Screech!!! Susanoo brought its blade down.
Hashirama's eyes widened. Then he controlled the Wood Human to press its palms together, tightly clamping the blade between them.
A terrifying force traveled from the blade's edge, violently battering the Wood Human and instantly driving its legs into the ground.
"You really have grown stronger!" A smile bloomed across Hashirama's previously stern face. He stepped forward and clapped his hands together again with a crisp sound.
"Wood Release: Hotei Technique!"
Immediately afterward, countless enormous wooden hands, as towering as mountains, burst from the ground and swiftly surrounded Susanoo. They clamped tightly around Susanoo's ankles, fixing it in place.
Seeing this familiar scene, Madara fell briefly into a daze. But Battle Intent soon surged in his eyes, and he laughed. "All these years, you are the only genius who has pleased me."
"The rest are mere grains of sand, not even qualified to be my opponents!"
As soon as he spoke, Susanoo raised its long blade high once more and swept it across, slashing the massive hands formed from trees into fragments.
Boom!!
A tremendous shockwave violently shoved the air aside, forming a raging hurricane that swept up the debris on the ground and hurled it toward the edges of the battlefield.
"Tch!"
Hashirama leaped off a rock and flashed into the air, evading Susanoo's blade.
He could have met it head-on, but there was no need to do so here.
"Continuing to fight on land will turn this place into a complete mess." He swiftly scanned the battlefield, then looked toward the northern coast of the Land of Lightning and muttered.
"Better to move to the shore."
As though he had guessed what Hashirama was thinking, Madara directly unleashed all the Chakra in his body, forcibly dragging Hashirama's thoughts back to reality.
"There