"It doesn't matter if you failed or not, young Uchiha, because there is nothing left for you to do in this world.
What you can do is pay back your debt with what little is left of your life and I'll tell you how."
Ryuu looked at Madara.
"But before that, remember this: you can't leave this place, but if you want to go, try, but you will have to leave without one of the Sharingan.
So what will you do?"
Ryuu looked at Obito, who looked down worriedly.
Obito clenched his fist and said.
"I'll do it, I'll do it to save my friends!"
Ryuu looked at Madara.
"That's right, we'll do it to save our friends."
"To protect your friends, huh..." Madara remarked as he got a glimpse of his forgotten past.
"Very well then, rest, for now, I'll tell you how to repay your debt later, but I must warn you, the task will not be easy,"
Madara remarked as he turned around and sat on a high platform in front of a giant-looking statue that couldn't be seen because of the dark.
2 hours had passed, and Ryuu and Obito still weren't asleep.
Ryuu was contemplating his failure and thinking of a plan, but he had nothing.
"So? What's the plan?" Obito whispered.
"The plan?" Ryuu replied, confused as to what Obito was talking about.
"The plan to escape, we can't stay here, Kakashi and Rin need us."
"The plan is…"
Ryuu stroked his chin as he thought of some kind of plan.
"The plan is to stay here, we can't escape him, even if we left, what then?"
Sigh
"We don't have a choice here.
There is no plan."
Ryuu looked down in shame.
"Let's just… go to sleep." He closed his eyes and forced himself to sleep.
The next day Ryuu opened his eyes, still in pain and still wishing this was all a dream.
"Hmm, so you finally woke up?"
Madara asked.
"It's difficult to tell what time of the day it is when you always live in the dark," Ryuu answered.
"Get up and follow me."
"I can't unless you've forgotten I can't walk," Ryuu replied.
"Whether or not you can walk is not my problem, I don't enjoy waiting, crawl if you have to." Ryuu gritted his teeth.
He used his arms to crawl beside Madara.
"Where are we going?" Ryuu asked.
They went behind the giant Gedo statue and Madara revealed a hidden room.
He grabbed a torch of fire and placed it at the entrance.
It revealed multiple giant books and was only accessible by Madara.
Ryuu looked at the books.
'These are notes on Hashirama cells.' He said to himself as he attempted to pick one up.
"Don't touch that one," Madara said.
'His deep and raspy voice demanded respect, I wouldn't dare speak when he speaks.'
He picked another book up.
"Why are you bringing me here?"
"Young Uchiha, when you've lived as long as I have, you will learn a thing or two.
I've seen shinobi like you."
"Shinobi like me?"
"You yearn for power and knowledge.
That strong desire for power and knowledge only intensifies once you lose some.
In your case, you've lost your most powerful ability, the ability to call forth flames even much hotter than the sun."
Ryuu frowned.
"With that much desire for power, it's a shame you limit yourself by staying in Konohagakure.
You and I are the same… in a sense, as I said earlier, I want to create a world of only peace and victors, no more fighting and no more wars, I will achieve this world through the infinite Tsukuyomi."
"You overestimate my selflessness.
I will create a world of peace, but I will mainly do it for my friends and family and I'll achieve that when I become the most powerful shinobi of all time, even more than you and the first Hokage.
After I do that, if the rest of the shinobi world wants to fight me, then so be it."
"Hmph, you almost sound as ridiculous as my old friend did." He said as he turned around and gave Ryuu a book.
"What will happen once you die? I'll tell you what, your children and your friends' children will have to live with the consequences."
Ryuu shook his head.
"That's where you're wrong, my children will become even more powerful than I am.
Unlike you, I do not linger in the past because my pride can't handle loss.
I'll make sure my children will keep the peace I've built."
Madara dropped the book near Ryuu's legs.
"In here are my previous notes on Hashirama Senju's cells, read them and further my studies." Ryuu nodded.
He sat down, leaning on the wall and holding the book.
"One more thing, as I said, your body rejected the Hashirama cells so even though you are almost as injured as Obito, your recovery speed is unknown due to your strange cells and body.
You might take a longer or shorter time to heal than Obito."
Madara walked back to his seat, using his scythe as a walking stick.
Ryuu opened his Sharingan and began reading…
Meanwhile, in Konoha, the Third Hokage had received the news of Ryuu's death.
"Minato, are you sure he's truly dead?"
Minato nodded.
"Kakashi and Rin saw him and Obito die, I couldn't believe it myself.
I tried using my seal to get to him, but it appears it's broken, and even if I did make it to him, I couldn't save him."
Sigh.
'Kushina, how do I tell you that two kids who we both saw as younger siblings have both died?' Minato asked himself.
"Anbu!" Two Anbu members appeared beside the Hokage, a male, and a female, both wearing masks and Anbu black ops uniforms and wearing hoods over their heads.
"Call all the clan heads and elders.
Inform them they are to attend this meeting immediately."
"Yes, Hokage-sama!" They vanished in a blur of lines.
After 20 minutes, they all appeared inside the Hokage's office.
"Hokage-sama, what could be so important that you called us all here?"
Hiashi asked.
"Yes, I also want to know, what's the matter?" Fugaku asked.
"As you know, while he was with us, Ryuu had allied with Kumogakure." They nodded.
"However, following his passing, the Raikage and his village believe Kumogakure no longer benefits from Konoha.
Previously, one thing that kept them as Konoha's allies was that Ryuu would protect their village as he did ours.
The other thing that kept them from betraying us was fear."
Hiashi scoffed.
"Hokage-sama, Ryuu Uchiha was powerful there's no doubt about that but honestly, you can't expect me to believe that he could've taken down an entire nation."
The Hokage nodded.
"You never saw him in battle, in fact, you've only heard stories about him.
I'm sure you've heard a story of him and Minato defeating 1000 shinobi from Iwagakure in less than 5 seconds, or maybe that time he killed 10,000 Iwa shinobi and still had chakra to continue fighting.
These are his most remarkable stories, if I'm being honest, Ryuu's death is a tremendous loss to Konohagakure, I'm not sure if we can recover from that, but that's not my point.
My point is I doubt Kumogakure will be in this alliance for too long and that we must be prepared for when they do betray us.
Because they will betray us."
The Hokage dismissed everyone.
'Maybe Danzo was right, was I too naïve?'
The Hokage smoked his pipe.
"Hiruzen, you should've listened to me when I told you how foolish this plan was.
Now look where we are, the village has been through a war already and now you plan on making them go through another one."
The Hokage frowned and put his pipe down.
"Next time you ought to listen to your advisor instead of being too naïve."
Danzo left.
Sigh
'I'll have to be ready, there's no telling what will happen once Kumogakure knows that the only person keeping this alliance together is dead.'
((Authors Note: I'm writing a short character arc for a side character so Ryuu won't be in some chapters, I hope I can do it well.)