Chapter 519: The Puppet Who Called Himself the Master (Patreon)

Hidden Cavern — Land of Frost

"Toward Zetsu."

The name settled into the cavern with greater weight than any accusation Alaric had made.

Madara did not turn immediately.

His Rinnegan remained fixed upon Alaric while the incomplete Ten-Tails breathed behind them, each convulsion passing through the floor in slow, uneven waves. Broken pillars groaned beneath the shifting roots. Red chakra leaked through the restraints and crawled across the stone like mist searching for a way out.

Obito's attention had already moved toward the darkness along the cavern wall.

Kabuto remained beside the control formation, his pale fingers resting near the seals without touching them. The serpent around his waist had lowered its head, its tongue tasting an atmosphere that had become sharper than the cold outside the mountain.

Alaric waited.

There was no need to repeat himself.

Madara's gaze narrowed by the smallest degree.

"Zetsu."

His voice did not rise.

It carried across the chamber all the same.

The blackened roots along the wall remained still.

Madara turned his head.

"Appear."

The command carried none of the patience he had shown during his questions for Alaric.

A shadow detached from the roots.

Black Zetsu emerged slowly, his liquid body rising through the dark wood as though the cavern itself had grown a face. Half of a White Zetsu body surfaced with him, pale and faintly smiling, though the black half controlled the movement.

"You called, Madara?"

Black Zetsu's voice sounded unchanged.

Obedient.

Measured.

Almost curious.

Madara studied him.

Alaric noticed the slight tightening beneath Zetsu's yellow eye. The movement lasted less than a second, vanishing beneath the shapeless contours of his face before anyone without a Sharingan could have recognized it.

Madara recognized it.

For the first time since Alaric entered the cavern, Black Zetsu had not responded immediately to his master's voice.

The delay had been brief, but it had also been real.

Alaric's smile deepened, and Madara saw that as well.

"You were listening," Madara said.

"I remain connected to the roots throughout this chamber."

"That was not an answer."

"…"

"…"

Black Zetsu inclined his head. "Yes... I heard him."

Madara's gunbai remained lowered behind his shoulder, but his fingers no longer rested loosely around its handle.

"Then explain why he believes my questions belong to you."

Black Zetsu looked toward Alaric.

For thousands of years, he had moved through wars, bloodlines, temples, and buried histories without anyone seeing the whole shape of his existence. Indra had died believing his resentment belonged entirely to him. Generations of Uchiha had interpreted the Stone Tablet according to alterations Black Zetsu had placed beyond their suspicion.

Madara had believed he alone possessed the eyes required to uncover the final truth.

Obito believed he had inherited Madara's will.

Nagato had thought the Rinnegan marked him as a chosen savior.

Every deception had endured because no living person possessed enough pieces to recognize the design.

Yet Alaric had looked directly toward the roots.

He had spoken the name without guessing.

Black Zetsu allowed no visible change to cross his expression.

"He is attempting to create distrust," he said. "Nothing more."

Alaric raised one brow. "Well, that was quick."

Obito stepped forward before Madara could speak.

"You entered alone because you knew an attack would fail."

Space bent faintly around his body as Kamui continued to hover beneath the surface of his chakra.

"So you chose another method," Obito continued. "You intend to divide us before the Ten-Tails completes its transformation."

Alaric glanced toward him. "Do you actually believe I require division to defeat the four of you?"

Kabuto's mouth curved faintly. "Four?"

Alaric looked toward the incomplete Ten-Tails.

"Five, if it develops enough awareness to participate."

The beast gave a deep pulse as its closed eye twitched, though it did not challenge the gaze that had subdued it moments earlier.

Obito, however, ignored the remark.

"You gathered the Five Kage by feeding them selective information. You turned their fear toward Madara and Akatsuki. Now you come here with another story."

"Another story?"

"You want Madara to question Zetsu. You want me to question Madara. Kabuto already trusts no one. Doubt is easier for you than battle."

Alaric's eyes moved over Obito's mask.

"You are speaking about doubt as though your life contains anything else."

Obito's chakra sharpened.

Alaric continued before he could respond.

"Madara found you beneath a mountain after half your body was crushed."

A faint scrape came from Madara's gunbai as his grip tightened.

"He healed you with Hashirama's cells. He taught you his history, his failures, his conclusions, and the future he wanted you to build."

Obito stood motionless.

"Zetsu remained beside you," Alaric said. "He guided you toward people Madara wanted controlled. He carried information between hidden places. He watched you learn how to become someone else."

The single eye behind the mask narrowed.

"You know nothing about me."

"I know Rin died with Kakashi's hand through her chest."

"…"

"…"

The cavern fell silent and Obito's body shifted.

Kamui distorted the air around him so violently that the stone visible through his shoulder warped.

Kabuto's smile disappeared.

Madara's gaze remained on Alaric, though something colder entered it.

Black Zetsu did not move at all.

Alaric watched Obito.

"You arrived at the correct place, at the correct moment, to see the one sight capable of destroying what remained of you."

"Stop talking."

"You saw Rin die. You saw Kakashi standing over her body. You saw the world confirm every lesson Madara had spent months placing inside your head."

Obito's hand lifted beneath his cloak.

"And then," Alaric said, "you never independently verified why it happened."

"…"

The hand stopped.

The Sharingan behind the mask contracted.

Alaric's voice remained calm.

"You did not investigate the Mist shinobi who pursued them. You did not ask why Rin had been made the Three-Tails' jinchūriki. You did not examine how Madara knew where you would be. You did not question why White Zetsu reached you only when there was enough time to witness her death, but not enough time to prevent it."

Obito stared at him and his breathing had changed ever so slightly.

The mask concealed his mouth, yet the rise of his chest had become deeper, the pauses between breaths uneven. "You are making assumptions."

"Then answer one question."

Alaric stepped closer.

The red chakra drifting between them parted around the polished black leather of his boots.

"How much of your life did you choose before someone standing in this cavern placed the choice in front of you?"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

Obito's eye shifted toward Madara, then toward Black Zetsu.

Madara noticed it. His expression did not change, but his attention became absolute.

Black Zetsu's yellow eye remained fixed upon Alaric.

"You are attempting to exploit grief," he said.

Alaric looked at him. "No. I am asking whether Obito ever examined the hands that shaped it."

Obito's voice lowered. "Madara told me the truth about this world."

"He told you his truth."

"The world proved him right."

"A wound is not proof of every explanation offered by the person who benefits from it."

Obito's fingers curled beneath his cloak.

"Enough." Madara finally spoke, and the word ended the exchange.

Obito's chakra did not settle, though he stepped no farther forward.

Madara looked toward Black Zetsu.

"The Stone Tablet."

Hearing that, Black Zetsu waited.

Alaric's gaze drifted toward Madara's face. "Have you ever wondered why its message changed?"

Madara's eyes returned to him.

"The tablet reveals deeper knowledge according to the dōjutsu used to read it."

"I know what you believe."

"It is what I observed."

"Yes." Alaric slipped one hand into his coat pocket. "With the Sharingan, you read one message. With the Mangekyō, more of the text became clear. When you awakened the Rinnegan, you finally saw the passage describing the Infinite Tsukuyomi as the path to salvation."

Madara's gaze hardened. "You have read it."

"No."

A pause followed and even Kabuto tilted his head.

Madara's voice became colder. "Then how do you know its structure?"

"Because the tablet did not change," Alaric looked toward Black Zetsu. "The reader did."

Madara said nothing.

"The Sharingan allowed you to perceive one layer. The Mangekyō revealed another. The Rinnegan exposed markings hidden from lesser eyes. That much is true."

Alaric's thumb moved once inside his pocket, brushing the edge of the wrapped food Kushina had given him.

"But did you ever question why a message supposedly left by Hagoromo led you toward reconstructing the Ten-Tails?"

Madara's eyes narrowed.

"Hagoromo divided the Ten-Tails. He created the tailed beasts as separate lives. He spent the remainder of his existence attempting to prevent his mother's power from returning."

Black Zetsu's body tightened against the White Zetsu half surrounding him.

The movement was minute, but Madara's Sharingan saw it.

Alaric also noticed but continued anyway.

"Yet the final truth upon his sacred tablet supposedly instructed his descendants to reverse everything he accomplished."

Madara's gaze did not leave Black Zetsu.

"To gather the tailed beasts."

No answer came.

"To restore the Ten-Tails."

Black Zetsu's eye remained steady.

"To cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi using the Divine Tree."

The darkness forming Black Zetsu's shoulder rippled once.

It was a shallow disturbance… the sort of involuntary response that would have meant nothing from an ordinary body.

Black Zetsu did not possess ordinary muscles.

Every movement was chosen… naturally, Madara saw the ripple, and for the first time, genuine suspicion entered his face.

Alaric looked between them.

"You believed the tablet became clearer as your eyes evolved. You never considered that someone had altered the hidden layers because no one else could read deeply enough to contradict you."

Kabuto's pupils narrowed with interest.

"The Uchiha Stone Tablet can be altered?"

"Anything written can be altered."

Madara's gaze remained on Black Zetsu.

"The tablet was created by the Sage of Six Paths."

"And Black Zetsu lived during his lifetime."

That statement struck harder than the others.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

Madara slowly turned toward Alaric.

"What did you say?"

Obito's head shifted sharply.

Kabuto's glasses reflected the red glow as his attention moved toward the shadow attached to the White Zetsu body.

Black Zetsu remained still.

Too still.

Alaric raised his chin slightly.

"You think Black Zetsu is your creation, huh?"

Madara's expression became unreadable.

"You believe he emerged from your will shortly before your death. A physical manifestation of the purpose you intended Obito to inherit."

"That is what he is."

"No," The denial came without force. Alaric spoke as though correcting a minor historical mistake. "Black Zetsu predates the hidden villages."

Madara's fingers tightened.

"He predates the clan wars," Alaric continued as the incomplete Ten-Tails shifted behind them, but no one looked toward it. "He existed before the Uchiha and Senju carried those names. Before Indra's descendants divided into the family you eventually led. Before Hagoromo's teachings became ninshū, then fractured into ninjutsu."

Black Zetsu's eye remained upon Alaric.

Disbelief spread through him in a sensation no human observer could have named.

Alaric should not know.

There were no records.

No surviving witnesses understood what had occurred when Kaguya was sealed. Hagoromo had believed Black Zetsu to be the last expression of his mother's will, yet even that knowledge had disappeared from the world. The creature had hidden through thousands of years precisely because time erased every person who might expose him.

Alaric had spoken with certainty, with no inference nor suspicion… only knowledge.

Black Zetsu searched Alaric's face for the smallest uncertainty and found amusement instead.

Madara glared at Alaric.

Then he looked toward Black Zetsu.

His Sharingan remained active beneath the rippled pattern of his Rinnegan, perceiving movements too slight for Obito or Kabuto to recognize. He saw the delay before Black Zetsu adjusted his posture. He saw the surface of the creature's cheek contract around the yellow eye. He saw one black tendril press deeper into the White Zetsu body as if bracing against an instinct to retreat.

Black Zetsu was uncomfortable.

That alone did not prove Alaric's accusation… but it did proved there was something to conceal.

"Hahahaha…"

Madara laughed, the sound emerging low at first.

One short breath carrying disbelief rather than humor.

"You expect me to accept this?"

Alaric raised one brow while Madara's laughter faded.

"No matter what strategy you intend to play, it will not work."

"Heh…" Alaric chuckled.

The quiet sound contrasted with the tension grinding through the cavern.

He turned toward Black Zetsu.

"Zetsu."

Despite being called, Black Zetsu did not answer.

Alaric's smile sharpened. "How would you feel if I successfully stopped Madara?"

The red chakra around the Ten-Tails pulsed.

"How would you feel if I destroyed the plan you spent millennia constructing?"

Madara's attention snapped fully toward Black Zetsu.

Obito's eye widened by a fraction.

Kabuto's lips parted, though no comment followed.

Alaric kept his gaze on the ancient shadow.

"How would you feel if your mother's revivification failed?"

That was when Black Zetsu froze.

The response lasted no longer than a heartbeat, but it was enough.

His yellow eye widened.

The darkness forming his face drew taut against the White Zetsu half. Several tendrils along his lower body pulled away from the roots before he forced them still again.

Disbelief passed through him so nakedly that even Obito saw it.

Alaric knew about Kaguya.

More than that, he knew what Black Zetsu wanted.

The hidden purpose behind Indra's resentment, the Stone Tablet, Madara's awakening, Obito's corruption, Nagato's Rinnegan, Akatsuki, the tailed beasts, and the Ten-Tails had been exposed in one question.

Madara did not look at Alaric. No… he watched Black Zetsu.

Memories moved behind his eyes.

The cave in which he had prepared Obito, the final hours of his first life, the moment he drew Black Zetsu from his body and believed his will had taken form, Black Zetsu's knowledge of underground routes, his ability to move between roots.

His immediate understanding of plans Madara had explained only in fragments, his familiarity with the Gedo Mazō, his insistence that the Eye of the Moon Plan remained the only path.

At the time, each detail had supported the belief that Black Zetsu carried Madara's will perfectly.

Now those same details formed another possibility.

Madara's jaw tightened.

He remembered the Stone Tablet beneath the Naka Shrine.

He had trusted his eyes because the Uchiha trusted nothing more deeply. The Sharingan exposed deception. The Mangekyō penetrated secrets. The Rinnegan represented the culmination of Indra and Asura's chakra.

He had believed no written lie could survive that sight.

Yet a lie designed specifically for those eyes would grow more convincing as they evolved.

The possibility offended him on a level deeper than betrayal.

His entire philosophy had been built upon his belief that he alone saw through the world's illusion.

If Alaric spoke the truth, then Madara's vision had been guided from the beginning.

Obito's voice broke the silence.

"Your mother?"

Black Zetsu turned slightly.

Madara spoke before he could answer.

"Explain."

The command carried enough chakra to make the roots around Black Zetsu tremble.

Black Zetsu looked toward him.

"Madara—"

"Explain what is happening."

The Rinnegan fixed upon him without blinking.

Black Zetsu understood the danger.

Madara had not accepted Alaric's claims. Pride resisted them too fiercely. However, Madara had seen the involuntary reaction to Kaguya's resurrection, and any explanation now needed to erase what his eyes had already recorded.

Black Zetsu lowered his head by a fraction.

"Alaric is inventing a story because he knows he cannot allow our plan to continue."

Alaric said nothing.

"He possesses unusual knowledge," Black Zetsu continued, "but knowledge does not make every accusation true. He knows the name Kaguya because the Sage of Six Paths and the Ten-Tails are connected to ancient history. He used that knowledge to provoke a reaction."

Madara's gaze remained still while Black Zetsu turned toward Alaric and continued.

"He wants you to distrust me. If you withdraw now, the Allied Shinobi Forces will finish deploying. The Ten-Tails' transformation will lose momentum. Everything you prepared will be delayed."

Still Alaric did not defend himself.

He lifted his right hand and loosened the collar of his Vanguard coat.

A small sealing tattoo rested upon his shoulder beneath the fabric.

Chakra touched the mark.

Smoke curled from the formula before a dark cigar appeared between his fingers, followed by a silver cutter and a narrow lighter.

Kabuto stared at him.

Obito's head moved slightly, as though the ordinary ritual had become more incomprehensible than any display of power.

Alaric clipped the sealed end from the cigar.

The quiet metallic sound traveled through the chamber.

Black Zetsu continued.

"He defeated your reanimated body at the Summit, but he failed to destroy the plan. He came here alone because he wants us to turn against one another. Every moment spent questioning me serves him."

Alaric placed the cigar between his lips.

The lighter opened with a click.

A small flame appeared.

For a moment, the fire reflected in his eyes while he rotated the cigar above it. He drew in slowly until the end glowed, then closed the lighter and returned both tools to the seal upon his shoulder.

Smoke left his mouth in a thin stream.

His expression held mild amusement as he had no sense of urgency and effort to persuade Madara.

Black Zetsu noticed and so did Madara.

An innocent man might have argued, and a liar might have supplied more proof.

Alaric behaved like someone who had already placed the truth in front of Madara and no longer cared whether pride allowed him to touch it.

When Black Zetsu's explanation ended, silence returned.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

Madara lowered his head.

His hair cast shadows across his face.

For several seconds, nothing moved except the cigar smoke curling past Alaric's cheek and the incomplete Ten-Tails straining against its bindings.

"Hahahahaha…"

Then Madara laughed.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…"

The sound erupted from him with such force that Obito turned.

It began with one sharp burst, followed by another. Madara's shoulders moved. His head tilted back, and laughter rolled through the cavern until broken stone trembled beneath it.

Obito watched with narrowed eyes.

He had seen Madara laugh during the battle at the Summit. That laughter carried exhilaration, contempt, or the pleasure of meeting strength capable of surviving his first attack.

This was different because there was something ruined inside it.

"Madara?" Obito called as he stared at his ancestor.

Madara continued laughing.

The sound grew harsher before it finally broke into a heavy exhale.

His shoulders settled, and he lowered his head again.

The amusement had vanished from his eyes.

"I see."

Black Zetsu's tendrils tightened.

"Madara, he is—"

"I thought you were my creation."

Black Zetsu stopped.

Madara's voice had become quiet.

"Black Zetsu…"

The Rinnegan held the ancient shadow in place more effectively than any chain.

"It seems I've been made a puppet all along."

Obito's eye widened.

Kabuto moved one hand away from the control seals.

Black Zetsu sank slightly into the roots.

"Madara, that conclusion is exactly what he wants."

Madara's gaze sharpened.

"You reacted before he provided proof."

Black Zetsu said nothing.

"You knew what he meant when he spoke of your mother."

"He named Kaguya—"

"And you were afraid."

The words struck without anger.

Madara's calm had become far more dangerous than rage.

Black Zetsu's body began withdrawing into the roots.

Madara formed a single hand seal.M, and the cavern changed.

WOOOOOOOOOOBOOOOOOM.

Every restraint connected to the Gedo Mazō flared at once.

Obito jerked toward the incomplete Ten-Tails.

"What are you doing?"

The control mark hidden within Obito's body burned.

He reached instinctively for the chakra chains binding the statue, but another authority had already entered the network. A seal older than Obito's possession of the Rinnegan spread through the roots, recognizing the chakra of the man who had originally summoned the Gedo Mazō from the moon.

Madara's chakra seized the connection.

Obito's control vanished.

The loss struck so suddenly that his body shifted backward. Kamui flickered around his shoulder while he tried to recover the reins.

"You placed a second contract on it?"

Madara did not answer.

The incomplete Ten-Tails opened its eye, and red light flooded the cavern.

Roots tore free from the walls. Sealing pillars split down their centers as the Gedo Mazō's enormous body compressed within a spiraling field of space-time chakra. Its unstable flesh folded inward, dragged toward a summoning formula spreading beneath Madara's feet.

Kabuto leapt from the control platform.

Black Zetsu plunged into the roots.

Alaric remained where he stood, cigar resting between two fingers as wind from the distortion pulled at his coat.

Madara looked toward him.

The two men held each other's gaze across the collapsing chamber.

Alaric saw no gratitude there.

No surrender.

Madara's pride had been wounded too deeply for either.

What remained was colder… the recognition that Alaric had exposed a flaw Madara could no longer ignore.

"You have created an inconvenience," Madara said.

Smoke drifted from Alaric's mouth. "I seem to do that often."

Madara's body began dissolving into the summoning field.

"Do not mistake suspicion for trust."

"I would be disappointed if you did."

The space around the Gedo Mazō collapsed.

Madara's hand seal remained intact until the final moment.

Then he and the incomplete Ten-Tails disappeared.

The summoning force snapped shut.

A thunderous vacuum struck the chamber.

Stone platforms broke apart. Roots whipped through the air before falling lifeless across the ground. The red light vanished with the beast, leaving only scattered seals and the faint glow of magma-like chakra embedded in the cracks below.

Obito stood in the sudden darkness.

His hand remained lifted toward an empty space where the Gedo Mazō had rested.

Kabuto landed against the far wall, one palm pressed into the stone as his serpentine body steadied itself.

Black Zetsu was gone from sight.

Alaric took another drag from his cigar.

Obito slowly turned toward him.

The mask concealed his face, though confusion had stripped the certainty from his voice.

"What the hell is going on…?"