Reaching For A Dream by Noodlehammer

Chapter 25

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Madara was frustrated.

It had been two weeks since his revival and things were not going the way that he had thought they would.

The spare Mangenkyo Sharingan that Zetsu had procured had been fully assimilated and was now evolved into a new Rinnegan. Madara was glad that his resurrection had no adverse effects on his body. It had taken decades for Hashirama's cells and chakra to fully merge with his own when he had integrated them and he had no wish to repeat that wait.

He had always thought it rather strange(though convenient) that the Mangenkyo's curse of blindness only affected their original wielder, but had eventually shrugged it off as being chakra related and not truly physical. Well, that was the case for Uchiha at least, he wasn't sure if the same applied to a non-Uchiha.

The eyes had not been a perfect match, which was understandable as they hadn't belonged to a member of his immediate family, but they had settled just fine in the end. No doubt it was the fact that he had already evolved an Eternal Mangenkyo once before, as well as the revitalising effect of Hashirama's cells that allowed it to happen without complication.

The real issue that was frustrating Madara was the fact that he couldn't make proper use of the eyes. The Gedō Mazō was not responding to his summons, nor could he find the slightest clue about the whereabouts of Uzumaki Naruto, who was the most likely person to have possession of it.

With only the Hachibi remaining outside the Gedō Mazō, things should have been simple. Attack Kumogakure and take it...very simple and straightforward. Unfortunately, that wouldn't do him any good without something to seal it into.

He certainly understood what Zetsu meant when he had said that Uzumaki had a penchant for wrecking plans. The original plan was so mangled as to be unrecognisable.

It rankled him severely that his greatest asset and most crucial piece of the Moon's Eye Plan was in the hands of the enemy. If Zetsu was to be believed then Uzumaki had been in a relationship with the Kyuubi before the demon had been sealed. Though Madara found the thought ludicrous, considering that the Bijuu were merely masses of chakra, he could not deny that it was sentient after his disastrous attempt at controlling it.

No doubt Uzumaki was planning to free the demon from the Gedō Mazō, which was something that Madara knew was a lost cause. Only the Rinnegan could do something like that and that wasn't even mentioning the fact that there was no way for a Bijuu to come out of the statue the same way that it had gone in.

If you poured a glass of water into a bucket of water, there was no way that you were ever going to get that exact same glass of water back.

Still, a clever enough man could make many uses of the Gedō Mazō and the longer that Uzumaki had it, the higher the chances that he would get some dangerous ideas. That was how Zetsu had come about after all. Which was another reason why it rankled him so much that he didn't have the Gedō Mazō anymore...he couldn't create any Zetsu clones. Though even Madara himself didn't know if anything could be done with the Gedō Mazō without the Rinnegan, he wasn't willing to chance it.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a damn thing that he could do about it right now. Madara had no skill with space-time manipulation and Naruto did. Clearly the blond nuisance had somehow blocked off any attempts at summoning the Gedō Mazō.

He was tempted to assault Konoha and possibly take some people hostage in order to force Uzumaki into revealing himself, but wasn't going to do it quite yet. For one thing, he found that kind of crude tactic distasteful and for another there was no guarantee that it would work. Uzumaki had proven himself devious and unpredictable so far...there was no telling what he would do in that case. He didn't seem like the type to allow himself to be blackmailed.