Black Zetsu could not understand what Jie was trying to do.
But as long as Jie did not know the secret of the Gedo Statue, his plan was not dead yet.
To learn that secret, one needed the Rinnegan.
Jie was powerful, but Black Zetsu had not sensed the Rinnegan from him.
Without the Rinnegan and without the Gedo Statue, even if Jie gathered all nine tailed beasts, he would only be preparing them for Black Zetsu in the end.
Still, Jie was a variable.
Black Zetsu could not leave him alone and allow him to ruin the arrangements he had spent so long building.
With that thought, he slipped down from the grass and slowly sank into the earth.
At the same time, Jie was already rushing toward the One-Tail's location.
His mind was not on Shukaku at all.
To Jie, the One-Tail was just a larger tanuki. It was not worth that much attention.
What he was thinking about was the faint abnormal feeling he had sensed before leaving.
"That was probably Black Zetsu."
Jie narrowed his eyes slightly.
Now that he was close to the Six Paths level, he could finally sense Black Zetsu's presence.
"So Black Zetsu has been watching Madara and Hashirama this whole time?"
Black Zetsu really had spent his entire existence trying to bring Kaguya back.
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