_________ POV Narration _________ 

Madara took a few steps back as his mind almost instantly filled with not-so-kind thoughts towards Black Zetsu.

'That idiot didn't even realize he was being followed?!?'

Madara wasn't scared of Ken. Sure the little beast was powerful, but Madara had fought and defeated stronger foes in the past. 

In Madara's eyes, he was only maybe a bit better than the likes of the Third Raikage. There were stronger shinobi before him and there were going to be stronger shinobi than him in the future. 

So Madara had no reason to feel trepidation when faced with him, hell, had almost even defeated Hashirama in his prime, despite losing due to a backstabbing. 

However, the Uchiha ancestor didn't hold that against his friend/arch-nemesis. It was his own fault that he allowed such a thing to happen, they were shinobi at the end of the day. 

It was his past as a great shinobi that allowed him to not feel any crumb of fear even when faced with someone of Ken's stature.

"What an interesting development... An Uchiha plotting behind the scenes, I wasn't expecting this." Ken tilted his head with a slight smile underneath his mask, his pointed and spiky tail seemed to twirl around behind him as he did so. 

Madara gave the Black Zetsu behind Ken a quick look, before closely staring at Ken's mask. 

The second Ken cracked his neck, the Black Zetsu behind him dashed at his exposed back.

And the very next second, Black Zetsu realized that it was staring at the ceiling of the room, as the head of the Zetsu it was controlling rolled on the floor. 

'Shit... None of the Zetsu here are strong enough to even react to this monster's tail.' 

Ken didn't even turn around as he flicked the tip of his bloody tail towards the ground, forming a nice red line on the dusty rocks behind him. 

"That was quite tasteless." The Blind Monster shook his head and crossed his arms, tapping on his forearm while seemingly expecting something.

Meanwhile, Madara was sweating a bit as he realised that the Three Tomoe Sharingan he was sporting could barely even follow the monster's movements. 

'I am truly in no state to fight him, am I? I guess the rumours were true...' 

"You still haven't introduced yourself, old man..." Ken's calm voice broke the Uchiha Ancestor out of his musings, its calm cadence held a veiled threat underneath it.

The Assassin was not asking for Madara's name, he was demanding it. Madara could almost feel a growl coming from the Blind Monster's throat as it spoke in cold command. 

Now, had he been back in his prime, this type of development would've been exciting for him. He quite liked Ken's guts all things considered.

After all, Ken was a man/child who was not at all afraid to break the mould and seek out his own answers to the problems of the world. Madara could very much respect that. 

The only problem was that Madara couldn't quite figure out what the Blind Monster's goals actually were.

None of his actions pointed towards a specific path. At some point he chose to stay uninvolved in the Shinobi World, at others he hunted down specific shinobi and even tore rifts into the alliances taking part in the Third War.

It was honestly jarring, and the Uchiha Ancestor hadn't planned to get involved too much in the world at that point. Ken's entire existence was both unexpected and a mystery.

'The Tablet hadn't spoken anything of this... It provided me with a blurry outline, and a way forward, but nothing ever mentioned him... As expected, Ocular Genjutsu doesn't do anything to him...'

Madara's thoughts were once again interrupted, this time by a loud and sharp sound. Ken's tail snapped, whipping at the ground behind him in a threatening manner. 

Madara sighed as he realised he was pushing his luck.

"My name is... Madara Uchiha. And it seems that we were fated to meet this way after all..."

Madara coughed a bit as he introduced himself, his gaze then trailing towards the Black Zetsu, who was currently seeping through cracks in the stone, likely going off to possess another White Zetsu. 

"Madara Uchiha? Weren't you supposed to be dead? Like a few decades ago?" Ken tilted his head as he tried to remember the recent history of the Shinobi World.

It was true that it was feasible for Madara to have lived that long, people had lived longer at the end of the day.

But it was recorded that Madara was killed by Hashirama in the Valley of the End. It was a rather large piece of news as it had weakened the Leaf's fighting force quite a bit.

Some Villages had even tried to take advantage of the situation at that time, but even an injured Hashirama was too much for them to handle. 

The fact that the Leaf was still filled with powerhouses certainly helped as well. But one thing was for sure... Madara was pronounced dead, confirmed by the God of Shinobi himself. 

"Hmph, for a blind man, you believe what is written down with too little scepticism..." Madara sighed and decided to not treat Ken as he would a child.

Doing so was likely going to cost him his life. Whilst he wasn't afraid of death, he had yet to complete the first part of his plans.

"Well, there wasn't much else to go off of. You're dead to the world and have been for decades without trying to make your presence known, so I'm assuming you're just a ghost now." Ken's scales seemed to recede into his body as he confirmed that.

Madara was a legendary figure, sure. But the person that was standing in front of Ken now could truly only be described as a ghost.

The Uchiha ancestor was truly nothing but a shadow of his former self. 

"Hah... Quite a rude way of putting it, but not wrong at all... My bout with Hashirama left me quite destitute, by the time I recovered fully I was already old, and he was already gone."

Madara himself was not offended by the insinuation. He also didn't feel offended when he saw Ken return to a more human form. 

He realized that his only chance of surviving against Ken was to try and talk him out of killing him. 

If Ken was a regular kid then that would be quite easy for Madara to do. But things weren't ever going to be that easy for him, were they? 

"Interesting... And why exactly would someone like you be conspiring to get rid of me?" Ken stepped heavily on the stones at his feet. the ground around him cracked and a stone rose out from behind him, forming a small stool. 

Madara sighed in relief as he turned around and noticed a stone rise behind him as well. 

At the very least Ken seemed to be curious enough to indulge him for a bit. 

"To put it simply... I saw you as an obstacle, a factor that I couldn't account for and that could interfere with my plans." 

Madara was currently debating whether or not he could try to get Ken to join his plans. To make him believe in the Eye of the Moon operation and the opportunities it offered to the world.

But the Ghost of the Uchhia was still very much unsure whether or not Ken would agree with his ideals or point of view. 

"Hmm, and what might your plans entail, and how was I interfering with them whilst minding my own business?" The Blind Monster seemed to yawn a bit at that news, likely already expecting something of that nature. 

He had expected to draw out all kinds of people and make them rise up against him, each and every one of them with thier own reasons to want to take him down, and all of them related to his age/talent.

Not wanting him to grow into a future God of Shinobi the likes of Hashirama, not wanting him to grow stronger and pose a threat to their respective, and so on. Essentially he expected many rats to be afraid of what he could grow into. 

But he also expected the one pulling the strings to have different intentions. 

Ken could feel it, despite being uneasy, the old man in front of him didn't even have a modicum of fear inside his body. 

Even though his muscles had withered and his skin had wrinkled, his spirit was still that of one of the greatest Shinobi to ever live. 

"My plans are not something I ought to go into detail right now... But I will say that my end goal is to achieve world peace." 

The Blind Assassin tilted his head in confusion upon hearing that. It felt just a tad bit too convenient to him.

'So we have the same goal? For someone aiming for world peace, he sure was comfortable rallying entire villages against me just because I could potentially stand in his way...

Doesn't sound like the quintessential pacifist. Then again, neither am I.' 

"That's an interesting end goal, one I can certainly get behind in fact... But how do you plan to achieve it exactly?" Ken decided to show his interest, hoping to learn a bit more about the Ghost of the Uchiha's plans.

Madara seemed to become a bit more uneasy when asked that, his old eyes narrowed as he scanned the Blind Monster from head to toe. 

"I guess it's worth telling you. I've concluded that the only way to truly end the cycle of hatred is to get rid of hatred altogether...

I plan to put the entire world underneath a Genjutsu, to let everyone live the rest of eternity in suspended animation whilst fulfilling their greatest desires and wishes." 

Ken immediately sighed upon hearing the details of that plan. Immediately, the only thought in his mind was quite judgemental.

'So he's given up, huh?' 

If the only solution to world peace that Madara could see was to manufacture an artificial reality, then he truly was going mad. 

But at the same time, the Blind Monster could sympathize.

No matter how much he thought it out and strategized, he simply couldn't imagine a situation where they could achieve such a thing as eternal peace.

Even his plans would only work as long as he or his ideals were alive and his influence could spread.

He was going to try and force the peace to last longer even after his death, but it wasn't going to last forever. 

Much like Hashirama, Ken was going to create a period of peace. Just that, a period. 

A future untainted by the greed and want of the warmongers that seemed to so often take the thrones of thier respective countries.

He hoped to create a period much longer than that of Hashirama, to give the world a true taste of what could be. 

And in doing so, Ken hoped that the world would allow that taste to linger and that they would strive for it in the future as well. 

That was Ken's goal. But Madara seemed to have different plans. 

"I see... You have completely given up hope that humans would be capable of maintaining peace by themselves, right?" The Blind Monster slowly shook his head as he spoke, making Madara scowl.

"Tsk, hope? There is no such thing as hope in this world. You are still young, but I'm sure you've seen it... Or felt it rather. The despair that embroils the people of this world.

I- no We can put an end to all of that. With your help, I can do it much sooner! Just think of all of the miserable lives that you'd be saving..."

Madara extended his hand towards Ken, a smile appearing on his face as he hoped to be able to reel Ken in with his pitch. 

 But that hand was never taken, as Ken sighed and Madara felt his body becoming... Lighter.

"Huh..." Madara felt cold at that moment, looking down, his eyes widened to see that his hand was completely missing, and there was a blade stuck into his chest.

He wasn't surprised, no he had somewhat followed Ken's movements with his eyes. But it still felt unreal.

He had done so much to extend his lifespan, to see his plans to the end. 

But now, that he felt his heart stop beating, it all became clearer to him. 

"It's a shame that I wasn't born earlier. I'm sure you would have been fun to assassinate when in your prime..." Ken said as he turned around and walked away, leaving the old man to fall to the cold stone floor. 

Madara's last moments were filled with despair, but also jubilation.

"Yes... There's still a way! Just wait... You will live to regret this day!"

The Ghost of the Uchiha swore with his dying breath. The Blind Assassin didn't even turn around, taking his words as nothing more than the ravings of a madman.

"The dead are supposed to stay dead, but I guess I'll see you in the Pure Lands... Maybe... Maybe I'll even achieve what you had strived for, but more naturally. Only time will tell. " Ken shrugged, before stepping heavily on the ground once more.

This time, everything around him fragmented, the cave walls shook and quaked and the ground underneath him gave way.

In an instant, a cave-in happened, and Ken could feel all of the Zetsu below getting squashed. 

'It seems Black Zetsu slipped away while I was talking to Madara... I'd track him down, but I don't have any way of sealing him right now, he's not exactly a tailed beast, nor is he a human. 

I'll have to 'look' into that and hunt him down one day. But it might be easier to just wait for him to rear his ugly head again...' 

Ken vanished as the stones from the ceiling fell in his previous position.

He reappeared back in the clouds, his wings already unflurred. 

'Now then... Time to head back home.' 

_________________________________________________________________

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Feeling a bit better, managed to write up another chapter

Part of the plan's finally been revealed, tho some ppl might've guessed where this was going already :))

Story Shoutout: Hell Difficulty Tutorial

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