Currently, among the Kage-level powerhouses in the Hidden Leaf Village, while Hiruzen Sarutobi maintained a tacit approval toward the genjutsu ga, it was still nearly impossible to expect the Third Hokage—who had spent his life wary of the Uchiha due to upholding the Second Hokage's ideology—to willingly let down his guard and play a ga created by the Uchiha Clan.
Of the others, among the Legendary Three Sannin, Orochimaru was just as cautious and cunning. Though surely intrigued, he would most likely have his subordinates try the ga first and wait until sufficient intel was gathered before considering it himself.
The remaining two of the Sannin definitely would play, but neither of them were in the village.
Tsunade had recently accepted a commission from the daimyō of the Land of Fire to treat a noble. She hadn't returned yet and was likely blowing off steam in so gambling den until she ran out of money.
anwhile, Jiraiya was still off doing his own thing. According to the original tiline, he was likely training the trio from the Hidden Rain and wouldn't return until summoned by the village.
Thus, not a single known Kage-level shinobi in the Leaf had provided Uchiha Kei with emotional value—utterly useless compared to even a single finger of that old man Madara.
But Kei's fun didn't last long. After receiving one last burst of emotional value, the golden spirit drops stopped altogether. A while later, he gained a wave of normal emotional value—but then it ceased entirely.
Faced with this, Kei quickly understood: "The old man probably only bought one copy of the ga. After failing to clear the hidden mode in 'Fruit Ninja,' he tried 'Going Ho' but it didn't suit his taste, so he stopped providing golden spirit boosts."
————
Just as Kei suspected, Madara Uchiha had indeed failed to clear the hidden mode.
Despite giving it everything he had, despite his unrestrained style, despite dancing wildly—Madara ultimately failed.
The difficulty of the hidden mode was designed specifically to tornt Kage-level shinobi.
The Demon Buddha was rely the hidden boss's first form. After that, it had two more transformations, each more terrifying than the last.
Each form represented a new tier of power:
The first was standard super-Kage level—roughly on par with Nine-Tails Naruto.
The second matched the full power of Hashirama Senju.
The third reached the level of Ten Tails Jinchūriki Obito.
Madara defeated the first form, but the Demon Buddha transford—its body twisted, countless tentacles erged, and it swelled in size. Its Buddhist image shattered, replaced by a Lovecraftian abomination. Each move emitted beams of devastation that engulfed everything in sight.
At that mont, Madara rembered the terror of being overwheld by Hashirama's Thousand-Ard Kannon—the humiliation of being suppressed.
Though his power theoretically far exceeded his past self from the Valley of the End, his current eyes weren't originals. While his techniques dazzled, he couldn't draw out their full potential—like running a high-end ga on a fake graphics card.
And so, when the battle escalated into a stat-based endga, this Shura of the ninja world was consud by monstrous tentacles. The sensation of death in the ga was so vivid it left him shaken.
Kei had always considered the hidden mode sothing ordinary ninja couldn't tackle. Maliciously, he'd made it a one-ti challenge: fail, and you'd feel real death—and the ga's seal scroll would self-destruct.
To try again, you had to buy a new one.
Kei even prepared an explanation: this was a true test for the strongest, and failure naturally ca with a price.
Reality: a clever scam to squeeze money out of elite players.
Yet, packaged like this, challengers felt it was reasonable—and would eagerly keep trying, no matter the cost.
Madara was no exception.
That feeling of defeat—so rare after years of stagnation—made his blood boil. The surge in emotion was so intense that if not for life-support systems, it might have killed him.
After calming down, he looked at the crumbling seal scroll. Narrowing his eyes, he muttered: "Destroyed upon failure, huh? Interesting. Fair, even. A battle of that scale with no punishnt for losing would be a joke."
As he spoke, Madara stared at his withered hands and clenched his fists slightly, a shadow of frustration in his eyes.
Old, frail, drained.
That aged body, after briefly reliving youthful vigor, now felt unbearable.
He had long accepted his decay. But to taste vitality again, only to return to this...
Who was he?
The Shura of the shinobi world.
The Rose of the Battlefield.
The God of the Shinobi's eternal rival—
Madara Uchiha!
He was ant to dominate the world, to fight freely on any battlefield. Even if he were to die, it should be on the frontlines—not clinging to life through machines!
"I could bear the darkness—until I saw the light again."
The contrast shattered him.
This was the last golden spirit Kei received—Madara had truly given his all to support his junior's comfy life.
White Zetsu, Afei, was utterly confused by Madara's emotional state. He twisted his body and asked, "Why did the seal scroll break? So weird. What's wrong, Grandpa Madara? Why are you so agitated? Oh no, this won't do! If you keep this up, your brain's gonna go pop and you'll end up like the other senile old n!"
Madara's already dark expression turned pitch-black.
This little bastard was basically cursing him with a stroke!
Damn you, Afei! That foul-mouthed idiot—I'll deal with you one day!
Of course, despite his fury, Madara wouldn't actually dispose of Afei—especially since his true will, Black Zetsu, had been sent out to monitor the Rinnegan vessel.
So instead, Madara assigned Afei a task: go to the Hidden Leaf and acquire more genjutsu gas. Specifically, he demanded twenty copies of "Fruit Ninja."
After issuing the order, he paused, then told Afei to wait. Amid Afei's annoying complaints, Madara entered "Going Ho" for a trial run.
He exited almost imdiately.
Though the ga's creepy atmosphere might have unnerved others, it ant nothing to Madara, who'd lived underground for years.
As for the female ghost...
Honestly, after seeing nothing but White Zetsu and Black Zetsu for so long, even a pig would seem like a goddess to him. That terrifying female ghost? To him, she looked... oddly attractive.
More importantly, "Going Ho" forced him to play as a weakling—a role Madara despised. He had no interest in playing anyone but himself.
The mont the ghost pinned him down in a scripted jumpscare, Madara—who hated anyone behind him—exited in disgust and muttered, "Boring."
Genjutsu gas? Only "Fruit Ninja," where he could fight wildly, was worthy of him!
And so, after providing Kei with one final wave of standard emotional value, Madara's contributions ended—until Afei brought back more gas.
Not that Madara would ever admit he was hooked. No, he would claim:
"It's amusing. Just sothing to kill ti."
If Kei saw that, he would nod knowingly and say, "Yup, every prideful old man who gets addicted to gas says that. I get it."
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