"He escaped..." - Zetsu was standing now next to Madara who had a dark expression.

"..." - Madara couldn't believe he was played like that.

"Uhm..." - Gengetsu looked at Mu who only nodded, before escaping as well.

There was nothing to do anymore for them except for fighting a Madara they cant beat and wait until they are sealed.

So they thought it was better to just return to their villages and help.

"Shouldn't we chase those two?" - White Zetsu asked carefully.

But Madara and Black Zetsu couldn't care less right now about those two small fries (in their eyes)!

Even the godlike Madara wasn't able to stop Eiji's escape, simply because Eiji was already specialized in speed, plus Sage Mode and with the head start from surprising Madara.

'Was this all part of his plan? Was he acting like a coward back then to lower my guard?' - Madara's mood worsened and worsened the longer he thought about it.

But in truth, he was just overthinking it.

This was expected however because of the knowledge Eiji displayed about the God Tree, and Madara didn't know the extend of Eiji's knowledge, so he felt like there appeared a serious threat to his grand plan.

"Zetsu...what was this brat's name?" - Madara

"Eij...Nakamura..." - Black Zetsu

"...Eiji..." - Madara made sure to remember this name.

Then he breathed in and said: "Since I was revived earlier than expected, I will have to revise the plan a bit...tell me where Obito is..."

A haggard group entered a teahouse and the warmth of the interior instantly embraced their bodies which were cold from the snowy weather.

"Do you really think we will meet Sasuke here?" - Naruto breathed into his hands while sitting down at a table.

"Maybe..." - Jiraiya took down a paper in which was written: Let's meet at the nearest Shiki Ryuu.

It was obvious who wrote the latter and who they are supposed to meet here.

While they were escaping, a snake with the letter attached to it appeared in their path.

Jiraiya and Yamato noticed the suspicious snake and decided to stop their sprint to check it out.

After that, they decided to split up: Jiraiya, Sakura, and Naruto would meet Eiji (and Sasuke as they hoped) while Yamato and the rest of the surviving Anbu would head straight to Konoha to report.

While waiting, they ordered some tea and drank it to warm their bodies.

And then an employee approached them and asked them to follow him to the VIP room.

When they were in front of the door, the employee left.

Naruto opened the door hastily and shouted: "Sasuke!"

"...damn, do you have to be so loud? A teahouse is supposed to be quiet..." - Eiji picked his ear and had a slightly annoyed face.

"Sasuke...isn't here, right?" - Sakura asked him straight.

"Well, yeah. He just reunited with his dead parents, so isn't it normal that he wants to spend time with them instead of me and you?"

Jiraiya sat in front of the desk with a stern face: "Alright, what did you want to talk about? You should know that after what happened today, Konoha will turn completely hostile to you and the Shiki Ryuu, so I hope you have something good to say."

"That's rude, you know? It wasn't my plan to revive Madara...but Sasuke did it anyway. It's entirely his fault, ok?" - Eiji picked his nose.

"SHUT UP! DONT TALK ABOUT SAS-" - Naruto stopped after Jiraiya glared at him with eyes that said: "Act like a shinobi!"

"Even if this is true...Sasuke is with the Shiki Ryuu, so your side is still to be blamed." - Jiraiya returned to the discussion with Eiji.

"Yeah, I know...I really feel a bit responsible for that and I want to get rid of Madara too...but to be honest he would have been revived later anyway..." - Eiji turned serious too.

"What are you talking about?"

"Hmm...do you know why the Akatsuki wants to gather all Tailed-Beasts?" - Eiji smiled while starting to explain.

"It's to merge them into the Jubi. It was a plan devised by Madara himself, but he died of old age, so he had the leader of Akatsuki act to make his plan come to fruition. And then at the end when all Tailed-Beasts are gathered he would have been revived."

"...so you are saying the Akatsuki was formed for Madara's plan? But what do they plan to do with the Jubi?" - Jiraiya

"How would I know?" - Eiji pretended to not know since there was no benefit to exposing everything he knows right now.

"Then...is this all you wanted to talk about?" - Jiraiya wasn't convinced and thought it was just an excuse from Eiji's side so that he wouldn't need to take the blame.

"Of course not...I wanted to share how we can get rid of Madara!" - Eiji leaned back.

"Sigh...so I assume you need my or Konoha's cooperation for that?" - Jiraiya understood now why Eiji wanted to meet them.

Eiji showed two fingers: "There are 2 ways: We have to wait until Sasuke can use his ability again to fully control Madara while the Jinchurikis go into hiding. To be honest, this what my plan originally was. Revive Madara and let Sasuke use his ability to fully control Madara, but it looks like Sasuke didn't want to wait... "

"Are you talking about the Kotoamitsukami?" - Jiraiya remembered how Tsunade, who went through all of Root's documents, told him that either Sasuke or Eiji would have taken Danzo's eye after the battle back then.

"Yep." - Eiji

"How long would we have to wait?" - Jiraiya understood what Eiji was getting at.

"He used it on Kabuto before reviving Madara...so a few years at the least." - Eiji

"..."

"What's the other option?" - Jiraiya

"Tobi...I must say that your cooking isn't too bad." - Kisame was smiling with his shark teeth while eating the Onigiri Tobi made.

"Hehehehe...Tobi always dreamed to be a cook in his youth before he lost all his money on gambling and needed to join a criminal organization-" - Tobi was brushing happily his hair.

"..." - Itachi didn't say anything, but Onigiri was one of his favorite food, so he enjoyed it silently.

They were currently resting at a nearby river in the wilderness.

But then Zetsu appeared.

"What's wrong? First time I'm seeing Zetsu make such a face?" - Kisame asked in his usual nonchalant manner.

"Isn't it obvious? He must be envious that he didn't get any of Tobi's onigiri!" - Tobi

Zetsu didn't know where to start. He needed to talk with "Tobi" ins private, but his mental state was in such turmoil that he didn't know how to do it: "...that's..."

"?"

CrusadeAgainstFurries

Sorry for uploading a day later, but you can see that this chapter is longer and I didn't want to end the arc conclusion somewhere in the middle of Jiraiya's and Eiji's dialogue.